Albuquerque morning journal., 1910-12-27

uSitctS WnlCn escape ucNCCbOil 1T tilS
time of purchase. Every one. too, is
often brought face to face with pecul-
lar conditions surrounding the indi-
vidual weaver that move him to over
pay for certain piece OF work and
knowingly yield TO her his problem
atical profits on her blanket. l VIII
venture the assertion that the aver
age Navajo trader does not make any
profit at all ON at least SO per cent
OF the blankets he buys and sells; and
more than so per cent OF the entire
ouput is marketed at cost, and some
even at q loss
If the trader should make profit,
why should ii be held as a crime
against him? Who else has done so
much toward evolving, developing
and improving the blanket industry?
Who but he has put his money into
them often before they are made,
and gone 20 work developing and cul-
tivating a market for them? without
him there would have been no blank
ct industry; remove him from the field
and it would last but brief period
Now, let us examine this proposed
government clearing house offered as
a sure cure for all the evils of faulty
product, high prices, low payments,
etc. The authors "only one obstacle
tice grows into many, encountered
by dealers and traders. There are
nothing but obstacles from procuring
the wool, cleaning and dyeing it, to
the finished blanket and settlement
with the weaver, then on to the final
sale--and still on, until the money
for 1t is in the cash drawer. But we
are agreed on the reality of the zone
obstacle of cash price 1t is a
much more serious one than he i'm
AGNES it to be, as all the wool from
which fine blankets are woven to-
day is owned by the traders and is
sued out to the weavers for each
separate job. In no other way is IL
possible to get perfectly cleaned and
properly colored blankets. 1t is rem
dered all the more serious because
along with practically every job goes
an advance of at least one-half of
the agreed price. not because it is
the choice and policy of the trader
to have it so, but because the necessi-
ties of the weaver and her family
larder demand it.
Thus, trader doing q fairly large
business carries an investment of
from three to five or six thousand
dollars in Navajo blankets, none of
which are finished or in his posses
sion. Not all carry so large a sum
perhaps, but all do and must of me-
cessity, carry their weavers to some
extent. In this lies another element
of cost that must be reckoned with.
Even the shrewdest trader now and
then win be cheated out of his blank
ct by dishonest weaver taking and
selling it to another when she has
woven ii. True. this does not happen
often, but it does happen to us all
rcaa cfopaIlky An1 fhaga ora hIff few
of the many practical obstacles in
stead of "one" theoretical obstacle
assumed by the author: but they are
sufficient to give hint of the diff
ference between gross and net, theo-
retical and actual profits.
| quite agree with your contribu-
tor as TO the desirability of "a stand
dard Of prices" and no one has tried
harder than | to evolve some practi-
cable scheme to this end. but without
success; nor do l believe that 1t is
possible for this proposed government
clearing house to solve it. Before es-
tablishing standard of prices we
will first have to standardize the pro-
duct to which prices are attached.
Each blanket is g matter of indi-
vidual taste and skill on the part of
its weaver; they are made in all sizes,
all weights, and the variations of
designs and color combinations are
almost as numerous as are the blank
cts which are to be priced, For in
stance, take two five-by-seven and
one-halr foot blankets and to one OF
them add six or eight inches in width
and as much in length and see how
much you increase the size of it.
About eight to nine square feet, or 20
to 20 per cent, roughly estimated
consequently about that much more
labor and material Of the same quail
ity have gone into its making; yet.
to the average buyer the two blankets
will look to be nearly the same size,
and the extra price that must be put
on the larger one will seem out of
proportion. But the weaver who does
the work. and the trader who supplies
the material and pays for the work,
know, for the extra cost is there and
must be made good in the selling
price. The one thing in this connec-
ton of which l am sure, is, that If
Standardization is ever approximated
it viii have to be worked out on an
upward scale as to both prices and
quality, and not on a downward one
as suggested.
Unless a government appointment
as field agent, or other functionary
in the Indian service carries with it
the endowment of a peculiar and su-
perior intelligence, unlimited capac-
ity, and boundless energy on the part
of the appointee, any such plan as
the proposed clearing house is not
only foredoomed to failure, but would
work incalcuable injury to the Navajo
Industries if indeed, it did not de-
stroy them entirely.
| grant that conditions are not ideal |
that there are evils that need rene
dying that all traders are not Just
what they should be, but / bslicve
things are being gradually improved |
In the past fifteen years 1 have seen
and had my part in the increasing |
of the output of Navajo blankets by
at least ten-fold. l have seen, too. |
the prices paid the weavers for the |
same quality of blankets raised from
three to five-fold, but have not seen |
one single trader grow rich in the |
process, though doubtless all have !
wished to--and tried to. / have seen |
however, dozen or more fail; an 1
other dozen or more are today just |
about where they were five and ten
years ago: and a few, they can be
numbered on the fingers of one hand,
have managed to live and keep gain
ing a little. Who, then, gets the
money? I'll tell you; the Indians do.
With a product ten times as great,
prices three to five times
greater in proportion than fifteen
years ago, it is easy 10 see they do.
And they show il, too, in their better
-lothine better food nOtWithstand- |