The Winslow mail., 1899-01-21
THE TRADE IN TOYS.
There Are Many Manufactures in
This Country.
One-HaIf of the Supply Is Imported,
the Other Half Made at
HOme-Germany's Big
Output.

There are $50 manufactures of toys
! in the United States having total
capital of 81, ,500,o00 They turn out il
year about SIS ,G00.0 .0C0 worth Of toys,
the material used in their construction
being worth about one-half that sum.
The Importation of toys from other
countries amounts in year to about
So C0G COO, SO that it may lie said gen
orally that the entire output of foreign
and domestic toys for the American
market reaches the value of about So
GC0,000 year, though the selling price
at retail of such articles is, OF course
considerably more.
BY the federal census Of 1890 there
were in the United States at that time
135GG, 500 persons between the ages OF
eve and seventeen. and taking the ages
Of children between five and twelve the
nuiEber was about 12.O00,G00. This
y,cu!d give the average expense for the
children of the United States at so
cents each year for toys, though 1t is
IN average not impartially distributed
and not Uniform in any state. The
iigher grade of toys, the more intri-
cate mechanical toys. such as talking
dolls, automatic soldiers, steam cars,
boats and animal groups, are imported
from abroad, and the chief country Of
supply is Germany, from which the I'M
portations in 1897 were 1900; Geo of the
$4,000. eco of all countries.
Germany has retained for many years
this peculiar distinction Of furnishing
toys fer the children OF every country,
and ii has suffered Of late years no
diminution Of the trade The center of
the toy interest of Germany is the town
OF Nuremberg, and the chief market of
expectation is the city Of Hamburg.
Following Germany as an exporter Of
toys is France with a total in year of
about $200, 900 worth, an almost insig-
nifcant figure when compared with the
export of Germany, but which would
be even smaller but for the fact that
what are known to the toy trade as
Paris dolls" are not duplicated sue
cessfully elsewhere, and in the con-
struct:on of them the French me-
chanics seem to excel. To small eX-
tent the Italian doll makers rival the
toys in 1897 from all European coun-
tries, Germany and France excepted,
was less than 100000, and from coun-
tries not in Europe less than $4,000.
The Germans have a peculiar llnack
for toy making, and another advantage
which they enjoy in the Bavarian and
Saxon provinces, from which chiefly
toys come. is the cheapnoss Of labor,
the artists and designers receiving S15
to S25 week EACH while the pay Of the
girls who do the mechanical work of
preparing the toys for market varies
from 25 to so cents day.
For the cheaper grades of toys, that
is toys in which the chief article is
wood, tt e American home supply is ade-
quate. The toy-making business here
gives employment to about 1900 per-
sons, of whom nearly one-third are in
the state Of New York. Toys are also
made in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. but very few in Con
necticut, fewer N the west, and prac-
tically none at all in the south, though
there is one toy factory in the state Of
Kentucky. Whatever be the condition
of the toy business for manufacturing,
It is one which allows of large profits,
and which entails, sometimes, large
losses to the retailer.
AS articles of merchandise, toys are
very perishable. They break easily;
the fashion changes in them often;
they are salable only at certain times
in the wear. and then ONLY in certain
grades, and the carrying of "a large
stCcl' entails obligations upon dealer
which he finds it sometimes difficult to
meet. But in holiday season, under a
normal demand, the percentage OF
profit is large. 1t is largest on foreign
made toys. a fact which may account
for the big importation, one-half of the
total suppiy-N. Y. Sun.