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CHAPTER VI
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HOB-NAILED BOOTS IN THE LOWLANDS
There never was a time when New York even remotely promised to become the diamond-cutting center of the world. It became that by default in May, 1940, when the modern mechanized counterpart of the ancient Teuton hordes overran Holland and Belgium on their march toward the destruction of France and their elusive goal of subjugation of the world. Within a year the great bulk of the world's production of cut diamonds dropped almost out of sight and the burden was shifted to the few and pitifully unprepared cutters of the United States.
By
the end of 1941 newspaper and magazine articles were proudly
proclaiming New York as the diamond-cutting center. Let's see what that
really means:
The
number of cutters in this country is difficult to ascertain. It has
been placed at between 400 and 550. A small cutting industry has
existed in the United States for about 65 or 70 years and until the
late twenties there were more than 600 cutters. The true figure may be
more than that; people in the diamond business, whether merchants or
cutters or dealers, are the least statistical minded of any business or
trades people you can find anywhere. They would drive Chamber of
Commerce and trade association secretaries mad, only they don't pay
much attention to
(97)
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