The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-17
RAPID GROWTH OF
 SILK INDUSTRY
Nv HOLLAND

New YOrk, teDruary lo.-(Specldi'l Charles Cheney, who is president of the silk Association of America, said re- | gently that the silk industry in the United | States is now the greatest of it's kind in | the world. It has been built up by wlse l growth and by improvements in tranSpor- tation. It employs many thousands oi artisans. The wages have been lncreaseo and yet the working hours of each aay have been diminished. It is due to thls industry that silk is worn by the muili- tude as never before and at the same l time the cost to consumers has been re- duced.
 MT. Clancy speaks by the authority of long experience. The tradition associated with his name which identifies the hrst establishment in the United States on q large scale of the slk industry wlii p' emphasized by his emphatic assertioil that in the United States the greatest silk industry in the world has been built up
 This record is comparatively recent one. We became great silk manufactur' CTS in the latter part of the past century. The public, however, has little reall@eu the growth of this industry or what II means to the people of the United states. A few days ago Samuel J. Hall died at his home in this city. The name IS not q familiar one to the public, but there IS no merchant in the United States, wnoie- sale or retail, who deals in silk to whom thA name is not familiar. MT. Hall mas long been identified with the develop ment not so much of the SIX lnahu, aS. turing industry, as with the marke'ls of silk And the long reaches or masuHis cent business buildings upon Fourth anu Madison avenues are really VlslDie ineAA- orials to his achievement.
 There is recollection of a prediction which was made about twenty-five years ago bv the late Abram s. Hewitt, wno in his time was one of the foremost cl ] the citizens, not only of New Yorh, put of the country Mayor Hewitt was walN- ing with a friend upon Fourth avenue in the vicinity of the Madison Square Garden. That building and two or three ohnrcbas furnished the only conspicu- ous architecture upon the avenue. The
 rest was made up of long rows of pialn
 brick dwelling houses whose tenants were people in moderate circumstances Notwithstanding the rather meagre ana wholly unattractive vista along poen sides of the avenue, Mayor HeWlte pr dicted that within ten years these oia | buildings would be cast away and iore | reaches of modern business structures | attractive in their architecture ana SUE costing almost unparalleled industry anu | trade would be constructed and occupieu. , l r. dia not occur to him that the sih i trade would in it's capture of Fourth anu
 Madison avenue verify his preSctloi,. s | ;e inc silk trade and the trade wnlcn | has been in part deveioped py Mi a.ar
 which now commands much the greaee i nart of these thoroughfares. The ouilu- l ;nps which they occupy compare Wltn +ha host business structures on Flitn 1 avenue. And when stranger asks ID | what purpose these buildings are put he is told that they are mainly occu-
 pied by the silk trade. bs i TO Iook upon these buildings IS to pc nersuaded that MT. Cheney was correct !, in his statement that the silk industry ls \ moi only one of the greatest in the Uniteh states. but our silk industry is the great | est in the world
 lust ten years ago the silk mer- chants began to move from the down town center, which had been for years their recognized field, to Fourth ave l ma and to Madison avenue Within five wears this trade has occupied sub | stanfially both sides of these avenues Mr Hall was the first of the mer- lcbants of New York to make spe- 1 eialty of silk merchandising. He must have been very venturesome, because | at that time almost all the SIX l brought to New York was put-fnto the l hands of commission merchants or job hers and they dealt with the retailers, The business was very profitable. Some of these jobbers became millionaires and were identified with banking and other financial interests Now. how ever the jobber has been. partially, at
 least eliminated.
 Just forty years ago, the silk manu- facturers of Switzerland, who. with few in France. had dominated the American market, found themselves facing the wall of protective tariff. Then determined to jump over that wall and made the leap by establish ing in the United States mills of their own. The Cheney brothers. who were the first American manufacturers to establish the industry in this country, and whose great plant is today in the metropolitan district of Hartford, Conn, gained a large trade. It may have been in part due to the success of the Cheneys. although it was chief ly due to the tariff, that the Swiss manufacturers of silk came to the United States and established branch factories here.
 With the exception of certain grades of distinctive qualities which charac- terize the manufacture of silk goods | in France, almost all of the silks now
 purchased and worn in the United
 States are of American manufacture
 The growth has been so gradual that | the public has not realized that the industry was beginning to command | the American market. nor has there
 been any realization of the magnitude
 1 of the capital employed in this indus
 1 try or of the sums paid by purchasers
 1 of American silks. As soon as norma
 times return the American silk manu-
 lecturers will begin to seek foreign
 markets. for already American- made
 silks have gained high favor in many
 markets and have been successful in competition with silks brought from