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Arthur Elbert

ARTHUR ELBERT, Assistant Secretary, was born in the year 1876 at Louisville, Ky., and moved to the gas belt of Indiana and started his career in the glass industry at the old Wash DePaul Glass Company factory at New Albany in 1888. From there he went to the MacBeth-Evans Glass Company at Elwood, Indiana in the year 1890, where he started his apprenticeship as a lamp chimney gatherer in the year 1892 and completed it in December, 1893, at which time he was admitted to membership in the American Flint Glass Workers' Union through Local Union No. 114 then located in Elwood.

From the MacBeth-Evans Company he went to the old McCloy Company Plant and affiliated with old Local Union No. 50, Elwood. Shortly after being admitted to membership he began to take an active interest in the welfare of the organization. As the result of his activities he was elected to various local union offices and served efficiently.

From the McCloy Factory he went to the MacBeth-Evans Co. in 1895 and from MacBeth-Evans to Alexandria, Indiana, where he worked for the Lippincott Glass Company making lamp chimneys. He also worked in Atlanta and Matthews, Indiana, and in addition to making lamp chimneys he also worked on reflectors, iron mould and paste mould ware.

In the late nineties he worked at Charleroi and Jeannette, Pa. It was in 1906 that he accepted employment with the Sargeant Glass Company at Evansville, Indiana and made lamp chimneys. There he affiliated with Local Union No. 32 which "'as then located in that city. While a member of said local union he held the office of fInancial secretary and also rendered service in other capacities until that factory was destroyed by fire.

The National Convention of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union was held in Evansville in the year 1907 and Mr. Elbert took an active part and served as member of the general arrangement committee. He contributed very largely to the entertainment of visitors and delegates to the city. In the fall of 1!)07 Mr. Elbert left Evansville to again accept a position as an off hand lamp chimney maker in the Lippincott Glass Factory, Alexandria, Indiana and again to become affiliated with Local Union No. 3.

In 1908 he was elected to the office of President of Local Union No.3 which position he held continuously until 1913. At several national conventions of the organization he represented Local Union No.3 as one of its delegates and took an active part in the deliberations of the lamp chimney committees and conventions proper. He likewise rendered service on numerous other important convention committees.

It was at the Rochester, Pa., In4 Convention of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union that Mr. Elbert was elected to the position of National Organizer of which there was at that time a force of four organizers. His election to the organizing staff was the result of a vacancy created by the election of organizer M. J. Gillooly temporarily to the office of National Vice President, William J. Croke, then the incumbent being seriously ill.

Mr. Elbert served in the capacity of National Organizer continuously until July, 1932. It -was at the Toledo, Ohio Convention of that year that Mr. Elbert was elected to the office of National Assistant Secretary, a vacancy having been created due to the removal of then President William P. Clarke.

Mr. Elbert has rendered valuable service to the organization in organizing the unorganized and in other respects. At each succeeding convention he has been re-elected to the office of National Assistant Secretary. At this time, however, we are sorry to record that he has been seriously ill for the past few months, having been requirecl to undergo a serious operation on October 10 and a subsequent operation on November 20. He is now convalescing at his home in Toleclo.