Daily camera., 1899-02-10
THE TRADE IN TOYS
There Are Many Manufactures in
This Country.
One-Hnlf 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 So, 500, 600 They turn out in
a year about $3,OOO,O00 worth of toys,
the material used in their construction
being worth about one-haf that sum.
The importation of toys from other
countries amounts in year to about
S3,00O,O00, so that it may be said gen
orally that the entire output of foreign
and domestic toys for the American
| market reaches the value of about So
| 100000 a 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
IS. 500 600 persons between the ages o.
five and seventeen. and taking the age
| of children between five and twelve the
number was about 100000. This
would give the average expense for the
children of the United States at 81
cents each a year for toys, though 1t is
| an average not impartially distributed
ard not uniform in any state. The
higher 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 o.
supply is Germany, from which the IN
portations in 1897 were S2,900.000 of the
So 200 GOO Of all countries.
Germany has retained for many years
this peculiar distinction of furnishing
toys for the children of every country.
and it 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 total in year of
about 100000 worth, an almost insig-
niticant figure when compared with the
export of Germany, but which wOulC
be even smaller bur for the fact that
what are known to the toy trade as
paris dolls" are not duplicated sue
ccssfully elsewhere, and in the "on.
struction of them the French me
chanics seem to excel. To a small eX-
tent the Italian doll makers rival the
French, but the total importation OF
toys in 1897 from all European coun-
tlies, Germany and France excepted,
was less than 100000, and from coun-
tries not in Europe less than $4,000
The Germans have a peculiar knack
for toy making, and another advantage
which they enjoy in the Bavarian and
Saxon provinces, from which chiefly
toys come, is the cheapness of labor
the artists and designers receiving 81;
to $25 a 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, the American home supply is ade-
quate. The making business here
gives employment to about 1900 per
sons, of whom nearly one-third arc il
the state of New York. Toys are also
made in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
and New Jersey. but very few in Con
| lScllCul. lever Ii lilt "tSt. uiIl. p az
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 time
in the year and then only in certain
grades, and the carrying of "a larg'
stock" entails obligations upon deals
which he finds it sometimes difficult t
meet. But in holiday season, under {
normal demand, the percentage o
profit is large. 1t is largest OF foreign.
made toys, fact which may account
for the big importation, one-half of the
total supply.-N. Y. Sun.