The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-05-09
Leather the Leading Industry

the m"anufacture OF Gather and OF boots
and shoes. II distances the manufac-
ture ef cotton goods by about Si2.en0.-
Usi IN the value OF the products. The
first tannery IN New England was a.
ta5ilshed al Lynn IN 1890. and shoe
making began there and al salem III
1875. TODAY the state OF NaS~chu-
sets aione manufactures annually 80
5000 pairs Of boots and shoes. n an
average value of SI,36; manufactures
leather 10 the value OF nearly $2lep.-
60 per annum. and begins 10 supply
the world. not only with the leather.
of which she already exports enormous
quantities. but also with the machiA-
cry for making boots II shoes.
Fifteen years ago" sad Mr.. \. l.
Coolidge, one OF the Commissioners
to the Paris Exposition. YESTERDAY.
quite a business was done IN import
ing caJfskIns To this INT We
imports ed also a large quantity OF man
ufactured goods from abroad for the
retail business. All this Is changed
now: instead OF importing we export
We are exporting leather very largely
and our facilities for manufacturing
are being continually improved. Our
machinery has multiplied a mans
Labor tenfold. and labor as it stands i
really cheaper than in Europe, where
there has not been much of a reduction
IN wages. Eighty per cent. OF all u
work OF boots and shoes i now lone
by machinery. There is no country
IN the world that can compete with
Us, as with the aid of the twenty-seven
firms right around us here doing moth
ing else than selling boot and shoe ma
chlnery we a IN "A moment have all
defects remedied; IL in fac hardly a
week passes but these men improve
oar machinery. Then again, out of
the $500 firms in Massachusetts, en-
gagged III the manufacture and sale OF
boots and shoes almost everybody has
a speciality.
AGE OF S~PECIALTIES.
This is an age of specialties, and it
is also the same in this trade Some
of the manufacturers make nothing
else than a certain kind of boot or shoe
for either men. ONE or children.
BY applying themselves exclusively to
this speciality they not only become
perfect in the manufacture of this par
ticular line. but when they go in the
leather market they can purchase just
what they want and reject what is of
no use to them. In times past a boot
manufactures was compelled to take
all sorts of leather. whether he wanted
it for mems boots or children's slip
pers. To-day he just picks out h
he needs for his speciality and there is
no waste. The result is that III IA
ufactures Of these specialties in the
boot and shoe line have attracted great
attention ever since h Centennial
Exhibition. and we got inquiries from
Sweden even and from Norway, as
we'll as from Germany and Holland,
not only because our boots and shoes
are better made than heirs, but also
because now we can afford TO make
them cheaper. 1t was only a month or
SO ago that a man from Peru came
here. He had heretofore bought brogan
in..England, but was attracted by the
exhibits in Philadelphia. and this time
instead of going to Old England he
went to New England for brogans.
We took his order for %, 0G0 pairs for
the Peruvian government at eighty
five cents per pair. If he should come
back now he can have II same bro
gans on a new order for eighty cents.
This business of exporting boots and
shoes is, however, yet IN its infancy:
but as to leather the exports have
been enormous during the past two
NSdIS, Ill Ca tDOl Nc VI oCIC ! .
pecially have been very large, its value
in 1877 amounting to over $4,000, 600.
Why. there are firms in Boston now,
three-fourths of whose sales of leather
are to foreign countries, mostly split
and buff leather. That business Is
now pretty we'll established. though
we also hear good returns from the
samples of boots and shoes we have
stated to you before, that IL manu-
facturerS do nOt max eight or ten dit
terent kinds of goods, but only one
particular article and no other, Is help
ing the export trade, and 1T Will not
be long, now that our prices are on a
specie basis, before this business viii
be greatly increased.
MACHINERY VERSUS MANUAL LABOR.
Mr.. Coolidge, who is a large manu-
facturer, will in a few days leave for
Paris, IN accordance with II require
ments of the appointment conferred
upon him by the government. l
could, however, not fail to remark
that when he enlarged upon the fact
that eighty per cent. of all boots and
shoes now were made by machinery
what a terrible blow this machinery
had inflicted upon manual labor. In
looking over the statistics OF labor,
which no State in the Union has 50
carefully collected as Massachusetts.
under the guidance of MIR. Carroll ID.
Wright, | found that in 1860, when
there We're only POO boot and shoe
factories in the State, 52,S2l persons
We're employed IN these establish
ments, while to-day, with 800 estab-
ments, sever times more than IN 1860,
only 51,2oO persons are engaged IN the
manufacture of boots and SHOES. This,
more than anything | have seen IN
my Investigations, Is the most start
ling result of machinery. And that
men employed in the trade, like at
Lynn, for instance. where alone there
are over 5000 OF them 50 engaged,
are educated workInen is evidenced
by the fact that only three per cent.
OF their number cannot reador write.
| might add, incidentally. that en-
Hghtened Massachusetts has no less