Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1875-03-12
THE MOVEMENT FOR MANU-
EACTTTREN

Inere was one GIllux uOGiSCdO1C dG Guo |
meeting on Saturday night which was !
very welcome, and that was the illusions by !
the various speakers to the fact that the |,
time has arrived for StaunSon to make
to sell. Many of the views were
exaggerated and theoretical, such as natu-
rally come from meil who are not them
selves engaged in manufactures, but the
whole spirit Of the meeting was good, and
evinced not only willingness but strong
desire to give active sympathy, and what
is better, cooperation to any man who
will come l.ere to start any sort OF manu-
facture. There was every class OF our
citizens present, business men, mechanics,
lawyers and laborers. One of the Incl
dents of the assembly was the reading of
letter written by Mr.. GEORGE II. Cross
MAN from Cleveland, Ohio, asking for in
formation about the advantages of Staun-
ton as location for the manufacture OF
wrought-iron blooms and sheet-iron. The
very fact that the situation has attracted
the attention of such man as Mr.. CROSS
MAN is very cheering indication to our
people. He is the business man OF the
great moving machine manufacturing firm
of AULTMAy & MILLER of Akron, Ohio,
and is one of the very first business men in
the country, and any enterprise that he
engaged in here would have no chance to
fail.
The chairman Of the meeting appointed
several committees to procure information
about the feasibility of various industries
around Staunton. We would suggest to
these committees that besides getting in
formation regarding thesesblast furnaces,
&C.. they get the data for some manufac
lures our own citizens could engage in. A
large blast furnace may be in active opera
ton, and not increase the population Of a
city much. For instance, good sized
one, involving S15O,000 cost, may be run
with thirty hands. of whom all. with a
half-dozen exceptions, are common labor
CTS. getting small wages. The profits are
large to the proprietors, but the town is
mot SO greatly benefited as it would be by
two or three smaller concerns which en-
plov skilled labor. Your skilled workman
is the man who makes the profitable citi-
zen. His wages are better, he lives better,
and he has more interest in city than the
unskilled laborer, who shifts about con-
tinually. To get such acquisitions to our
population we must do as other manufac-
turing cities have done-start small en-
terprises for which only $4,000 Or $1,000
will be required say concern for making
builders hardware-buts and hinges,
locks. and things of that kind-which sell
everywhere and all the year round: OF say a
tub and pail factory, which makes goods
that are always in demand; or stove fac
cory, for which we have the iron right
here. All of these are things for which
our people can raise the capital. They
employ skilled workmen, and, above all,
they make something to sell. Start one OF
them on small scale; get enough expe-
rienced workmen from the Northern manu-
| factories to commence with; putyour bust
| ness drummer out to make your trade; the
next year your business will increase, and
| then YOU can enlarge your establishment;
let your own people commence learning
the trade; put your money into printers
| ink as the Northern manufacturers do;
make your concern known everywhere in
| Virginia and the South, and the chances
are just ninety to one that you succeed.
The great TreGegar Works of Richmond
were started in building that didnt take
six hundred feet Of plank to erect; the
Richmond Architectural Stove Works,
that ship off stoves by the car daily, sprung
| from concern that might have been put
| in our office cellar; and nearly all the great
| locomotive and machine works there, such
as Tanner & Co.'S. metropolitan, - and
Talbot & Sons, were all born in black
smiths shops. and were nursed by man
at the forge and a boy at the bellows.
| We must begin in a small way to make
something to sell. Our unsurpassed faci-
| lities for great iron furnaces will be used
by men of capital from abroad to make
| immense fortunes, ana they shall have our
| good wishes and Cur cooperation; but as
| for ourselyes-we who havn't got large
capital-we must commence in a small
| way on our own account. 1t will give a
| better impression of us abroad if those
| who think Of coming among Us to do bust
| ness find that we ourselves are buoy too,
and busy at something that will bring
| money from elsewhere.