The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1914-10-22
WIN. WOODS SPEECH
Continued from page three)

/ (COnuDueQ from page IDfee)
knowledge of ever having driven any
competing concern out of business
We have pursued the policy of live and
let live. We must show a profit upon
our merchandise in order to make a
return for the capital invested in the
business. The proof that we have
done this is that for an unbroken pc
riod of fifteen years we have paid
quarterly the stipulated dividend upon
our preferred shares.
This is not unreasonable profit in
the wooden business. II shows a de-
termined and constant effort to pro-
tect the investor and the wage-earner,
and at the same time not discourage
competition.
The American Wooden Company is
not monopoly. OF the approximate
ly one thousand wooden plants in this
country it owns but forty-one. AL
though among these forty-one plants
are some of the largest known, still it
produces but one-seventh of the total
output of the wooden mills of this
country.
The wooden industry has been the
football of politics since it began bust
ness in the United States. and it suf-
fered very severely by being misun-
derstood by the people of the country
in the last Presidential election. The
unfortunate reference to the industry
| by President Taft, who was quoted as
stamping the wooden schedule as in
defensible," has brought dire results
to the indsutry. 1t SO prejudiced the
! people that the industry is today con-
fronted by a schedule absolutely I'M
fair in bearing hard upon the thous-
ands of persons who depend upon that
| industry for their livelihood
The schedule was cut too close, and
many manufacturers have suffered
much in their individual health in try
ing to meet the situation. in pitting
their brains against the foreigners.
There was no necessity for all this
physical torture. for the American
people do not want one of their most
important industries unnecessarily
harrassed. They are willing that the
people who invest in that industry and
the people who work in that industry
should have a fair return for their
investment and their work The
American people are a generous peo-
would prefer to see the home mills
flourish rather than to have their bust
ness go abroad. They only need to
be correctly informed.
President Taft appointed a Tariff
Board to make special inquiries into
this industry. and the report of the
Board was published in 1912. In that
report it is stated that in a typical suit
of all-wool ready-made clothes selling
at retail at $23 upward the average
profit to the manufacturer of the
wooden cloth in the suit is but 23
cents. Certainly it must occur to any
one who buys S23 suit of clothes that
the man who bought the wool and
made the cloth and bore all the vicissi-
tudes of the business is entitled TO %
cents ithout being considered rob
Der baron and having the fingers of
the nation pointed at him in scorn and
contempt. This is what the wooden
manufacturer has had to endure.
| am sure the American people will
be only too glad to correct their mis-
take when they understand the true
situation.
For the wool in a $23 suit of clothes
the wool grower receives a profit of
IS cents. The clothing manufacturer
who takes the cloth and makes it into
a suit receives for the wholesale price
of that suit the sum of S1650 The
price which the retailer asks. as has
been said is $23 and upward AL
lowing for rent. clerk hire. selling ex-
penses. advertisements, etc this may
not be an unreasonable margin. but let
ii be remembered that the manufact-
urer of the wooden cloth in the suit
makes a profit out of il of only %
cents. These figures are the figures
reported by the United States Tariff
Board. and the Board was certainly
eminently fair in its searching in
Quiry into this particular industry.
When big business locates in a COM
munty it is good thing for that COM
munity II not only brings its own
industry there. but enlarges the
scope for other industries and the
scope of all industries which contri-
butte to the general wealth of the COM
munty
There are two kinds of cities COM
mercial cities and industrial cities.
The industrial city is constructed be-
cause of some natural condition. such
as the existence of river with water
power. or convenience to mineral for
nations. coal deposits or oil wells. The
natural or commercial city is located
by some law known only 10 itself. An
industrial city or town is n produc-
tive neutrality-suspicious. of wealth
and is the backbone and sineW OF the
country's wealth and power The
more an industrial city or town eNerts
itself to attract industries to H. the
greater its individual prosperity must