The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-27
MONTCLAIR FREE OF TYRANNY
TOWN PROSPERING AGAIN WITH
UNION INCUBUS REMOVED.
Master Builders Have No Intention or
Again Submitting 10 Exactions-Car.
peuters Cheered by the Promise OF
Funds by the National Organization.

Again Submitting 10 ENecuOm-Safe
peuters Cheered by the Promise or
Funds by the National Organization.
MoNTcLAIR, N. j., Sept. 2r.-About four
years ago the labor unions fastened their
grip on all branches OF the building trades
industry In Montclair, and the result to
date may be conservatively summed up
as follows.
First-The decrease In assessed valua-
tions in the town az compared with former
years Is estimated by the board OF assessor
at $500, 600
Second-The town is the poorer by build
ings, tha total cost of which is estimated
at from s. 900 900 to IS, 900 600, which were
planned and would have been put UP but
for the uncertainty and the intolerable
conditions caused by the labor union domi-
nation.
Third-From town in which the unions
had recognition and an established stand
ing in all branches Of the building industry,
II has become, because of vicious and tyran-
nous management OF the unions themselves,
a town in which unions are not recognized
in any branch OF that industry, and in
which every shop is an open shop, giving
employment almost exclusively to nom
union men.
Fourth Eight hundred artisans were
out Of all employment for the better part OF
two months in the height Of the building
season; something like $50 or 500 got employ
ment in adjacent towns, going to and from
their Montclair homes at much expense
and Inconvenience; between 300 and $50
good neutrality-suspicious., masons, car
penters and plumbers-are still out OF en-
ployment altogether, walking the streets
of the town. with winter close at hand and,
in many cases. their families near absolute
want and suffering.
That, plus few murderous assaults and
many collisions with the law, is a fair sum-
mary of what labor unionism, pushed to its
ultimate extreme OF attempted trust mo-
nopoly and arrogance, has done for this town
of 10000 inhabitants town that is one Of
the most Leautiful OF any in all New Yorks
beautiful suburbs and that, until the labor
trust blight fell upon it, was going ahead
at a rate which was leaving many OF its
iourishing rivals behind
The carpenters who are out in the cold
we're to-day basking in a CLEAN Of sunshine
that came to them from Milwaukee. II
was reported that the international board
OF their union. In session in the Wisconsin
metropolis, had voted them sum of money
with which to carry on the fight against
the open shop in Montclair
just what this amount of money is 1t
was impossible to-day to ascertain. One
report pat il at 81 600. Another had It that
the Montclair carpenters had asked for
s., 900 and got $1,000. Still another report
was that the amount ASKED was 81 900 and
the amount obtained was $500.
But, whether the carpenters get $500
,t,,as t,,sN For tnln
is concerned remains the same. The open
shop is here, and II outwa ard indications
coupled with the very positive assertions
OF the masters in the various trades amount
10 anything, 1t has come to stay. he build
ing season ia drawing to a close. Boss
plumbers boss painters and boss carpenters
all agree in the statement that they have
all the men they want, that their business
Is going more satisfactorily than 1t has
for four years, and that they " i'll not dis
unionists, who by their intolerable exac..
tions at last drove them to unite in final
declaration Of independence.
What would be the result il We did?'
said Benjamin q. Sims, chairman OF the
executive board of the Master Builders
Association to-day. in less than two
years we would be right back where we
were. We were right up TO sam Parks
Parks. He was one OF the delegates. He
right he said, and We will put all the
work your way and put the other fellow
down and out He ought to have been
kicked into the street for his reply 1t was
"Montolair was for a long time an easy
mark for the unions. They worked Us beau
tifully for awhile First the masons would
strike That would block carpenters and
painters and plumbers and we would all
get around the man who was holding out
ha n demand
bring pressure to bear on him. tell him to
settle his trouble, that he was holding us all
up, and so work on him and his fellow bose
masons that he would give in and grant the
union demands.
, Just as we thought we were going ahead
again. along would come the plumbers
with their demand for more wages resulting
in q plumbers strike. Then the story
would begin all over again with AL Of US
until we got them to give in. Then the
carpenters would strike and then the paint
ers and then they would start around the
circle again with another strike OF the
masons. And 30 1t went.
ending string Of demands. Six houses
went up in Union street and the thing was
put in by some New York firm that had
violated some one OF the thousand and
Of the union men refused to go on with
work on those houses until all that thing
was ripped out and union thing put In.
The houses were nearly completed and in
this case we bluhed them into finishing
the job. But that was only one instance
out Of dozens OF others
well, at last We got it through our heads
that we were being worked systematically
by one union striking after another, and
we got together and drew up our declara-
ton Of independence, For three weeks
not a stroke Of building work was done In
Montclair everything was shut up tight.
Then we began getting n-union men
work and doing It with peace we have
not known before for nearly five years
We do not discriminate against union men.
We don't six man whether he is union
man or not. We simply don't care. We will
not recognize the unions OF deal with them or
their representatives In any manner, shape
or form. Right there Ia where the matter
with the unions begins and ends.
There have been no assaults on non
,n,on men Of late There were about half