The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1917-07-03
COMPETITION.

The announcement was recently
made that the great firm Of Marshall
Field & Co. of Chicago had made ar
rangements TO undertake in this coun-
try the manufacture Of hosiery and
knit goods. This is a great piece OF
news and il exhibits a striking con-
trast to the attitude Of this country
prior to the outbreak Of the European
war.
When the Republican party took up
the hosiery and knit goods SEIZED
this company, together with many
other importing companies throughout
the country, attacked the increase in
rates with unparalleled rancor. In
the hearings before the committee the
manufacturers of fashioned hosiery,
about 500 in number. made out a
strong ease for the increase Of duty.
presenting a very careful statement OF
the cost of labor here and in Chemnitz.
Germany, whence came our chief com
petition. 1t was proved beyond ques-
ton that the Dingley law did not give
sufficient protection, the importation
of certain grades having increased
from 8 5000, 900 pairs in 1898 to 61,-
600, 900 pairs in 1907.
The importers of foreign hosiery,
like Marshall Field & Co, Lord &
Taylor, Carson Pirie, Scott & Co, and
many others, had printed thousands
upon thousands of petitions TO which
the signatures of their women custo-
mers were secured. the signers having
not the remotest conception of the
tariff question, but induced to sign be
cause they were told the increased
duty would make them pay o for
their stockings. These petitions fell
on the ways and means committee
like the leaves on the babes in the
woods.
The fight on the hosiery rates ragged
in the Senate. 1t was shown that the
hosiery industry in this country was
in a very debilitated state on account
of foreign competition, and that scores
of mills in Pennsylvania, New Eng
land, and elsewhere, had closed down,
throwing hundreds of employees, chief
girls, out of work. But of more sig
n~ifieance was the discovery that Z
big department stores which were
raising all the disturbance maintained
their own establishments in Chemnitz,
with a full force of help organized to
buy foreign hosiery at the least pos
sible cost. Many of these concerns
not only advanced money to small for
eign manufacturers TO purchase yarns
to make goods according TO their spe-
cifications and account. but in many
Instances. they supplied them with the
yarns. Upon receiving the hosiery it
was sent 10 public inishers in Chem
nitz for dyeing and finishing. and
shipped to this country to be sold over
the counters. This was the sort of
traffic which the Republicans sought
to restrict through the agency of a
protective tariff. AS the late Hon.
Serene E. Payne, author of the Repub-
lican law, said, in speaking of the
signers Of these petitions:
"They toll not. neither do they spin,
but the Republican party does not
propose to deny TO their 40, 900 bumb-
Ter sisters, who are now idle as a re-
suit of foreign competition. an oppor-
tunity to do both"
The highest increase in the duty
rate was under 2 cents a pair on
hosiery, but 1t ~resuscitated the indus
try in this country. and up to the
time of operation OF the Democratic
tariff law the hosiery industry had a
fine run of prosperity. The present
law interrupted 1t until the war cut off
German exports.
1t Is good to see Marshall Field &
Co. about to establish competition OF,
a domestic. instead of a foreign, char
acter. This meal additional work