The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-04-07
SEND FURNITURE
To GRAND: RAPIDS )
Tarleclers Growing Over Strides
They Are Making in This
Industry.
MANY FACTORIES IN STATE :
Now Invading Michigan, Center
OF Furniture Making Bust
ness of United States.
- ,rne rimes-Dispatc,,.)

.
,tAStIINf;TON. y. c., April 6.-Ai-
,bo,,ph the subject OF carrying coals
~ Newcastle has been alluded TO rom
ti,,n i;nnemorial in connection Win inc
,,nr,, az s,irercrogation. so far as known
s,tch n thing has never been done. bul
. Sorth Carolinian who is IN Nashlns-
.a-aav SAYS that the furniture fac
te,ri.s of that state are now selling their
,I,.aa,,o,s IN the state of Michigan. New
n,st,o 10 scarcely moro undisputedly the
oen,er of the coal mining industry OF Eng
land than is Grand Rapids Mich, TUG
acknowledged furniture making CITY VI
ire limited States, 1t is small Wonuer'
therefore, that the Tarheelers are crow
inr over the strides they are making IN
the manufacture of bureaus, peas WASH
stands and chairs.
Thoro arc now no less than forty.two
furniture factories at High PoinI A. ~
,ccord;ns to the mat whom have men
.,o,oa every one of them is making
money. There are many similar establish
n,ents at Lexington, N. c. Indeed, scarce
< A.. . little town can be found in the State
,vb,ch has not its furniture making es-
Establishment. They are all said to be pros
pering. -.
About two years hio firm with a
cs,1,ital Of $4,000 built and begun operating
Z in a small town factory for the man
,,facture of furniture. At the end OF
the first year the factory and consider
able stock were completely DESTROYED oy
fire. A friend Of one OF the firm ex-
pressed his sympathy at the loss sustain
ed by the owners Of the factory.
ooh! I reckon we'll come out all right,
said the supposedly bereaved nanufac-,
t,,rer. 1--WE cleared 5000 this past year
and we have our insurance money. i
"a profit OF over one hundred per cent
the first year will strike the average
man as sufficiently alluring to attract
from almost any field Of business ac-
tivity."
I,he profits in the manufacture or fur-
niture as a matter of fact, are attract
ing many North Carolinians from other
businesses. It seems that experience is
I not necessary to making money an furni-
ture manufacturing. Men who have never
hcen inside furniture factory scrape
together twenty-five thousand or thirty
thousand dollars and start a factory. 1t
is said that failures are very rare. BUS
mess experience. gained in other lines OF
actiyity, when applied to furniture max
ing appear to yield most remarkable
profits.
OF course there must be employed in
the factory a few men who understand
furniture making. These are either
brought from other States. or from Car
DINA factories and command good saln-
,ics. The rest OF the work Is done by
labor hired in the town, unsldlled at first,
8 but8uuickiy taught. Tho wages are not
as high as are padadn the Grand Rapids
factories, but they are good and appear
10 De satisfactory to the workers.
The uniformed would expect to hear
that pine was the chief wood used In the
factories, pine being indissoluhly asso-
ciated with North Carolina. Oak is used
almost exclusively. Indeed, so great is
the demand for oak in the North. Caro-
lima furniture factories that but little
4 OF it is ever shipped from the State, save
IN manufactured form.
What, with one or more cotton facto-
RES in nearly every town, largo or
small and It's great number Of furniture
factories North Carolina is well to the
front as a manufacturing State. The
size of the factory payroll every month
accounts in large measure for the pros
rer.ty of North aCrolina.
That the Old North State has so many
more cotton factories than Virginia may
be explained by the fact that cotton is
grown to far greater extent in the
more southefay Stats. Virginia has more
and better''oak than North Carolina has.
Why are there so many furniture fac
tories in North Carolina and SO few in
Virginia?