Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-11-04

THAT the demand for their goods is re
Iduced by fully 90 per cent, and in some
cases 80 per cent. Their working forces
| have had to be cut down accordingly
and a large number of their employees
are now idle.
This is one of the leading pottery
centers of the world. There are fully
LIS plants here devoted to the manufac-
ture of crockery and pottery OF all
kinds. More than 5000 men are en-
ployed in these works. Every one of
these plants is now suffering a period
of depression. and business is reported
uniformly as being very dull" All of
them are continuing to run for the
sheer necessity of protecting their
plants, but their forces have been very
largely reduced, and there is no i'm
mediate prospect of the idle men being
reemployed.
The great plant of Roebling Com
pany. manufacturers of steel wire and
bridge materials, is also here, and it
likewise is suffering from the same in
fuences which have curtailed the out
put and the working force of every
plant in this city. There are more men
out of employment here than has been
the case before for four or five years,
as a result of all the retrenchments
which have taken place.
Wages Not Advanced.
Diligent searching fails to reveal
any cases of increases in wages within
the past several years. The men in
all of the plants have been working at
practically the same figures, and yet
have seen the cost of living go con-
stantly upward. Prices of meat, gro
ceries and the other necessities of life
are going up at pace which is totally
bewildering TO the man with fixed in
come. The purchasing power, there
fore of the stationary wages of the
working people of Trenton have been
receiving has been very largely cur
tailed.
This is the center of the New Jersey
operations of the Pennsylvania Rail
road company. and the result is mani
fest here of the wholesale reductions
and retrenchments of that company in
the last eighteen months. Fully 100000
men employed by the Pennsylvania
System were discharged, and quite an
appreciate number of them lived in
and worked near Trenton. There has
been no movement so far to put these
men back to work.
That this is not period of abound
ing prosperity" that it is no time to
stand pat" is very evident from con-
ditions in still other parts of the state.
For example the Passaic Steel works of
Passaic, not long since made a general
reduction of 10 per cent in the wages
of it's several hundred employees. The
PaSsaic Steel company, of PasSaic, like
wise cut the wages of it's 5000 work
men by 10 per cent. All the mills of
the Empire Iron and Steel company, of
Oxford, y. J., suffered a similar 10 per
cent reduction.
The same situation has been notice
able in the great textile works of this
state. Nearly all the large silk mills
of Paterson have been shut down for
several weeks this year, at one time
or another, throwing all their employ
es out of work for considerable pc
riOd. The Alyran Wooden mills of this
city, were likewise shut down for some
weeks early in the year, and all their
men were idle. The wooden mills of
Somerville, n. j., were closed indefi
nitely, leaving no one employed. The
Passiac Print works of Passiac, were
shut down one day a week.
The glass manufacturers of Clayton,
n. J.. decided early in the year to CO.
operate with all the other similar fac
tories of the United States in a scheme
to shut down for six days at the time
of all holidays. A large number of
glass blowers were out of work in that
region for many months.
In Locomotive Industry.
The retrenchments by railroads
throughout the United States have had
a very decided effect upon the locomo-
tive industry of the country. This is
evident at the great Rogers Locomo-
tive works in Paterson, which has
largely reduced its output. This seems
to be in line with the shutting down
of the American Locomotive works at
Schenectady, and with the lessening
of the Baldwin Locomotive
works at Philadelphia.
A further indication of the effect of
present conditions on the textile in
dustry was the fact that some months
ago the firm of Palverman & Myer one
of the largest silk manufacturing con-
Germs in Paterson, announced a reduc-
ton of wages in its mills of from S to
Is per cent. A horizontal reduction of
Is per cent was also announced at the
mill of Johnson & Cowdin company, an
other of the large silk firms of that
city.
II must be borne in mind also in con-
sidering the situation in New Jersey
that this state does not suffer as much
as Massachusetts from the remoteness
of the iron and steel, its transportation
facilities being of very superior char