Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-12-29
PatrOuize Home Institutions.

| EDITORS CHRONICLE, In the Weekly
CHRONICLE Dec. 18th there appeared an
article with the above title, where you
stated the fact that the people of the
South were not as willing as they ought to
be to buy articles of home manufacture,
and that it was their duty and for their in
terest to buy freely from the manufac-
turers of their own section. Now, al
though the article was more particularly
addressed to the merchant, it Is we'll
| known fact that they buy that which they
can sell the best, and thus the fault seems
! to lay at the door of the South
ern consumer. have seen the same charge
often published in other papers, and have
heard it asserted by the manufacturers
! themselves, and as Il citizen of the South
and a farmer, | wish to state a few facts to
show that the blame lays nOtWith us, but
with manufacturers entirely, and that the
| true reason is that they have not,
until lately, been able or willing to
compete in price or quality with
| goods manufactured in the Northern
| States. [ say, until lately, for there
has been a marked change in that
respect in the last year, and we have men
now among us who have at last discovered
that to be successful they had to rely on
the price and quality of their goods and
not on the fact that they We're made in
Knoxville.
We, the farmers of East Tennessee,
make our money slowly and earn it liter
ally by the sweat of our brow, and we
have our full share of the Yankee desire
to get a a dollars worth for every dollar
we spend. H-H fEH sfE
The facts [ want to state apply to articles
which certainly can be made rs cheap here
as anywhere else, but on which heavy
freights or other natural reasons compel us
70 nN Yo1oHo hn1.a md tn Sbp FIJI hind
of treatment we receive at the manufac
turer's hands when obliged to deal with
him, and show that we have good excuse
to spend our money elsewhere, whenever
we can do so to our profit.
I have before me the price list, for 1871,
of Messrs. Blanchard d Bartlett, Bing
hamton, New York, for doors and blinds.
They sell a first class door, four pannels,
nodded on both sides, for S3.25 same door
here, without holdings, $500. Blinds
they sell for - cents running foot; price
here. 30 cents. They use first class white
pine, costing them S25 to $40 a thousand;
here the lumber used costs from So to $40
thousand. Nails cost there, 200 miles
from the factory, S475 keg; here at the
factory, 81. p. A two-hOrse wagon costs
there $50; here, 500. A twO-hOrse plow
there, IS; here, SD. Price of planning lum-
Der here, 81 a thousand; there, SOD
thousand; of saving planks here, So to
81 a thousand; there. $3.50; and so
on all through the list, from shooting
a horse to making a set of false teeth.
Now, j do not blame our manufacturers
for taking advantage of their position, but
certainly they cannot blame us for being
somewhat prejudiced against them, espe-
cially, as we have been made in time past
to suffer not only in pocket, but with plows
that would not shake, stoves that would
not draw, nails that would break or lose
their heads at the least provocation,
iron bars that could not be welded and
wagons over loaded with useless wood and
iron, and whose standards would jolt out
whenever we drove over rock.
But | am satisfied that there is n better
time coming, and when our manufacturers
have fully realized that to be successful
they must make first-class goods at reason
able prices, and to that effect fully use the
natural advantages they possess, we will
hear no more that we do not patroniZe
home institutions, and will readily buy
their goods, as we will find it to our inter-
est to do so.
have been induced to write these few
lines from the fact that the report spread
ing abroad that we are prejudiced against
buying home manufactures, without stat
ing the reason why, cannot but work to
our disadvantage, by keeping men from
coming here, who wish to engage in man.
ufacturing among us.
a FARMER.