The Oskaloosa herald., 1911-04-27
ALL IS QUIET
IN MUSCAT|NE
Strikers Withdraw Pickets. Few
Return to Work To-day.
CITY FEELS STRIKE Effects
The Loss Per Capita to Every Man,
Woman and Child in the Town
Amounts to $21.50 For the
Eight Weeks of inactivity.

Muscatine, Ia, April 26.-Special:
Everything was quiet in Muscatine
last night and this morning with the
exception of an answer to a riot call
at midnight by the militiamen. Gov
ernor B. F. Carroll comes from Des
Moines today to make personal inves-
tigation into the conditions.
The strikers have withdrawn their
pickets from about the factory build
ings so that workmen can pass to
and from the places unhindered. Few
laborers went to work this morning.
A frantic woman appealed to Major
Ball last night that she had heard
men prowling about the yard by her
house. A riot call was sounded and
the soldiers went on the double quick
only to rout out a couple of fighting
tom cats.
Muscatine Feels Strike.
Calculated upon per capita basis,
with reference to the size of the town,
Muscatine has suffered greater fl
nancial loss through the strike of the
button workers than any western
city that ever went through the or
deal of a controversy between crafts
men and employer. The loss of wag-
es during the eight weeks of the
strike has amounted to nearly third
of a million dollars. Since Muscatine
has a population of scarcely more
than $4,000, according to the 1910 GEN.
tl,tN NIT IN he fnu
amounts to $2150 to every man, wo-
man and child for eight weeks Of in
activity in the factories. The thor
ough effect the strike has already
had on the city is equalled only by
the strikes of the past in the textile
working districts of New England and
the mining regions of Pennsylvania.
To the average person these figures
appear rather startling, but not so
much so when the magnitude of the
button industry in Muscatine is Civ
en- full consideration. A compilation
of statistics shows that total of q
SIS hands are employed in the me-
chanical departments of the factories
alone, when they are in full opera
ton. This by no means represents
the actual number of persons at work
in the various branches of the craft,
great army of women and girls en-
J ployed in the lighter tasks of the
| business. Many hundreds of women
and girls are engaged every day in
the finishing departments and in card
ing the buttons, so it is conservative.
Iy estimated that at least 5000 per
sons, including the cutters and other
experts, are on the payrolls of the
various concerns involved in the
strike There is hardly family in
the Pearl city that is not directly af-
fected by the strike, since nearly one
some branch of the business.
Fifty Button Factories in City.
There are fifty button factories in
Muscatine. Some of the smaller ones
of course, in which only the blanks
are cut, give employment to small
forces of men, ranging in number
from fifteen to forty or fifty. At the
Mckee & Bliven plant, which is the
largest concern of it's kind in the
world, embracing every department
from the cutting of blanks to finish.
ing and carding the buttons, more
than 600 men, women and girls are
employed. Mckee & Bliven's payroll
is about a half million dollars annual
ly. The Hawkeye Pearl Button com,
pany is another of the big concerns
employing $50 hands and paying out
} annually more than $4,000. There
are four other plants employing more
than 200 hands each. Statistics show
that the average wage in all factories
including the girls and women, is
$13 week, and many of the girls, as
well as the men. earn as high as SIS
and $50 weekly. These of course, are
experts.
. Any invasion that one might make
into the seemingly interminable re
cesses of Muscatine's mammoth pear
button industry leads the wanderei
into Gaze of figures that reaches in
.. to the millions, like the antennae Of
Marconi tower. The flight into the
millions is taken when one makes re
search in the purchasing department
of the button manufacturing concerns
Figures submitted by the operators
show that million and half dollars
are spent annually in Muscatine To-
raw material used in the factories
When in operation the craftsmen Gu
2S3 tons of shells weekly, or 4,l5O an
Z nually. During the year ending, abou
q the time the strike was ordered tn
I average market quotation on she'll
a was $26 ton, and using this figur
;. as basis, the manufacturers spen
t. nearly million and half dollars 10
Q shells during the twelve months
-. -. A.