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capital, and are gratified in the belief that a great improvement is being made on these lines.

STOVES.

Dear Sir: We beg to hand you herewith statement as near as we can give it to you for 1901.

We have had no necessity to meet strike conditions during the past year. The President of our company, inaugurated a co-operative plan for last year. The idea was that money actually earned by an employee became his capital, or investment, in our company, and whatever the dividend earning power of the company was, he received a like percentage on the amount of his actual earnings. The way we figured was to get our net profits, deduct the regular discount of two per cent. on the capital stock, and this would leave a net amount for distribution among the stockholders, they receiving their dividend on cash invested, and the employee receiving a dividend on the wages that he had actually earned in the year. The Company was not pledged to continue this arrangement, which was entirely voluntary, but do, however, expect to continue it this year.

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Dear Sir: Your favor of the 24th received. Yes, the labor question is a vital one; it is agitating the public mind throughout the world. The writer has been in business over forty-five years, commenced by learning the trade himself, which gave him a better knowledge of the workman's attitude of mind than he could have obtained by any other means. President Schwab's wonderful success in managing labor comes largely from the fact that he was once a laborer himself and worked with them. He knows that a business cannot be successfully and continuously conducted unless the managers have absolute control, and this absolute control is quite as essential to the well-being of labor as it is to capital, and the day I could not control

people from a distance who are not even acquainted with me or my business, I would close for all time.

Labor and capital are partners; antagonism is therefore as abusrd as it is injurious, and the reduction and absurdum argument might be applied to strikes. As with other partnerships, each member of the firm must have his distinct department, and where one interferes with the other the best results do not follow.

As for plans for bringing about a better understanding would say that they were formulated about 1,870 years ago, in Christ's sermon on the mount. Simply treat your workmen as you would have them treat you under similar circumstances. In proportion as you do that and they become convinced that you are sincere, misunderstandings and grievances will vanish, and just in that proportion. There is no other safe rule. As I firmly believe that outside interference in the management of my busines is as much against the interest of my workmen as my own, and since if we were in their place and they in curs I would feel about it the same way, we permit none. If there should be union men in the factory and they are ordered to strike, we only feel sorry for them-we treat them fairly and know they will not better themselves-are ready to give them testimonials to get work elsewhere and have them depart in peace, but would close the business forever before attempting a compromise which in the rature of things is impracticable. If all manufacturers would adopt this plan of course strikes would be at an end. We cannot recognize their right to interference in the management of our business, since they know nothing about it, and it would only make a mess of things and hurt them as much as it would us.

The labor question has never disturbed us particularly, since we have an abiding faith in the general underlying good sense of the American people, and feel quite sure in the long run that workmen and capitalists alike will recognize that they are in partnership, and therefore their interests are mutual, and that any antagonism is a breach both of good faith and good policy.

In conclusion would say, I most heartily and cordially endorse the New York convention and its plans. With such a personnel, good must come of it.

TOOL WORKS.

Dear Sir: Replying to your circular letter of the 24th inst., we beg to state that we have no particular plan for strike prevention in our establishment.

after their comfort and interests. In our twenty-eight years of existence we have never had a strike nor any intimation of one. The majority of our men have been with us all of these years.

The secret, if there be any, is in the treatment of workmen as men of intelligence.

SMELTING WORKS.

Dear Sir: We are in receipt of your favor of the 24th inst, relative to our plan of strike prevention with our employes. In reply would say although we have been in business successfully over thirty years, we have never had a strike or any trouble whatever with our employees as an organized body. We employ from fifty to seventy-five men; we pay them the current rate of wages, and they seem perfectly satisfied.

ELECTRICAL.

Dear Sir: Replying to your favor of the 24th, would say that the labor question is not one that has ever concerned us very seriously, in eighteen years we have never had a strike or any disagreement of any kind with our men. Our system has been to treat our men with fairness and pay as high wages as we consistently could. Where economy was necessary it has been our method to put more work and responsibility on our men at advanced wages rather than lower the scale of wages.

We are not able to make any suggestions as to the matter of conciliation beyond fair treatment of employees.

PRESSED AND FLINT GLASS.

Dear Sir: Your circular letter in reference to the labor question came duly to hand, and we enclose you with this, a wage and move

adopted by a joint committee of the National Association Pressed and Blown Glasswares and the American Flint Glass Workers Union. These rules were adopted in 1888 after a prolonged strike that lasted very nearly six months. The question as issue then between the manufacturers was the right to employ workmen who were not members of their union, and the unlimited production of glassware to be paid for piece work. This set of rules was the result of a prolonged struggle and was, in a measure, a compromise.

Since then there has been but a few strikes amongst this branch of the trade, which covers some ten branches or lists, including the making of chimneys, white liners for fruit jars, fruit jars, engraving, glass made in tanks, what is known as the Caster place list, which is a list covering a large variety of blown glass such as jars, fish globes, acquariums, and such line of goods, articles made in paste mould, shades and globes, articles made in iron mould, and pressed ware list which we send you. The numbers have varied some little since the original list, but the changes have invariably been to the benefit of the workers.

The exception to this was one strike, which took place in 1893, which was a serious one, and grew out of the fact that the workers refused to let non-union men work in the factories, and also refused to make more than a limited quantity of goods. The United States Glass Company of Pittsburgh issued a set of rules which they asked the workmen to agree to, which made the factories open factories in which any man could work whether he was a member of the union or not, and also provided that all work should be made piece work, and should work eight and one-half hours for a day's work, and make what they could during that time. This strike resulted in the defeat of the workers. The United States Glass Company after a long struggle, being able to operate their plants on the lines they proposed. With this exception the rules have been fairly well lived up to, but there have been short strikes owing to hot blood on both sides, but the manufacturers claim, and the workers too, that under Rule 10 there shall be no strike until the matter has been referred to the manufacturers' and workers' committee for settlement. This has worked to a very great advantage, and is insisted upon at the present time.

The great danger is from the unreasonable position taken by the workers at times in which they will not yield points which they know are absolutely right: For instance, some of these lists that are made could be made in one-half of the set time, and yet they are not willing to rectify them. The manufacturers' committee have time and again offered to yield on some points, provided they would yield on those unequal things, but it is impossible to get any concession from

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Labor organizations are all right, provided they are worked intelligently and do not interfere with the personal liberty of men not members of their organization.

CUT GLASS.

Dear Sir: In reply to your question as to our method of handling labor difficulty we would say that it has been our policy to use our men just and fairly and pay them as well as business conditions will allow us, and any who are not satisfied with that treatment must look elsewhere for employment. In the case of the strike a year ago, we fought it to a finish, the men coming back to work on our terms.

CIGARS.

Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th inst. is received and in reply would say, that as we have always enjoyed the pleasantest relation with our employees, it has not been necessary for us to look into or plan any means of preventing a strike. We attribute this condition to the fact that we have always paid them good wages and given them considerate treatment, recognizing the fact that they are human and entitled to treatment as such by their employers.

Trusting this answers your inquiry satisfactorily, we are

CONTRACTORS.

Dear Sir: In reference to your inquiry whether I had put in practice any plan for adjusting grievances or preventing or settling strikes. I have had a little experience along that line. Several years ago the Bricklayers International Union of this city made cer

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