The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1900-07-26
STERLING TO CLOSE.
American Bicycle Company Decides
That the Career of the Sterling
Shall End Saturday.
RUMoRs OF A NEW FACTORY.
old Employees of the Sterling May Form
Company to Keep the Wheel on the
Market and Fight the Trust

The American Bicycle company has
again laid heavy hand on industrial
Kenosha and it is reported that on next
Saturday the Ster ing bicycle works
will be closed by orders of the trust.
For five years the Sterling plant has
been one o6 the chief industries OF
Kenosha, and with shut down of the
plant many men will be thrown out OF
employment. However the blow is not
as heavy as it might have been as dur
ing the past season the works have
been running very light. Only few
wheels have been made and less than
$50 men have been employed. The
closing of the Sterling marks the close
of the history of Kenosha as bicycle
town. The machinery of the plant will
probably be shipped to Chicago, and in
the future it is possible that the Ster.
ling wheel will be made by the Western
Wheel works. OF course the plant will
be kept open here for a short time in
order to assemble the parts now on
hand, but when this work is done the
doors of the Sterling works will be
nailed shut to await purchaser for
the plant.
The closing Of the Sterling will not
come as a surprise as many of the
workmen of the city have long been
expecting this move on the part of the
trust. The men who have made the
Sterling wheel famous have long since
gone from the works, and during this
season the work has been done by new
corners sent in by the trust.
Notwithstanding the effort that is
being made by the trust to force the
Sterling wheel out of the market in
order to make room for an inferior
wheel, there are rumors heard in
connection with the close of the factory
that the Sterling wheel will still be
made and that it will be made by a
companywhich will be in no way con-
nected with the American Bicycle
company. Some have suggested that
sentiment has forced some of the old
Sterling men to go together to keep the
old wheel on the market, but others
suggest that Kenosha will still be the
home of the Sterling, and point to a
fight against the trust by men inter
ested in Kenosha factories. The year
has been all that the trust could desire,
and the smaller factories have more
than held their own against the big
combine, and for this reason the com
pany is forming to make the Sterling
with it's name and reputation, to fight
the trust. One of the men who was for
mer1y connected with the Sterling plant
said yesterday that as soon as the plant
was closed the trust would get a sur
prise that would be the worst news
they had ever heard.
1t is not possible that the large plant
formerly occupied by the Sterling in
this city will long remain idle as it is
an ideal manufacturing plant, and it is
stated on good authority that several
companies are already looking to the
plant as a possible location. Ali talk
of the plant being bought by the
Hosiery works is bosh, but it is not i'm
probable that some kindred industry tc
in the factory that produced the Ster-
ling bicycle of blessed memory.
There is a great deal of sentiment
connected with the closing of the
Sterling. For the past FIVE years the
Kenosha people have defended apd ad-
vertised the Sterling wheel. Three. OF
four thousands of Sterling wheels are
used by Kenosha riders, and the people
have carried the motto of the plant,
Built Like Watch" to ali parts OF
the world.
The only desire that the people OF
Kenosha has in regard to- the closing
of the plant is that the shutting up OF
this industry will be the cause of open
ing another and more stable concern