Diamond Cutters' Trade Union 257
duty
on diamonds, there arose a demand for expert operatives to cut and
polish diamonds here, and then came the first immigrant diamond
workers, mostly from Amsterdam. As goon as there was a sufficient
number of diamond workers here to form a numerically respectable
organisation, which was in 1895, the men established their first union.
The Dingley Tariff, which provided a duty of ten per cent, on uncut
diamonds and twenty-five per cent, on cut stones, had been enacted into
a law, and it profited American importers to have their diamonds cut
here, and cut in accordance with the exacting requirements of the
American trade; so diamond-cutting was raised into a small but a
recognised industry. The first union organised, although successful
from its inception, disbanded, because the membership represented too
many different nationalities and customs, and the individual members
had not then learned the wisdom of subordinating petty prejudices and
motives to the common interest.
The
present union is entitled The Diamond Workers Protective Union of
America, and was organised September 16, 1902. There are about three
hundred and seventy-five members, a majority being natives of
Amsterdam, although,
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