Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-08
ANIsrEKEsrING QUESTION

AN INTERESTING QUESTION
 Which Is Now Before one of our
 City ROards-ThO Question Raised
 By One Of Our Largest Man ufactur-
 ing Concerns Regarding the Tax As-
 sessment Upon Hts Propsrty-The
 Board of Relief To Visit the Clock
 Establishment-W the President
 of the Concern Says On the Subject.
 The New Haven Clock company has ap- psaled to the board of relief for abatement of the assessment against the property of $250,- 900, asking a reduction to $2O0, ,000, has been made well known through the columns of the daily press. The claim is made that the company is not making any money at pres- ent, the business having been dull for some time past. The board has not decided upon the application, but have the matter under consideration and have notified President Camp that they will make an official visit to the establishment at an early date to in- vestigate the question at issue.
 The city, town and school tax here is twenty dollars per thousand, making the company's annual tax expense five thousand dollars The company year ago made 8 similar appeal, but incidentally. The pres ident of the company was interviewed on the subject yesterday by 8 COURIER repre- sentative, and speaking on the subject said that one of the chief grounds of objection was that the rating or valuation was exces- sive and that another important basis of ob- lection was on the general issue that public policy should dictate a lower rating for man. ufacturing industries. Indeed, our Chamber of Commerce has, during the past two years, made special and most commendable effort to 'boom" New Haven as a manufacturing center and induce the location of new manu- fan% haro Nf iYo- creased wealth and property for the city. The clock shop, as it is popularly termed, has been for over thirty years one of our leading manufactories, and is so to-day, employing about 900, mostly skilled mechanics, and in the period mentioned has paid many mills lions of dollars to it's employees, which have been spent here, while many of its old em- ployes have built and own comfortable homes and several of the contractors have become independent in the possession of small for- tunes. President Camp thinks lower val uation of manufacturing property both the part of wisdom, justice and far sighted pub lie policy. Another important matter, said President Camp, is the great and excessive competition in clock manufacturing to-day as compared with that of former years. And to-day the popular taste and require ments call for much more expensive out put than formerly. Once the variety of clocks demanded was small, and for many
 
 kinds of clock movements were made, and the styles of cases comparatively inex- pensive. This simplifed matters and made business profitable. Now the variety of clocks, both in movement and cases, is legion, and many kinds of clocks are made at the clock shop that are quite expensive. This great variety of clocks calls for 8 much more costly outlay for different dies, different machines, different molds, different tools. Hence the expense of manufacturing is great ly increased. Moreover, another very im- portant items of expense grows out of the huge copper syndicate. This syndicate con- trols substantially she price of copper the of this metal at will. The clock company's expenses for copper in the year past was $50, ,00O more than in former years, owing to the increased price of cop per fixed by the syndicate. Clock factories the world over have felt keenly the increased expense entailed by the rise in the price of copper. President Camp further said that the true value of machinery and factory buildings was 8 matter dependent upon their wealth producing power. If they produced no return or no adequate return in profit, that was matter for consideration, especially when the value of such large manufacturing concern to city is taken into consideration. The clock shops pay roll was about $40O, 600 year. Here then was $4o0,- 900 annually brought into New Haven in the shape of wages paid, almost all of which was spent in New Haven. Almost all of this large sum was also money brought to New Haven from other parts of the United States and from other nations. The clocks made here were sold all over the globe. This $400,000 was not money taken out of the city. Nearly the whole of it came into the oity and went to quicken the pulse of trade in our grocery stores, shoe stores, dry goods stores and other stores.
 Moreover, another point was raised by the company's president, viz., that the company has to pay taxes on manufacturing property and manufactured work made here, and has to pay taxes in both New York and Chicago on its manufactured goods in its large stores in those cities. Its big store in New York contains great display Of clocks of all shapes, kinds, varieties and sizes, also does it's Chicago store, and on the clocks in those stores addi- tionsl tax is gathered in the respective cities named.
 In addition to the above it is learned else- where that the stock of another of Connecti- cuts most famous stock companies, which formerly was not obtainable at any price, is now much below par, attributed to the same causes spoken of above-such as excessive competition, the excessive cost of copper, etc