The age-herald., 1901-11-10


 hands up If, on the' other hand. it goes down so that profits will not justify the established scale, he will put down the wages It will be so this time. If things lock ID, the higher wagas will stand. If conditions get worse hell put them down again.
 Autocrat in His Business.
 Borden is an autoo1at in his business straight through. Things go in it as he says. That is one of his advantages He Las no board of directors to submit things to- If he says tonight to post a notice of an increase or decrease in the wages at his mills, 1t will be dcne at once. If he says that there will be a | change ir price the thing Is done. There | is one point this score though on l which he differs from some concerns. if he is going to hoist the price he always gives his customers a chance. a few days notice.
 Take this question of an increased wage If the other manufacturers were to consider the matter they would have to have several meetings. the question would go before different directorates, there would be postponements, and then at the end they would conclude to do 1t. Borden decides and acts, and there Is no barley. Having the confidence of his operatives he is in no danger of strikes. But he doesn't raise wages out of philanthropy; it's pure business. He can manipulate the market, but he does so to make stable conditions chiefly. us- ually he is a buyer when the tone Is dull or weak. Once in a while he will turn to and self a few thousand pieces at what ever price he wants to, if the market isn't where he thinks it ought to be-
 But I never knew Matt Borden to fail to live up to a contract. He isn't that lSird. That talk is bosh. He's a smarter business man than most of them; that's all thers is to most of these objections to his course from time to time.f It has been said already that this is not the first time that MT. Borden has treated the trade to this sort of med
 cine. He has kept aioof for the most part from. the other manufacturers. or 'has not jibe1 with them" as it has been expressed, although he has made pur- chases from them in large amounts.
 In some former times Of threatened strikes, for instance. he has not pro- claimed what he would 10 in his mills when the other manufacturers and the trades unions have been considering the wage sit, alton. Ho has allowed the ern- ployers and tho mill hands to fight it out between thmselves, and if the prop ositlon, for instance, was to reduce wages, ard the employers won, he would reduce the wages in his mills to the st andard scale; or if tho employees won, then the wages in his mills would not be changed.
 Often Saves the Market. At other times, when there has been glut of goods in Fall River and no mar ket, he has stepped and bought half or all of the stock for cash and thus re- lieved the tension. One instance of this xyhv fir Borden might not necessarily feel him self called upoE now to consider always the interests of his competitors when he is inclined to take radical action in the market.
 It is told that after he lad made c. of these heavy cash purchases and so relieved the market consid- erably his rivals failed to stand by him. but instead went straightway and under sold him. MT. Borden's ability to take care of himself however, was shown not a g1 eat while &fterward, when he voluntarily raised the wages of his mill hands 10 per cent. at stroke, forcing his competitors to followNhim. That was several years ego. It was one of the things which made MT. Borden what he is in Fall River, the most popular em. ployer with the operatives.
 In February, 1897, when there was great depression in the cotton manufacturing industry throughout New England, an agreement was made to allow 3,50O000 epindles in Fall River alone to remain idle several days a week for thirteen weeks MT. Borden at this juncture stepped in and bought outright 750000 pieces of print cloth at 9-16 cents. and the greatest stress of the market was at once relieved. In less than two years he again, at critical Juncture, made himself the most conspicuous factor in the situation and at the same time dem- onstrated that he was one of the most influential men in the cotton manufac- turing industry
 Conditions similar to those of the early part of 1897 had again overspread the in- dustry in New Englcnd in the fall of 1S99 There had been one reduction of wages which the cotton mill employees everywhere had been obliged to accept but a very large stock of cloth remained in the market and arother reduction of wages was seriously contemplated The operatives declared that they could not stand further reduction, but on the other hand must have an advance
 Tn Fall River the unions came to an agreement with the Manufacturers As scciation. bindir then selves to accept 5 per cent advance ir wages. MT. Bor- den posted notices that wages in all de- par tments of his mills would be in- creased 10 per cent, and the unions, of coulse, forthwith refused to be satisfied with any less than 10 per cent. increase in all the mills. This advance was made later in the other Massachusetts mills o,fcida of Fall J2ivar and was followed