Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-08-28
TIE TARIFF On GLOVES.
JHE PROFITS o. ThS Manufacture
AND THE WAGES OF LABOR.

states-How the Industry Was Located
aud 1Iow Il Deselaped-The Raw Ma
mountaineering Statistics.
l. may not be generally known that
three-fourths of all the gloves made in
the United States are made in one little
county in New York; and yet this is the
claim of the glove manufacturers Of
Gloversville and Johnstown, both in
Fulton county. The yearly value of
their product is between S., 1000, 900 and
50, 600, 900, and they say that 1000 peo-
pie are dependent upon their business,
about one-third of whom depend upon
the dressing of hides.
The locating of the industry in this
particular part of the United States was
acct lental. In the early part of this
century it issaid that man by the name
of Talmadge was laid up one winter by
some accident He put in his time max
ing gloves from deerskins then album
dant in the AdiroDdacks. In the spring
he pat a bag of these gloves across
horse and started for Albany to see what
they would bring there. He sold them
on the road at such good figures that he
made up more the mex winter, and in
few years had started a little glove
factory. Others followed and soon
Fulton county began to be known as
glove center. The industry grew slowly
until about 1878, when, partly through
the efforts of John NJ. Carroll, congress.
man from that district, hides were put
on thefree list.
The effect on the business of allowing
manufacturers to obtain hides from any
part Of the world was marvellous. Busi-
ness has been prosperous ever since, and
will continue to be so as long as hides
can be imported free of duty. This is
the only form Of protection sought by
some of the very largest manufacturers
there. The majority, however, of the
225 /, inns that compose the Gloyemakers
assoc stisa fdvors prstective tariff on
gloves, and succeeded in getting the
dpsyrgaised from so per cent. to an av-
eraSe of 20 or 80 per cent. in the Nc
Kinley bill. Why they favored more pro-
duction is evident from what one mem
Der said, I'VE have very firm agree
ments not to cut on prices at wholesale"
That duly of even 90 per cent. was not
needed is shown by the fact that all.
of any ability whatever, who have
begun business since 1873 have sue
ceeded unless they have manufactured
from imported leather-which is dutia-
ble), and that many of the firms have
for years been making enormous profits.
The effects of this increased duty on
the business VII be sli light. Some of the
very largest manufacturers do not intend
to make any change in the kind of work
done, and do not anticipate any greater
demand for their goods. A few firms,
however, are beginning to experiment in
maxim some kinds of fine gloves that have
never been made here. They admit that
they can make this class of goods here
only by importing cutters from England,
and that the new tariff will not cause an
advance in wages. But they say there
will be more work for sewing girls, who
are mostly American. Now, it happens
that cutters are the only class of work
men that get more than an average of
$1.25 per day. Hence the only labor to
be benefited by the increased duty viii
rot he American labor. Nearly all Of the
cutters now employed. except appren-
tlces. are foreigners.
Wages now paid to sewing girls work
ing in the shops average about thirty
dollars per month. This is fair wages
for girls, and was recognized as such by
t.4e mckinney toiIH uuIuiulltee when
the glove manufacturers, while asking
for more protection for the benefit of
these g rls, submitted statistics showing
the difference in wages between this and
other countries. So eager We're they to
make u good showing for the American
girls that they neglected to mention that
out of these wages the girls must pay
one dollar or two dollars two dollars at
most shops) for power to run their ma
chimes; that they may break twenty or
twenty-five needles in n month, worth
from i y ez.ie 20 ole dc-,5r, ~ m veg
must supply; that they are liable to dam
age to goods from cuts, grease, etc. an
that the girls must pay for their own
maohi,rss
These machines must be strong and
capable of doing different kinds of stitch
ing in leather. Hence they are very ex-
pensive. 1t is said that i'll some shops 90
per cent of them are imported. These
cost the girls about fifty-fve dollars
(nearly twenty dollars of which is to
pay the duty of % per cent?, and are
nearly worn out at the end of four years.
About - per cent. of the gloves made
are EARNED out" to families living
within radius of ten or twenty miles
from G'oversville. These families, of
course, provide their own machines,
needles, power, etc. They receive the
same piece price for stitching, sewing on
buttons, decorating, ETC., as the shop
girls, but are taxed so much per dozen
for the delivery and return of the goods.
Another little matter to which these
manufacturers neglected to call the at
tention Of the tariff committees is the
fact that the duty asked for and obtained
is often greater than the labor cost of
making the gloves, e. g., the labor cost of
making gloyes that sell for six dollars