Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-11-26
How the Thread Industry Has
Been Stimulated and Prices
Reduced Under Protection.
a Letter Which Tells a Striking
Story Of the Wonderful
Effect of the Tar IF.
Price Reduced 90 Per Cent. and
ago, DAD led on the
Average.


is prominent lawyer and free trader.
He is S, arching after information among
the manufacturing industries of this coun-
try, which will sustain him in his idea
that protection bars competition and in
creases prices. So he wrote a letter of
inquiry to the Willimantic Linen COM
pany, down in Connecticut, for figures
which would brace him up and give hlm
text for a free trade speech. The
answer is rich in figures and racy in senti-
ment. Here it is
HARTFORD, Conn, Oct. 10, 1891.
&c. RICHMOND, Esq, Madison, Wis:
my DEAR SIR-Yours of Oct 8 was
received at Willimantic, Oct Is, and is re-
ferred to me for answer.
'You wish to know the effect of the
tariff on our manufacturing industry,
which is spool cotton. Prior to 1860 the
duty on spool cotton was from % per
cent. to 30 per cent. ad valorem, which
was not sufficient to establish the business
in this country on permanent and COM
peting basis.
In 1861 the duty was made partly speci-
fc and partly ad Valorem, and would now,
if still in force, be equivalent to about %
cents on each dozen of spools containing
200 yards on each spool. The present
duty is IA cents on each dozen spools con-
tanning 200 yards each, the reduction be-
made in 1888
Under the high duty, the English
manufacturers who had previously supplied
this market 1.-THE Coats company and the
two Clarks), transferred their American
business to this country, expendlng about
ten millions of dollars in mills and ma
chinery. In 1860 this company was al
ready manufacturing what IS known as
three cord glace spool cotton. The price
of this article was then 4215 cents net for
one dozen spools containing 200 yards
each. We now receive for this article,
greatly improved in quality, 1615 ce-ts
for the same quantity.
''In 1860 our wages averaged about 81
per week for each man employed Now
our wages average about IS per week. Ia
short, while tie price of these goods has
been reduced 90 per cent, the average
wages paid have been doubled. There
has never been any duty on the raw ma
terial, which is cotton.
"The wages paid In Great Britain have
also been raised in the thirty-two years
and are now about Cne-half what is paid
for this class of labor in this country. We
have the pay-rolls of the principal manu-
factmers of spool cotton in Europe and
ma the ABOVE IL IdiT statement.
"Of course the cost of spool cotton has
been greatly reduced in the thirty years by
the invention of labor saving machines
without exception, these special machines
have originated in this country, and have
later been adopted In Great Britain.
''In the manufacture of spool cotton,
and indeed in ali textiles, the labor on
both sides of the Atlantic produces about
equal results per hand. lie the laborer is
paid "a per week in Europe and IS per
week here, the actual labor cost here will
be double that in Europe The same ma
chinery is used both here and there. 1t is
run at the same speed and with the same
attendants.
81 visited last May several of the best
mills in Manchester, Eng, and became
fully satisfied on this point
''There are three results we should dread
from removal of the present duty. First,
labor struggle, which would be inevita-
BILE, as the competition of English labor
would be instantaneous and active
Second, we should dread an influx of in
ferior goods under false labels and with
short measure, which occurred constantly
prior to the imposition of the high duty
Third, great and unnecessary loss which
must ensue FROM a sudden and vast change
In values, in case measure should be
adopted which would involve the whole
range of manufacturing industry.
"Of course this loss would ultimately
fall on the country at large, but the first
force of the blow would be felt in such in
dustries as have been established ard con-
Quoted for the last thirty years under the
tariff system.
The difference between the wages paid
in Great Britain and paid here amounts in
our case to about IS 900 per week, which is
about double the profit we have earned in
the average of the last three pears, say 615
per cent. on the capital of two million
dollars. Under the present system prices
have steadily declined and continue to do
so, from the active home competition. Up
to this time this decline has in part been
subtracted from the profits and in part has
been met by better methods of manufacture
and sale. We certainly could not abandon
the manufacture of textiles In this
country.
1T would seem to be a clear proposition
that any country which imparts brains in
the shape of invention, taste, skill and
accumulated experience and pays for the
same by sending away backache In the
form of crude raw material, must suffer
periodical bankruptcy, as was the case in
this country before 1850, and is now the lot
of the Argentine republic. Yours truly,
"WLLIMANTIC LINEN Co.
"a. G. DUNHAM, V. z. ="
1t is needless to say. probably, that Mr..
Richmond did not give the letter to the
press. The Willimantic company furnish
ed a copy to the Hartford Courant, and IN