Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-21
NEED OUR PRODUCTS
nssulselsrsrs whs Wsald Rz, Dsrl Lsbsr. Nsl Raw Materials


 manufacturer has brought out a new phase of the much discussed movement for tho conservation of natural resources. In letter to the national conservation commis- sion, parts of which they have made public, he poinss out that not only ought prudence to be used In the consumption of the country's natural products, but that the possibility of . double saving lies In working up these raw materials and exporting the manufactured articles rather than the original iron or wood or other unfinished products.
 Broadly stated" he said, "the proposition Is this: When We were In new country and our industrial life was that of colony 1t was quite feasible to export the riches that nature had treasured up on this continent. Our population has in- creased enormously and We must aim to get into a position where we can export labor instead of products. Every child that Is born in the coun- try brings two hands with it, but its presence does not add to the stores of nature. When we export petrol cum, lumber. iron and other mater ials, we are taking something from the wealth of the country. In ex- porting highly finished products con- taining quality labor we are placing into the foreign market the labor of our people that increases directly with every increase in population. l have heard professors of political economy in Germany say, Let us buy our raw materials abroad and export them in a highly finished state. We shall then gain double advantage, the one in that We do not deplete our natural stores, and the other in this, that then our people will be able to rise to a higher stan dard of living, for those who do quality work are better paid"
 This idea Is along the same line of argument that the advocates of con- servation have been presenting that waste consists not only in mis- use of natural resources but just as much in the failure to utilize to the fullest extent economically possible but 1t represents another step in that line.
 The man who makes the sugges- ti0n Is the treasurer of the big In diana manufacturing company which has been making threshing machinery and engines for more than half a century His long bus mess experience has given him a first-hand knowledge of the progress of the manufacturing industry in this country, and he has supplement- ed this knowledge by observations abroad.
 In our own business" he says, i've are feeling the dearth of lum- Der and anxiously looking around for substitutes that do not, however, furnish with what We need for our separators and hullers. The in creasing prices of this material will hamper us, especially in foreign competition.
 T wish that I could tell you in dollars and cents what the floods oi recent years have cost us. One flood at Kansas City, where we had six story warehouse. cost us in actual cash, $9,730, not to speak of the loss of trade. This years high water at that place did our business damage amounting to probably more than $35,0o0 or $40,000 We must have some regulation of the waters of the country so that clements oi uncertainty and loss will be elimin- ated from business.
 'But there is further consider alton that calls for the extension of navigable waterways wherever that is feasible. Thirty or forty years ago our raw materials were at our doors. Lumber was cut two miles from our factory. Now our lumber comes from Louisiana. and some oi 1t even from the Pacific coast. Our products used to be sold in the i'm mediate vicinity. Now, they go thousands of miles across the conti- nent, and the item of transportation