The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-03-20
Don't Cnderrate Small Industries.
Manufacturers Record


Repeatedly the importance of small
industries, or rather of the manufactu-
rer of little things, has been referred to
in our columns because We have feared
that Southern investors and business
men would overlook them and give
their exclusive attention to enterprises
that required large capital and were
attended with much greater risks.
Recently our esteemed contemporary,
the Charleston News and Courier, pub
lished local concerning the railroad
projects Of that city, which contained
the views held by "a prominent rail-
road man." He is reported to have
said: "It makes me mad when I hear
people talking about starting up such
enterprises as tooth-pich factories in
Charleston. This city should only be
satisfied when it has started number
Of new enterprises Of great dimen-
sions." Such an opinion would natu-
rally be held by man connected with
railroads, because his daily business
has brought him into contrct with
others engaged in like enterprises, and
he is constantly called upon to con-
slider affairs of magnitude, in compari-
son with which all lesser things seem
trivial and contemplate. But the gen.
tleman quoted, and others who enter
tain similarideas, are greatly mistaken.
enterprises of great dimensions re-
quire heavy capital at the outset, and
continually keep a vast amount Of
money locked up in their plant, besides
that other considerable amount en-
ployed as working capital. When
business is good, profits fair, labor sat-
istied, all goes smoothly; but when
troubles come from any cause, and
business stagnates, then the plant no
longer earns the interest on its cost,
wages are reduced, often operations
cease, and the work people scatter.
The stoppage of factory in which a
thousand wage-earners are employed
is serious loss to the placein which it
is located. Every citizen is in some
degree injured by it. If the same capi-
tai were distributed among twenty
enterprises of various kinds, with fifty
men employed at each, the stoppage of
one would scarcely be felt, and the
workers thrown out of employment
would soon find some kind of remu-
erative occupation without going else
where.
We are not opposing great enter
prises. They exist all overthe country
and are important constituents of its
progress and glory. But as whole,
they are in minority as compared
with the vast number Of manufactures
and shops that employ from three to
thirty wage-earners, and the sum total
of their aggregated capital is less than
that of the smaller concerns. ENTER
prises of great dimensions" are quicker
to feel the effects of financial troubles
than are those of small size, and when
they fail, the injury to the surround
ing community and to the country at
large is commensurate with the magni-
tude Of their former operations. The
making Of tooth-picks, shoepegs, pins
and a multitude of little things in daily
use is not belittling, nor is the indus
try, whatever it may be, Of small ac-
count.
1t is all very we'll for our "prominent
railroad man" to advocate the build
ing of car shops in Charleston. We
have no doubt but that such an enter
prise, conducted on sound business
principles, would pay there as hand
sonely as elsewhere, but neither he
nor any other man has a right to ridi-
Guile those varied petty industries that
furnish steady work and good wages to
thousands Of industrious people. On
the contrary, while advocating the
establishment ofextensive enterprises,
he should encourage instead of getting
mad at those who propose to make
tooth-picks, shoe-laces or any other
useful articles
Little drops of water. little grains OF send,
Make the mighty ocean and the beauteous
land"-
and there would be quite as much
sense in getting mad at single drop be-
cause it was not a sea. or at grain of