Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-10-19
EXPERT SHELDON
For the Edwards Mill
Occupies Entire Day.
Relative Cost Of Products Is
Line Of Examination.
Together With Value Of The Mills, tquip-
menis and The Power.

Tho second day of the bearing in the
Edwards tax abatement cases was il NM
| voted entirely Ia the direct ana cross
discrimination of r. T. Sheldon If Prov
| idcurr. r. l. The early morning hours
| W,rc devoted to further estimates ana
IJ,rluctions from an itcmizcd list of
IN, property Of tn" corporal ion, as
pcparcd by tn" witness. Among 9TH
| rr things he stated that the Edwards
ImiII, contained $4,000 square feet Of
| door space to DO its work. \ m,d"rn
lmiIl, doing the same work, would con-
tain hut $4,000 feet, or there is Il loss
| to the Edwards Company Of consider
able expense in overcoming the l%i 900
square feet Of unnecessary space. Re
duccd to SpimdIcs this would be 49,
square feet in the local mill against
80 square feet per spindle in Il prop
crly constructed mill, or d loss Of 1.32
Continuing along this line of ar;;u-
mcmt tie witness arrived at the con-
clusfnn that the Edwards buildings
wcr. worth $1l1.70o. During III" cross
examinations If the afternoon. Attorney
Williamson for III" city took cxccplions
to this method and questioned the wit
ness very sharply on the point
BY another method of adjusting val
ucS he placed the value Of the build
ings at $l59.4O0. This 10 declared was
Il most conservative estimate indeed,
in fact that most mill agents would,
in impartially considering the propn-
sition. place it much lower. Summar-
izing he estimated the value of all the
land inside the mill yard at $lJ0o0;
the value of all tn" buildings at $l39.
400 and the value of the machinery and
furnishings at $3i9.690 Il total of $52l,-
O90
The power problem he considered on
IL separate basis ana had this to say:
steam power is more desirable than
water power. other things being equal
This bears on the question Of obtaining
help and the best help. especially at
Il distant point like this. Water pow
~ has no advantage except economy
of fuel. Against that is freight that
must be- paid on every pound of mrr-
chandiSc that comes III AMI goes out,
also against that is tho care of the
dam. cleaning Of racks. placing Of Hash
boards and clearing of anchor ice.
water power is only in its favor. all
other items are against it. Onsctting
other things against it, give Il value
to this motive power of '$14OG00 That
includes everything up to the time that
tn" power is transmitted into
the mill by belt.
I'm comparing this mill in q general
way. On" HlV@Ys compares ii With Il
steam mill. never with ii water power
mill. rs the steam power is the cheap
est Another offset is Il loss Of pro-
duct due to high and back water. cuus-
ing shutdown ana loss Of help"
The question was asked, rs there
any poSsihl" way, by good manage
m"nt or otherwise. that these things
can he overcome" Mr.. Sheldon re-
piled, Il shouldn't say that there was.
You can max" up in a measure by
running ov"rtim" in some departments.
getting some departments ahead of
other departments. to Keep them 60
ing. The economical way to run a mill,
however. is to have every department
running full time. each driving the
other"
II" then StIt"'i that to his best jtrIg-
n"nt ~; an engineer Of experience. liz:
fair market vaIu" Of tn" Edwards
Manufacturing COS. plant WAS $66i.-
900
Their" was but little direct cxanina-
ton after th" noon recess, Attorney
Williamson almost Immediately begin
lIInE tn" cross" examination. Their"
was cnnSid"rnhl" SpayriuE between
counsel on account Of the iucll of cx-
ira copies of tn" itcmizcd list rrc,ar-
81 and used by the witness. There is
but one. There was also some discuss
sion as to a line Of qucsti"nimg that
was pursued by the attorney for the
city i'll reference to items in the cost
of production.
Among tn" statements that were
made on cr"SS-"Xamination was one
that on tn" cotton. Augusta pays 80
cents more than Fail River ana ON coal
- cents more per ton. The matter Of
freight rates for the finished product
was thoroughly exhausted and il de-
vclorcd that there was a possibility
that Fall River mills might send their
product to print works 50 far away
from Fall River that III" frci-,h, IN
pens" would b" as great as il is in
getting til" product from Augusta to
the market
in reply to a question as to whether
1t would be prudent for the Edwards
90. To install tn" modern machinery
it was stated that such IA proceeding
was impcrativ" to save the very life Of
the corporation.
IN" latter part of the afternoon was
spent in drawing comparisons between
tn" Edwards mill ana other similar
mills with which Mr. Sheldon had been
connected. and getting at the relative
cost of producing cloth.