Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-03-17
THE GLASS TRADE.
SOMETHING ePTHB TRUE CAUSE OF PRES
BNT DULLNBSS.
A Manufacturer Who Talks Intslligsnuy and Fully
About the SiiuatiOn-Satonary En-
gnesrs Organize.

The extreme dullness of the flint glass
trade has been attributed to every con-
ceiysble cause, from the Inauguration OF
new President to the agitation of the oa-
moan question, but none of the reasons
given have fully covered the case or proven
satisfactory to the great army OF workmen
who gain a livelihood by the mechanical
manipulation Of the molten metal, " nor
To the other smaller numerically but
eoualIy anxious army of stockholders In
glass working plants
The Pittsburg Dispatch, few days ago.
proved By research that the dullness In
glass j, not confined to the Ohio Valley,
nor the East but that the boom towns OF
Ohio and Indiana, which put forth as an
inducement to manufacturers nothing DuV
gas" are similarly affected, or more 30
Ever since the first of the year, which
should have been the beginning of a season
of prosperity, the factories in and ABOUT
Wheeling have been accommodating STOCKS
or decreasing their output, some OF THEM
now being forced to close entirely ior a
week or two at time, with no prospsc1S
of Improvement in business.
A REGISTER reporter met gentleman
Yesterday who has been identified with the
gless interests of Wheeling and vicinity for
more than a dozen years, and inquired OF
him the cause of the dizziness.
He said, in substance, that there are
two causes for the trouble. First, the
GLASS making capacity of the country Is
now between thirty and forty per cent
greater than two years ago. The prOduc-
mo capacitv has increased much more rap
idly than the consuming capacity, and az
a consequence more glass is made
than the people want or need. This In
crease in the producing capacity arises
principally from the extremely liberal OIL
fers made (but Lot often fulhlled) by the
gas towns of Ohio and Indiana. Many
people not much acquainted with the bus
mess. became glass mskerO in these towns,
and as natural consequence the second
cause of trouble came into existence.
"When at the first of the year, the glass
people gathered at the Monongahels House
in Pittsburg, to meet with the jobbers and
buvers from all over the country, these
people from Ohio and Indiana thought
their great hold on the trade would come
by the ability they imagined they had, to
undersell the old established factories To-
Gated where gas had to be paid for and
where tax bills were presented to them the
same as other property owners.
Few of them belonged 10 the ManEtac-
turers association and the first break they
made was TO cut prices to the very lowest
living notch. This was met, and passed
by the other glass factories, and in little
while the whole glass trade found itself at
sea. Only few factories who had special
ties or goods protected by patents could
get high prices on anything and the result
was the total decentralization of business.
"This worked harm in other ways be-
sides the reducing of prices. People who
wanted to buy were afraid to, for fear the
price they might pay would be knocked
silly by still further cutting, thus leaving
them with goods for which they sad PAID
more than some other buyer who SHalted q
little longer would be enabled tol sell for.
Again, a iobber who held 2 large stock OF
goods Immediately felt the shriliksge Of
values, and his assets became lesG than bis
liabilities, and the more than ordinary
number of breakups of the past few months
among glass jObbers is the result.
81 have Just made tour Of the gas
country and I find that the boys are
psying dearly for their whistle.
did not find a single factory in the
region which was doing as much
business as the factories just here
around home. To give you some
idea of the shrinkage in glass values dur
ing the past few months, will say that
l saw pieces of ware sold at retail in Indi-
ana for ten cents piece which less than a
year ago were sold to jobbers in CbicsgO
for 81. % per dozen by Wheeling manutac-
turers. do not expect to see any glass
business NO tn mentioning till September
1st, and unless the throat-cutting policy is
abandoned before then there will be a rep
etition OF the experience we are having
now, for the trade can only be brought out
of its present state Of Generalization by 3
steady stiffening OF prices. Some of the
people who made the first cuts are now
crying for a reduction OF wages, but that
is entirely unnecessary, as it would only
mean a cheaper article for the consumer
and no more money for the producer and
handler, besides it is an outrage to ask the
workmen to stand the result of the folly
of few inexperienced business men,"
He also went into details concerning the
factories in the Ohio and Indiana gas re-
gions, and none of them are doing whit
better than those in this vicinity.