Hemingray Glass Company

THE FLINT GLASS COMBINE.

Consolidation of Twenty-one Firms,

Representing $8,000,000.

The combination of flint tableware manufacturers, which has been under way for several weeks past, had the cap sheaf placed in position in a very unexpected manner after a meeting of representatives lasting through last Tuesday and Wednesday. The curious part of the combination is that it is entirely different from what was first contemplated by its projectors, and partakes more of the nature of a trust than it was originally thought possible to get the various firs to agree to. More than that, some of the largest manufacturers who firs held aloof from the movement, looked at it coldly and acted very indifferently, have become the chief pushers, and are now willing to got to greater length, than the original projectors and advocates of the combination.

Two days were required to agree upon the main features of the combination, representatives from the leading firms being in conference at the Hotel Henry, Pittsburg, till Wednesday evening. The old plans were entirely abandoned, and it has been agreed to organize a company under the laws of New Jersey, that great nursery of trusts, which is to be known as the United Glass Manufacturers' Association. Most of the table ware manufacturing firms in the United States belongs to it, besides several firms whose product consists of other specialties, such as the Rochester Tumbler Company, whose product is tumblers exclusively, and the Fostoria Glass Company, who make decorated lamps besides fine blown and pressed glassware. The combination embraces manufacturers of pressed flint glassware, while certain factories, such as the United States Glass Company, the Central, of Wheeling, the Rochester Tumbler Company, and the Keystone Tumbler Company, or Rochester, Pa., make blown tumblers, also. But the factories making blown ware especially, such as Bryce Bros., the Cumberland Glass Company, the Seneca Glass Company as well as various lamp manufacturers, have not been taken in, as yet, but provision is made for the absorption of any and all other plants in any line, who may choose to join.

The present combination is doubtless the largest and most formidable compact ever attempted in any branch of the glass industry so widely diversified as the manufacture of pressed glassware. The factory management for the present is not to be disturbed.

Stock is to be issued to factory proprietors according to the appraised value of the various works. A board of directors is to be elected and placed in charge of general affairs. A central sales agency is to be established, and a uniform price list made for all lines of ware, according to the weight of the article and the move list. Sample and salesrooms will be under general control of the officers, and besides regulating prices and production, such other economies are to be effected as monopolies, trusts, and efficiently officered combinations of brains and capital alone are capable of enforcing.

The following firms have signed the preliminary agreement up to date:

Canton Glass Company, Marion, Ind.; Co-operative Flint Glass Company, Limited, Beaver Falls, Pa.; George Duncan's Sons & Co., Washington, Pa.; Dalzell, Gilmore & Leighton Co., Findlay, O.; Fostoria Glass Company, Moundsville, W. Va.; Hemingray Glass Company, Muncie, Ind.; A. H. Heisey & Co., Newark, O.; Indiana Tumbler and Goblet Company, Greentown, Ind.; McKee Brothers, Pittsburg, Pa.; Ohio Flint Glass Company, Dunkirk, Ind.; Riverside Glass Works, Wellsburg, W. Va.; Rochester Tumbler Company, Rochester, Pa.; Tarentum Glass Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.; United States Glass Company, Pittsburg, Pa.; Greensburg Glass Company, Limited, Greensburg, Pa.; Model Flint Glass Company, Albany, Ind.; Robinson Glass Company, Zanesville, O.; Central Glass Company, Wheeling, W. Va.; Beatty-Brady Glass Company, Dunkirk, Ind.

The present officers are: President, A. Hart McKee, of McKee Bros,; first vice-president, H. C. Fry, of the Rochester Tumbler Co.; second vice-president, D. C. Ripley, of the U. S. Glass Co.; secretary, W. D. Uptegraff, of the Pittsburg Glass Co.; Treasurer, J. D. Wilson, of the Tarentum Glass Company.

The entire arrangement will be regulated on the basis of pot capacity of 3,000 pounds each. If he pots of a plant contain less or more than 3,000 pounds capacity, the owners will participate in proportion to their relative size. A single pot of 3,500 pounds will call for one and one-sixth shares of stock.

The yearly business that the new company should handle is estimated to exceed $7,000,000. The consolidation was agreed upon because the interests represented realized that the business was becoming unprofitable. There will now be advances in prices, but not out of reason, and the jobber will be protected. Manufacturers have been wasting strength fighting each other and there has been a constant overproduction and consequent price cutting in certain lines as a consequence. There is no jobbing of stock in the closing up of the plan, for each concern will enter the combine on its merits, regulated entirely by the pot capacity of the factories. Allotted production will, of course be regulated by the pot capacity, and the executive committee will have power to curtail production at any time proportionately.