The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-02-28
HOME MANUFACTURES.

1t is hard matter for the home
to compete with foreign
dealers, even if his wares are really
cheaper, so long as the popular taste
runs in the line of imported goods.
Some people seem to care but little
about the quality, if the articles are
only cheap and snowy. Utah is not
the only place in the world in which
this taste is SO prevalent; it seems to
be natural for man to reach out after
things not peculiar to his own country.
Nations have to pass protective laws
in order to hinder the importation of
foreign goods, but we have not
the power to retard importation
from other places within our own ma
tion; yet we have another power
which should be quite as strong as the
first, and that is, the desire to be loyal
to our own pockets; and the man that
has no interest in the support of the
home industries of his own town, bis
own country, or his own state CT ter
ritory, can certainly have no real in
terest in his own purse. A man
would be considered very trifing who
would persist in putting his money in
some other PERSONS pocket, yet the
man who neglects to support the in
terests of his own community GER
tainly places his money in the pocket
of foreigner, only in an indirect
way.
The farmer can afford to give a
greater price for home produced
article than for an imported one, and
the home manufacturer can afford to
give higher price for home produce,
if they will mutually support each
other. If the farmers grain has to be
sent to distant market, it has to pass
through several hands and be shipped
before it reaches the foreign manufac-
| turer. and the goods that are bought
with it have to be shipped and handled
several times before it reaches the
farmer who may use the imported
articles; and all this shipping and
handling must be paid for, which will
take, at the lowest estimate, one-half
of the grain. Now it is plain that the
farmer gets but half value for his
grain; and the home manufacturer car
afford to give better article for the
same amount of grain than can the
importer, provided he has the same
facilities and labor-saving machinery
to Go his work.
But as long as the fancy for toreigr
productions over balances the desire to
protect our own industries, the home
manufacturer must give up the idea o.
manufacturing good articles and turr
his attention to making limitations OF
the fimsy and SNOWY articles, that
can be put on the market at very low
figure; this is his only hope.
But this slip-shod business is 3
downright robbery of the community
The laborer buys pair of boots that
ought to wear eight or ten months
but one gives way at the heel in {
week or two and the boots are useless.
The factory but half twists the yarr
and the tailors' work is lost; or tht
tailor puts poor work on good clotl
anu tne Neaf5r fs ~ .sis
the wool, the spinning and weaving
and the trimmings are all lost becaus
the tailor has to work for a very 10y
price in order to compete with IN
ported goods of the same style.
amounts almost to sin to wantonl
waste valuable material in this way
1t might as well be burned.
1t is hoped that the good people c
Utah will cultivate taste for hom
productions and be willing to pay
reasonable price for good articles, in
stead of running mad after show
foreign goods, that are far more e2
pensive in the end tb an well-mad
articles.