Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-03-19
Reduction Of Ten Per Cent.
Posted In Rhode Island
New Scale Will Go Into Effect
Morning Of April 6.
BUYERS Refuse to Renew Contracts
Even at Cut Prices.

Providence, r. l., March ia notice
will be posted next Monday morning,
Marcel. %, in every cotton mill IN the
state announcing reduction IN WAGES
that will amount to a 10 per cent. de-
crease in the scale. This reduction VIII
go into effect on the morning Oh
April 6.
At q conference late yesterday sew
eral of the leading mill owners OF the
state signed all agreement to the ABOVE
effect and this agreement had peen
strengthened late yesterday AFTERNOON
also by the signatures of the owners
of every large mill in Rhode Island.
Three smaller mills are being notlfleo
and by Friday all of them VIII nave
been brought into the arrangement. In
an interview, one of the leading man
ufacturers said:
For more than five weeks it has
been known that cut in wages OF at
least 10 per cent. was inevitable. for
a longer period, the makers OF the va
riols lines Of cotton goods produced
in this state, have known that there
could he no alternative in meeting the
downward tendency Of the market.
the DiINtlS VI BoOdo iNAo'~N w
orders except for small lots to meet
Immediate leeds even when prices
were slashed so that the margin which
has yielded the profits the mills have
been making in the past few years,
had been entirely wiped out.
"a month ago the manufacturers of
Rhode Island and Massachusetts were
unanimous in the conviction that ac-
ton must be taken to reduce the cost
Of production by pairing down the pre-
vailing high wage scale, which since
last May has been 10 per cent. above
any previous rate of wages ever paid
in the history of the industry.
when the market became absolute
ly lifeless as it did month ago, with
buyers positively refusing to renew
contracts even after big slices had
been taken off prices for goods, the
wages would have been cut immedi
ately but for the barrier of the sliding
scale agreement between manufacture
ers and labor unions in Fall River
which must remain in force until the
last Monday in May.
For Il time the mill men in the
ccnters outside Fall River hesitated
dDtul lile Sltp WHICH, dtl dSiCCu
had become necessary until such ac
ton could be arranged to include the
immense mills at Fall River.
'Curtailment on production, which it
was hoped might brace the falling
market, failed to effect any material
Improvement and a fortnight ago it
was resolved by manufacturers out
SIDE Fall River that they could not
continue to make goods under exist
ing conditions.
"The initiative taken by the seven
big corporations at Lowell last week,
which has already been followed by
the mill men of other places in Mas
sachusetts and at Nashua, Manchester
and Dover, n. H., would have forced
the hands of mill men here even if
they had not already been convinced
Of the futility of attempting to resist
the downward tendency of the
market"
When asked If similar action will be
taken Immediately at New Bedford the
local mill refused to make any state
ment beyond a declaration that it is
inevitable. disclaiming direct knowl-
edge of the plans of the New Bedford
manufacturers, who have been very
reticent regarding the course they in
tend to pursue.