The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-15
H~ERDIGMONDS COST MORE NOW
AT LEAST $50 on THE 500 ADDED
TO THE PRICE.

In the First Place the African sIRdloate's
Rough stones Yield Fewer High Grade
Gems SECONDLY the Price % Labor Has
Gone Away Up since Last Year.
To buy diamonds for holiday presents
will cost this year at least % per cont. moro
than twelve months ago. Wholesale deal
ers are now notifying the retail trade OF the
increased prices which a been made
necessary, IL IL explained, by new conditions
in the trade and do not ZONE As In former
years, In the style Of formal announcement
from the London syndicate which controls
the output Of the De Beers Mining Com
pany, limited.
The syndicate. which had annually de-
clared three or four advances, each Of 5
Der cent, since 1902, did not do so this year,
but diamonds nave been going up just ~
fast. The firms that buy rough stones
from the syndicate say that one cause that
has been sending up the prices 10 the I'M
favorable asserting In many shipments.
The stones come In sizes. shapesand quail
ties that do not yield on cutting a. many
high grade gems in the commercial sEes
as in former years. The siSes most sought
by the jewellers are from one-hak to one
and one-half oarats. The diamond manu-
facturers say hat they are getting many
large stones in cleaving which there h
much waste, and that the proportion OF
stones with IA ws and cloudy spots which
must be eliminated by cutting il larger
than formerly.
Another element IL labor, and accord
ing to manufacturers they low pay much
men do not cut and polish as many stones.
A Nassau street manufacturer said as TO
this:
The cost Of polishing diamonds is double
Whist IL was a year ago. All OF the manu-
fscturers joined In giving to the men On
their reQuest salaries which we're based
on the amounts they earned by the piece.
That level r6Presented their earnings when
they worked under full steam, each man
having an incentive TO polish as many
carats of diamonds as possible because
this meant the maximum pay.
While We are paying salaries on the
high level corresponding with such earn
ings. the men who worked sixty hours a
week under the old system now work forty
eight hours. Each polisher formerly used
six ton e, thus polishing that number OF
diamonds at the anne time. but now the
union allows the Use OF only -four tongs az
a time.
The men, without the old stimulus Of
of Carats they polish, do not work as rap
idly as before. They do not deliberately
shirk any work. but loss OF incentive TO
fast work acts on them as it would on any
other class Of men. While polishing costs
us double what it did, other branches OF
labor have not advanced quite so much,
but altogether il costs a New York manu-
facturer at least IS per cent. more than It
did a year ago to Cleave. cut and polish
diamonds"
Outside OF New York practically no dia-
monds are cut in the United States. Many
Of the dealers who buy stones GA and
polished in Europe have recently returned
after making their annual purchases and
tell the same story Of advancing prices as is
heard from the American manufacturer.
The apportionmeDt Of stones by the syndi-
cate whose control Of the trade is world
wide Is said TO be even less favorable to the
big factories Of Antwerp and Amsterdam
than TO those OF New York.
Labor IL also getting somewhat higher
wages in those cities. Severa days ago
EduRrd Van Dam, who has shops in Antwerp
and Amsterdam az well AZ in New York,
sent by cable directions to advance wages
from s to 10 per cent. among his European
employees who had gone on a strike.
So vast have been the gains in value that
ton bought in the rough for $40
a carat back in the early sos are now
among the choice specimens Of blue white
diamonds which. II put on III market
would bring $500 q carat.