New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-04-15
sALMoH.0ANH1NG.
Tho Outlook for the Present Season rIAsv En-.
coufaging than Heretofore.

couraE1ng than Heretofore
The fishing season of 1885 does not
give any promise of activity. The bust,
ness OF canning salmon on the C0lum-
bia has been carried on at great dis
advantage during the last two years,
and several cannerymen are now. I'M
decided whether they will or will not
/ run their establishments next summer.
The last season was SO disastrous to
nearly everyone connected with the
business that probability of similar
conditions in 1885 causes many to>hes-
itate.
Lack of common purpose or settled
unity OF interests among the Gamers
is not the least among the causes that
operate to unsettle the business.
There are about as many different
ways of looking at the matter as there.
are canneries on the river. One man,
is now paying 224 cents a fathom to
white men for knitting nets; anothersis
employing Cinnamon to do the same
work for cents; another firm is try
ing TO set the price of salmon for the
coming season at 60 cents, while a
fourth insists that combined action,
will bring the fish to the price that he.
proposes to pay, IS cents.
of interests this season that will result
in separating those interested IN, the.
business into three classes, those who,
furnish money and take almost abso-
lutte control of the manufactured
goods; those who get money advanced
TO them and work on the cooperative
plan, and those who are what may be-.
termed independent cannerymen. To-
the last-named belong such establish
ments as that of Mr.. John A.. Devlin.
J. 0. HAWTHORNE. G.Megler, A. Booth;
to the second belong such establish
ments as the Columbia Canning COM
pany, West Coast, Union, White Star,
Fishermen's, Scandinavian, etc. 5;
among the first mentioned! may be
enumerated w. T. Coleman & Co, D.
L. Beck & Sons, Allen & Lewis.
Among these last-named firms there
scenes to be mutual objection this
year to advance money. to. purchase
supplies, and among the companies
who usually obtain advances, there also
seems mutual desire to. get money
elsewhere and in a different way from
heretofore. There was, so much litiga-
ton and misunderstanding between
agencies and Astoria factories in 1884
that whatever is done this year will be
greatly restricted. Each side has its
own story, and is confident that the
other side is in the wrong. Viewing
the matter with an intent to be i'm
partial, it would appear that on the
part of the agencies there has been an
effort to improve on good thing and
impose little more. than the business
would bear, desire to get two fingers
in the pie; and on the other hand a dis
trust against capital thus employed
that makes men ready TO believe that
a transaction that they cannot exactly
understand involves swindle.
The present situation seems to sug-
gest that the season of 1885 will be
characterized by several features differ
ing from some former years. There
will be fewer boats by five hundred
on the river; there will be fewer can
nerles in operation; there will be a
lower price paid for fish; there will be
fewer 'toutside" boats; fishing will
not begin much before May Is, and not
until June l will there be ANYTHING
like the old time activity; effort will
be made to induce unanimity of senti-
ment among all interested in the bust
ness, and the struggle for supremacy
on the part of rival agencies will
not be characterized by such liberal
concession as in the past.
The business must sooner or later
settle down to legitimate basis. 1t
has been butchered and overdone, and
can not for some years assume the
proportions it did in 1882, 1888, and
1884. Sooner or later the buyers of
raw material will tire of paying high
prices to the swarm of men who swo0p
down here every summer, stay for
twelve or thirteen weeks. and then
away with the earnings. In this con-
nection it may be said that the CO.
operative companies have the best
chance for survival, if they can only
realize that where their interests as
catchers of fish and sellers of canned
salmon clash, the greater profit lies in
getting less price for the raw material,
that they may make more on the goods
in the case.-Washtngton Territory as
to7ian.
Ounnr SnaClmana nf Who'd