National Association of Pressed and Blown Glassware

The formation of a new association of tableware manufacturers, or rather the reorganization of the Associated Glass Manufacturers, was effected at a meeting held at the Monongahela House, this city, on Thursday last and continued over on Friday. One the first named day the meeting convened at 10 o'clock a. m., with Mr. H. Sellers McKee, of McKee & Bros., presiding. The following houses were represented: Geo. Duncan's Sons & Co., Washington, Pa.; Riverside Glass Works, Wellsburg, W. Va.; Rodefer Bros., Bellaire, Ohio; Crystal Glass Co., Bridgeport, Ohio; Dalzell, Gilmore & Leighton Co., Findlay, Ohio; The Model Flint Glass Co., Albany, Ind.; Gillinder & Sons, Philadelphia; Hemingray Glass Co., Covington, Ky., and Muncie, Ind.; McKee & Bros., Pittsburgh; Bryce, Higbee & Co., Pittsburgh; Buckeye Glass Co., Martin's Ferry, Ohio; Fostoria Glass Co., Moundsville, W. Va.; and the Robinson Glass Co., Zanesville, Ohio. Each of the above firms had a representative present and a few others in the West were represented by proxy, making a total of 16. The title adopted for the new organization was the "National Association of Pressed and Blown Glassware," and the following officers were elected: H. Sellers McKee, of McKee & Bros, this city, president; John B. Higbee, of Bryce, Higbee & Leighton Co., Findlay, Ohio, secretary; and E. D. Muhlman, of the Crystal Glass Co., Bridgeport, O., treasurer. On Friday a conference was held between a committee of the newly formed Association and the officials of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union. The former proposed that instead of an arbitrary summer shut down commencing at a given date each year, the manufacturers should have the option of closing at such time as would suit the conditions of trade between May and September. The other propositions submitted by the manufacturers were also satisfactorily settled for the present and will come up for further consideration at a meeting to be held on February 1 for final discussion of the matter. There seems to be no doubt that an amicable arrangement will be completed and fires have already been lighted in several of the factories hitherto idle, though it is not probable that all will start up immediately owing to the comparative backwardness of trade. This new glass association is by far the largest and best organized that has ever been formed in the tableware trade, and it is expected that the few firms not yet affiliated with it will join soon. It may seem unnecessary to say, and yet the way some of the papers have got things mixed up impel the remark, that the newly formed organization does not replace nor has it any connection with the American Association of Flint and Lime Glass Manufacturers, which is purely a protective organization, embracing chimney as well as tableware manufacturers, and taking no part in wage or other working arrangements of the factories, nor anything else beyond the special and strictly limited functions imposed on it.