Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-04-30
WEAVING BUSINESS.
Testimony Of Eastern and Northern
Manufacturers.
THE EXISTING CONDITIONS.
Production - Employment - Wages
Pnid-Ordera and ProAts.-Enert Of
ference TO UndervmIuations.

| BOSTON. MASS. April 29.--The May
number OF the Home Market Bulletin
issued to-day. contains the result OF
canvass among the textile manufacturers
/ OF New England. New York, New Jersey
| and Pennsylvania AS TO the conditions oil
| their business which proves TO be highly
interesting. Answers were received from
4sl establishments, about evenly divided
among the States named. and fairy
representing city and country and large
| and small establishments. These an
swers compare April. 1898. with April
1898. and are summarized as accurately
as possible In table.
IA TO reduction and restoration OF
wages. 1S5 OF the iSl establishments did
not reduce at all. Sixteen reduced ana
have partially restored. and 252 reduced
and have not restored The Fall River
and New Bedford mills. which have re-
Gently made partial restorations. do not
enter either of the aggregates above.
Nearly all concerns which did not re-
duce at all are either small mills in the
country, or are producers OF speciaities'
I'm which there Is little competition or
for which fashion has made good de-
mand. In many cases, too. where the
wage-rates have been maintained. there
have been reductions of running time, or
of hands, or OF both.
or course II Is impossible TO put into
a table or summary all that was written
in the returns.
THE AVERAGE LOWERED.
But the table fairly shows that the
volume Of production and employment
nj he, = nor 30
on the average below the condition OF
two years ago, while the orders for goods
are not quite one half so encouraging
as they were then. the cancellations are
far greater. and the profits are almost
out OF sight.
1t is the condition of orders and pro-
fits which best indicates the true state
of business, and affords means OF
Judging whether or not the present rates
of production and wages can be main
tanned or increased. II shows that most
OF the manufacturers are running simply
to hold their customers and keep their
help so as be ready for the bet
ter business indicated for the future by
tae elections of last autumn and this
spring. They claim TO be suffering far
more than formerly from foreign and
cut-throat competition Orders are can
celed upon frivolous pretexts, the real
meaning Of which is that sales are dis
appointing or similar goods are offered
at lower prices.
Some Of them speak Of the un1ervalua-
tons of foreign goods which, Of course,
says the Bulletin. were expected under
the ad valorem feature Of the new tariff.
This enormous evil has only just be-
gun to be felt. because until business
revived the importations were small.
They have recently been rapidly in
creasing, and not only is the Treasury
Department distressed over the unex-
pected smallness of the revenue and the
undoubted frauds in the invoices, but 1t
is now an everyday experience In all
the commercial cities that foreign IA
brcs are offered at prices which could
not be met here. even with all profits
sacrificed and wages cut % per cent. be-
low the present average.