Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-19

had been such for the past % years. He
has been Il cotton" lnan for IN" past
60 years. What Mr.. Macarthur had TO say
WAS construed Of great importance Oh
|account Of the conviction which his words
produced, that he understood F"fltcliF
whatever he attempted to say with GER
taInty. Many questions We're asked nm
which bore out these impressions.
Mr. johnson asked him to state in
general way the result of his observa7
tons, which he did. lie said that he had
been a stockholdcr in the mill at the
time Wll"r the building first began to
take form but that he had withdrawn his
stock about 10 years ago. OF course, he
said the mill per square foot has not in
creased in direct proportion to its en-
larged dimensions because when you be
gin to enlarge an old building you de-
preciatc its lull original value per foot
iThe picking machinery is almost new; the
IcardinG machinery / consider practically
worthles IS. In our mill we have thrown to
the scrap heap many carding machines
which are far superior to those now in
use here. The drawing machines are i'll
good shape throughout. The frames are
old but useful. and it would be hard to
lput any VaiIle upon them, and the inter
mediate and fly frames | suppose have
deprecated about Onc-half of thor cost
The spinning machinery is comparatively
new, but some are worth half price and
|some Of them are worthless. / have es-
innate the worth of the mules at a value
of 80 cents rcr spindle. There are about
1900 looms which | should say are worth
$ll1. In Summing up his testimony h"
gave summary in figures. as follows:
machinery, including water wheels, all
tools, beltings, etc, $5O2, 40.
He closed by saying: ''Thcse figures
are almost absurdly large perhaps. but at
the prices l have quoted l should advise
a friend of IHine to locate somewhere
else than in Waterville if he intended to
establish IN the woolen business, even 1T
those figures.
The testimony of Russell ". Eaton of
Brunswick, agent of the Cabot Manufac-
turing Co, gave some very telling testi-
mony. From three days study of til"
mill he had CLEANED the information which
he gave conciscly as follows:
L found the mill to contain $3.50 spin
dies, 20,G00 of which We're mules of the old
style and 500 of these being useless and
idle. There are 13,72S frame s!indles, also
old styled, leaving about 40, coo which ar.
fairly modern. Fifteen thousand of these
are known in the mill as ''new" Spndlcs.
which were made Mt least 10 wears ago.
'rhrtyfour thousand Of the rest have old
frames but the spindlcs have been renew
pG. There arc 1900 new frames As tn
the amount of worthless machinery In The
mill, his testimony agreed practically
with that OF the former witness.
His summary of the value Of the Lock
wood property is as follows:
buildings ana lands. $2c0.OH1: power and
boilers. $4,000: shafts, betting pipes, elr-
vators, etc, S9000O: machine shops and
miscellaneous picking and cardirg ma
chimes. $4,000; spinning department. sos
060; weaving department, $l9G000. Total,
$S32. 900
His words regarding the watcrpower as
good agent for running the mill was
substantially like til" rest
y T.. Blake Of Saco. agent Of the Saco
& P:itt"r Machine Shop, then testified as
10 the present worth Of the machinery
nearly all of which had been made in tn"
shops Of which he is now the mt. His
testimony Was vtlEihl" iIi4smuch as it
showed that the great depreciation which
tn" equipment " tn" Lockwood COS
plant has suffered since the greater part
of it has become cut of date.
The session closed at 80 o'clocl; ma
will bn continued this morning at n
o'clock along tie same lines