Tools and Machinery of the Granite Industry, Part IV

From the perspective of the employer, labor strikes significantly increased his labor costs, impacted his ability to deliver on schedule, and caused cash flow problems in meeting fixed costs. The result of these strikes was an ever-increasing wage scale-from 250 to 300 per hour and a ten-hour workday in 1890 to $1.00 per hour and an eight-hour workday in 1920.

The building granite business declined during the 1920s and finally collapsed in the early 1930s due partly to worker strikes and the onset of the Great Depression but due mostly to the increasing availability of alternative lower-cost building materials such as concrete, glass, steel panels, and stone veneers and the unwillingness of governments and companies to spent extra for granite ashlar-clad buildings. The American monumental granite business is still active but is under increasing pressure from international competition, especially from China and India.

Notes

1. Mari Tomasi and Roaldus Richmond, "A Modern Guild," Men Against Granite. Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers Project, 1936-40 (Also available at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/vtcat.html or in Tomasi, Mari, et al., Men Against Granite (New England Press, 2O04).

2. "The Mayor," Men Against Granite

3. Edward M. Tobin and Emmet M. White, "Dust Remover For Stone-Dressing Machinery," U.S. Patent Office, no. 1,504,994, August 12, 1924.

4. D.C. Jarvis, M.D. "The Upper Respiratory Tract in Granite Dust Inhalation," The Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology, vol. XXXII, (1923).

5. Granite Cutters' International Association, 1903 contract with Barre manufacturers.

6. Ibid.

7. Ibid.

8. James Duncan, Granite Cutters' Journal (1904).

9. Frederick L. Hoffman, "Mortality from Consumption in Dusty Trades," U.S. Bureau of Labor Bulletin no. 79, (1908): 633-875.

10. Albert E. Russell et al., "The Health of Workers In the Dusty Trades," US. Public Health Service Bulletin no. 187 (1929).

11. Ibid.

12. "Up On The Hill," Men Against Granite.

13. "Scots-Irish Derrickman," Men Against Granite.

14. "Just Another Guy Working," Men Against Granite.

Additional References

Books and Journal Articles

Bale, M. Powis. Stone-Working Machinery. London: Crosby Lockwood and Co., 1884.

Barre Granite Association. Apprenticeship Standards for the Granite Industry. Barre, Vermont: Barre Granite Association 1946.

Barre Museum of the Aldrich Public Library. Carlo Abate-A Life in Stone (pamphlet). Barre, Vermont: ca. 1986.

Bielenberg, Kristina, et al. Granite Artists and Their Work (exhibition catalog). Barre, Vermont: Barre Ethnic Heritage Studies Project and First Branch Gallery, 1978.

Bigelow, Jacob. History of the Mount Auburn Cemetery. Boston: James Munroe and Co., 1860.

Bowles, Oliver. Stone Cutting and Polishing. U.S. Department of Interior, 1958.

"Credit Ratings, 1917-18." Boston: National Association of the Granite Industries of the United States, 1918.

Dale, T. Nelson. The Granites of Maine. U.S. Geological Survey, 1907.

Dale, T. Nelson. The Commercial Granites of New England U.S. Geological Survey, 1923.