Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-23
THE LOWELL STRIKE.
Report Of State Board Of Con-
ciIiation and Arbitration.
Only One Mill in City Can Afford 10
Per Cent. Demanded.
Operatives Claim of Promised Increase
Not Well Founded.

Boston, April 22.-The textile corpora
tons in Lowell involved in the present
strike of II, 900 operatives. with a single
exception, cannot afford to pay to their
help the 10 per cent. increase in wages
demanded by organized labor, in the
opinion of the State Board of Arbitra-
ton and Cancellation. This opinion is
contained in u report of the board to
Gov. John l.. Bates summing up its re-
cent inquiry into the textile situation
in Lowell and is corrobOrated by 4
statement from state statistician
based on the figures of an accountant
employed by the board to make an ex-
aminat ton of the financial condition OF
the seven mills in question.
The boards report was submitted to
the Governor, late this afternoon, and
by him sent into the Legislature with a
brief explanatory message. In this
connection there is an interesting Incl
dent The Governor called the atten-
ton of the House of Representatives
to the fact that while the order for the
inquiry by the State Board required
a report to the Legislature he assumed
that the House meant to vote request
of the Executive department"
The boards report is upwards of 49,
900 words in length with a supplement-
airy financial report of the Boot,
Massachusetts, Merrimack, Appleton,
fremont and Suffolk, Hamilton and
Lawrence mills in Lowell. The board
refers to the trouble as a strike or
lockout and its deduction after review
of conditions existing is in these
words: THE claim of the mills that
they cannot afford to increase wages is
sustained, except in the case of the
Lawrence Mfg. Co., whose books show
this company is able to grant the ad-
vance demanded"
The finding of Frank H. Drown, chief
clerk of the bureau of statistics and la
Dor, who tabulated the figures taken
from the books of the corporation by
the boards sworn accountant, is as
follows.
THE question, therefore, as to the
possibility Of the Lowell mills paying
its operatives an increase of 10 per
cent, can only be answered after a
consideration of the question: Does the
condition of the mill as a productive
power enable it to earn sufficient to
pay share which reasonably belongs
to capital as well as the share properly
belonging to LAHORE
THE results of the investigation of
the books seem to warrant the infer
ence that material Improvement in the
workingman's condition is not to be ex-
pected from the mills in their present
financial situation
The hoard reviews the present trouble
as far back as the original demand for
an increase made in March, of last
year, and says that when the strike, or
dered at that time was declared off.
through the intervention of civic
committee, the impression prevailed
among the operatives that promise
had been made that in course of time,
wages would be increased voluntarily
under certain conditions. The board
fails to find that promise of an in
crease was made.
The report says that the claim for an
increase of 10 per cent. again took form
in February last, in letter from the
Textile Council to the agents, in which
1t was stated that the fact that the
great industrial corporations of the
oountry had advanced the wages of
their employees lin many cases volun-
tarily), showed that the country was
enjoying unbounded prosperity, and
that the cotton industry was no excep-
ton to the rule, was shown by the in
creased earnings and dividends of the
Fell River and New Bedford mills.
that the cotton mills of
Lowell had all declared dividends dur
ing the year and that the cost of liy-
ing had increased at least Is per cent.
The board shows by statistics that
the cost of living in 1902 is from 1889 to
1877 per cent. against the rs per cent,
claimed by the workingman over 1897,
and that the wages in cotton mills in
Lowell have been raised twice in the
same period, or an equivalent of about
l6 per cent.
The board does not fined from ex-
animation of the lists of stockholders
that the Lowell mills are controlled by
Z combination as alleged by the en-
ployes, nor does it find that the selling
agents control prices in such a way as
to depress wages.
After examining at lengt the bard's
Continued on page 81