The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-11-28
Balm Wagon Company Lays Off
Entire Force for a Week
on Account Of No Orders
TANNERY CUTS DOWN FORCE
Both Plants Will Make an Effort to
Keep the Wheels Moving Later in
the Year. Business Is Being
Cut Down at Rapid Rate

There was an addition of nearly FIVE
hundred idle men to Kenosna on Sat-
urday night, when the Balm Wagon
Company shut down its plant for a
week, and possibly longer, and the
N. r. Aliens Sons Company reduced
its force of laborers to some extent.
The shut down at the Balm plant
had been expected by the men and all
of the $50 employees were laid off. In
speaking of the matter this morn
ing, President George Yule said:
@''We can not say how long we will be
shut down. 1t may be for the rest of
the week and perhaps longer. The
cause of the shut down is the simple
fact that there is no business and un-
til more orders come in it will be i'm
possible for the plant to operate. We
of course want to keep our men at
work and the plant will be reopened
just as soon as the demand for the
product warrants it. I"
The Balm company for years has
made practice of shutting down at
this time Of the year in order to make
the inventory of stock and materials
on hand but it is expected that the
shutdown this year will be of longer
duration than last year.
At the tannery the force has been
only slightly reduced at the present
time but if conditions do not brighten
up there is no doubt but that other
men will have to be laid off. E. c.
Theirs when seen this morning
stated that the company had no in
tention of shutting down the plant
and they wanted to keep as many men
as possible at work during the winter.
''It is just this", said Mr.. Theirs, "we
have so much finished stock on hand
that we are having to prop up the
buildings to keep them from falling
down and there is no immediate mar
ket for the leather. We are not put
ting in any new harness leather but
are still working with the sole leather.
The paralysis of business is almost
complete so far as we can see and no
one is buying anything. 1t would
take this plant at least six months to
shut down if they decide to layo off the
men as the vast amount of leather in
process of tanning will have to be
taken care of. We anticipate that
things will get better in the very near
future but it will probably take six
months for business to get back to
normal. In the panic of 1893 the
leather companies managed to keep
running as we'll as any other lines of
business and it was said that the men
walked out their shoe soles looking
for work and this would probably be
the conditions in case of another
panic. Nothing has been found to
take the place OF leather for shoes and
the demand keeps, up pretty we'll for
sole leather. Now that there is no
great scarcity of cars we hope to keep
many of our men at work piling bark
and we are now making an effort to
have the railway companies ship the
bark into Kenosha so that the men
may be kept busy"
The Simmons Manufacturing COM
pany opened the plant Monday
and nothing was said as to the num-
Der of days that the plant will be kept
in operation this week. The company
however is planning to have full
force at work during the early months
of the year. Other plants IN the city
also laid off men Saturday night, but
in most cases the number of men laid
off was small 1t is estimated that
the number of men laid of in the past
two weeks will reach nearly the thou.
sand mark. Many of these people
are aliens and many of them are TAX
ing advantage of the let up in labor
to return to their old homes Ia Europe
for the Holiday season. Most of the
men connected with the Kenosha
Manufacturing concerns seem to be of
the opinion that with the opening of
the new year the trouble will have
passed. The main trouble is the
shortage of money and this has been
the cause of dropping off in all lines
OF business.