Western Vial and Bottle Manufacturers' Association - 1883 Meeting - Chicago, Illinois

THE GREEN GLASS BOTTLE TRADE.

Representatives of the Western Vial and Bottle Manufacturers' Association met in Chicago last week.

The object of the meeting was to consider the present stagnant condition and general demoralization of the green glass bottle trade, with a view to devising a remedy therefore; to take action on the present schedule of wages; and also to decide as to whether it was advisable, under existing circumstances, to reopen the factories September 1. The vial and bottle factories shut down for two months every year from July 1.

The following manufacturers were present: The Southern Glass Co., Louisville, Ky.; the Hemingway [sic] Hemingray Glass Co., Cincinnati, O.; Thomas Wightman & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Kentucky Glass Co., Louisville, Ky.; William Elliot Smith, Alton, Ill.; the Ihmsen Glass Co., (limited), Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Mississippi Glass Co., St. Louis, Mo.; A. & D. H. Chambers, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Ottawa Glass Co., Ottawa, Ill.; N. D. De Pauw, New Albany, Ind.; Cunningham & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; William McCully & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Kearns, Berdman & Gorsuch, Zanesville, O.; S. McKee & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; the Rock Island Glass Co., Rock Island, Ill.

Capt. R. Evans, of the Hemingway [sic] Hemingray Glass Co., Cincinnati, O., presided. The secretary was Mr. W. Elliott Smith, of Alton.

The discussion of the various matters which the meeting had been called for occupied a continuous sitting of four hours duration, the special topics of discussion being the evil of over-production, the competition of the flint vial and bottle manufacturers and the wages question. It seems that the flint glass bottle makers — who are a different guild from the green glass bottle makers, each having its own laws, methods of working, and organized associations, and each having its own trade unions to fight — have been cutting prices in flint goods for the last year or two until at present the flint bottles and small bottles are almost, and in some cases quite, as cheap as the green goods. The result of this has been that the green men have been practically crowded out of the market in these classes of goods. Druggists, saloon-keepers, patent medicine makers, and all others who require some small sized bottles in their business will not buy green — that is, common — glass bottles if they can have flint goods for almost the same price. Of course, it is only in the smaller goods that this outside competition is felt; the beer bottles, brandy bottles, bitters bottles, and all the other leading articles of the green glass trade having only to contend with the ordinary competition inside that trade and the foreign importations.

And herein lies another matter for alarm. Beer bottles were imported into this country last year in large quantities. Some of them even reached Chicago. Foreign importation, which has never been considered of serious import in the trade, now threatens to become a serious matter indeed.

On top of the flint trouble comes the over-production damage: All the factories, it is alleged, have been turning out a supply far beyond the market demands. The market has been glutted. Natural result — a reduction in prices. The trade paid well a few years ago. Since the fact was discovered there has been a rushing increase in the number of manufacturers. Within the last year or two an immense number of little one-horse factories have been started, with the results as stated.

There is also the tariff question. The manufacturers, however, are satisfied that the present tariff is high enough in all conscience. Several leading manufacturers, including the president and secretary, said so.

The most important matter of all, however, was the wages question. "Two years ago," said President Evans to your correspondent, "we raised the wages ten per cent. Two years ago we were getting $7.50 a gross for export beer bottles; now we get only from $5 to $5.50." The feeling of the meeting was that a reduction of wages was necessary in order to carry on business, and also that this reduction should be at least 20 per cent to do any good. The meeting was unanimously in favor of keeping the factories shut down until a new schedule of wages had been agreed upon.

It was finally decided that a Committee on Wages be appointed to draw up a new schedule and present it to the Bottle Blowers' Union; that this committee be empowered to call a general meeting of the association, to be held in Cincinnati in September or early in October, at which they shall report the result of their work; and that all the factories connected with the association keep shut down until the report of the committee be received and action taken thereon.

The meeting then adjourned.

In a conversation with several of the leading manufacturers your correspondent learned that the average wages earned by bottle blowers is $5 a day; that the wages range from $4 to $6 a day, many good men earning $6 a day regularly. The average European wages was stated to be from $0.61 to $1 and $1.25 for the same. The Bottle Blowers' Union is thoroughly organized and exceedingly arbitrary. The employers dare not use non-union labor, the number of apprentices is limited to a very small percentage for each factory, and various other restrictions of a minor character are imposed on manufacturers. It is not expected that the union will submit to a reduction in wages without a long fight, and this the manufacturers say they are ready and willing to stand. Several leading factories have still a three-months' supply of goods on hand, and all the factories have more or less surplus manufactured stock, which the shut-down will allow them to dispose of.

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 1, 1883.

It is reported that the green bottle manufacturers, most of whom are also makers of window glass, will, in event of a refusal of the workers to concede a reduction in wages, keep closed for the remainder of the year. Only one house, that of D. O. Cunningham, has started up so far, and he does not belong to the Vial and Bottle Association, neither does he make window glass. It is safe not to pay too much attention to the conflicting rumors with which the papers are filled regarding the attitude of the manufacturers of window and green bottle glass and their workmen toward each other. All that is certain is that the manufacturers in private meeting decided upon a reduction, and that the question has not been officially acted upon by the workers' association. All the rest is only surmise, merely individual opinion, and is unworthy of serious attention. Concessions may be made on both sides and the anticipated strike averted, or they may not and a lockout follow, but which event is most likely to transpire at this juncture no one can really tell.