Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1873-02-23

A Letter from n Swiss BaDker-Ris Views
on the Subject-PrOspects for n Factory
at Knoxville.

| On the 9th of December, 1872, Mr.. Peter
Staub, who feels deeply interested in the
growth and material welfare of our city
addressed letter to Mr.. John Syz, Zurich
Switzerland, one of the wealthiest bankers
in Europe, whom he know to be connect
ed with cotton factories in that country, on
! that subject, and requested him to see il
some practical cotton spinners with some
| capital could not be persuaded to visit this
country for the purpose of starting al en-
terprise of the kind also promising to
give all the assistance possible to any one
coming for that purpose. He received an
answer from which, Mr.Staub kindly con-
senting, we translate the following. The
letter was dated Zurich, Jan. is, 1878, and
after some lines in regard to his investing
some additional funds in the Louisville
and Nashville railroad, he writes on the
cotton factory question as follows:
| "What you wrote to me in regard to a
| cotton factory has taken me quite by sur
prise. had believed that long since you
| had such establishments, as with the cot
| ton close at hand, without any tariff upon
| it, such business must surely be a remu-
nerative one if properly managed, and OPP
| peratives can be reasonably obtained. My
nearest relatives here, as Miss Kate, can
inform you, are all spinners; and my
tather-in-law, as well as my uncle own
large establishments of the kind. Also
| the Credit Bank owns superb cotton fac
| tory. Now, can inform you that the bu-
siness here, where the tariff we have to
| pay on the raw cotton, and then again on
| the goods are enormous, paid about twenty
per cent. last year upon the capital in
| vested. BY this you can readily see that a
young MAJ who has sufficient capital to start
| a factory here, could hardly be induced TO
| leave Switzerland; and even most of the
| worthy young men who donot possess such
| capital are eagerly sought as foremen in the
shops of the rich spinners, or are called to
| Germany and Austria, where the Swiss
| are liked and known as good spinners.
Even we of the Credit Bank had consider
able trouble to find suitable man as fore
| man in our factory. -#r
Just, however, as received your lines
on the subject, the thought presented it's
elf to my mind that perhaps I might after
all be able to serve you. have, namely,
| nephew, Ia sisters SOM. who served his
apprenticeship under Mr. Oberst RictOr, in
| Winterthur, where he gave most of his at
| tention and learned thoroughly the con-
struction of cotton factories. (Oberst Ric-
| tor is namely one the largest builders of
cotton factories in the country.) After my
| nephew, Stocker, had served his time, Mr..
| Rictor sent him to Steiermark, in Austria
| in order to superintend the construction
and put in running order, large factory.
After the completion of which, he imme-
| diately received from the owners the me-
chanical supervision of the entire estab-
| lishment. About years ago the estab-
| lichr 10 ochoc hxrf
and my nephew superintendent the
construction of another factory in its
stead. Since his connection with that firm
he has married the sister of his principals
wife, and has one child of about six years
of age: Last summer while here on a visit
he stated that he felt very lonely at his
place of business, and also complained that
in Austria the business did not pay as well
as it might, and that he, although being
to lay aside but little, and in the CONVEX
sation gave me TO understand that he would
willingly exchange his position, if could
obtain something for him in Switzerland. I,
however, encouraged him to remain i'm
Austria, as believed a glowing future was
also in store for that country. But now
that have read your letter, the thought
struck me that perhaps he might be will
ing to remove to your country. [ do not
know, but if you think that an honest,
clever, and thorough Nc. workman as
above described, would meet with induce
ments such as he could accept, the matter
would be worth while to enquire into.
My nephew does not alone understand
the spinning business from A to Y, as he
had to instruct the workmen in Steier-
mark, but also, as already stated, builder
of spinning factories and graduate of
the Rieter school, and would, of course, at
once be able to say what kind of shops
you should erect there in order to make
them remunerative.
The question, however, here arises
Have you water power, or must steam be
used? Have you workmen? Or rather,
material from which spinners can be
made? Negroes or whites and what
wages are paid such laborers per day?
Where would you get the principal pOr-
ton of your raw cotton? And what does
it cost per pound?
/ think that the idea would he to spin
principally course yarn, and have it
woven into cloth i'm the same establishment
In short, ii it is your desire to call into ex-
istence such an establishment, you must,
if possible, give me all the particulars.
Although my nephew has been for fifteen
years in the spinning business, he has not
spun for himselfa fortune, principally ow-
ing to the fact that Austria is bad field
for cotton operations. Nevertheless, he
has saved something, even lift don't, SO to
say, amount to much in dollars. Now
the fact is, I can tell you, that with 500
a man can not go far Here We count the
cost Of each spindle, Including land,
building, canal, &C. from $3.50 to $40, |
and each loom to SiG9. So you see that
according to these calculations 500 will |
not reach far, as 1 take it for granted that |
both spindles or looms will cost more in |
your country than here. You can COM
mence with some little capital. yet if you
wish to have a real paying institution, it |
will be necessary to feel deep into your
purse at first.
These gre a few reflections hastily |
penned, and 1 will now patiently await |
your answer in regard to the subject. In |
the mean time, if the occasion offers, 1 |
will speak fully with my nephew upon |
the subject, and see what he thinks of en- |
igrating to Knoxville
Now the practical application is this
The writer of the above letter is one Of the |