Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-01-24
NO PROTECTION NEEDED.
THE ENGLISH WEAVER GETS AS
MUCH MONEY AS THE AMERICAN.


MUCH MONEY AS THE AMERICAN.
What Printed Calicoes Are Made From.
Fall River and Providence Make 1885,
600 Pieces of Print Cloths Every Week.
The Massachusetts, Viewers Capacity.
Printed calico is a very well known
fabric. Women make it into house
dresses and morning wrappers. In its
indigo blue variety it provides thousands
of waists for small boys. In coarser va
rieties, bed comforters have one or both
sides made of it. In still another variety
it is the material out of which printed
shirts are made for men. In fact, it's
uses are endless, and it's consumption is
consequently very large.
Before piece of printed calico reaches
maturity, as we see it, the raw cotton
has to undergo different processes Of
manufacture. First, it must be spun into
yarn. Then this yarn is woven into
loose, soft, fluffy cloth. At this stage the
fabric is called print cloth.
So far all the cotton travels together.
Before it becomes any variety of printed
cotton goods it must pass through the
print cloth stage. What raw cotton is
to the print cloth the print cloth is to
the finished fabric. It is kind of raw
material for making printed cloths out
of. Also, like most raw materials, the
terms of payment for it are very prompt.
Net cash within ten days are the almost
invariable ones.
Like many raw materials, too, print
cloths are the subject of a good deal of
speculation in "spots" and *'futures."
1t is not so many years ago since one
very large manufacturing firm became
bankrupt in attempting to corner the
print cloth market by buying up futures.
Another firm saw the game and held
nearly million pieces of print cloths in
reserve, which they successfully unload
ed before the cornering firm suspected
there was any such quantity of goods
concealed in the market.
The headquarters of the print cloth
market is at Fall River, Mass. Under
ordinary circumstances the print cloth
mills in Fall River turn out 100000
pieces of print cloths every week. Prov
idence is also aprint cloth center, though
a smaller one. Its mills make $4,000
pieces of print cloths every week.
These $4,000 pieces are made for the
open market, and are either sold to some
printer as soon as they are made, or very
often in the busy season are contracted
for by the printers before the cloths
have been actually manufactured.
IL, 3D. H. ,@o,,l To- u
in print cloths, otherwise the buyer
and seller would be involved in endless
disputes. So it is agreed by the trade
that an ordinary piece of print cloth
should be twenty-eight inches wide as it
leaves the loom; that seven yards of this
width of cloth should weigh one pound
avoirdupois; that the yarn out of which
it is woven should be within two num-
bers on either side of what is called No.
80 yarn, and, lastly, that one square inch
of the cloth should have sixty-four
threads each way. It is this latter re-
quirement that gives the ordinary print
cloth the common term of 64-64's-that
is, sixty-four threads warp crossed by
sixty-four threads filling in each square
inch.
The curious thing about this system of
measurement is that the same rules are
followed in England by the Lancashire
cotton weavers. Last year, Mr.. j. Schoen-
hof, United States consul at Tunstall,
England, took over with him some speci-
mems of American print cloths made at
Lowell, Mass, in order to compare them
in the matter of cost with those made in
Lancashire. After a long and very pa
tent investigation, Mr.. Schoenhof sent
these results home to the state depart
ment, by which they were duly printed
in the consular reports.
The first startling conclusion arrived
at by the consul was that it cost more in
wages to make yard of print cloth in
Lancashire than in Massachusetts. To
make pound of raw cotton into print
cloth in America and England respect
lively, cost 1851 cents and 9.6S5 cents.
These figures are made up as follows:
America. ENGLAND.
Total cost of spinning. ...... %. 1892 1.7O8
Total cost of weaving. .......... 3736 4.802
Total cost of supplies, etc. 1928 3.175
1851 e.6s5
Looked at in another way, the average
daily rate of men, mule spinners, in Lam
cashire is from $1.23 to 81. So; the average
rate in Massachusetts, is $3.50. For weav-
ing, the piece rate per cut in Lancashire
is % cents for so yards; in Massachusetts
it is only 20 cents for the same length
and size. or Is per cent. more is paid in
England than in America.
g. %1.o+ 10 ~
print cloths to England? For two rea-
sons: One is that English print cloths
are finished and doctored to look better
than they are; the other is that the high
protective tariff enables print cloth
manufacturers to reap enormous profits
at home.
At this time of writing a yard of extra
64-64 print cloth sells at Fall River for
81 cents. The total cost, including a
small profit to the manufacturer, is only
1-16 cents. So that there is 9-16ths of
a cent, or more than half cent, of
profit on each yard of print cloth sold at
these figures.
In this way it is no wonder that near
ly all the Fall River print cloth mills
have divided profits averaging over 10
per cent. during the last year; and, at
the same time, it should be remembered
that their workmen struck unsuccess-
fully for rise in wages last spring.
When the workmen began to starve they
went back to the old monopoly shop
again.
After these figures and facts, who shall
say that protection and big profits mean
better wages for workmen?
Grains of Gold.
1t is seldom that we find out how great our
resources are until we are thrown upon
them
The pleasantest things in the world are
pleasant thoughts, and the great art in life is
to have as many of them as possible
To reprove small faults with undue vehem
ence Is as absurd as to seek to remove fly
from a friends forehead with a sledge ham
mer.
Information got by gallloping through
multitude of books is about as nourishing as
the mustard scraped off sandwich. 1t may