Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-10-24
Aancaster fntelIiQe,lrer.
MONDAY EVENING, OCT. "a. 1881.
A Great and Growing Industry.
IaW York Suu

New York Sun.
The development of the silk manufacture
ing interest in America is one Of the indus
trial phenomena of the age. Few people
not Immediately concerned have any idea
.of the rapid growth of the business or of
the magnitude to which it has already at
attained.
Silk goods are amohg the luxuries, and
they are heavily taxed when they enter
our ports. Last year the imports of silk
manufacturers through the New York
custom house amounted to $50, 800, AGO.
That is practically the total importation,
for of all the silk goods brought into the
country "a to 95 per cent. come here. 1t
was the heaviest importation since 1871,
one of the years Of lavish expenditure i'm
mediately preceding the panic. These fig
ures, however. represent the invOiccd value,
and fall short Of the real value OF the
goods. 1t is alleged that deceit in the
matter of valuation is an acknowledged
detail of the silk importing industry. The
annual report of the Silk association of
America. in discussing the value of last
years imports, speaks calmly of "grcater
success than usual in passing undervalued
invoices"
Now, taking the silk imports at the in
ceeded by more than a million dollars by
the home manufactures. The total value
Of tho finished silk goods made in the
United States in 1880 was S34, SO, S43. The
comparison is not quite fair, for the reason
already indicated !; but after allowing for
everything, including the increase in the
price of foreign silks after the payment of
tho sixty per cent. duty, it is estimated
that the American mills furnish more than
a third in value of all the silk goods con-
sumed in the country; and yet until quite
recently we imported all, Or nearly all,
the silk we used.
Comparing the imports with tho domes-
tic manufactures item by item, SO rs to
see what sort of goods are mostly brought
from abroad, We reach some interesting
facts. The heaviest single item of domes
tic productions is ribbons, sG.O23, 100.
This is nearly double the invoiced value
of the imported ribbons. Observing silks,
machine twist and floss, the American
mills produce $7,O0S, $50, more than thirty
times the imports in the same line. OF
silk handkerchiefs We make SO, ,SSl 500
worth, and import only S64, OF. or satins
strange as it seems, we make between four
and five times the value VIC import. 1t is
in the ''broad goods, the dress silks and
VelvetS, that the imports greatly surpaSS
the domestic manufacture. According to
the inexorable logic of statistics, 4 vast
proportion of the passementere, the ele-
CANT trimmings. fril's, and furbclows that
pass as of Paris make. must be credited
to Connecticut Or New Jersey.
Ribbon manufacture is one of the most
important departments Of the silk industry
in America, and one which appears to be
steadily encouraged by consumers. Owing
to tho rapid and often unaccountable
changes in fashion, it is sometimes preca-
rious. Last spring, for instance, there
came a sudden demand for the ombre or
shaded ribbons, which are expensive to
make, requiring skill and great care.
Some of these ribbons have as many as
sixty shades in single piece. and each
shade must be exactly in its proper place
or the piece is spoiled. Another equally
sudden revolution in feminine taste, and
manufacturers who had been striving hard
to meet the almost unlimited demand for
shaded ribbons would have been ruined
they would have had OF their hands 4
heavy stock of costly goods, with 10
market to seil them in.