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to Rome. He agreed with Johnny Flynn that the men were going to lose just out of sheer neglect; that there was no reason why they shouldn't have a better wage; that every other metal factory in the country paid a better wage and had better hours.

As a result of my talk with Downey and Flynn I went out to spy out the land. The other members of the Commission didn't think it was necessary, but I felt I had to. I seem to remember that I called the Governor. He said, “Yes, I think you should go. I think that's the thing to do.” Anyhow I went.

It was a picture up there of what labor relations were like at that time. This was the state of New York. The city of Rome is wholly given over to the copper industry. There were a lot of copper millionaires there who had made an enormous fortune on the price of copper during the war. They were copper manufacturers. They owned sheet copper and copper ore. Their business was raw material. By pure chance it had shot up and they had become very rich. A number of them had become unprecedently rich. The copper industry was an old industry there resting back on the “kittleshop” as they called it. In pre-Revolutionary days they made copper “kittles” - kettles - in Rome. Why, I don't know. There was very small water power there which