Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-30
FACTORS FORCED OUT.
George |. Whitney Calls Attention to
the Fall of the Middleman.
THE RESULT OF COMBINATIONS.
Changes of Score of Years in'the Business
of Pittsburg.
CONSUMERS GET SOME OF THE BENEFIT

in deprivipg LAWYERS of work was described
recently in THE DISPATCH, and it is now
found that the factor, or middle man is also
seriously affected. He is of less conse-
quence year by year, and where ten made a
living 40 or even % years ago as distributors
there is now scarce room for the energy of
one. The matter was discussed in Fourth
avenue brokers' Office, and George l. Whit
ney gave some data which shows that many
people must soon invent some new form OF
making living.
Among instances cited was that of a man
who once sold the product of so small
furnaces which found market in this city,
These furnaces all combined produced about
the output of one of the mammoth concerns
Of the present day. The Pittsburg factor
took their product, that is he guaranteed
the sale of it, and advanced money and
goods according to the furnace proprietor's
needs If one of these small furnaces turned
out $4,000 worth of metal in month the
proprietor probably needed $1,000 Of that
amount in goods, which he sold to his opera
tiveS. The factor was man of means, or
credit, and in the then state of trade and
manufactures was a necessity, and he was
well paid for his work. The writer cannot
recollect the extra commission paid to the
firm that sold for 80 furnaces, but it
amounted in round numbers to $500, 600 a
year. The benefits of the system were
mutual These little furnaces were scattered
about wherever limestone, ore and fuel
could be gotten in proximity, and many
beautiful slopes along the Allegheny Mount
ain chain were denuded of their timber and
left bowling wastes of scrub second-growth
under which rattlesnakes hiss and vermin of
all kind flourish, subslsting on the game
and keeping it scarce. Some of these
furnaces were supplied with coal, but not
many of them.
The Era of Combination.
When the era of combination arrived and
a pair of big monster furnaces would put
out as much pig in a day as all the so small
ones noted combined, the latter could no
longer compete, and in a short time the
combinations found that they could sell
their own stock and guarantee payment
themselves much cheaper than the commits
sion man had been doing it for his CUSTOM
ers and he became superfuity.
Middle-aged people can recollect when
the wholesale drygoods business was big
one in this city. These jobbers distributed
the goods for the factories Just as the COM
mission pig iron broker did furnace prod
ucts. In process of time the factory inter-
estS became so large that their owners COM
muned thus one to another: "Why should
We pay these jobbers 5 to 20 per cent
10 sell our goods?" Soon they hunted
out the crossroads dealer who with the
blacksmith and postmaster gave tone to the
township, and supplied him direct. They
could easily seduce his allegiance from the
iobber by dividing the profits of the latter
with hm until the iobber was forced out of
business. Even the blacksmith now often
buvs direct from the office of the mill that
makes his iron. A few jobbers can vet subsist
in the drygoods line because they have
i've goods, which being luxuries,
the making of which cannot so
readily be controlled by trusts as can the
manufacture of necesssries. In turn these
millionaire drygoods jobbers freeze out
small jobbers in notions, for, as stated by
Joseph Horne wears ago during the depres-
sion preceding 1879 hard times are benef-
cial to large dealers in notions and fine
goods 1t takes so much money to keep up
q stock that in times of slow sales small
capitalists cannot keep up their exhibit.
Cheaper to the Consumer.
The trust has done its perfect work in the
eItinguishment, not only of middlemen,
but of small capitalists as well 1t is not
necessary to recount what the Standard Oil
Company has done further than to remark
that bv combination and the extinguish-
inert of competition it can make 81 barrel
profit out of crude petroleum, and vet fur
nish illumination cheaper than ever was
imagined even in dreams. If trusts
have not cheapened all articles
of consumption to the consumer thew
have at last greatly decreased the cost of
production and distribution, but the plan
has not always brought grist to Transports
ton companies
Take the White Lead Trust, for instance.
Until recently white lead was me- le at many
points in the United States, and st. Louis
manufacturer, through an agency, would
sell part of his product in Pittsburg, and a
Pittsburg manufacturer would sell part of |
his in St Louis, some buyers in each city |
having a quarrel with, or a prejudice against |
the home manufacturer. Each manufacturer
would nush sales in the territory of others,
snd " .e the work made living for a host |
of middlemen, the competition cut sharply |
into profits.
Under the present trusts arrangement
this carriage is saved and the middleman's |
occupation is gone. Each manufacturer is |
supplied with the labels of the rest, and if a |
st. Louis buyer sends to this city to a man. |
ufacturer for white lead all he has to do is |
TO send to a manufacturer in St. Louis the |
order and the st. Louis product is labeled |
as that of Pittsburg and delivered, and. as |
ignorance is bliss, the St. Louis buyer is |
happy, thinking he has cut the nose off a |
man he does not like. The manufacturers |
divide the profit saved from carriage and |
the middleman. |
Not a Cotton Mill Left.
1t is so in almost all departments There |
is not a single cotton mill left in Pittsburg.
ale at one time the manufacture of cotton !
loth was considerable industry here. In
stead of raw cotton being shipped a
thousand miles to be spun and woven, the
mills are being removed to the vicinity of
the cotton plantations and only the manu-
factured product pays cost of carriage
The same holds in the clothing and shoe
trades. Large manufacturers get a profit
out of clothing made on a large scale and
sold at so per cent less than a tailor could |
sell it and live, and the large companies |
have artists that can fit anything in anthro- |
shape.
Shoes are now turned out of large factories |
at a cost for the same quality of so per cent |
of what a shoemaker working by hand |
could produce them, and made in such
shapes, lengths and widths as to accommo-
date all except those who have corns on out
of the way places on their feet The conse-
quence is that, were it not that there
still exist few people who must have
footgear made TO order, though thev paw
FIVE prices for it, all shoemakers would be
driven to other employment or starve. As
it is, YOU can count on your fingers and toes