Marble Minutes: Balance of Power

February 18th, 2011

By Cathy Miglorie

The utopian days of the early Proctor family reign came to halt with the passing of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. The act gave workers across the United States the right to organize among themselves and negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.

The industrial workers of Vermont Marble Co. saw in the N.L.R.A. an act of liberation and translated it immediately into a united surge toward unionization.

The Vermont Marble Co. strike, while not as violent as others that erupted across the nation, was significant in other ways. It represented the clash between the ruling class and their workers—class conflict—that was sweeping the nation.

Author Georges Seldes, of Windsor, in his 1937 book “You Can’t Do That” describes how workers committed economic treason when they chose to unite against their employers. In a personal anecdote, he relates how, as a reporter, he investigated the strike himself.

“Said the local representative of the Rutland Herald to me,“If you are still a good reporter you ought not to make up your mind until you hear both sides of the story. You ought to see Mr. X (mentioning the name of the man representing law and order). Mr. X is a square guy.”

“I agreed. We rode down to Mr. X’s house but did not find him in. So to kill time I decided on a haircut. When I came into the shop, the barber was just polishing off a customer, and I will take an oath that the following is the exact transcription of the conversation, since I wrote it down that very minute:

Barber (to customer, who is leaving): ‘Well, how’re things up at Proctor?’ (Proctor is also one of the towns of the Vermont Marble Co.)

Customer: ‘Quiet. They’ve stopped picketing.’

Barber: ‘How’s it going to come out?’

Customer: ‘They’ve broken off negotiations.’

I: ‘Who, the Proctors?’

Customer: ‘No, the men. (Angrily) We ought to ship the whole gang of them out, get rid of them, send them back where they belong . . . ‘

I: ‘But people have the right to strike, haven’t they?’

Customer: ‘It’s the damn reds. Coming up here to Vermont and trying to tell US how to run our country.’

(In a fury the customer slams out of the shop.)

I : ‘Who was that?’

Barber: ‘That’s Mr. X. He’s sore as hell at those liter’y folks from New York buttin’ in favoring the workmen. Foreigners have no right to butt in. If the New Yorkers hadn’t sent food and money the Proctors would have broke the men in no time.’”

Among American capitalists, the Proctor family was considered as belonging to the enlightened, paternal and more intelligent minority: they were fair and honorable employers of the old school.

Seldes said, “At least, they have always fostered that impression by subsidizing churches, building a hospital, contributing to many charities — and incidentally shutting the mouth of considerable criticism. The moment I mentioned the marble strike to anyone in Vermont the inevitable answer was, ‘The Proctors are good people, they are noted for their charities,’ and none saw any relationship between gifts of a hundred thousand dollars and — after deductions for rent, light, etc., (company services) — pay checks of twenty cents a week.

“The Proctors have always referred to ‘our workmen’ in much the same way liberal Southerners in old times referred to ‘my Negroes,’ and it was a shock, which they will never forget to have ‘our workmen’ organize regular unions and refuse to join the company union which the Proctors tried to impose, or accept an announced pension plan which, the Proctors said, would make the old age of every skilled marble worker peaceful, serene, free from financial care, near heaven on earth.”

Unionization was treason. The Proctors, like other great American the great industrialists, were chagrined and angered. “Our workmen” were biting the hand that fed them.

“A company that never missed a dividend and never paid a living wage’ — so one of the ministers of the gospel in one of the Proctor towns referred to the Vermont Marble Co., immediately adding: ‘But please do not use my name. The Proctors, who control everything in this part of the state, the press, the banks, the members of the legislature, are also powerful in the church.”

The strike was also significant in that writers, artists and other professional men — leaders of the intellectual minority — used it as a platform to preach social reform. Women intellectuals led the way, trying to protect the women and children of the strikers. Poet Genevieve Taggard, from East Jamaica, Vermont wrote about her “working class sisters” and served on the United Committee to Aid Vermont Marble Workers. The committee, which held public hearings in Rutland, included poets, professors, students, clergymen, and journalists— the “damn reds” referred to by Mr. X in Seldes’ anecdote.

As a committee member, Taggard was tasked with confronting Vermont Marble officials. However, she was stonewalled in her attempts to reach Redfield Proctor Jr., Mr. Williams the company treasurer, and Frank Partridge. Mr. Proctor was “out of town,” Mr. Williams “had no desire to be called to the phone” and Mr. Partridge had nothing to say to a member of “this delegation” nor did he think would anyone else.

The committee held a public meeting on Feb. 29, 1936, in West Rutland. Although the company bosses were invited, none chose to attend. The committee took testimony on the hopelessness and hunger endured by the families of striking workers. A women testifying, Mrs. Mereau, took the stand with baby in arm, saying that at first the union provided somewhat for them, but the state did not give the aid that they were supposed to give the poor. “We have enough potatoes for the children tonight. None for tomorrow.”

Another of the striker’s wives, Mrs. Bujak, said she could no longer send her children to school because she had had no warm clothing for them. When she went to the Overseer of the Poor, who was also a marble company official, to request relief, she was told that she was not eligible because she owned her own home.

By July 1936, the marble bosses prevailed and the strike was broken. A new era was ushered in. Corporate America was born.

Marble Minutes: Founding father

February 11th, 2011

By Cathy Miglorie

Redfield Proctor did not live to see his company and his town torn apart by the strike of 1936. He died in 1908, leaving what he thought was a legacy of benevolence and a bright future for Vermont Marble Co.

Proctor followed industry best practices of the time as he set up his business. After the Civil War, it was common for skilled craftsmen to handcraft products from start to finish and, more often than not, they worked alongside the business owner. Proctor was a well-known figure at the quarries and the shops, working next to his men.

As the marble company grew, the nature of labor changed. The Industrial Revolution was in full swing. The company started using new, mass production methods to fulfill the demand for pure Vermont marble. Workers became responsible for only a small part of the process, performing one specific task repeatedly. These jobs required little skill and Proctor wooed immigrants, who were willing to work for low wages, to live and work in his town.

While factories across America became impersonal environments where the pace of work was set by the capabilities of the machines, Proctor continued to be a fair and equitable boss. The standard of living in Proctor was well above the nation’s norm.

James B. Morrow, a writer for the Washington Post, wrote a story about Proctor on, coincidentally, the very afternoon of Proctor’s death. The story is an intimate portrait of the very human and kindly man that `Proctor was during his long life.

Morrow begins by describing Proctor’s public persona:

“From the Senate galleries, Redfield Proctor seemed to be a very solemn and practical man. He was solemn and he was practical. At the same time, he was unobtrusively but tremendously energetic, while his sagacity had become proverbial. He had done much for the workingmen at his marble quarries and recently he completed a tuberculosis hospital and made liberal provisions for its support. Therefore, he was also benevolent. Although he was a millionaire, and, with his sons, controlled the marble business of the United States, he was a plain man, lived quietly in a Washington apartment during the winter and fished most of the time during the summer. Never spectacular, rarely heard in debate, he was one of the potential men of the Senate.”

Answering questions, Proctor, in his own words, modestly described his early life and his path to success.

“Were you a poor boy?” Morrow asked.

“I wasn’t poor, he replied, “but I did plenty of hard work on our farm, which was on the outskirts of the village of Proctorsville. My father died when I was 8 years old. I went to Dartmouth College. When my eldest brother died, I returned to my mother and ran the farm and helped to manage her affairs. I also studied law, going to a school in Albany, NY. After the Civil War, I thought some of leaving home and settling elsewhere, but as I had served in several Vermont Regiments and two brigades and had comrades all over the state. I gave up the idea.

“I practiced law for a couple of years with a partner, but my active life in the army made sitting in a chair irksome. Besides, I had to take cases in which I didn’t much believe. So I quit, telling my partner I should leave my desk in the office and do all I could for him, but that I didn’t want any share of the results. I owned some wild land and in that way got into the edge of the marble business. After investing all the money I had and borrowed all I could and then ran my face to the limit. I began work with 60 men. We now employ 3,500. I bought the quarry in 1870, obtained more land from time to time and now our company owns 6,000 acres and operates 20 modern quarries.”

“What kind of marble do you produce?”

“White, light blue and tinted. It is used in cemeteries and for the interior decoration of houses and large buildings. Our shipments amounted to 8,000 carloads last year and were valued at $3,500,000. Our payroll is $130,000 a month. Marble is slowly cut with toothless saws and sand mixed with trickling water, just as was done by the ancients. Marble for floors, wainscoting and pillars is cut and fitted at our factories, according to plans, and all the builders have to do when they receive it is put it together. Our carvers are Italians.”

“Are many of your workers foreign?”

“Yes; and they live in little communities in the village of Proctor. The Greek Catholics, Hungarians and Catholics, Swedish Congregationalists and Lutherans have churches of their own. There is also a Union Church, built of marble, which is attended by English-speaking persons, and where Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Christians, Disciples and Catholics worship together without ecclesiastical differences. They have no trouble and are out of debt.

“We have a free public library of 6,000 volumes, a village hall where sessions of the high school are held and a hospital. Injured men are treated without charge at the hospital. Those who go there when ill may pay $4 a week if they feel that they can afford to do so, but no money is expected from married men or for the members of their families. We have nurses who go into the homes of our employees. Their services are always free. Our hospital building is new in every respect.”

“Do many of your men own their own homes?”

“Some of them do. We sell them land at a very low price if they want to build or we rent them houses on the basis of a percent of the cost. Proctor has a water system and electric lights for its 2,500 inhabitants and is a well-kept and up-to-date little town.”

However, with 3,500 men in its employ, it was natural that the social reform movement of the early 1900s would would bring unrest to Vermont Marble Co. Basic labor issues, which lay dormant for many years under Proctor’s kindly hand, came into focus. Men wanted an eight-hour workday, higher wages, better and safer working conditions, and the right of workers to organize.

WCAX- Vermont Marble Museum honored for documentary

January 10th, 2011

Vermont Marble Museum honored for documentary

Proctor, Vermont – December 31, 2010

A big honor for the Vermont Marble Museum.

The museum has won the Omni Intermedia Award for its documentary on the history of the marble used to make the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

The 11-minute film discusses the history of the marble and how the rock was transformed into a slab for the tomb.

The 56-ton block used for the tomb came from a Vermont marble company-owned quarry in Colorado. It was carved in Proctor.

WCAX News

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=13764032

Marble Minutes…Lives of Loyalty

January 7th, 2011

By Cathy Miglorie
Thousands of men and women worked for Vermont Marble Co. over the course of the company’s life. Many of these people were descendants of immigrants who came to work Vermont’s marble belt; some were born and bred in New England. What is true of all is that they gave years of their lives to see that the stone hewn from Vermont’s mountainsides was carved into the tapestry of our nation’s history.

Readers of this column, inspired by these stories, have written to the Vermont Marble Museum to share memoirs of their families. Some are personal remembrances, others are stories drawn from the pages of Vermont Marble Co.’s internal company newsletter, “Marble Chips,” retirement programs or other commemorative booklets created by the company to document the history of its employee’s successes.

Richard Taylor recently shared a photo and a story of his family, the Loso family of Proctor. Taylor writes, “A copy of a Vermont Marble Co. newsletter featuring a history of the six Loso (Lauzon) brothers who established a 273 year record of service with the company, an average of 45 years apiece. The brothers were Napoleon, Antoine, Chaplin (my maternal great-grandfather), Joseph, Felix and Edward. A seventh brother, John, was killed in the quarries at the age of 16 or the brother’s years of service may have topped 300. My mother, Gladys Mae (Loso) Taylor, deceased, was also born and raised in Proctor.”

The Loso brothers’ record of service to Vermont Marble Co. was never met nor exceeded by another family. Their loyalty was noted in a story in Marble Chips, Feb. 1, 1941.

John Loso, believed to be a native of France, whose name was originally Lauzon, started out as a frontier farmer near Blue Sea Lake, a small community near Ottawa, Ontario. In 1850, tired of wrestling a living from the soil, he moved his family to West Rutland. Here his two eldest sons, Felix and Edward, were born. However, prying marble blocks from the rich marble quarries of West Rutland held no appeal for John, and he packed up his family and moved back to Blue Sea Lake several years later.

Back in Canada, the Loso family grew larger when three girls and seven more boys were born. Sadly, Mrs. Loso died during the birth of her son Antoine. John, in shock over his wife’s death, moved his family back to Vermont, where with a steady paycheck from the marble company, he could take care of his family. He established his home in the little cluster of houses just north of Proctor (known in 1941 as Fredetteville). Felix and Andrew were young men of 20 and 18 upon their return to Vermont, and promptly sought work in the marble quarries.

Their younger brothers did not wait long before joining them in the quarries. At the time, there were jobs for all willing hands and even the younger people could have tasks such as carrying water or transmitting signals between the quarry and the derrick men.

In 1881, at the age of 16, Joseph became the third brother to work for the company. He was followed by Chaplin in 1883, Napoleon in 1884 and Antoine in 1886. From then on, for 36 consecutive years, six Loso brothers worked at the same time for Vermont Marble Co.

Felix was the first to retire. He worked in the Proctor marble saw mill for 40 years, retiring in 1922 when he was 70 years old. He then lived for 15 years in quiet retirement before passing on in 1937. In 1925, Edward, who had also reached 70 years old was pensioned after 50 years of service. During the last years of his employment, he was a familiar figure as head loader at the Old Building Shed.

Chaplin, known as Skip, was next to retire in 1927. He relinquished his job at turning the lathe at the monumental shop at the younger age of 58, but had still logged 44 consecutive years of work. Ill health brought on this early withdrawal from his labors, and, sadly, he passed on just a month later in April 1927.

Four months later, Napoleon, who also suffered from ill health, laid down his chisels and hammers. He retired upon completion of 43 years of steady work.

Antoine, who had started at 14, was the next to leave the company. He was pensioned in 1929 at age 57. He had become one of the proficient operators of a polishing machine at the old Electric Shop. Antoine died in 1932. Joseph, the last of the six brothers to leave his work at Vermont Marble Co., did so in 1930 at age 63. At the time of retirement, his duty was to sharpen the quarrying tools. His death came in 1933.

The Marble Chips story concluded: “There was a seventh brother in the family, John Jr. His story unfortunately brings into this record a sad note. When 16 and engaged as a signal boy at the quarry, he was crushed to death by a block of marble. Had not this accident snuffed out his life, who knew to what greater heights this enviable service record would go.

“Today there is little chance of establishing another such record. With industry as hectic as it is, and with so many restrictions and regulations controlling man’s labors, such lengthy periods are bound to be scarce. What comes tomorrow, we don’t know, but we will always be proud to look back at our books and see this fine testimonial of extraordinary loyalty.”

Cultural Heritage Walls

Former Vermont Marble Co. worker names from all years are still wanted for a second Proctor wall and the West Rutland wall. Both walls will be engraved this winter and installed in spring. Sponsor forms can be downloaded at www.dimensionsofmarble.com or call the Vermont Marble Museum, 459-2300, to be mailed a form. Cost is $250 per family name.

Marble Minutes, a weekly column in the Rutland Herald, features historical excerpts from Vermont Marble Co. archival materials, the National Association of Marble Dealers newsletters “Through the Ages” and other publications. It is part of the Dimensions of Marble program, whose projects honor the history and artistry of the marble quarries, the workers, the communities in which they lived, and sculptors past and present, who throught the generations, brought prosperity to the region. For more information on Dimensions of Marble, visit www.dimensionsofmarble.org.

Marble Minutes…Capital carvers

January 4th, 2011

By Cathy Miglorie

In the days before marble was discovered under Vermont’s Green Mountains, the world’s best marble was found in the quarries of Carrara, Italy. Prized for fine art sculpture by the artists of ancient Rome and Renaissance’s Michelangelo, Carrara marble was soft enough for detailed carving and blindingly white in color.

It was to the hills of Carrara that Senator Proctor travelled to find artisans, trained through the generations to sculpt its white marble, that were worthy to carve Vermont’s pure stone.

After contacting the American Consul in Italy, Senator Proctor convinced five Italian sculptors to come and work for him in America. He arranged their passages overseas. Once established in their new life in the town of Proctor, the carvers repaid Mr. Proctor though deductions from their wages.

These first Italian immigrants were well-trained experts and were recognized as superior sculptors, craftsmen, carvers and stone cutters. As demand grew for increasingly ornate headstones and interior marble work, the sculptors took on apprentices and taught them the art of marble carving. Between 1882 and 1894, a steady procession of northern Italian craftsmen followed the first immigrants, and the Rutland region soon became their home. A sprinkling of Southern Italians joined the emigration to Vermont as well. These men, who were not trained in marble carving, but possessed other desirable skills, joined the Vermont Marble Co. as maintenance workers for the railway.

The impact that marble carving would have on the fortunes of the Vermont Marble Co. was immeasurable. Vermont marble sculptors worked on monuments, memorials, building details, fine interior statues, altars, and friezes that took their place in cities across the nation. The most famous buildings in Washington D.C. owe their beauty to the carvers from Carrara, their descendants and other marble company workers who were fortunate enough to learn the trade.

The Cultural Heritage Walls in Proctor and West Rutland pay tribute to several of these sculptors, from Italy and elsewhere. Here are their stories.

Cesare Augusto Ratti
Cesare Ratti, the well-known sculptor who carved the first six scenes of the Last Supper. The first one carved can be seen in St. Mary’s Church in Whitehall, New York. After his death, later carvings of the Last Supper were carved by Attilio (Lando) Bardi. Mr. Ratti studied at the School of Sculptors in Carrara, Italy, and came to Proctor in 1888. He arrived in Castle Garden, the port of entry before Ellis Island, and his passage cost $35.00.

In 1973 Gino Ratti (one of Cesare Ratti’s eight children) wrote this family resume starting with his departure from Italy. Gino at three years of age and his brother Corrado, four years old, made the trip from Italy with their grandmother. Gino wrote that possibly there was keen competition of the steamship lines because when they left the boat they were able to keep the wool blankets that were supplied them on the boat, (possibly it was cheaper to buy new blankets rather than have the used ones cleaned).

The oldest son of Mr. Ratti, Corrado by name, left school and went back to Italy to the Italian School of Sculptoring. He returned to the United States and was a sculptor in Proctor, Chicago and Washington. Another son, Amerigo, continued in the marble business and set up shop in Seattle.

The Vermont Marble Company helped many marble cutters to set up monument shops in various parts of the country. Gino also mentions that his father was very ingenious. As the Fourth of July was a glorious event in the life of us Americans, Mr. Ratti made fireworks, of which the so-called “Sky Rockets” were his best. On later research I found that Italians were very proficient in this field of pyrotechnics and that most fireworks factories had predominantly Italian employees.

(Our Italian Heritage”, by Bruno C. Baccei, a speech prepared for a talk at the Proctor Historical Society on May 6, 1976 provided Cesare’s Ratti’s biographical sketch).

Antonio Manganelli, Italy
Antonio was born and raised in the town of Santa Paolina, province of Avellino, Italy. He immigrated to America on January 15, 1898 and worked as a stonecutter, sculptor, and mosaic maker for the Vermont Marble Co. Antonio and his wife, Giovanna, had four sons and three daughters. He had little formal education but was very accomplished. He was a shoemaker, carpenter, wine-maker, sculptor and gardener extraordinaire. He had two huge gardens in Proctor- one at his home on Garden Street and the other on the west side of town. He and his wife were extremely self-sufficient and never complained. They lived their lives with enormous pride and dignity.

Louis Alexander King, Canada
Louis A. King was a Vermont Marble Co. employee, formerly from Canada. When his son, Louis D. King was a student at Proctor High School, he was asked by his mother to bring his father some sandwiches down to him at the shop, where he was working overtime.
To young Louis’ amazement, he found his father carving the lettering on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s monument, which is now located at FDR’s resting place in Hyde Park, NY. Louis A. King also did the lettering on hundreds and hundreds of monuments of World War II soldiers.

The Cultural Heritage Walls
Other men whose names are carved on the Cultural Heritage Walls, but whose biographies are not available are: Theophile Juaire, Canada; George Schako, Austria/Hungary; Karl Berg, Norway; and Adam Libuda, Poland.

Former Vermont Marble Co. worker names are still wanted for a second Proctor wall and the West Rutland wall. Both walls will be engraved this winter and installed in spring, 2011. Sponsor forms can be downloaded at www.dimensionsofmarble.com or call the Vermont Marble Museum, (802) 459-2300, to be mailed a form. Cost is $250 per family name.

Marble Museum wins media award for Tomb of the Unknown Soldier film

December 31st, 2010

PROCTOR — The Vermont Marble Museum has won the Omni Intermedia Award for its documentary on the history of marble used for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

The museum won the silver award in the entertainment category for its video production called “American’s Eternal Flame: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.”

The Omni Intermedia Award is an international award that recognizes outstanding media productions created in the past three years.

The judging process is the same one used to judge the Emmy Awards, said Catherine Miglorie, director of the Vermont Marble Museum. A panel of three peer professionals independently judge each entry based on a standard set of criteria.

“(The film) has been really well-received,” Miglorie said. “It’s just fantastic that we were able to … pay honor to the history of the marble company.”

The 11-minute documentary, produced by independent filmmaker Kurt Supancic, was created as part of an exhibit honoring the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery.

“Last fall we worked on the exhibit and we had the movie created to run with it,” Miglorie said. “It came out so well, we decided to try for the award.”

The documentary, written by Miglorie, focuses on the history of the marble and its transition from a marble slab to the tomb.

“The first half is about the history,” Miglorie said. “The marble came from a quarry owned by the Vermont Marble Co. in Colorado.”

The film features the 56-ton block of marble that was carved in Proctor before being transported to Arlington in 1931, she said. The second part of the documentary is more about the tomb in Arlington, honoring the tomb and talking about what the tomb represents.

“Watching the changing of the 24-hour guard command makes you proud to be American and a Vermonter,” Miglorie said. “What is kind of neat is who we got to produce the film is originally from Proctor.”

Supancic grew up in Proctor and moved to Colorado Springs in 2001, working as an independent film producer, gaffer and grip. He produced the film using images and videos provided by the museum, Arlington National Cemetery, and Syracuse University.

The producer said because he did not have to film any footage, he was able to focus on putting together the images with the script recorded by Sharon Green, professor at Pikes Peak College in Colorado.

“It was a cool project because I grew up in Proctor,” Supancic said. “It was nice to give back to the community. I live in Colorado, but I will always be a Vermonter.”

Cookies & Cans

December 20th, 2010

Special Shopping event at Vermont Marble Museum Gift Shop – December 21, 22, & 23rd from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Bring a non-perishable item for the local Food Cupboard and we will give you a Vermont Verde Antique Bracelet as a gift (retail value $9.95!). We will have cookies and special Christmas offers all day long – so make your shopping pleasurable, and help your community at the same time.
Vermont Marble Museum & Gift Shop, 52 Main Street, Proctor, VT 800-427-1396 www.vermontlifestyle.com & www.vermont-marble.com