MACHINISTS SLOWLY GAINING, CUBANS DEADLOCKED, MR. SCHWAB ON SUCCESS, BILLETS TO RODS, AND DISPUTED SIDEPATH

 

Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, May 24, 1901.

STILL SLOWLY GAINING.

Striking Machinists Recovering Ground In Their Contest.

MANY SETTLEMENTS ARE MADE.

Some Firms Willing to Grant Demands but Refuse to Sign Agreement but President O'Connell Says That Is Not a Detail of Importance.

   WASHINGTON, May 24.—President O'Connell of the Machinists' association in summarizing the situation says: "The situation now shows that we are largely the gainer in the number of settlements made. The adjustments reported during yesterday show a gain in New England of 1,500 in the number of men returned to work with the demands granted, of 500 or 600 in Ohio and probably 1,000 in Pennsylvania.

   "About 1,000 men struck yesterday. There are some additions in Philadelphia and some in the seaboard air line shops at Americus, Ga. Our policy is to discourage bringing out any more men than is absolutely necessary to affect the success of the movement."

   Mr. O'Connell said a strike of the machinists on the seaboard air line would occur this morning. He said the strikers would number between 500 or 600.

   Advices to headquarters here indicate that at San Francisco many of the smaller concerns are ready to grant the demands, but are not ready to sign the agreement. At Indianapolis the American Bicycle company is reported as agreeing to the demands, but refusing to sign the agreement. The same condition exists at several other points and the matter is being left to the local organizations to settle. Mr. O'Connell said that he could not understand such a policy on the part of the employers, but was not disposed to haggle over a minor issue and, if necessary, he would not insist on the men staying out on account of that technicality. He said the organization of the men is sufficient to enforce their demands and that the question of signature was comparatively trifling.

   In this city every establishment employing machinists signed agreements yesterday, one of them, the Cahill Typewriter company, however, refusing to unionize the shop. There are about 100 machinists in Washington outside of government shops. In Boston 3 firms employing 1,650 men have signed the agreements thus far, leaving 1,200 men still engaged in the strike. The men are out in the American Bicycle company shops at Hartford, Conn., Westerly, L. I., and Thompsonville, Conn. The local combination of employers at Bridgeport, Conn., has been broken by the agreement of the Capsule Machine company there.

   Reports up to 5 o'clock last night showed the following additional agreements: Indianapolis, two shops; Grand Rapids, two; Erie, Pa., the Erie City Iron works and the Cleveland & Hendricks Machine company; Pittsburg; a half dozen oil well supply concerns; Meadville, Pa., the Phoenix Iron works.

 

CUBANS DEADLOCKED.

Vote on Platt Amendment Said to Be 14 to 14.

CAPOTE HAS DECIDING VOTE.

He Said That He Would Vote For the Adoption of the Amendment—Conservatives Say They Have Small Majority—More Speeches For and Against.

   HAVANA, May 24.—El Mundo claims that the Cuban constitutional convention stands 14 to 14 on the Platt amendment, President Capote being opposed to it and controlling the deciding vote.

   Gener, the candidate of the Nationalists for mayor, announces his intention to vote against the amendment because the party which nominated him rejected the amendment in their platform.

   The Conservatives are hesitating to push matters and are inclined to wait until after the municipal elections, when party feelings will have subsided.

   Juan Gualberto Gomez continued his speech against the Platt amendment before the Cuban constitutional convention yesterday. Senor Sanguilly replied to him. The closing remarks of Senor Gomez were eloquent. The convention adjourned without voting. Senors Liorente, Zayas and Silva gave notice that they would speak at the next session.

   Senor Mendez Capote, the president of the convention, announced that he would vote for the Platt amendment. The national party has sent out notices to its members who are delegates to the convention that they are free to vote according to their opinions and are not bound by the resolutions against the amendment adopted by the National party a month ago. These notices are due to the statement of Senor Goner that he could not vote in favor of the amendment owing to the platform of the National party. The Conservatives claim a small majority in favor of the amendment.

 

TO DEFINE THE BOUNDARY.

Line Between United States and Canada to Be Permanently Established.

   VANCOUVER, B. C., May 24.—A joint international survey party, comprising United States and Canadian engineers, is about to begin the task of defining the international boundary between the United States and Canada from the Pacific coast to the Rocky mountains. It is contended that this work was inaccurately performed by the surveys of 1859, 1860 and 1861.

   One of the most important matters to be determined as a result of this joint survey is the question of national location of the Mount Baker mining district. Valuable mines are embraced in this section, the treaty being claimed both by the American and the Canadian governments. Lieutenant Sinclair of the coast and geodetic survey will be at the head of the United States party and J. M. Arthur will lead the Canadian surveyors. The work will begin next week.

 

GREAT OIL WELL.

Indiana is now Favored with Oil in Quantities.

   MARION, Ind., May 24.—What promises to be the best oil well in Indiana was shot on the Baldwin farm less than a mile from the business section of this section Thursday. In one half hour a 250 barrel tank was half filled, indicating a production of 2,000 barrels a day. The initial production will probably settle to about 300 or 400 barrels a day, which will be phenomenal for Indiana.

 

Charles M. Schwab.

PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.

Mr. Schwab on Success.

   President Schwab of the United States Steel corporation, who draws a salary of $1,000,000 a year, has been telling the boys of St. George's Evening Trade school in New York, how to succeed in business. With his general rules as to industry, integrity, frugality and devotion to duties about every one will agree, but even the exercise of these to the fullest degree does not land many men in million dollar jobs, though unquestionably no real success in any calling is ever attained without them. His contention, however, that "manual education excels for a life of business and for manufactures" and that "a college education is not necessary for a successful business career" may not be universally accepted. Mr. Schwab supported the latter phase of his contention by recounting the names of half a dozen exceptionally successful manufacturers not noted for scholarship and by saying that of 40 financial magnates with whom he had once foregathered only two had been to college.

   Strangely enough, The Engineering News of London has much the same doubts about the utility of technical education that Mr. Schwab has about the academic and asks if it does not lead rather to small improvements in old methods than to the making of original and important contributions to the industrial arts. It mentions Watt, Stephenson and Brinley as great men whose technical education was by no means thorough and instances Harrison, the carpenter, who gave us the chronometer; Arkwright, who collected hair from barbers' shops before he turned his attention to spinning by machinery, and Dr. Cartwright, who never saw a loom until he made his own. Edison, Gramme and Swan were without scientific training in the modern meaning of the term, and Bell was more of a philologist than a physicist.

   The truth is that the more one knows, whether acquired through college education or manual training or without the aid of either, the better is he equipped for a successful and useful career. If, however, the accumulation of many millions and the holding of positions which pay such enormous salaries as that which Mr. C. M. Schwab annually receives be the only mark of success, very few persons can hope to attain it, no matter what the educational qualifications. That sort of success comes very largely through peculiar conditions and environments, though unquestionably there must be the basic qualities of thrift, industry, fidelity, trustworthiness and knowledge of the business in hand. For these things every boy should strive, whatever his advantages in the way of education and, though he may never get into the millionaire class, he may become none the less a successful, useful and honorable factor in society.

   ◘ Kissing is again charged by the doctors with spreading tuberculosis. It has also been known to induce breach of promise suits and several other kinds of trouble not mentioned by the learned physicians.

 

Wickwire Works, Cortland, N. Y.

FROM BILLETS TO RODS

As Practiced at Wickwire Brothers Rolling Mill.

   At the meeting of the Cortland Science club at the Hatch library last Saturday evening the general topic of discussion was the visit which had been made by the club on the afternoon of the previous day to the new rolling mill of Wickwire Brothers. On that occasion every courtesy possible was shown by the proprietors, the Messrs. Wickwire Brothers, and by the foreman of the mills, Mr. A. Rusbatch, and all the details of the process were pointed out to the visitors, but so great of necessity was the noise of the machinery that many questions that would have been asked were postponed till later, in the knowledge that a further opportunity for asking them was coming. The result was that the Saturday night meeting was practically a sort of "quiz" in which every one who desired took an opportunity to ask of Mr. Rusbatch all the questions he wanted to and they were all promptly and cheerfully answered.

   As a preliminary to the questioning Mr. Rusbatch, appreciating the probable trend of the interrogatories made a little statement in regard to the origin of rolling mills and described some of the improvements that had been made which transformed the original crude machines into the perfected form of mechanism of the mill just completed by Wickwire Brothers in Cortland. He quoted one who has had considerable to do with the operating, designing and perfecting of the rod mill as saying that "with Watts' immortal invention (the steam engine) harnessed ahead, and the hand of the metallurgical and mechanical engineer guiding behind, the rolling mill has been the plowshare which has opened the furrow and made possible the seed time and the harvest of the hour." Quoting again the speaker said that the steam engine of Watts is a Hercules and that the rolling mill is his club. Shorn of the club the original Hercules would find his power greatly curtailed.

   Henry Cort, born in Lancaster, England, in 1740, was the first man to use grooved cylinders for the reduction of metal from large to small sections. At that time all iron had to be brought into England from Sweden and Russia and about this time those countries increased the price about 200 per cent. He was materially assisted by Black, an Edinburgh chemist and by Dr. Roebuck, another chemist. In the light of their suggestions Cort built the first rolling mill at Portsmouth and took out patents in rolling and manipulating iron. In 1865 Sir William Fairborn said that Cort's inventions had increased the wealth of England over 600,000,000 pounds sterling, and had given employment to 600,000 men.

   From these small beginnings the amount has been increased until in 1899 there was rolled in the United States alone 8,000,000 tons of iron, exclusive of the flat product rolled in plain rolls, and this latter amounted to 167,000 tons per week.

   Mr. Rusbatch here described a number of the varieties of the rolling mill, showing the development in each line and illustrating many of the points by drawings with crayon upon a black board. All the forms led up to the continuous mill such as is now used. He then described the operation of the local mill, enumerating many of the advantages which this possesses over earlier and less perfect mills. He paid a fine compliment to Cooper Brothers who made the castings for the machinery, saying that in all his mill experience he never had castings that were as uniform and never had any which conformed closer or as close as those made for Wickwire Brothers by Cooper Brothers.

   After Mr. Rusbatch's preliminary talk the questions began and the discussion which followed was very interesting and profitable. It appears that the 300 pound billet of steel which is put into the furnace emerges from the last pass in the form of a rod 3-16 of one inch in diameter and between 2,600 and 2,700 feet in length. Dr. Higgins remarked that he had figured out that one of the 300 pound billets would make 293 miles of No. 36 wire. It also appeared that the rod loses in weight by the reduction from the billet to the 3-16 inch rod only about 2 per cent.

 

A COMMUNICATION.

The Commissioner of Highways Writes About the Disputed Sidepath.

   To the Editor of The Standard:

   SIR—I wish through your paper to correct a false impression that has gone out in regard to the cinder path between Cortland and McGraw. The path taken out by Mr. Bean was 100 feet long, making a road 18 feet wide, including the path, which before was only 13 feet at the narrowest point. Now the town board, as well as myself, are in favor of cinder paths, but we do not think it is right to give up the beaten track to them, and make the traveling public liable to fines. When the path was taken out I intended to have replaced it by as good if not a better foundation by excavating the bank on the side of what I used for a road, which in my opinion was all they had there as there were no cinders upon it. Dr. Santee was willing that I should set the path back, but wanted me to put on cinders or gravel which I refused to do. That was the first point of our trouble.

   The town board has proposed to excavate and set this path still further back, and make a good bed for a sidepath. At an expense of $100 or more at this point; also the path from the Stevens watering-trough, to the foot of the hill, and cinder this portion. As we talk of putting in a macadamized road at this point, and wish to make it wider. The expense of both will be $200 or more to the town. Now the sidepath commission claims that they are in favor of good roads as well as of cinder paths. But it does not look that way when they are doing every thing to block the road as well as a good cinder path, because the town board deems it its right to say how much money shall be spent in excavating and putting in the path. But the commission wants the right to dictate how much shall be spent of the town's money.

   Up to the present time we can not find that there has ever been a permit filed with the town clerk to build a path from Cortland to McGrawville which the law requires them to do. Yet they think the town should have no voice in the matter. Now it seems to me when the town board is willing to come more than half way to meet their demands, and make them a good path as well as to improve the highway they ought to be public spirited enough to accept. If they can not see it in that way the best thing for them to do, is to let it go to the courts, and try to prove to the town that the cinder path has the first right to the road and use money paid in for badges which is intended to be used in improving the paths of the town.

   Now for the interest of the wheelmen at large I will fix this place so that they can pass there at the town's expense, but I will not build such a path as they require which is more than they take an interest in doing.

   Yours respectfully, W. A. SMITH, Commissioner of Highways.

   Cortland, May 23, 1901.

 

Cortland Park.

OPENING OF THE PARK.

Cars to Run at Frequent Intervals Saturday and Sunday.

   The formal opening of the park for the season occurs tomorrow. Cars will begin running from the Messenger House at 1:20 P. M. and every forty minutes thereafter during the afternoon, with frequent cars in the evening. During the evening there will be a dunce at the pavilion with music by McDermott's orchestra. On Sunday cars will run during the afternoon on forty minute time beginning at 1:20.

 

Cincinnatus, N. Y., is Ambitious.

   Cincinnatus has been decidedly ambitious ever since it had a railroad, and the ambition is in every way praiseworthy too. Not content with striking for oil and natural gas it has concluded to make a move toward water works. An engineer will visit that village in July to make preliminary surveys for a system of water works.

 

BREVITIES.

   —Mr. B. R. Carpenter has had his [civil war] pension increased to $10 a month.

   —Bishop Huntington was at Grace church this afternoon at 3 o'clock to administer the rite of confirmation.

   —The Woman's Relief Corps would like to have all flowers donated for Memorial Day left at G. A. R. hall early next Thursday morning.

   —Rev. A. B. Browe, pastor of the McGrawville Baptist church, will address the men's meeting at the Y. M. C. A. Sunday afternoon at 3:15 o'clock.

   —McGraw & Elliott have a handsome new sign up over the doors of what is soon to be their new drug store in the Wickwire building. They expect to be able to open the store soon.

   —Mrs. Lorilla Lilly Brown, widow of the late Ephriam Brown, formerly of Cortland, died at French Gulch, Shasta Co., Cal. on Saturday, May 11, at the age of 94 years and 3 months.

   —Mrs. A. B. Nelson this afternoon entertained the members of Miss Clara E. Booth's Bible class of ladies in the Presbyterian Sunday-school at her home on Monroe Heights. It was the annual social gathering of the class.

    —New display advertisements today are—Boy Phenomenon, Magnetism, page 4; Palmer & Co., Groceries, page 6; Glann & Clark, Shoes, page 6; W. J. Perkins, Ice cream soda, etc., page 6; Mitch's Market, Spring lamb, page 5.