East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1908-02-25

C0nSul GeSTSe GllloIu lulHiShSS
the following information concerning
ribbon weaving and its allied indus
tries-dyeing, finishing, and printing
in the Swiss city of Basel and sur
rounding districts.
Ribbon looms were restricted to
weavers' dwellings until the steam
engine, in 1910, brought the factory
system, although the house industry
still remains the most interesting
branch of the business. In 1880
when nearly all the great factories
were built, out Of a total of 1000
looms 5000 were in the houses Of the
peasants of the adjoining country dis
tricts, and it is estimated that that
proportion holds good today. The
peasant weaver finds a remunerative
and most welcome additional occupa-
ton at the loom for the leisure hours
of himself and family, especially in
winter, when his farming no longer
engages his attention. The loom is
furnished to him by the great Basel
manufacturers. who also send him,
by special messengers, the silk already
warped. the shoot or woof wound on
bobbins, and collect the finished rib
bons, all without charge to him.
The peasant weaver has seen with
in a few years a complete and agree
able revolution in his trade through
the use of electricity as the motive
power of what can no longer be call
ed the hand loom. To the village
cottage and the lonely farmhouse the
wire now brings power and light from
the works on the Rhine, at Rhine
felden, and the weaver IS thus en-
abled to employ all except quite
small members of his family in an op-
Grafton which no longer requires any
physical effort, but only intelligent at
tention.
The closely allied subsidiary indus
try of silk dyeing enjoys one great ad-
vantage which has, perhaps, Indirect
ly helped the ribbon business of Basel
in it's competition with its European
rivals, St. Etienne and Barmen. This
advantage is the special quality Of the
water, which is declared to be OF
prime Importance in dyeing-sO inn
portant that orders for work are re-
ceived from distant points in Europe
in cases where the most satisfactory
results that can be attained by the
dyer's art are required.
Output-EmplOyes- yes-Manufactwes.
Basel has doubled in population
within 80 years and now contains
10000 people, but the ribbon busi-
ness has not kept its relat We rank
as decidedly the leading industry Of
the little canton. The ever growing
tariff wall of the neighboring states
and the forced establishment Of fac
tories on their territory by Swiss
manufacturers-at Ludwig Alsace,
at Grenzach, Grand Duchy of Baden,
and at Bregenz, Austria-has some
what checked its growth as a strictly
local specially. The competition Of
Barmen, with its cheap ribbons, has
also had its effect, while the enormous
production Of the better all-silk goods
in Paterson and other American
towns has much reduced the export
to the United States. But there are
still employed in the ribbon industry
proper about 1900 people. as stated
by the secretary Of the Basel cham
ber of commerce. To this number
should be added 1900 persons engaged
In the associated and dependent in
dustries Of dyeing, finishing and
printing.
There are now 10 Basel ribbon
manufacturing firms an corporations,
from whose offices in this city not
only the local factories, but the nu-
merous establishments in Germany
and Austria, as we'll as the very ex-