East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-10-04
Eetal Mlatters.
NOT NEW.

Every day the necessity of union
and consolidation upon some plan
among the salt manufacturers Of Sag
inaw Valley-if the object in this as
in other business is to realize profit
from the venture : becomes more ap-
parent. AS at present managed by
seventy different institutions, each con
its own hook" and each operating
more or less antagonistically to the
others, the salt manufacture is at the
mercy of every collateral interest,
labor, fuel, barrel-makers, sharks
and shippers, and in the market the
suicidal policy of petty competition
leaves it at the mercy of the buyers
who rejoice at their own good fortune
in securing it at rates below actual
cost of production, while they laugh
at the folly which leads to such re-
suits.
Saginaw salt is to-day in fifty diff
ferent hands in Chicago to sell or hold
according to the several necessities Of
spectators or manufacturers. 1t has
no headquarters, no Agency, no re-
sponsible base of operations, no par
ticular status. 1t is, emphatically,
miscellaneous son change" and yet
as regards quality it stands, despite
the opposition Of its all-powerful On
ondaga rival, as well as ever did the
New York salt This state of facts
while it shows the merit of the article
itself shows, also in q most humiliating
light the dement's of present manage
ment.
The old adage experience is dear
school, but fools will learn in no other"
and it may as well be added, nor
will "any other MANS particularly
applicable in this case. Facts and
figures demonstrating the necessity of
an understanding and cooperation
among salt manufacturers on the river
with view Of more thoroughly or
ganizing their business, improving the
quality Of salt, and securing steady
prices, fair alike TO themselves and the
consumer, have been presented per-
sistently by the press at home and in
the markets whore the salt is mainly
sold, but tho multitude of operators
seem more DESTROYS Of making his
tory" than of learning to make salt
at profit, and have not yet accumu-
lated a sufiiciency of the expensive
education requisite for graduating in
tho school Of experience.
The following statement furnished
by q writer to the Bay City Press in
1862 will be found interesting. 1t is
derived from authentic sources and
has not lost its SAVIOR by keeping Let
it receive the consideration it deserves:
The principal manufactures of Eng
land, which are the most extensive in
the world, are in Cheshire, on the
Weaver river, about 80 miles from
Liverpool. At these about 10000
bushels of salt are manufactured year
ly. 1t is produced by different pro-
cesses, in five separate qualities, in
GLIDING rock salt, which is simply
fossil salt quarried and exported as il
comes fIsm the mine. For these
various descriptions of salt the average
price at the works for number OF
years prior to 1862, ranged from A
cents 8 ] mills to cents ] mills, per
bushel " THE Highest prices" says the
author from whom we obtain these
statistics, "are those tired By an aSsocia-
tion of manufacturers, yielding handsome
profit: the iOwer are the competition prices. "
Here is difference of more than so
per cent. in favor of combined action.
At the Kanawha salines such COM
binations have been alternately tried
and abandoned. The general result,
however, has been, that years of united
action have been years Of profit, while
those Of unlimited competition have
often proved disastrous. There is a
combination in existence at present.
The experience of the manufacturers
on the Onondaga Reserve is peculiarly
instructive The ruinous effects of
unrestricted competition among them
selves led to frequent attempts at COM
bination prior to the year 1860, when
the organization called the Onondaga
Salt Co., was adpted, which is already
far more efficient and promises to be
more permanent than the less perfect
plans which proceeded it.
The following table shows the aver
age price of Fine Salt, per barrel, at
Syracuse, for every year and month of
canal navigation, for sixteen years. -
During tho years marked =, the man.
ufacture was restricted by combina-
ton of the manufacturers
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