The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-06-04
EMPHASIZES IMPORTANCE OF
PATRONIzING HOME INDUSTRY
T. Gibson Explains Situation Of the Cement Block Indus
try IN Fargo, and Urges Investigation Of Home
Plants by Local Buyers--Says City Should
Have Concrete Official

To The Forum: The subject of pa
tronizing home industries is one that
Is continually discussed by business
men and the press of our fair city, and
one worthy of the most serious consid-
Grafton by every one who has the city's
welfare, as we'll as his own best in
terests, at heart.
What does patronizing home indus
tries mean? Obviously it means buy
ing goods that are made at home, and
aiding in this way to build up a sturdy
industry, working to its full capacity,
supplying all the home demand and, as
far as possible, disposing of its whole
product at home.
Let us consider the cement products
industry in Fargo. What is the ex-
tent or the development of this in
dustry, and in what measure
has this industry been supported by
Fargo citizens who need its products :?
Here are the facts: over 90 per cent
OF the buyers of cement blocks and
other cement products go out of Fargo
to supply their needs, leaving only
about 10 per cent Ca meager fraction)
who are patrons of the local plant
Already the 80 per cent majority
have sent over $4,000 out of our city
to concern in nearby town that
does not return the price of scent
cigar In profits to our city. At home
there is local plant that not only
pays taxes to the city, but employs
seventeen men, representing nearly
as many families at total wage of
$63 per day. 1t is distressing to note
that if this plant were employed to
its full capacity it could employ three
times as many men and support three
times as many families at the total
wage of $1S9 per day. This full pro-
duction capacity of the local plant
could be reached if the erring 80 per
cent who buy out of the city would
patronize home institution.
OF course there are reasons" why
the 80 per cent should persist in their
unpatriotic customs. Let us get at
these reasons: Mr.. Contractor saws
that he can buy cheaper in an outside
city. Now, out of all respect to the
business sagacity of the respectable
contractor, will say that he is buying
the dearest" product in the market
In the first place it is cheaper to ship
raw material than the finished product
the difference in freight rates is the
sole profit of the home plant The
local industry can manufacture as
cheaply as the foreign, or outside
plant, and when the foreign plant paws
in freight-cost as much as the profits
OF the local firm amounts to, it is
readily seen that they must economize
somewhere. 1t is matter of fact that
the only economy that can be prac-
ticed In the manufacture of cement
products is in the quality and quantity
of cement used, and perhaps in the
amount OF goods sold. 1t is a matter
of scientific knowledge, which can be
verified by proper tests, that the ce-
ment products used by the 80 per cent
of Fargo's contractors, builders and
others who buy outside of the city. are
inferior in material used and i'm
method Of making. They do not hold
a candle in quality to the home pro-
ducts.
How our police captains and our
aldermen politicians shout to have
their salaries raised and expect the
support and backing of the city-and
then send to an outside firm for ce-
ment blocks, and occasionally a mer-
chant who expects the families of the
seventeen men supported by Fargos
plant to trade with him-sends outside
for cement blocks. It is habit or mere
lack of information ON the subject, T
am inclined to believe rather than
malicious purpose to boost outside in
terests at the expense of home indus
tries that prompts their actio9.
Another reason given by Con-
tractor Is that cement block at
home have not sufficient Gage.
What a funny thing for mechanic
to claim who can figure the wind load
on an auto garage. The highest au-
thorities in the world state that ce-
ment blocks made by the Ferguson
system, as employed by the North
Dakota Contracting and Engineering
Co. of Fargo, furnish the most perfect
bondage of any design of block wall.