Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1898 — NEW ENGLAND BIG STRIKE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW ENGLAND BIG STRIKE

The third week of the great cotton mill strike in New England has closed, and it brings no change in the unfortunate situation. The storm center is still at New Bedford, with smdller strikes scattered throughout the other cities, and operatives in still others waiting to see the outcome of the New Bedford workers’ fight before they take a hand at it themselves. Operators and mill owners are as determined as ever and declare that they will not yield. The manufacturers reiterate their declarations: That the market for cotton manufactures has not recovered from the business depression; that the opening of cotton mills in the South has Seriously affected the market; that their properties no longer earn dividends commensurate with their investments; that their operatives are as well puid as any, and better paid than most of them; that a system of flues for inferior work is necessary to protect them against careless workmen; that the operatives could live comfortably under the new schedule if they were good managers. The answer the operatives make is this: That the mill owners, having regularly declared dividends of from 5 to 16 per cent, do not need to reduce expenses; that mule spinners alone of all the operatives could avoid starvation under a schedule 10 per cent below present wages; that they have been unable to pay living expenses at the old wages; that their homes, rented from the companies, are desolate and unsanitary; that the employers now require them to weave large cuts of goods at the same price they formerly received for smaller ones; that the mill owners, by arbitrary fines, are able to regulate wages to suit themselves. The operatives are full of courage to resist the reduction. Forty-nine German families have left town for Texas, where they have secured employment in the cotton mills, and many more Canadians are to return to their homes across the border, to remain until the close of the struggle. The manufacturers have made no signs toward starting up their mills, and no more is expected on their part for some time to come.