Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-09-16
Old Times and Modern.

In the good old days, when the old
guilds were in full swing, quality was
as much thought of as cbeapuess is
now. aud woe be to him. or rather came
to him, who played the sloven, or,
worse still, the rogue. Those were
days when shoddy was undreamt of,
and insOles were composed of leather
and not rubbish, as is often the case
nowadays. Time works wonders, but
wonders are not always to be looked
upon as blessings. Time has made
leather scarce and dear-and time will
make it still dearer. Time has broken
down the good old rule of giving sound
material and sound workmanship
time. in fact. has played lot of tricks,
or taught the present generation to
play them, that. il profitable, are GER
tainly not over creditable. Time has
raised a wall of pride between masters
and men. and they no longer meet to-
gether to fix prices, but trust to look
outs and strikes. 1t would be a strange
thing if We were to go back to some
thing like the old order of things-to
courts of arbitration aud conciliation.
This, in reality.is what these old guilds
meant, and in nottingham at least, if
nowhere else, they prevail at this hour.
Among other pranks which time has
played may be mentioned a dislike to
productive industry. Everybody be-
lieves in chambers shop, or q shop
of some kind. 1t as the buyers and sell
lers who make the money now, not the
honest toiler or the small manufacture
ing tradesman. A linen draper, fer in
stance, often makes more by retailing
boots and shoes than master who has
served his zine, is heir to generations
of experience. aud conscientiously ex-
erts mind and body for the comfort of
his customers. 1t is the same in
America, at least with the American
portion of the population. She has
plenty of rich alluvial soil that only
wants ''tickling with the hoe to laugh
through the harvest" but the American
has a wholesome or rather an unwhole-
some fear of all such lsbor-his ambi-
tioR is to be a merchant, and, this be-
yond his reach, he will turn peddler
and sell Dutch clocks and wooden nut
negs. As We have pointed out in pre-
vious numbers, this rage for exchange
is all very we'll for those engaged in it,
but the multiplying of shops. increas.
ing the total amount OF rent, service,
e., necessitates higher prices, and so
increases the cost to the customer. Out
of curiosity, we once took stroll down
the Strand at IL o'clock in the morning.
Our object was to count the customers
in each shop. Judge our surprise when
each. The conclusion we arrived at, a
very foolish one no doubt IN the eyes
of some persons, was that one-half the
rents and one-balf the servants were
useless. There are few things sold in
the Strand at less than fifty per cent.
over cost of production, or, rather, that
is the average, and a letter per ceetage
could dot be made to pay. The whole
thing is a perfect farce, and libel on
the common sense of the nineteenth
century. Competition is powerful in
it's way, but there are things which
cannot render cheap. For
instance, houses in London are a mo-
nopoly, or nearly so; again, they are
and here competition acts in
contrary way, and, instead of cheaper
ing rents, increases them. Those oc-
cnpying them desire to sell, but they
cannot sell at loss. therefore the price
charged to customers Is calculated up
on the cost of conducting business and
necessarily high. A fruiterer in Con-
vent Garden told us only last week that
the profits on most things sold in the
Graud Kew are positively enormous,
and SO are those, too, that are sold on
street barrows. What think you OF
cent per cent ? Cent. per cent. for
what passiDga commodity from the
grower to the consumer. But this Is
not all; the same things are often sold
and re sold before they get into the
hands of the man who retails them.
Who wonders that the cooperative
plans find favor, when their promoters
have learnt to do all this for two-and-
a-half over the cost price? Instead of
the distributor being a servant OF the
he is his master. And
why because he belongs TO a class
that is individually richer. We do not
allu1e to the mere shop keeper, but to
the wholesale trader. who directly in
tervenes between the manufacturer and
lower middle man.
What has this to do with boots and
shoes? A deal. 1t is the system that,
by means Of pnffsry and slop manufac,
ture, has stamped out thousands of
country masters. and that will stamp
them out entirely.-LOndOn 81. Crts-
pin.