The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-28
THE LIVING ToPIc.

There have been many earnest at
tempts to establish home manufactures
in Utah. Only few Of them have been
financially successful They have lin
gered along for time and then winked
out. What is the reason?
There have been several reasons for
this failure. One has been the lack of
capital to carry on a venture requir-
ing large outlay. Another has been
the abortive efforts at cooperation of
large number of shareholders in
joint-stock companies with a lot of di-
ectors, each wanting to take a hand
in the management of concerns with
which they were unfamiliar. Another
has been the inability to compete with
imported articles of the same hind,
either in price or quality or appear
ance. Another has been the indiffer-
ence of the public and the encourage
ment given by merchants to the feel
ing that imported goods are better than
home made
The reluctance of men with money to
spare to invest IN manufactures. comes
from fear of failure and the ease with
which money can be lent out at inter-
est. Profits from home manufactures
have been rare and small. Dividends
may have been drawn for awhile, but
they have usually lapsed into the kind
known as Irish dividends, and they are
not encouraging.
It is dawning upon the minds of
thinking people, however. that The
prosperity of Utah will be largely de-
pendent upon her ability to produce
and make what she needs for home
consumption, and that she must be
able to export something as we'll. The
improvements that have been made in
machinery, the influx Of skilled labor,
| the increase both of capital and of pop
ulation combine to open opportunities
! for guccessful home industries that
heretofore have not existea. Interest
is being awakened in the subject which
bids fair to be of a permanent charac-
ter.
The Bureau of Manufactures is an
organization of business men who in
tend to stay with it They viii pro-
coed on business Principles They will
encourage such manufactures as give
promise of success. And they are san
guine that the future of Utah home
industries win prove to be bright, and
that upon those industries largely de-
ponds the welfare of the coming state.
The Herald believes they are right
This is the opening of an suspicious
home manufacturing period. The de-
preston of the silver interest, the strug-
giles of the agricultural interest and
other influences of a similar character,
have turned the minds of many people
to the necessity of supporting Utah in
dustries. There will be a great many
people who will make it point to
buy and use and wear articles produc-
ed in this territory in preference to
such as come from the outside. This
will create the market which is essen
tial and which in times past vas lack
ing.
Two things will have to be borne in
mind by persons who engage in sup
plying that demand: Their goods
must be equal in quality to the i'm
ported articles. They must also be as
low in price. It may be said that pat
Iriotic people ought to be willing to
pay a little more for home made goods,
and to wait until they can be made
to look as well as the foreign. That is
Iall right in theory. but the difficulty
lis in its practice. You may rouse tenn
porary enthusiasm on both points for
ia while. but il does not usually endure
until the end. Home manufacturers
may as well face these two issues at
the start
Utah goods must need no apology.
They must go on the market on their
merit We believe there are great
many articles that can be produced here
at fair profit, and prove Just as good
and as good looking as those brought
in from the outside. The Bureau of
Manufactures, we understand, intend
to aid in promoting such enterprises.
The merchants and the clerks will have
to help in the good work This sug-
gests the question of profits.
Manufacturers will have to put down
their prices to meet the wholesale fig
ures of outside dealers, or as sure as
business is run for money and not
for fun or patriotism, the foreign arti-
Gle viii push the home made to the
wall. The merchant must have an in
ducement to prefer rushing the home
goods to selling the imported or he
win not long hold out in sympathy
with the movement
Notwithstanding the obstacles which
have been in the way of successful
home manufacturing, we believe that
better times for it are close ahead. If
a general interest can be created in the
movement, not a furore to die out in
a few months, but rational conviction
that home manufactures ought to be
sustained, and a determination that
they shall be, it win soon be the fash
ion to wear and use and buy Utah
wares in preference to any other, and