The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-08-04
An Old Party Dodge.


The Norfolk and New Brunswick Hosiery
Company, at New Brunswick, New Jersey,
shut down on Saturday last, and 800 hands
were thrown out of employment. The Com
pany appears in the past to have had most
prosperous time. 1t started in small way,
and has gradually expanded its business, to
large dimensions out of its profits, besides
paying dividends, said to have been as high
as 40 or so per cent. in some years. In the
meantime extravagant methods of admins
tration and management are said to have
grown up and it was paying royalties on ma
chimes of no use to it. Besides, improvement
in machinery for scanning cut goods interfered
with the sale of the kind produced at the
company's mills. 0flate it has been greatly
overstocked with unsold goods, and on that day
it shut down to await better condition OF
the market. The President of the company,
J. d. Carpenter, Republican politician,
while admitting that the conditions are such
that the mills would have to shut down
anyway, tries bard to give the impression
that tariff agitation and the Mills bill are
somehow responsible for the trouble. A
stakeholder of the company, however, gives
it as his opinion that if the business were
properly managed it would prosper in spite
of foreign competition if it had no pro-
lection at all and without any reduction Of
wages. After piling up enormous dividends
year after year, without sharing the benefits
of protection with the workmen, it is very
convenient to attribute the results Of extrava.
gance and Encouragement to the possibilities
of tariff legislation which would leave pro-
lection of IS per cent. where none at all is
necessary.
Wesubioin the statement of the stakeholder,
which shows that the Mills bill had nothing
to do with the shutting down of the factory,
but that it is owing to extravaganza and bad
management The shutting down of factories
is an old party dodge that is tried every Pres
idential year:
A stakeholder in the company told the re-
porter that the profits of the business had been
something enormous, SO large, IN fact, that all
the present plant, worth over half million of
dollars, had been paid for out of the surplus
profits, after the payment of large annual cash
dividends. Under the influence of this con-
dition of things an expensive administration
had grown up, that was out Of all proportion
to the magnitude of even this large establish
ment. The President was paid salary OF
Sc, 900 year, the financial secretary received
So, 500 a year, the treasurer So, 800, the secre-
tary 81 100, and there was a large force OF
office employees, chiefly relatives of the officers
and directors, whose duties seemed to be
chiefly ornamental, but whose salaries enabled
them to 'sput on frills." Besides this, the
company was paying over $4,000 year for
ROYALTIES on a lot of machines which were moi
in use. The manner of conducting the bust
ness was as expensive as that of a wild cat
insurance company. If it was necessary to
sell goods at lower prices in order to compete
with foreign manufacturers, he suggested thai
the company could do so without reducing
the wages of its operatives or even Its dlvl-
dends by economizing in its office and selling
expenses. By looping off small army OF
useless office appendages and reducing on
| selling expenses he was confident the company
would be able to hold its own against foreign
competition. The Mills bill left them pro
tective tariff of 35 per cent. ad valorem. The
materials excepting wool, were cheaper IN
this country than in England, and there was
the advantage in favor of the American man
ufacturer that the Atlantic Ocean always at
forded. These advantages in the aggregate
amounted to over 80 per cent. protective
tariff, which was much more than enough Il
offset the higher price of labor paid to the
! American workmen.
"And therefore" continued this gentleman
''when President Carpenter says to his EN-
ployes that the reduction in the duty effected
by the Mills bill will require reduction II
| their wages, he means that to maintain theil
large dividends and expensive ornamental pay
roll the wages of the producers must be re
dueed The case finds its parallel in nature:
When barnacles have fastened upon living
object, they begin to increase and multiply
drawing their sustenance from the vitality o
the object attacked, but in the end they get Sc
numerous and burdensome that the ANNA
can no longer sustain them. Instead of let
ting go their hold, they suck and suck witt
increased energy as the life upon which thei
lives depend slowly GIBBS away, until death en-
sues, and then they all die together. The Nor
folk and New Brunswick Hosiery Mills art
prosperous, and under economic management
would continue so in the face of all foreign
competition, even if there were no protective
duty, and without any reduction in the wage'
of operatives. Mr.. Carpenter saw an oppor
tunity to distort common business compli
cation into political demonstration in tavo
of his party, and he has not been slow in do
ing it."