Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-02-12

!" Doo1oh W eho w hApPAS h0 Souph'
n.y."
WAS it a succsssb"
mo; the company made woful failure,
both with their goods and in their finances.
We bought some of the stock from the
assignee at very low figures, and in this
way were introduced to American made
files. But this failure was soon followed
by successful ventures, and by 1870 Ian ge
factories were running at Providence,
Philadelphia, Middleton n. Y, and
Beaver Falls, Pa.
And making good goods?"
Eyes, sir, but with a good many gen,
erations of prejudice to fight against. The
English brands were as we'll known to
every man using a file as his fathers name,
and of one thing they were sure, that Us
that 40 good file could be cut by machinery
The one cry of the free trader is that the
American manufacturer is a mOnOpollst,
That tariffs are for his exclusive use and
benefit and that prices always advance
the extent of the tariff. .
WAS it so with fIes?"
The first effect of these American fac.
tories was il decline of 10 per cent. IN
English prices. | can remember how
worried we we've over this, thinking we
should have let American goods alone
But Brother Jonathan came up smiling
with 10 per cent. cut still lower. John
Bull met this sullenly, and the game OF
cutting went on, but John Bull alway>
getting the worst of it, until at last he
practically give up this market. You
would have had hard work to fnd ar
English file in an ordinary hardware store
in 1880"
80 so IN as that?''
Eyes, just that soon. There were sci
entifc tests made at the centennial, arc
best record Of any file tested. This wa:
the last straw on the camel's back o.
prejudice, and from that time our mil
men ceased to discriminate against {
machine-made file. g"
what about prices?''
"I'm coming to them, but want you t.
see that files embody in themselves all thai
the free traders claim must inevitably hap
pen under tariff. Besides that | take q
tool that almost every working man is ia
miliar with [ wish to refresh his memo
ry about the good old times with thei
good old prices, and then let him compar'
them with the prices he pays now. | tel
you free trade and protection won t b.
worked out by little lawyers making stuml
speeches about trade but must be judge
by mems experience.
That's so; but never mind the lawyer
let us get at the figures"
"Well, here is my price to. day for ten
inch saw files, 81 A per dozen; first quail
ty goods. Here is my old salesbook O
1966-there is bill of ten-inch files, &c. 81
per Dozen
"Phew That is quite drop
so it is. But you would discover tina
in getting from the higher to the lowe
price there are good many ruins amongs
these fairfield monopolists. Here is al
eight-inch file I sell at 90 cents per dozen
showing that they cost him then 1920 pc
dozen; he probably jobbed them at So, ant
they retailed at 80 cents each. They retail
today at 10 cents.
at certainly is, and it is in line where
all the advantage was with the foreign
maker. know from my own recollection
that in SO things were at very low ebb
Prices of everything were down because
people could not buy but little. Here i
fathers bill in that year of So SO per dozen
for file buy at 81 SO today
| met Sam Disston soon after my cha
with the jobber, and | began to ask hin
questions about files. Sam has been OF
the road so long that he is known to thu
hardware trade better than any other man
He is brother of the late Henry Disston
lish saw out of the country, but in the in
b. of lc NJ
small part. | asked him what his expert
ence was with files.
Said he, SIT has been with files as will
almost everything else you could mann
that was not covered with patent; com
petition has been so fierce that no manu-
facturer has made any money. Take ON
instance. A few years ago small factor,
started up in Saginaw, Mich. It's capac
ity was very small, but what trade is sc
cured was taken from one large eastern
concern, before that, almost a monopol.
of the lumber file business. This concern
did not propose to lose its Michigan trade
and it made cut in price to hold it. Blu
it had to cut everywhere else. too, and tn
result was that every buy er in the Unite
States got his stock 10 per cent. less be
cause of that little factory in Saginaw
/ But the free traders say you are gettin'
rich"
Then why do so many concerns go GU
of TIE business? There was very larg
| factory at Beaver Falls. 1t was owned b.
! the Economics, and run at loss for mum
Der of years, as their annual report show
ed. These peculiar people, however. ar
weary wealthy, and have very large inter
| ests, so tn at they could afford to run th
| file factory at a loss, because of gain in
directly from rents and outer sources. Blu
aventuallr the gulf was too wide, and the
closed out their stock and business at grea
loss and shook the dust off their feet at file
making for evermore.
But the other factories keep on run
ing?"
Some do, and they can not do Their
| wise. Bnt all do not. There was a strons
company organized in Cleveland ten year
or so ago-the Perkin File company;
came to an inglorious end three years ago
and the stockholders must have lost ever,
dollar they put into it.
How many men are employed in max
ing files in this countrv?"
about $500. They consume abou
S 600 tons of steel annually. and probabl!
the wages paid out are not far from a mil
lion dollars the goods turned out arr
about 81, 900, 600 a year.
How are wages here as compared witt
wages in England? %
Il bave seen exact figures and our scale
of prices here is about 20 per cent, highe
than in England; we pay so cents wher'
they pay 50 cents.