Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12
FROZEN CLEAR OUT.
Things Working Against Pittsburgs
Obtaining Some Industries.
CHAIR-MAKING IMPOSSIBLE HERE.
Labor and Material Not 0btainable at the
Proper Prices
TO COMPETE WITH SOME OTHER PLACES

-strike, Mr.. Weldon, of Weldon & Kelly
said that he would like to see the eight
hour movement prevail, provided it could
be made general all over the United States
All manufacturing centers could then be
placed on equal footing. But he thought it:
adoption in Pittsburg, unless this equalizing
arrangement could be effected, would be
disastrous. During discussion yesterday,
| between the late manager of the Duquesne
| Chair Manufacturing Company and Mr.. G.
Kimberland, some points were touched on
that ought to afford valuable pointers both
to employers and employees respecting
the status. There is, or has been, talk
| of establishing chair factory in this neigh
borhood, but it seems that the difficulties to
be overcome in the matter of competition
are appalling. 1t further appears that the
margin on some goods has become so narrow
that what to an outsider would appear to be
trife is the hinge on which success or
failure may turn.
Factors Needed for Success.
In the first place, the factory and the
material must be close together, cost of
labor equalized, and every apparent insig-
nifcant detail taken into consideration. In
this city Mr.. Seibert, backed by abundant
capital, failed to make chair-making profit
able, and Marshall, Kennedy & Co. now
occupy the site of his Allegheny
factory, as the conditions that
control chair-making do not obtain in flour
making to the same extent. Chettle tried
it back of Wellsburg, W. Va, where one
would suppose lumber, especially poplar, of
I, Il
be cheap enough to distance competition,
but he, too, failed to make money, though
very wealthy and able, one would suppose,
to conquer success He would sell chair,
or 10000 chairs, and get them up in
any style wanted, and he did get lumber
comparatively cheap, but he could not get
labor at rate to compete with Gin
cinnati and Western makers. He bought
from other makers everything they
sold cheaper than he could turn
it out and tried every expedient expert
ence could suggest and after sinking many
thousands of dollars dismantled his factory
and went into another pursuit. He had
plenty of money, but was not built SO that
he could enjoy idlenesa
Comparisons That Prove the Matter.
A few comparisons will suffice to show
wherein the inequality consists. Take
Grand Rapids for instance. What Pitts
burg chair manufacturer paid q man 50 %
per day for doing, staining, was done in
Grand Rapids for So week, s. against
S11 26 In the latter place the manufac-
turers also know nothing of the restrictive
regulations of factory inspection law, and
in an industry employing many hundreds
of operatives the great majority were
women and girls and boys scarcely
G4l, 1o% 1 &c orI
working for wages that would not pay their
board in Pittsburg. In addition to this,
material was close at hand and freight was
not paid on the rough, but on the finished
product. The differences in cost might be,
carried much farther, but these will suffice,
except to add that the operatives did not
know anything of q day of less than ten
hours
Now, take the building trade. In Chi
cago workmen put In ten hours. A Chicago
planning mill will plane one side of boards
for 25 cents per 1000 feet. This work in
Pittsburg costs 81 so per 1000 feet, and it
cannot be done cheaper, because our mills
have not the same advantages as the Chicago
manufacturers They do it on an extensive
scale, and there are besides resultant ad-
vantages The prodigality that character
ICES our waste of fuel on account of the old
time cheapness of coal, which bred expensive
and slovenly methods, Is not known in Chi
cago, and calculations as to its saving are
reduced to nicely. Every ounce of shaw
ings made by the planer is calculated at its
market price as fuel, and only those who
are willing to pay more for sawdust for
horse bedding than good hay would cost
use it as bedding. This item Is regarded
as no inconsiderable one in the profit &C.
count
Calculating by Carload Lots.
Again, all calculations are based on car.
load lots, and lumber costs 30 per cent
more if it is to be loaded on a
car when planed than when shipped in
the rough. Not much calculation is re-
quired to explain why the dressed lumber
for house can be shipped from the West
to Pittsburg and delivered at about the
same price the same in rough can be bought
here.
The survival of the fttest holds in the
sharp, competitive industrial struggle of
this age, especially in the industrial world,
and the day has passed when objectors
would be tolerated in policy of destroying
labor-saving machinery. But though com
petition has cheapened some articles the
cheapness has not reached all except, some
times, in the matter of quality, and the
man or woman of 80 can recollect that when
some articles of prime necessity were dearer
the purchasing power Of money was, in
general, much greater and people were
f'shifty" and could get along comfortably
without many things now considered
necessities Forty years ago corn
broom cost about what it does to-
day, but money was scarcer and
fewer suficed. In those days storekeeper's
stock was not complete without stock Of
so1r e, l.
them for themselves and sold their surplus
to the stores. In those days only the equal
ity" had their floors generally carpeted.
Some of the Possibilities shown.
A wellto-do mechanic or farmer might
have a Turkey carpet on the floor of the
best room, thereby making poorer neigh
bors uncomfortable if jealousy were part
of their composition, but in general tasty
rag carpet answered all requirements in re-
spectacle society. A wealthy $4,000 fam
lily in the city might have Brussels or vel
vet carpets, but their country cousins had as
q rule grave doubts whether their city rela-
tives could indulge in such enervating lux
ury and remain in the straight and narrow
way. A rag, or at most an ingram or
Turkey carpet, on the best room floor
sufficiently testified to the standing of
family and it did not require much sweep
ing, asexcept upon state occasions or on the
occasion of marriages and funerals this room
was never opened except to be aired. There
are few of-the-way places where this
simplicity still holds. Our grandmothers |
prided themselves on their bright, clean
oaken floors AT intervals sand was sprinkled |
upon them, and the trampling of the family |
on this sand for day or two secured the |
floor. When this operation was satisfac-
torily performed the women took hickory |