The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-06

10Y ennuren. 10 THESE operatives was
PAID IN wages, during the year 1890. the
sum OF 81, 99l ,6T6-being an increase in
wages of more than 100000 since 1880.
Inc amount of wool used during the
year was 3.7S2, 749 pounds, being an in
olease OF over 100000 pounds over the
amount used in 1880. The value of the
product for 1890 was $S,814, 2s6, an in
elease OF almost two million dollars,
W. wn ne the cost of material used was
90, 'V4, Gus, more, by million and a quar-
Ter, than was used in 1880. There were
III the Maine wooden mills in 1890, 3S7
sets OF cards, s combing machines, 1885,
4lo splndles, 1920 looms and 81 knitting
machines.
since the data given in the census
were collected the business of wooden
manufacture has largely increased, many
new mills having been built and i'm
pfoVements and engagements having
Deen made on many of the old ones.
Worsted mills are now in operation at
Sanford and Fairfield, the latter having
peen erected during the past year.
Maine has one silk mil, at Westbrook,
which is doing flourishing business.
The wooden manufacturing establish
ments of Maine, now numbering nearly
If not quite, one hundred, located in
nearly every county in the State and
using for considerable portion of their
material the wool grown from Maine
sheep, are furnishing employment to a
large number of people and are contrib
uting much to the industrial develop
ment of the State.
BOOT AND SHOE MANUFACTURE.
The business of boot and shoe manu-.
facture in Maine has been of slow, yet
sure and steady growth. The chief
centre of this industry is at Auburn, in
Androscoggin County, where more oper-
atives are employed than in all the other
shoe factories in Maine.
There are, however, factories located
in small towns in various places, as the
business is one that can be carried on in
a small village equally as successfully as
in city and many manufacturers have
been Influenced to remove to smaller
towns to avoid the disturbing influences
of labor organizations.
The statistics from the factories OF
Auburn and Freeport will show the in
crease in this important industry since
its establishment in 1914, in which year
the amount of capital invested was but
$1,000 and only seventeen hands were
employed. From this small beginning
tho business slowly but gradually in
creased until 1860, when the amount in
vested was S21, coo and the number OF
hands employed was ITO. From that
time onward the increase was much
more rapid, until in 1891, the amount of
capital invested by thirteen firms in the
two leading towns mentioned reached
the sum Of S1,22S, 100 and the number
of hands employed was /. 969
The output OF these factories in that
and the value of the product was $4,441,-
23S.
The Maine shoe-workers are, as a gcd-
eral rule, Americans, only ten per cent.
OF the number given above being foreign
ers and of these large majority are
| Canadian-French.
THE ICE INDUSTRY.
The wealth of Maine consists not alone
in her agricultural and manufacturing
resources, nor in the products of her
soil, her forests, her factories and her
ship-yards. Added to these is an indus
try peculiar to her northern climate.
which brings to the State many thous.
ands of dollars annually and furnishes
profitable employment for large num-
Der of her citizens. The ice crop is one
that brings with it no exhaustion of
soil and no necessity for fertilization.
| Successive crops do not result in a deteri-
Grafton either of the value or the quality
of the product, or of the ability of the
same areas to raise future cr1ps # equal
amount and excellence.
The first ice ever shipped from Maine,
as an article of merchandise, was from
the Kennebec river, about 1926. A YES
ner, late in the fall, was frozen in and
ice-bound for the 7inter. The follow
ing spring, as the ice in The river COM
menced to break up, she loaded her hold
with cakes of ice secuted from the mass
of floating ice in the river, and called
with it for Baltimore, where the cargo
was sold for 500. Now the broad bosom
of the kennebec is, in winter, covered
with force of busy men and horses en-
gagged in cutting this valuable product
and storing it in the massive ice-houses
with which the shores of the river are
lined for many miles.
The first building for the storage of
ice was built at Richmond, on tho
Kennebec, by Messrs. Page and Gatchell
in 1925.
This house was filed during the win
ter, but the methods then used involved
a.. Il