The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-03-31
MANY INTERESTING PARTICULARS

From the Essex County Press, Newark n. j.
At the foot of Clark street, in the Eighth
ward of the city of Newark, on the banks
of the Passaic, occupying several acres Of
ground, upon which are buildings the floor
ing 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 twenty thousand dollars in
wages, to be distributed by the employees
among different classes of 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
largest pay roll of any employers in New
Jersey, and contributing more to the well
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 Clark's
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
Companys Works aud 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 3 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 and appreciation of the
REAL SOURCES OF WEALTH,
usuall7 exhibited by the average politician.
Had it been some trust com pany 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
u,
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 obliga-
tons and fill the channels of trade with the
circulating medium called money, and
which is to business what blood is to the
human system, giving it life, animation
and power. Suppose tonight those works
were
DESTROYED BY FIRE.
They are fully insured. The Clark Thread
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, and our taxes are 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 a 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 calamity and
course of action by the Clark Thread
Company 1t would be incalculable. All
those people who earned money to purchase
what they wanted to buy, would be added
to the list of paupers who to-day clsmor for
wotk or bread. Misery, want,
STARVATION AND CRIME
would be the fruit of such a course But
this is exactly what has been done through
out the country, and explains why one IN
twelve in 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 restitution 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-
ouclng 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 machin ery
Better far that all other songs be hushed
and every note be stilled, rather than those
and to them We now introduce the reader
ON THE DOCK
of The Clark Thread Company, which is five
hundred feet long, is mountain of two OF
three thousand tons of coal, drawn out OF
boats at the wharf by donkey engine, and
the bales OF cotton find their way from the
same wharf to the brick house, for the stor.
age of that precious material one pound of
which will make one hundred miles of
thread, containing about forty-twe million
douolings, The mind cannot grasp the
numerical fact. But four grades of cotton
are ordinarily used in the manufacture of
ClaIk's 30. N. T."Spool Cotton, and known
as " Sea Island Cotton" This comes princi-
pally from South Carolina and is grown on
the small islands along the coast. Consider
able 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 10 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
ored slaves, and compared with whom the
ieuoal lords of England were children in
iu1uIy hospitality, and elegance But to.
uay OH Is changed. Those vast estates are
CUT up lhto small plantations, many of them
owned by the negroes, who now call no
man master. They bring in their seasons
product, sometimes on mule and aoa;r IN
arge quantities. Brokers on the eronnd q,
the landings, buy and paw the neproes
or their cotton, often dividing the mono.
ccording to the LABOR performed in rais;nS