Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-03-28
The Process Of Manufacture.
MANY INTERESTING PARTICULARS.

Ward of the city of Newark, on the banks of
the Passaic, occupying several acres of
ground upon which are buildings the floor
ings of which measures nearly eight acres
are situated the largest thread works in the
New World, employing about fifteen hun
dred hands, and paying out every two weeks
from sixteen TO tweaty thousand dollars in
wages, to be distributed by the employees
among different classes and occupations in
the city, and from fifteen to twenty thou
sand per month to other parties here, who
in various ways, are connected with this
vast establishment. Although having the
largest pay roll of any employers in New
Jersey aud contributing mora to the vel
fare and prosperity of the city than all its
financial institutions combined, we hear less
in the newspapers OF this world of wealth.
makers than Of some second-class money
lending shop on Broad street. 1t would be
useless for any one to attempt to trace to
their source all the varied industries which
have entered into the production OF Olarks
80. N. T." Spool Cotton, which is sold by
every merchant dealing in dry goods, fancy
goods, hosiery, notions, etc. in the United
States, and contains two hundred yards of
that indispensable article, strong, smooth
and beautiful. 1t is made up of
NEARLY FoRTY-Two MILLION DoUBLINGs,
and yet is so fine as to be hardly visible a
few inches from the naked eye. The I'M
mense capital invested in The Clark Thread
Company's Works and the vast volume of
business, amounting to several millions per
annum, extending to every part of the
United States, is one of the principal sources
of Newark's prosperity. What it is and the
blessings which flow from it, are not real
lied by one in thousand of the people
who dwell within the sound of their tower
bell. Notwithstanding the large amount of
money which the establishment was to
pour into the hands of every merchant and
trader in the city, as events have shown,
the first thing which the City Fathers
did when these works were being erected
was to tax the bricks and material not
yet shaped into buildings, 1t was on a
par with the intelligence aud appreciation
of the
REAL SOURCES OF WEALTH,
usually exhibited by the average politician
Had II been some trust company or curb
stone broker that asked exemption, it would
probably have been granted. Some idea of
the value of these works to the community
may be had by an illustration of a thing
which might really happen at any time.
The Clark Thread Company employ, as
stated, about fifteen hundred persons, pay
ing out to them sixteen to twenty thousand
dollars every two weeks. These hundreds
of hands pay out that money to the butcher,
the baker, the grocer, the clothier the dry
goods merchant, and all who have any
thing TO sell get part of it in some way,
either directly or indirectly From their
hands it goes to pay debts, meet obligations
and fill the channels of trade with the cir
culating medium called money, and which
is to business what blood is to the human
system, givingit life, animation and power.
Suppose tonight those works were
DESTROYED BY FIRE.
III nh
Company receive their insurance in cash
from their underwriters. They say to
themselves: Business is dull, sales are
uncertain, profits are small, the future is
unknown, aHd our taxes ars heavy. The
vast business requires close attention and
persistent energy. We will not take this
money and rebuild the works, but adopt
the plan pursued by most moneyed men,
viz: go to Washington, buy government
bonds, bring them home put them in tin
box, pay no taxes, and sit down to take our
ease, eat, drink and be merry, with no
thought of care, supported in luxury with
out risk by the interest on our bonds, paid
by taxation of the producing classes" Can
any man calculate the wide spread ruin
which would follow such a calamity and
course of action by the Clark Thread
Company? It would be incalculable. All
those people who earned money to purchase
to the list of paupers who to-day clamor for
work or bread. Misery, want,
STARVATION AND CRIME
would be the fruit of such course. But
this is exactly what has been done through
out the country, and explains why one in
twelve III Newark are to-day supported by
the city. The productive capital of the
country, which employed our now idle mil
lions, has been put into government bonds,
and appalling deshtution and want are on
every hand, and increasing at fearful rate.
Labor is the source of all wealth and pros
perity, and there is no loss equal to that
which follows enforced idleness of the pro-
ducing classes. There is no music SO full
of joy and peace and good will to men as
the song of labor and the music of machinery
Better lar that ali other songs be hushed
and every note be stilled, rather than those,
and to them We now introduce the reader.
ON THE DOCK
or The CLARK Thread Company, which is
five hundred feet long, is a mountain of two
or three thousand tons of coal, drawn out
of boats at the wharf by a donkey engine,
and the bales of cotton find their way from
the same wharf to the brick house. for the
storage Of that precious material, one pound
of which will make one hundred miles OF
thread, containing about forty-two million
doubl1ngs. The mind cannot grasp the
numerical fact. But four grades of cotton
are ordinarily used in the manufacture of
Clarks 80. N. T." Spool Cotton, and known
as "Sea Island Cotton This comes prin-
cipally from South Carolina and is grown
on the small Islands along the coast. Con-
siderable is raised on the peninsulas and
around the bays and inlets, but it is not
equal to that of the sea islands, which is
the finest in the world. The first bag of this
sea island cotton of the crop of 1876 was
purchased by the Clark Thread Company at
fifty cents per pound. The inland cotton is
not used in the manufacture of thread, being
too short in the fiber. On these sea islands
were the richest planters of the South in
THE OLD SLAVE DAYS,
many of them having as high as six hun.
dred slaves, and compared with whom the
feudaI lords of England were children in
luxury, hospitality and elegance. But to-
day all is changed. Those vast estates ara
cut up into small plantations, many OF
them owned by the negroes who now cal
no man master. They bring in their sea
sons product, sometimes on male and
again in large quantities. Brokers on the
ground or at the Landings, buy and pay the