Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1875-05-08
THE PER CENT. OF GAIN FROM HOME
MANUFACTURES.

Employment is the prime source of
prosperity. The largest per cent. of
ralues of all kinds of goods is the labor
of producing them and putting then, IN
the hands of the consumer. The chief
value of cordwood is The labor of cut
ting and hauling it. The materials for
a pair of boots or coat or plow, or
a wagon, or stove, or book case, or
rife or knife, or watch cost but
very little. Their worth is in the skill
and toll of the artisan, and the cost of
exchange. An acre of wheat well cul-
tivated brings the farmer, possibly 335
bushels, or one ton. Delivered at the
port of shipment, it brings him 81 81
per cwt., or $27 40. Itcosts him about
SIG so to raise ton and put it on board
a ship. If he raises only 20 bushels
per acre, or 1900 lbs he gets SIG A, or
hardly the cost of his labor.
The best cedar for tubs and buckets,
brings at the Oregon City factory So
per cord; but goods worth several
times that sum are produced from o
cord. Wool costs 80 cents per pound,
but broadcloth made of it is worth from
50 to So per pound. In word, when
we buy stock of goods, or carload
of machinery, or invoice of hardware
or furniture, or cargo of sugar or rice,
we pay from 10 to 80 per cent for the
labor and transportation-which is la
bor-and only 10 to 80 per cent. for the
material. Your baker and butcher,
and shoemaker, and blacksmith, will
tell you all they make is on their labor
and skill. Increase your industries,
employ every man, woman and child,
and you will create values faster than
crops can grow or miners can wash out
the gold. Home manufactures furnish
opportunities for your idle hands. For
instance, Oregon has 40, 900 children of
school age, between 4 and 20 years.
Large ranks of them pass annually
into womanhood and manhood. Few
ways are open for them to make liv-
ing. 1t is hard for man to find trades
for his boys or places for his girls. We
have a few foundries in which few
apprentices are permitted to learn q
trade; one or two furniture manufac-
turing establishments that take from
two to eight boys each; three or four
factories that employ from ten to thirty
lads and girls; and tin shops, and black
smith shops, q meat market, bakery in
every town, q watch maker, brick
yard, and tannery here and there that
will employ one or two each; but the
vast majority must seek work abroad,
or keep ON the farm OF in the woods.
Our sprightly young men hasten to
other cities and States that invite labor
and encourage the skillful artisan. Our
printing establishments have done much
to employ lads and teach them trade,
but the general decline reduces their
power to help others. Surveying has
but narrow field, that will soon be
closed up. School teaehing offers an
nually new places, but finds a larger
annual increase of we'll prepared teach
ers. Clerks arc more numerous than
places for them. Looking on all sides,
we have not work enough for our grow
ing children. Add to these the immi-
grants whom we invite by every argu-
ment to our northwest coast, we find
that large percent. of the people must
be idle. They cannot all produce wool,
or hens eggs, or salmon, or beef, or
pork, or wheat or oats; for it is easy to
overstock the market. All mouths are
easily filed with food in our prolific
climate and from our abundant re-
sources of land and river. And when
this condition happens, there is stag
nation of business, and now chill of
idleness settling over dull streets and
gloomy houses.
But extend home manufactures to
supply all wants, and to employ all
hands, and every finger-touch will put
value upon something that before was
worthless. The gentlemen who have be-
gun to make glue and neatsfoot oil and
curled hair, have set noble example of
what can be done. A new tannery is a
double benefit, in saving us from i'm
porting leather, and in setting men and
boys to work in getting bark and tan
ming the hides. Every anvil and lap
stone in use adds value to otherwise
useless material. Every table or bed
stead or bureau made from our own
woods confers double benefit upon
the people, giving them employment
on the one hand and comfort ON the
other. The Oregon Furniture Manu-
featuring Company now established in
Portland, as estimated. saves $50, 900
per annum to the State that would be
paid for such goods to other States, and
thus develops nearly this amount OF la
Dor and skill among ourselves that
would otherwise be idle, or be lost to
US.
The Oregon City and Salem factories
put ON the market several hundred
thousand dollars worth Of goods annu-
ally, as the product of labor and skill
applied that was before useless.
An instance Of the value of home
manufactures appeared in an item in
the daily paper Of q late date. A gentle-
man from San Francisco imports gloves