Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1892-09-10
POCKET CUTLERY INDUSTRY.

POCKET CUTLERY INDUSTRY.
The Pride of Protectionists Roth the
Manufacturers aud the Employees are
Forcigners-ENtra Duty Obtained by
Observation-Disclosures the Trust Has
Raised Prices aud Robbed the Americans
of $500. 900 The Precious Little That
Labor Gets.
Perhaps there is no industry OF much
Importance that shows the stimulating
effects of McKinleyiSm more than the
manufacture of pocket cutlery, and
there is no industry to which the pro-
te%ctionists can and do point with more
pride. The act of 1880 increased the
duty from 50 per cent. to from 20 to
over 100 per cent. 1t is now the claim
of protectionists-and it is being her
aided far and widc-that this industry,
which was dying under a 80 per cent,
stimulus, has been SO built up by Ne
Kinlev that a have been advanced
10 per cent. in three of the twenty-four
factories of this country. Prices of
knives have also been advanced, but
this a secondary matter with protcc-
~tionists. the essential idea being to start
new industries here, or to assist old
ones by cutting off foreign competition.
If /. eve pays our government to propa-
gate artifcially any industry this is
probably such an industry, and yet let
us analyzc a little the cost TO the nation
of such an investment and zee who are
benefited by it.
The pocket cutlery, like many other
industries, was established in this cOun-
try during the free trade period from
1910 to 1860. At that time more than
half of the employees were Americans.
Since it became highly protected and
began to rely upon governmental aid,
rather than m%critorious goods for sue
cess, the industry has been unsteady,
and since about 1870 has had the blues,
Just as a man who is in the habit Of TAX
ing stimulants to keep up his spirits
will have when he is unable to
obtain the ever larger doses which
his unnatural appetite Graves Wage.
have been reduced often in this indus
try, and only four or five years ago re
auctions of about 20 per cent. wer,
made in most of the shops. Partly b
causc they were driven out by the Eng
fish and German workmcn who weIe
imported to keep wages down, tie
skilled American wOrkmen have let
this business, until to-day out of LAO
or | 800 workers in the t~wenty-four Is
adjustments (mOst small oncsl with
make pocket cutlery, about /, 100 are
English, 200 are German and 100 or 80
are Americans-thc latter being mostly
boys and girls not doing skilled work
and earning only from fifty cents to
Il dollar per day. The Americans have
but little prospects Of lettering their
condition, for the foreigners now have
a monopoly Of this industry, by meas
Of their unions-Spring Knife Makes
union, subdivided into forgers, aid
grinders and fnishers unions. Their |
rules practically prohibit any but Eng
lish and German from entering any e-
cept the unskilled departments, The
foreigners are mostly from the Sheffield
district in England and are undesirable
as immigrants-most of them, it is saTl,
can neither read nor write.
As to the manufacturers they ne
also largely English, who advocate
plenty of protection and who hare |
shown themselves willing to pay for /.
In conjunction with the table cutlery
manufacturers, they kept two men at
Washington much of the time for three
or four years previous to the passag. of
the Mckinley tariff act. Their share
of this expense was $1,000. They now
keep a man at the custom house 10 pre-
vent INTERPRETATIONS and fraud Hav-
ing secured all they expected at Wash
ington they Immediately set to york to
get back the money which they had in
vested there. Their a~ssociatio, held
weekly meetings to arrange prices and
made their first general advance in
October, almost before the Mckinley
act had taken effect, They had paid
for their share of this tariff actand saw
no reason for denying their proprietor
ship in it, Hence some Of them
boldly announced that because of
the Mckinley bill they had advanced
prices from 10 to 10 per cent. In Janu-
ary, 1891, a second general advance was
made. This caused such a howl from
dealers and the public that the manu-
t%acturers ceased to send out circulars
advancing prices all along tine line at
once, and instead have held monthly
meetings and made advances BY private
price lists to individual dealers. These
lists appear regularly, the las. being on
August q, 1892. One month they will
inform a dealer that they are COM
PEELED to make the following changes
in prices The changes usually
amount to from 10 to IL per cent
advance on about dozen styles. The
next month II dozen other styles will
receive the same treatment Large
dealers say that the advance since Sep,
tember, 1890, amounts to fully 80 per
cent. on the total of all knives sold, !
According to the testimony given in
1880, before the ways and means com.
-'A 1
mlttec, the combined investment of
these four companies was only $500 900. |
Inc manufacturers then put on long
races and tried to make the committee
believ that the pocket cutlery industry
was about tocXpire under a so per .ent.
duty. 1t now appears that they were
making largely in excess" of le per
cent upon their actual capital $780,
ooO) and that they are now in shape to
make 40 per cent on this same amount.
they add in their prospectus that
prices upon cutlery have lev yet
reached those which could have been
asked by the increased rate of tariff"
That their claims are not extravarant
is evident from the announcement in
the House Furnishing Goods Weekly of
August 4, 1892, hat 'the S%outhinyton
Cutlery Co., of Southington, Conn. has
declared "A quarterly dividend of S per
cent 1t is clear that the increased
duty was obtained under false pre-
lenses, if not by actual fraud. And
these are the class OF men who reap the
benefits of McKinleyism.
Notice, now, how these spoils are di.
vided between the manufacturers and |
their employees, The republican press
points with pride IN thran oo~n, |