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FIRE IN THE EARTH
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diamond cutter. It has guarded its secrets jealously as the Indian cutters did of old.
Of
course, as we presently shall see, some of those traditions have
vanished, along with the traditions of other trades and religions and
ways of life. But until 1940 it was so. And because it was so—and not
because of the war and the plight of the Amsterdam and Antwerp cutters—
the American cutter was able to enjoy a high wage. Even up to the war,
a diamond cutter (not apprentices, of course) was getting from $75 to
$135 a week. But with the war that jumped to a minimum of $120 a week
and a maximum of $195 in certain factories.
As
this paragraph is written (October, 1941) the American diamond cutters
have been informed that their demands for still higher wages have been
granted, representing a 17-per-cent increase. In the biggest factories,
where bonuses are paid, their bonus-wages amount to a minimum of nearly
$150 and a maximum of more than $200. Some are even getting $235 or
more.
It is no wonder, then, that they are sometimes called the aristocrats of labor!
These
wages are not paid strictly because of war conditions but because of
the superior skill of the American workman: he is expert in cutting the
larger stones (over the melee and eight-sizes, meaning something like a
quarter of a carat and upward). Most of the small stones were cut in
Europe, as we have said before, and most of the large stones in the
United States. But the United States demands perfection, and perfection
in larger stones calls for high wages. If in the United States, for
example, there were 30,000 cutters as there are in Europe and all these
cutters were at work on small stones, their wages would be in the deep, low brackets—well below $50 or so. Those who would
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