The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-05-04
THE OTHER SIDE.
Mr.. Davidson Says
Few Words About
the Strike.
WANT TOO MUCH.
Is Claimed That Moulders
Are Unjust in Their
Demands.

Foundry owners are having a vaca-
ton, the length of which the striking
moulders will determine.
None of the foundries involved in the
strike showed any signs of weakening,
and candor compels the statement that
they are not worrying about the out
come.
The pickets were usually active yes
terday morning, and a detail of men
from labor headquarters watched the
| freight depot for TASKS and patterns
sent to foundries outside the city for
completion. Moulders claimed yester-
day to have discovered an attempt on
| the part of William Allen & Sons to
send work to union foundries. Pickets
say they will discover where the work
| is being sent, and the moulders' union
will have its men out on a strike.
The effect of the strike upon the ma
chine shops became apparent yesterday
when a man from the Cleveland Ma
chine works left an order for castings at
Pero's foundry. Mr.. Pero could not do
the work as he had not the men to
spare on the job and he attempted to
take the order to a union shop. Mr..
Pero could have nothing done in a union.
shop, and as the non-union foundries
have no moulders, he was obliged to re-
turn the work to the Cleveland Ma
chine works.
The really important development of
the day was at the Junction foundry,
where it was alleged that members of
the shop committee and the Moulders'
union called and made concessions.
| The firm would listen to nothing unless
the matter of more pay was dropped.
A. B. Dawson, manager of the foun-
dry, was seen by a Spy man yesterday
afternoon. He said: 1T is true that a
man claiming to be authorized by the
| executive committee to make conces-
sions, called, but 1 had nothing to say
to him, as L am not looking for any inn
media tie settlement of this strike The
newspapers have given nothing but the
moulders' side of the strike, and 1 be-
| lieve that it would not be out of place
| for me to say a few words. l know that
several of the moulders employed in
my foundry previous to the strike did
not want to leave, but did so because
| they were ordered to.
when I took possession of this foun-
| dry few months ago, the w0rkmen
were not paid we'll The plant mad
failed twice within a year and a half
previous to the time l came here. In
the face of these difficulties / did not
have a very rosy outlook. One of the
first things 1 did was to raise the wages
of my moulders 65 cents per day. The
| coremakers received an advance of 25
cents per day, and the laborers and
| helpers Is cents per day.
81 do NOT see WhV Worcester has Daeu
| singled out as the place for the m oul-
derS to make the demand for a min
| imum rate of So per day. The mouldcrs
are not worked any harder here thar
at any other foundry, yet Worcester
moulders want more for their work
than moulders in any other city or
town that L know of. Even in PrOvi-
dence the moulders are not demanding
| a minimum rate of So per day.
1.-The freight on a ton of iron from
Pennsylvania is about $3.50 and a ton
of coal costs about 81 more per ton
here than in New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania. Local labor men have spoken
about the great victory won by the m"ul-
ders at Paterson, N. j., and have pa
per here which will show you just what
has been done. A minimum rate OF
| 30 and a maximum rate of $3.50 has
been established, and that seems high
y
but in Worcester the union wants tc
establish a schedule whose minimum
day rate is more than the maximum
day rate in Paterson, where iron and
coal are cheaper, and the foundries get
the same prices for their WORK
Now why should we pay our moul-
ders more than foundrymen are doing
elsewhere? The books during the past
year will show that the bench mouldcrs
in fOt1r1HVNr a1Tnp6 niece
work an average of s3.03 per day. Dur
ing the past month or so the union
moulders have been taking things easily
so they could point to the fact that they
only drew small wages during the past
few weeks they worked"
Mr.. Davidson showed The Spy man
the FIRMS books and the record kept
of the wages made by each bench mouI-
der during the past year. He said that
there had been more work than ever
to do during the past month, but the
book showed that the men did not make
but little more than half of what they
did previous to the time strike was
talked of.
This" Mr.. Davidson said, was the
result of the arduous work of the snop
committee, which of course is Anil
ated with the moulders' union. lie
said that on several occasions he has
seen one of the members of the com
mittee make the moulders quit work
because they were making so much
money that they would not have an eX-
cuse for striking.
THE greatest harm that has been
done in this strike can be laid at the
door of the moulders' union" said Mr..
Davidson. Eve had seven apprentices
in this shop, all of the them bright
young fellows with but little experience.
In order to cOmDIetelV criDDle orr force.
the moulders' union went against its
own bylaws, and admitted these in
experienced men. Some Of the men
were pushed into the union head first
in order to make the number of stTik-
ers large and therefore formidable.
I'VE had one old man employed here
in the foundry who had no trade ex-
cept that of a labOrer. He had been
No announcement of the forthcoming
musical season can give greater pleas
ure than that of the early advent of