The Daily Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Or.) 1876-1883, 1881-04-03
New York Letters.
EDITORIAL coRREsroNDENcE.

son most notably in connection
with the silk industry Of the ma
ton and its great features. This
very able report by Consul Peix-
otto, Of Lyons, will be read with
interest not only by silk manafac-
turers, but by every man who has
the building up of our national in
dustries at heart:
The United States is no less
interested in this serious question.
We are now annually producing
upwards of %30,000,000 worth Of
silk fabrics, and vet not one single
silk filature worthy of the name
exists in all our broad dominions.
Besides we are wholly dependent
upon Europe and Asia for our raw
material. Two questions present
themselves at this juncture: the
first Is, can we raise silk? The sec
ond, can we sell it when we have
raised it? The first has already
been solved; we can raise silk
because we can grow the mulber-
ry leaf which is its essential food.
This question has been conclusive
w determined. Silk worms have
been successfully raised in the
United States for more than thir-
ty wears. The second remains.
The impossi5ilitv hitherto of com
peting with the cheap labor of Eu-
rope, where the sill k reeler receives
but thirty cents a day, and of
China and Japan, where but from
six to ten cents is paid, has been
the principal, in fact the only,
cause why we have not and could
not sell the six from the cocoon.
Every silk manufacturer viii admit
the desirability, nay for perma-
nent success, the absolute neces-
sity Of having his raw ma
terial at hand, even as the
cotton manufacturer has his. To
be absolved from the necessity
of importing from Europe and
Asia the raw material, would be
next to constituting the silk in
dustry with US as one OF the great
sources of our national wealth. 1t
would give employment to hun-
dreds of thousands of hands, wo-
men and children, now idle or
non-producing; it would at the
same time afford the masses an
elegant and durable material at
one-third less than the present
cost, and it would give to capital
a new and lucrative source Of in
vestment shared at present but by
4 few individuals, and restricted to
exceedingly limited proportions.
But how can we overcome the
competition of Europe and Asia
with regard to labor? / am happy
10 be able TO answer this question
here and now. in the month of
June last, recommended by the
department of state, which under
the present administration has done
so much TO encourage our home
manufactures and develop our
foreign trade, and provided with
letters by the commissioner of
agriculture, there came TO Europe.
a young American engineer who,
before leaving home had already
gwen much time and study to the
subject, and who since has devoted
several months TO visiting and
carefully inspecting the principal
filaturesof France and Italy. This
gentleman, Mr.. Edward w. Ser
rell, Jr., of New York, believed it
possible to invent machinery which,
by the use and application of
electricity, would not only over
come existing difficulties, produce
a superior quality of thread, but
solve at the same time the all inn
portant labor question and render
silk reeling in the United States
as possible and profitable as
anywhere else in the world.
1t affords me very great satisfac-
tion to say that in my judgment
Mr. Serrell has at length been sue
cessful, and that very shortly this
fact will be abundantly and incon.
tesrably proven, both for the now
unhappy and rapidly declining
silk reeling industry of Europe as
well as for, from one America n
point of view still more important
and valuable interest, the success
ful planting of silk industry in the
United States in all its varied
stages and branches from the mul-
berry tee, the magnaneise or
Matching house, the reeling mill to
a still higher perfection than what
we have already attained in the
fabrication OF tissues. What the
cotton gin has done for cotton.
which with us ninety wears ago
hardly had commercial value, the
Serrell invention may DO for silk.