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HOB-NAILED BOOTS IN THE LOWLANDS
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Barrymore & Billings, erected a small plant next door to its shop in Nassau Street, New York, as did Tiffany & Co.
In
fact, the cutters grew in number, although not in importance. Just
before the Great Debacle of 1929, the cutting firms of New York
numbered about fifty. According to an article appearing in Fortune
Magazine several years ago (and the figures are questionable, as all
figures are when they deal with the diamond industry), these firms
imported from 200,000 to 350,000 carats of rough diamonds each year, out
of which came between 90,000 and 160,000 carats of polished stones; the
workmen cut from 15 to 30 per cent of the diamonds sold in the United
States, which was 25 per cent of all diamonds polished in the world.
That figure, it is safe to say, is pretty high. But nearly all of these
firms, with the exception of Baumgold's and a few others, dropped out
of the cutting world and turned to importing or representing smaller
firms that could not afford to be present at the "sights" in London.
But
after the depression the importance of the cutter grew and so did his
guild—or, to be precise, the Diamond Workers' Protective Association of
America. This is a union affiliated with the American Federation of
Labor but it is so powerful, so compact in membership and rules, that
it presumably could with deadly effect challenge the A. F. of L. if
it dared to impose regulations and restrictions which the association
felt unjust. This association—which is the nearest thing to a guild—is
as exclusive as the country club in your home town and far more
rigid—or was, until recently —in its qualifications for membership.
Composed originally of naturalized Americans of Belgian or Dutch
nativity, or the sons of Dutch and Belgian cutters, it has refused to
allow anyone to join who was not related by blood to a
(105)
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