The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-02-16
SEC. DUNCAN
TO QUINCY
Speaks Through Columns Of
Granite Cutters Journal.
AGREEMENT ENDS MARCH
Urges Quincy Manufacturers to Be as
Liberal as Those in Other Granite
centers Are to Their
Employees.
AGREEMENT ENDS MARCH,

In the current number of the Gran
lite Cutters Journal the editor has the
following to say, which will be OF IN.
terest to readers in this vicinity;
Before the next Journal is published
the fate of changes in branch agree
ments at March ! win be known. Il IS
evident there viii be little, if any
suspension in any locality During
January certain busy -bodies endeayored
to create an impression there was
doubt about the outcome OF the changes
suggested in Quincy This followed a
question by employers to our Quincy
branches that instead OF a suspension
at March /, work be continued and all
points not adjusted between their
respective committees at that date be
arbitrated. This proposition was voted
down BY unanimous vote. 1t is too late
for proposition of that kind on
the points in question to receive sup
port in any of our branches. On other
sections the committees would have
agreed, but on the wage and apprentice
clauses the manufacturers committee
would refuse to act.
"The principal points our Quincy
members contend for are fixed PROPOSE.
tions elsewhere. They are not asking o
higher wage rate than Is paid ii the
lowest agreement outside of Quincy, or
will be paid this spring, therefore, TO
arbitrate two or three points which
have been mutually established from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, in our
trade, between employer and employee,
reminds us Of a Baltimore juror who
on emerging from the court house after
the jury had failed to agree eleven to
one-remarked they were eleven Of the
most stubborn-minded men he had ever
met. Why should our Quincy employers
want arbitration Of questions which
have been conceded BY their competitors
and other employers throughout the
United Statesf Quincy members in
unanimously rejecting the overture,
did right.
1--WE are not against arbitration,
Ninety per cent. of our agreements
have arbitration clauses in them, but
to arbitrate the eight-hour day, our
minimum. wage rate or the apprentice
question in one locality, while % per
cent. of other localities coneede them
is out of place. Granite cutting Of all
kinds is to be more brisk this year
than ever before. Quincy granite
cutters can hold their own on any kind
of work wherever they 60. The only
difference is that they are required t
work harder in Quincy than elsewhere.
They have the foreknowledge tina.
90 where they viii the minimum rate
they are standing for in Quincy or .
few cents more per hour, will be readily
paid them, 80 everything is IN their
favor. During the last fifteen years
owing to the stiff manner in which The
avearge Quincy emplorer has dealt Will
his employees, trade has been diverted
to other localities. The more liberia
employers have gone where conditions
We're more eongenial. During the time
Milford on H.,) Barre, Montpelier
and other New England branches have
doubled their membership, Quincy
branches show reduction 0f seyera
hundred iourneymen.
"Should Quincy employers stay II
the old Mugwumpish rut they har,
been in for nearly a quarter ol cen
tury, 1t win simply mean that trade
win be further diverted to other direc
tions and Quincy granite cutters viii
follow it and viii be paid from one cent
to five cents per hour more than tn,
minimum rate for which they ask il
Quincy
"We trust the better Judgment d
Quincy employers will prevail, ant
therefore expect that by next issue d
our Journal the secretaries of oul
branches in that city will be able t
report that after lee-chase OF many
years Quincy has again taken her prom
er place and can be quoted at par Of