The Portland daily press., 1871-11-28
We sncrial OF the Board Of NTahufacttires
10 tic Gity Government

cation and enlargement of industry in this city,
especially memorable your honorable body
n the terms following:
To the question, which at the very outset of
,ur labors is suggested, to wit: What branch OF
general industry can be at the present time
most judiciously advanced to broader develop
nent in our midst the answer OF the greater
number of our citizens would undoubtedly be, |
n one word, Manufactures.
MANUFACTURES ADAPTED TO PORTLAND.
More specifically the reply would be, such
can be conducted to the best adj
vantage here, as demand comparatively small
of mechanical power, as require COM
paratiyely small amounts OF heavy and puiky
raw material or call into requisition the service
es of comparatively intelligent operatives; such
as. in general by the application OF labor, Tasa |
raw material, whether textile fibre, iron or steel
OF wood, or leather or whatever, to the higher |
grades oevalue which it is capable of receiving; |
this at least as a general principle and as to |
goods intended for the general market.
The sum total of products belonging to the !
class defined above, is in variety beyond emu /
meration. They cover the more elaborate man=
ufactures of iron and steel, steam engines loco
motive and stationary, machinery, agricultural
Implements cutlery, edge tools, saws and files,
firearms in all their forms, sewing machines,
scales and balances; the manufactures OF BRASS
bronze and copper; the finer cotton goods aad /
wooens in almost nameless multiplicity; jewel
nv; manufactures of hair; hats, caps and bon
nets: combs and brushes, also floor brushes and
brooms; india-rabher and gutta-percha manu-
factures leather goods in vast variety; saqqiefY,
harness; morocco goods; soaps, botn toiiet ailG
common; watches and clocks; phliosophicai
and opteal Instruments; carriages ana wagons
umbrella and parasol articles; trunks ana va
Uses: tobacco manufacturers poqteehonefy;
manufacturers of hard and soft WOOD, Iufnitufe,
kitchen ware, sash, doors and bnnds, etc., etc;
Of the three thousand million dollars worth OF
-
country in 1870, perhaps one=third, in value, be-
long to the category under consideration. Vast
as is the consumption it will go on increasing
with unparalleled rapidity. The population of
the country is augmenting over million year.
The South will now take fourfotd more of SUCH
products than ever before.
For the supply of this immense demand it is
believed Portland can compete on terms of
equality with the most favored localities. She
can presume to enter upon the fabrication OF
such articles, not for limited field alone, but
for the general market, with the assurance,
under good management, OF no second-rate
success. The detailed comparisons OF our own
conditions Of manufacture, with those of Prov
idence, Worcester, Springfield, Fall River,
Lynn, New Haven, Philadelphia, and other
great industrial centres, necessary to corrobo-
rate and illustrate this position in full, will in
due time, should this Board be enabled to pros
ecute its labors, be set forth and published to
the world But at present we assume that
d
| be prosecuted here to good advantage. We
have in copous supply material for the best
| of labor, at present inadequately employed.
Power can be furnished here quite as cheaply
as at any point on the coast not in proximity
| to coal mines, and cheaper than in many -four
| ishng inland manufacturing towns. The best
of water in practically unlimited supply can
be had, and certainly at as low cost any
where, grayitatiOn doing the whole work of
transfer. We have rail, steam and sail eommu-
nication with the great centres of exchange.
Our local facilities for handling raw material,
manufactured goods, or freight in any form, are
already remarkable, and are going to be the
best in the land Railways, constructed or con-
structing into extensive and fertile farming dis
tricts, will soon enable the operative to live with
suitable market arrangements at as low cost
as in any place Of equal size and equal advan-
tages in the country. The city is allowed to be
by even its rivals, one most agreeable to reside
in Every great rain washes its streets clean as
a house floor. The surrounding tracts of salt
water purify and cool the air of summer
Schools religious associations in large variety,
newspapers of excellent ability and enterprise,
and all the other current means of enlighten-
ment or recreation are here. Skilled labor
comes hither gladly and goes away reluctantly
REMISSION OF TAXATION.
What alone is wanting is experience and cap
ital commensurate with our natural advantages
AT this point the practical principle comes in
for consideration, namely, that, other things
being equal, capital will plant itself where the
lightest burden is to be borne; especially so in
these years when the load imposed by taxation
is so grievOusly heavy. Accordingly through
New England, and indeed the whole land, the
policy is coming forward into acceptance and
practice, that RENTS to capital and skill their
share in the public burdens in the earlier and
more critical periods of their industrial under
takings. This is done from the conviction,
from the absolute assurance, that the invest
ment of capital in approved occupations in
any community adapted to their reception, is
even though secured at the cost of RENTED
taxes, a great ddpdntdge-an advantage not to
a class, to a privileged guild, to a select few,
but to the entire public; an advantage in that
land becomes more valuable, and houses and
shops labor also more valuable as multiplied av-
ocations open new fields for its exertion; in that
where varied industry is carried on, working
capacity OF whatever sort is furnished with oc-
cupation within its range; that the young, the
old, the feeble, incompetent for heavy work,
Vast sum ct that hqman labor paTsE hGi e6hl
time that must be employed as it flies or never
can be turned to account for individual comfort
and public prosperity; that thus population can
increase, and wealth, and by consequence more
liberal support be rendered to those great moral
forces of the world which prevent it from lap
sing into barbarism, the school, the church. the
press, the library, the literary organization
To art, music, painting, and whatever culti-
yates the higher sentiments OF man.
1t was from an intelligent perception of these
wide-reaching results, from the perception also
that of the various forms of industrial exertion,
none other are so well fitted to flourish in Maine
as manufactures, that the Legislature of this
State in the year 1864 passed an act authori-
zing towns and cities to exempt from taxation
property invested in manufacturing industries.
The Legislature of 1867 engrafted upon this act
still more liberal provisions. The law, accor-
dinghy, stands upon the statute book perma-
nent invitation to cities and towns to diversity
employment in their midst, as circumstances
indicate, and to multiply the means of livel-
hood, by favoring ordinances.
The number of municipalities within the
State that by formal act have accepted this lib
eral provision is large. Many have endorsed it
by special exemptions of manufacturing enter
prises. 1t is believed there are more that will
not with alacrity ratify it whenever ccasion
shall offer. The time has now come, when in
the judgment of your memorialists, Portland,
acting through her municipal authorities can
no longer delay to put upon record an explicit
endorsement of the policy referred to- We ask
therefore that your honorable body will take
into favorable consideration and will pass the
resolve attached to this memorial, declaratory
of your disposition and purpose to remit taxa
ton upon all approved manufacturing enter
priSes that shall be hereafter established in the
city of Portland.
The declaration is so framed as TO admit of
large discretion on the part of the authorities in
carrying the proposed policy into practice. and
IN deciding what manufactures shall receive a
temporary remission of burdens 1t is evident
the different enterprises may be of very differ
ent degrees of Importance to the city, ACCORDING
to the amount of capital invested. the mmhaS
OF operatives employed, the class of Operatives.
according also as proposed enterprises NAV he
or not OF strictly new character for this civ
and many other circumstances Equity, there
lore, and due regard for the public interest re-
qulre the power of discrimination to be retain
ed in the hands of the government and the
right OF deciding each case upon its merits.
That this declaration of intention on the mart
of the authorities should be followed mn in
practice by the most liberal action, as occasion
offers, your memoralists regard an imperative
necessity Unquestionably there are a great
number, we doubt not thousands residents of
this city, able to work at various avocations.
who have next to nothing to do, from the COM
parative dearth of diversified industries in our
midst. By consequence, hundreds of thousands
OF dollars per year are lost, and privations and
an unknown amount of concealed want and
discomfort are endured. BY further conse- |
quence, our people are driven away, property |
falls in value, trade stagnates, and discourage
ment and inaction take the place of confidence |
asA
and justified, and in our opinion no act or line |
policy will prove more advantageous than a iu- |
ticious remission of taxation to approved man |
enterprises.
THE TASK UNDERTAKEN.
Your memorialists further and in the second
place renreSpnt. That tha tn sx undarta ION nv, |