The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-08-17
SCOTCH GRANITE (7)
A Popular Delusion Laid Bare, Plea fol
American Granite.

American Granite.
Now that we are getting our organiza-
ton going nicely in Canada think we
ought to be making study of the con-
ditions we are up against in this part
Of North American and find II possible a
remedy for them, says a writer to the
Granite Cutters Journal, The one in
particular / win say few words about
now Is, THE injury to our trade by the
! importation of great deal OF so-called
Scotch granite that Il not Scotch gran
ite." II You call into any Of the monu-
mental yards in Canada, you will find
! in most cases that their stock contains
| 10 per cent. OF Scotch monuments at
| least that is what the dealer will tell
/ you. Now in reality not one in fifty
Of these monuments are Scotch granite,
| but are Swedish, Norwegian, etc, and
60 under a dozen different names, such
ais Red Swede. Royal Red, Balmoral Red,
etc, etc These monuments come into
Canada under the preferential tariff, .
| shipped from Scotland. of the condi-
tions in Norway and Sweden most Of us
are fully aware. The wages paid these
Swedes, etc, are next to nothing, at
least in comparison to ours; then the
stuff is shipped to Aberdeen in old wood
en- bottoms that are fit for nothing else
but to cary rough granite. The sailors
are all Swedes and Norwegians. British
seameh would never 60 aboard such
hulks. Then, again, the laws governing
apprentices in Scotland are bad, in many
instances, more especially in the winter
time, when one win find an almost equal
number Of apprentices TO journeymen.
Apprentices over there serve four years
and after serving two or three years
they art put TO finishing the Yankee
work, as all monuments shipped 10 this
| side are called, with the result that it
il cut for half and even less than It
would be If cut by iourneymen. Again,
when cut, our railroads discriminate in
favor Of this imported stuff: one can
get one ton or fifty tons of Scotch mon
uments shipped, say to Toronto, cheaper
than you could get it from New Bruins
wick, and then to hold il at that you
must ship in carload lots from New
Brunswick; small lots from there are
simply prohibitive when you have to
compete against this other stuff
Now, for a remedy, at least a partial
one, / would be in favor OF members
and branches writing articles in labor
and other papers and let the people OF
Canada understand that they are not
getting Scotch granite ut all, but are
being buncoed with rubbish when CON.
pared to the real article When the deal
ers realize that people won't take that
stuff, they will only be too glad to
boost and sell our own American gran
ties, thereby giving our members more
work at living wages In Canada, at
the present time, we have to rely almost
entirely on the monumental trade; build
( ing so far here is very insignificant but
is gradually gaining ground, and we
hope in the near future will play a very
important part in our, trade and We
win then not be dependent on the monu
mental business.
Now that / have started with this
poor attempt at wr9ng, / hope some Of
onr members who are scrbes will take
the matter mp and give us the benefit
of their opinions. Get a move on boys;
we can do a whole lot of good If we only
move, / am sure Think it over and
let us hear next month from you through
our journal.