Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-05-17
HOME NDUSTR \.

HOME INDUSTRY.
The New York Post has the following
statements in an editorial about matters in
this neighborhood which will be new to
our readers. We fancy we know some
thing of what is taking place at Augusta
and along the Kennebec river, but our
''home industry" in the collection of facts
is no match for the genius of the Post in
the invention of news:
"a few illustrations of home industry and
its work have lately come before US. week
~ newspaper, published in Boston, and de-
voted to the interests of the manufacturers,
prints list of its patrons and advertisers in
the different States, with notices of the in
crease or the changes in their business. 1t
boastfully parades this list as evidence of the
benefit of protection to home industry" and
the Tribune and other protectionist organs
copy it. Let US examine the list.
The facts reported from the State of Maine
are fair samples Of all. In this State, we read,
the Spragues have within a few years ex-
pended about half million of dollars; the
Hallowell factory has been adding some ex-
pensive machinery, and in different places
several hoe and sash factories have been built.
=
twenty thousand dollars besides that of the
Spragues. We are not told whether, as in
the case of the Spragues, this expenditure
covers the definite period Of "a few years, or
more or less. But q few queries suggest them
selves. How does it happen that the work on
the new factories projected by the Spragues
at Augusta has been suspended for more
than a year, and that for this half mil
lion of dollars expended in a real estate
speculation, the additional laborers can be
counted on the fingers of ones hands? Do
the Spragues in Augusta represent the pro-
gress of home industry? 1t is only necessary,
in Offset to this, to mention one real Maine
industry which has been ruined by the very
means which have enabled the Spragues TO
invest half million of dollars in compare
lively idle and unproductive property. A few
years ago the Kennebec river, from the point
of the Sprague investment to itssmouth, was
lined with shipyards. Where scores Of the
largest vessels used to be built at Gardiner,
Richmond and Bath, one Insignificant coast
ing schooner may now possibly be the annual
product of a yard. All along the coast
to the eastward the story is still sadder.
The population and the business of these for
merly busy shipbuilding districts have de-
creased, and the homes of the industrious
vorkmen have been wasted to protect '.home
industry like that in which the Spragues have
invested"
Here we are gravely told that the work
on the new factories has been suspended
more than year. We who live in Au-
gusta have some reason to believe that
the Spragues built substantial dam
across the Kennebec last season, and
did great deal toward the erection of
new factories. We think we see the walls
Of a factory now being steadily built day
by day, see new machinery going into OPP
Grafton and the employment of many la
borers male and female. If this is work
suspended We should like to know what
work in progress is. If this is only real
estate speculation what need of building
foundations of granite as enduring rs the
ages or spending money in leveling hills
or for canals and water wheels =? Are we
mistaken? Do our eyes deceive us? Is
this all an illusionp Who has the cotton
pulled over its eyes, we or the editor of
the Post?
As to the decay of ship building on ac-
count of the means taken to protect .'home
industry we find it as difficult to see the
truth of the proposition as to see that work
has been suspended upon the factories at
Augusta more than a year. We do not
know dollar of capital in this State that
was employed in ship-building which has
been taken away on account of the Sprague
investment or any other like it in the State
If some of our shipbuilding capital were
turned to the building up of manufactor-
les it would be better for the owners and
the State, but unluckily it has not turned
in that direction. Perhaps, however, the
Post means that the tariff is what makes
the trouble. But when we Kennebeckers
look across to the St. Lawrence and the St.
John, we find that those rivers are as bare
of shipbuilding as ours, and this without
Sprague investments or tariffs. According
to the Post those rivers ought to be the
Paradise of shipbuilding. The Post has
been most grossly deceived. Its facts are
falsehoods OF the worst kind If the edi-
tors have any doubt about it let them come
TO Maine and see for themselves.
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