The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1875-02-03
MANUFACTURING INTERESTS.
How They Appeared to nm Editor--.The
Prospects Ahead.

Prospects Ahead.
| There are indications that some of orr
largest manufacturing interests begin to
feel the relief of getting down to hard
pan, says the Springfield Republican.
There Is great difficulty in securing O
continuation of the agreements to cur
tail production. Those Industries, par
hcularly, which have reduced wages be-
gin to feel themselves in accord with the
reduced scale of profits and production.
The paper manufacture is no longer car
RED on at dead loss, at least, and the
cotton mills are generally resuming full
time, with reductions in wages. The
market for cotton goods has been re-
ieved of the surplus and, in general, the
textile markets are not overstocked with
manufactures. During the year, raw
cotton has fallen III per cent. in price, and
the manufactured article quite as much;
brown sheeting, for instance, 12a per cent,
prints five or six per cent, and denims
l23: Both the manufacturing and the
trading interest have weathered the
double embarrassment of dull year and
great cotton crop successfully. Never
theless, it is not to our credit that
foreign nations should still be able to
supply us with $23, ,239, 900 worth of
cotton goods, as they have the past year,
through the port of New York alone.
This is reduction of SIS, ,40O,0 600 from
the importation of the same class of
goods two years ago. Again, our ex-
portatlon of cotton goods is nothing to
what it may become under fair financial
conditions. All told, it amounts to only
s, OOO, 900, and a very small share of this
goes to the rest of America. We buy
$50, ,OOO,O 600 worth of sugar and tropical
products from Cuba, for instance, and
sell her only $63, 900 worth of cottons
Now, it Is evident that every breech-
clout and shirt in the American tropics
ought to come off from our looms.
Improvement in manufacture is most
dlscernible in woolens, although the
woo]en manufacturers claim to be more
depressed than the cotton. American
dress goods and cloths are gradually
superseding the foreign. American
silks, too, are received with increasing
favor. The importation of silks Mt New
York for the past two years has fallen off
one-fourth in value, and not, we suspect,
in amount, as the reduction in the price
of silks must have sustained the total
consumption, if not increased it: It is
singular injustice, by the way, that this
most seryiceable of all fabrics should be
habitually denominated as "gew-gaws."
One of the most striking features of
American manufactures ut this moment
is the rapid ty of their western develop
ment. The prosperity of the West dur
ing the past year has greatly aided that
development. The Chicago Tribune
claims that nearly the entire bulk of the
ready-made clothing sold in that city,
amounting for the past year to 81, 2,OOO,-
600 wholesale, is made up in that city
and employs from 8, 900 to 5000 hands.
The Chicago makers conform the char
acter of the clothing to the climate of
the consumer. whether it be Michigan or
Texas, while eastern makers attempt to
strike an average, they say. The first
western felt-hat factory has just been
opened ut Chicago. Nearly all the mems
heavy wear of boots and shoes sold in
Chicago are now manufactured there.
This business has grown fully one-third
In the past year, and competition with
the East has been greatly aided by re-
ductlon OF 15 per cent. in wages. The
reputation of st. Joseph made boots is
not second on the plains to those from
any quarter. The boot and shoe manu-
facture is likely to tend westward, where
the hides are and where the leather will
ultimately be tanned. A great cluster of
iron Industries has gathered at Chicago,
which have produced, this past year,
$40, 900 worth of goods, against
1872, 100, 900 in 1873, the reduction being
in the price rather than in the quantity
of the goods manufactured. Farm i'm
plements and wagons show great in
crease, but carriages, which are of the
nature of luxuries, a falling off; $1,000
reapers have been made, an increase of
One-third, which is attributed to the
English demand for American machines
to take the place of the striking agri-
cultural laborers. This is curious CON
troversy of private interests, that the
English Farmland, striking for higher
wages and threatening to immigrate to
America, should be beaten out of his
position by American reapers and other
products of Yankee ingenuity. We shall
tinall y corner poor Hodge, and make him
Immlgrate to us or starve. This theory
has some confirmation i'll the returns of
the bureau of statistics, which show that
of the $3,310,000 worth of agricultural
Implements sent abroad, last year,
1911 900 went to England; $1,353, 900
also went to Germany, doubtless dis
placing some of the countless German
immigrants to this country.
The wide geographical distribution Of
the few manufactured goods which we
export indicates that the whole world is
t,,