Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-31
FLAX TO THE FRONT.
Foreign Manufacturers Coming to the
United States, Nowadays,
GETTING THEIR MACHINERY HERE,
And Giving Good Employment to Many
Hundred Men and Women.
SOME OF THE FRUITS OF THE TARIFF

NEW YORK, May $3.50 many new in
dustries have been made possible in the
United States by the enactment of the Nc
Kinley bill, and so many have already
sprung into existence, that it seems almost
supertluous to give more than casual notice
to the hundreds of factories which are being
built all over the country. The Mckinley
law is doing much more than was promised
for it.
One of the many evidences of this is the
flax industry. Last year this country i'm
ported fax products worth 500, 600, 900, and
at the same time the farmers of the United
States destroyed 1,07O,OO0 tons of
fax straw as being useless to them,
and yet it has been shown
that the American flax equals in quality, in
fiber and in texture any grown in Russia.
The American farmer raised the fax for its
seed only, which was made into linseed oil,
and after the seed was threshed out the
straw was burned as being useless. The
Mckinley bill put duty of 55 per cent on
imported fax products and has made it
possible for the United States to manufact-
ure fax worth 500, 900, 000I
"A Chance for American Ingenuity.
Not only is it possible for the United
States to manufacture its own fax stufs,
but by the introduction of machinery and
American ingenuity in this new field this
country may export to all the rest of the
world. A reporter inspected . machine re-
Gently invented in this city by which the
flax straw can be prepared for use over 20
times as fast as 1t is by the old hand methods
in Europe, while number of other simple
inventions were exhibited BY means of
which the process of manufacturing fax
straw into the finished article of merchan-
disc was greatly facilitated. So that there
seems to be no doubt that with the unsur-.
passed fax fiber grown in the United
States, with the unrivaled American in
genuity, this country can become the great
est manufacturer in these lines in the
world.
In response to letter sent to a Govern
ment official in the West, it was learned
that ''any amount of fax fiber, more than
al. the paper mills in America can possibly
utilize, was grown in Minnesota, Iowa and
in North and South Dakota, while if other
sections of the country were included the
supply is endless
Possibilities Of the Flax Industry.
So far as the possibilities of the fax fiber
industry in the United States are concerned
the advocates of the Mckinley bill can well
afford to throw aside all figures, proba-
bilities and possibilities, and simply rest
their argument on hard facts, and these are
that English, Irish, Scotch and Welsh linen
factories which have been established
over 400 years in the old country are
being moved over to the United States;
not one or two of them, but many at time,
so just now the influx takes more of the
form of a stampede. One Scotch-Irish firm
(the name being purposely withheld) which
has been established in Belfast over 200
years, and which, during 1891, employed
daily from 1000 to 1,500 hands, came over
to the United States not more than two
weeks ago. and will open linen factory as
soon as its machinery can be completed.
And this again shows another development
OF the Mckinley bill, for instead Of bring
ing their old-style machinery with them,
the managers of this firm are having it
all made in America, and machinery worth
$50, 900 is now being manufactured for them
in Paterson, n. j.
A Big Twine Factory at Work.
Within three weeks another English firm
which has been engaged in the manufacture
ing OF carpets over two centuries has moved
to the United States, because the American
flax straw produces the best material for
making the body of the carpet For the
same reason twine factory employing
from 200 to 300 hands has heen started in
New York and instead of using imported
flax it will use the American article Just as
soon as the farmers learn to prepare 1t for
their business.
A man who has had long experience in
the flax industry said to reporter: ''The
development of this business, which has
been made possible by the enforcement of
the Mckinley bill, is almost boundless 1t
gives the farmer anywhere
from 81 to $40 ton for straw that he for
merly threw away as useless. 1t causes the
in the United States in wages
of 10000, 900 which heretofore had been
paid to Europe.
The Great Demand for Machinery.
''It causes large and immediate demand
for machinery of American make and it
leads to the development of the jute, twine,
carpet-bagging and many other kindred in
dustries. Our cotton crop requires 900
tons of baling. California uses q, SOC, 600 |
sacks year, the United States Postoffice |
Department uses 100000 pounds of one
kind of twine, and tor the cereals of this |
country we use $4,000 tons of binding
wine, all of which are made of imported |
ibers costing us $40, 900, 900 annually. Our
fax and other fbers now thrown away as
useless could be used lust as well for all |