Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
262
TflE
E attitude taken by the Knights of Labor
I
of late is certainly disgraceful, and if con-
tinued will very soon bring the organization into
disrepute. This is a free country of ours, and every
man has a right to act his own pleasure, provided,
in so doing, he does not break the laws by which we
are governed. If a workman is not satisfied with
the position he holds or the pay he receives from the
employer, then he has a perfect right to leave the
place ; but when he tries to prevent the employer
from filling the position left vacant by him, or
threatens violence or destruction to property unless
his demands are acceded to, then it is time to cry a
halt, and if necessary use extreme measures for pro-
tection. There was a time when the laboring class
enjoyed the sympathies of the thinking class and
public at large, as in the case of the conductors' and
car-drivers' previous strike in this city. This has,
however, within the past few days all changed, and the
Knights of Labor are alone responsible for the
change of opinion. The recent riots in East St.
Louis are a direct violation of the laws of the coun-
try, and in plain terms can be called nothing less
than rebellion. It is the duty of the government to
protect the property of the railroad, and if these
workmen do not at once cease their depredations,
then call out the troops and shoot them down like
outlaws until order is restored.
BOYCOTTING I L L E G A L .
There are but very few people who are aware
of the fact that boycotting has been pronounced
by the highest legal authorities to be illegal, and
punishable by fine and imprisonment. It may
be of interest just at this time, when the whole
country is upturned by strikes, and as it appears
that we are on the verge of one in our trade, to give
the particulars of this decision. The law in regard
to this is very clear, and plainly makes a boycott a
conspiracy. The decision referring to this point
was given by the Supreme Court of this State in
1835, and was caused as follows : Some journeymen
shoemakers in Geneva, Ontario Co., formed a com-
bination to prevent any journeyman shoemaker in
that village to make a certain kind of coarse boots
for a price less than $1 per pair. Any member who
should make boots for a less price was to pay a fine
of $10, and all members pledged themselves to
refuse their services to any master shoemaker that
would pay a less price. Soon after this combination
was formed, a shoemaker by the name of Pennock
made a pair of boots for an employer named Lum
for 75 cents. At once, when this became known, all
of Lum's workmen left, and refused to work any
more until he discharged Pennock and guaranteed
not to employ him again. The District Attorney
had a number of the Shoemakers' Association in-
dicted for conspiracy to do an act of injury to trade,
and upon a demurrer to the indictment it was held
good by the Supreme Court of the State.
The opinion in the case was delivered by Chief-
Justice Savage, in which he declared that a con-
spiracy of journeymen workmen, of any trade, to
raise wages by entering into combinations to coerce
journeymen employed in the same trade to conform
to rules established by such combination, for the
purpose of stipulating the price of labor, and carry-
ing such rules Into effect by oyert acts, was "an act
injurious to trade and commerce," within the
meaning of the Revised Statutes, and as such a
misdemeanor. During the course of his opinion,
the Chief Justice used the following emphatic lan-
guage :
" All combinations, therefore, to effect such an
object are injurious, not only to the individual par-
ticularly oppressed, but to the public at large. In
the present case an industrious man was driven out
of employment by the unlawful measures pursued
by the defendants, and an injury done to the com-
munity, by diminishing the quantity of productive
labor and of internal trade. In so far as the indi-
vidual sustains an injury, the remedy by indictment
is taken away by our revised statutes, and the suf-
ferer is left to his action on the case ; but in so far
as the public are concerned, in the embarrassment
to trade by the discouragement of industry, the
defendants are liable to punishment by indictment.
If combinations of this description are lawful in
Geneva, they are so in every "other place. If the
bootmakers may say that boots shall not be made
for less than $1 per pair, it is optional with them to
say that $10 or even $50 shall be paid, and no man
can wear a pair of boots without giving such price
as the journeymen bootmakers may choose to re-
quire. This I apprehend would be a monopoly of
the most odious kind. The journeyman mechanics
might, by fixing their own wages, regulate the price
of all manufactured articles, and the community be
enormously taxed. Should the journeyman bakers
refuse to work, unless for enormous wages which
the master bakers could not afford to pay, and
should they compel all the journeymen in the city to
stop work, the whole population must be without
bread. . . . Truth is, that industry requires no
such means to support it. Competition is the life of
trade. If the defendants cannot make coarse boots
for less than $1 per pair, let them refuse to-do so ;
but let them not directly or indirectly undertake to
say that others shall not do the work for a less
price. It may be that Pennock, from greater indus-
try or greater skill, made more profit by making
boots at 75 cents per pair than the defendants at $1.
He had a right to work for what he pleased. Hin
employer had a right to employ him for such price
as they could agree upon. The interference of the
defendants was unlawful; its tendency is not only
to individual oppression but to public inconvenience
and embarrassment."
this city, I have clearly shown the way to at once
check it.
* *
AN E S T E E M E D F R I E N D .
There have been a great many deaths during
the past year in the music trade, yet none that
has caused more universal regret than the re-
cent demise of Charles M. Tremaine. His death,
which occurred on April 2, came almost without a
moment's warning, and to those of his friends who
had seen him in the prime of health only a few days
previous, the news fell with double force. On every
hand I have heard none but the most kind words
spoken of his life, and tender sympathies for his be-
reaved relatives.
Mr. Tremaine was of a quiet and retiring nature,
caring nothing for popularity gained by the usual
methods employed by many to obtain the same, but
instead, by doing his duty faithfully, and depending
upon his work to speak his praises.
Mr. Tremaine started in business as a clerk with
Horace Waters in 1855, and, in 1867, purchased the
sheet music catalogue of the firm, which he sold in
1869 to C. W. Harris. He then entered the piano
business, where he remained until a few years ago,
when he became manager of the Eighth avenue
branch of the Mechanical Orguinette Company, his
brother William being the general manager of the
concern.
J E F F . DAVIS BILL.
A few years after this, when the same question
came up before Chief-Justice Daly, in the Court of
Common Pleas, he differed from the Supreme Court
in regard to the question of the mere association of
workmen to increase wages being a misdemeanor,
and after a most elaborate investigation of the law
on the subject, stated as the result of his examina-
tion, "that it is lawful for any number of journey-
men or master workmen to agree on the one part
that they will not work below certain rates, or on
the other that they will not pay a certain price, but
that an association or combination for the purpose
of compelling journeymen or employers to conform
to any rule, regulation, or agreement, fixing the rate
of wages to which they are not parties, by the impo-
sition of penalties, by agreeing to quit the service of
an employer who employs a journeyman below cer-
tain rates, unless the journeyman pays the penalty
imposed by the combination, or by menaces, threats,
or intimidations, violence, or other unlawful means,
is a conspiracy, for which the parties entering into
it may be indicted."
The Legislature of 1870 practically adopted this view
of law, when the act was passed providing that the
provisions of the statutes regarding conspiracy "shall
not be construed in any Court in this State to restrict
or prohibit the orderly and peaceable assembling of
persons employed in any profession, trade, or handi-
craft, for the purpose of securing an advance of rate
of wages or compensation, or for the maintenance of
such rate."
Upon the enactment of the Penal Code in 1881, the
definition of conspiracy was enlarged, and a new
provision was inserted declaring it a misdemeanor
for two or more persons to conspire—
5. To prevent another from exercising a lawful
trade or calling, or doing any other lawful act, by
force, threats, Intimidation, or by interfering or
threatening to interfere with tools, implements, or
property belonging to or used by another, or with
the use or employment thereof.
From the above it will be clearly shown that the
use of the boycott as aiding in a strike, is a conspir-
acy against trade, a damage to the community at
large, and punishable by fine and imprisonment.
If the former workmen of Steiff's continue their
boycott, or if it should be used in the strikes which
will soon occur in the manufactories in the trade in
A TRUSTWORTHY PIANO FIRM.
D
AVID KRAKAUER, of the firm of Krakauei
Bros, in this city, starts this week for a long
trip through the West and South. The firm of
Krakaner Brothers have hitherto been content with
the very large retail trade, and a moderate number
of substantial, reliable wholesale agents, which
they possessed. Of late, however, they have en-
larged their facilities for manufacturing and have
determined to extend their wholesale trade. In the
vicinity wherever the Krakaner piano has been in-
troduced, it bears an enviable reputation for solidity
of construction, quality of tone and excellent work-
manship.
Mr. David Krakauer who is about to take this trip
is the senior as well as the practical member of the
firm. When a mere boy he commenced the study of
music intending to make it his avocation, but it was
not long before*he showed a desire to follow mechan-
ical pursuits, and at the age of fourteen entered, as an
apprentice, the piano firm of Grube & Kindt, N. Y.,
with whom he remained three years. After this, and
to perfect himself more thoroughly, he served two
years as an apprentice with the firm of A. H. Gale &
Co. He worked his way up as journeyman in some
of our best factories, and familiarized himself with
all parts of the piano.
Mr. Krakauer was of saving disposition, and with
the money he had saved, together with assistance
from his father, he started a retail store on his own
account at 349 Bowery, in the year 1873. From this
time on his progress was rapid. People soon learned
that he told nothing but what he was at any time
willing to substantiate. Partly from a desire of his
own, and through the urgent solicitations of his
friends, he commenced manufacturing several years
ago, on 23d street. Here he found a constant trade,
and more^than he could handle alone, so about three
years ago his brothers, Messrs. Julius and Daniel
Krakauer, became partners. They both are thorough
musicians, and attend to the office and retail de-
partment.
As time went by the firm found their business in*
creasing to such an extent as to make their quarters
on Twenty-third street too small, and about a year
ago they moved to a large new four story and base-
ment factory at 729 and 731 First Ave., which is as
well adapted to their wants as any in the trade.
The firm have all the capital necessary to oarry en
an extensive business, and by strict economy in buy-
ing material, for which they always pay cash, are
enabled to manufacture an excellent piano at a mod-
erate price.