New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-07

any
heeye this triumph is duenOt more to the abl-
&c evnoed at Waltham to make good watches cheaply
tb.p 10 the malicious energy and enterprise exhlbted
NV NTesara Robbins e. Appleton in making their ex-
,sIIonce universally known. What has been done oy
tbem ia important mainly as showing what may 10
lilo nro6t National as well personal. be done IN
many other departments of manufacturing industry
TX The dishonest practice OF labelling OF stamping
American manufactures as though OF foreign Orlgn'
has exerted most baleful influence over our indus
81 rrooress All know that the fluid sold as Cham
nagne in this country is mainly homemade concoc-
ton Of cider and drugs and whether this be orbe not
more burful than the French liquor it personates it
:. rerrehensbe as counterfeit and fraud. lead
ing American producer of pure wines from grapes OF
his own growing recently assured me that he had been
shown through a great establishment In this CITY,
whence thousands of bottles of wines OF various
kinds and brands were sent forth daily, yet INTO
which no drop of grape-juice ever entered was
onoe sitting. with some two hundred Others at
a public dnner-table when my left-hand neghbor Ia
total stranger seeing that drank no wine abruptly
remarked 90 You do not knOC that this Champagne
was not imported from FraEce."-I now looked at
his bottle for the first time, and replied-No can
say nothing as to the origin of the liquor for know
nothing; but that inscription on the cork, Cham
pagns au Rheims is made by Yankee type-I could
swear to il in Egypt-no Frenchman ever cut type
like that?'-I am told, but do not credit, that the
latest achievement in this department of homo manu-
facture is the production of Champagne from Pero-
Ievm and that the new fabric has large currency and
pouularity in those metropolitan haunts whittier
rural greenhorns eagerly flock under cover OF dark
ness to "see life" trust that moderate quantity
of the beverage sufices to assuage their thirst.
This whole business of fabricating our own soil
limitations of foreign products, to be palmed off as
d;oho nd 1lv do
oralizing: it tends to dscredit and degrade Amer
lean manufactures generally. A counterfeit can
hardly fail to be inferior in servceabls to
the thing counterfeited; he who will afix fraudu-
lent label or trademark to bis product in the expec
tation that he may thereby sell it more readily or for
higher price, will rarely hesitate to cheat in the
substance as well as the show, while the talent he
devotes to making his product pass for that which 1t
is not will inevitably be subtracted from that when
he should apply to perfecting that product AND Dc
sides tho true workman has an honest pride ID ms
work, he wishes its excellence to be seen ana
bonored as his: make him conceal his name behind
false label and he is no longer mpeled to do his best
He is tempted to rest content with perfection in the
label or trademark and neglect the fabric or pro-
dnct it knayishly cOmmends. The consuming public
thus defrauded is led to associate conceptions OF IN
feriority and dishonesty with that of domestic pro-
duotion-to consider homemade" and worthless
all but synonymous terms. Viglant search tor pup
lie exposure and condign punishment Of every IN
stance wherein homemade article is ticketed or IN
any way sought to be palmed OIL as OF foreign ogn
are demanded by the interests alike OF public NOR
nty Justice to those whose trademark is thus coun
tereited protection to consumers and the prosperity
progress, and good name, of legitimate American
manufactures.
Ihaye thus glanced at some of the more fOrmida-
~ u, obi ifv and M
plete success, of American manufacturing industry
Some of them are incident to its comparative in
fapcy-there being scarcely market, our own in
oluded where European fabrics have not preceded
and forestaled ours; and all must realize that 1t is
far less difficult to retain market than to wrest 1t
from its established possessOrs. Others are the
fruits of mistakes and shortcomings on the part OF
our manufacturers: and these they must be admon-
ished to correct OF abide the consequences. But
there remain large and important class deeply
grounded in the relative dearness OF American
Labor; and these hold it the Nations interest and
duty TO counteract and overcome, by the imposition
or retention of such rates of duty on the foreign
rivals of our products as will enable producers,
with reasonable skill and efficiency their part, to
retain the control of our own markets. and not be
driven therefrom by foreign competition rendered
overwhelming by the far cheaper Labor and more
abundant as well as cheaper Capital of Europe Sup
pose the markets of tho world diyisible into one
hundred equal parts. seventy-fve of which are now
possessed exclusively by the manufacturers OF Eu-
rope. while but twenty-five shared by them with
those of this country hold it neither fair just nor
benefoent, that our artisans and artifcers should
compete for these twenty-five on the same terms
with those who already exclusively hold by preemp-
ton the larger number. To secure, by discrimIna-
ting imposts our own markets to our own lubricants
seems me just to them, benefceDt to our country
and ali her people and conducive the steady pro-
gress and diffusion Of industrial art throughout the
world.