Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-11-10
ADDRESS TO NATIONAL FARMERS {
Masd Of the secuure Manufacturing Company

and in the last thirty years the world
crop has doubled and is producing now
IS, 900, 900. All during this progressive pc
riod of silk culture the world over, the
great and progressive United States stood
and looked on, while foreign economists
ridiculed US for our neglect in properly
taking up silk culture, as it is fact we
have everything necessary to raise silk
Territory from the Potomac to the Gulf
of Mexico and to the coast of California
has climatic and geological conditions for
the cultivation and production Of raw
silk. Especially when today we have our
mills at our doors and a prosperous peo-
pie, with an increasing demand for
silken fibres ii is almost committing
crime td>-neeisct this beautiful industry,
sending annually more than $75000,0OO to
foreign lands, as we could produce the
raw silk here, keep the money at home
and put IT in circulation, especially in the
rural districts, where the people are al
most in need of some new and simple in
dustry to diversity their present prod
ucts, which barely give the farmers Of
some sections in the states enough to ex-
ist and certainly nothing for higher at
tainments. education and culture.
Civilized and haIf-civiliZed nations are
producing silk. China, having a history Of
$500 years in silk culture, Is now selling
more than 800, 900 Of silk annually, and
what they consume is perhaps a larger
amount, and unknown, as they do not
keep statistics in China.
Japan also produces yearly from forty
to fifty million. Italy produces an equal
amount and so on there is large list Of
silk producing countries. And the great
United States, while it uses one-half Of
the worlds production, gets credit for
producing none whatever.
The silk manufacturing business in the
United States dates back to 1915. The
general introduction Of silk manufacture
ing did not begin until after the civil war.
1 will compare here few interesting
figures:
The manufacturers Of the United States
in 1860 only imported 10000 pounds Of
raw silk, against 100000 at the present
time. Under great difficulties it built up
the enormous industry Of silk manufac-
ture with its 4s5 establishments employing
$1,000 operators. 1t is worth while to note
here that only 9 per cent are children I'M
der sixteen years of age.
The present annual wages and salaries
amount to $27,oOO00o.
The United States has built up in
a period Of 50 years an enormous in
dustry under difficulties too numerous to
mention. factory labor being more
in demand and higher than in Europe.
However, farming labor of the southern
states of the United States is in abundance;
in fact, unutilized. The climatic conditions
are equal if not better. than in other silk
growing countries.
With ever increasing American spirit
Of progression to do things properly and
we'll, when once entered into. there is no
reason, and I say a hundred times no
reason, why in short time we should not
have silk culture, not only enough for
home use, but eventually supply a good
many other nations as we supply today
other agricultural products and lead the
world in commerce.
The highest award for silk manufacture
at the Paris exposition in 1900 was award
ed to a Michigan silk manufacturer, hts
exhibit being side by side with those Of
France, who has been a silk manufacture
ing nation for more than 800 years.
The United States becoming silk grow
ing country, which she should, there is
no fear of the over-production lowering
the present price of raw silk. While the
total worlds silk crop has doubled in the
last thirty years, the consumption OF the
United States has increased $50 per cent In
the last 10 years. Silk is no more a luxu-
ry. With ever-increasing development Of
electricity there is and will be a great
demand made on silk thread for the COW
ering of wires. And there are too num-
erous avenues Of other commercial devel-
opments that use silk in part Of their
manufacture. Silk has become a necessi-
ty and its use is certainty. II the users
of raw silk in the United States win keep
up with our record in the past ten years
in 1910 I predict that the United States
will use more raw silk than the present
total production Of the world.
One single county, Passaic. New Jersey.
entered silk manufacture thirty-hve years
ago with one or two looms and is now
turning out s26,OOo.OOO worth Of manufac-
tured silk fabrics, which is equal to one
half of the total apple crop Of the Unit
ed States, or seven times as much as the
whole peach crop Of Georgia, for which
the state is so well noted. There are
mills today in the United States that have
capacity to turn out 10000 pieces of silk
cloth and dyeing establishments, who