The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-12-10
MISSOURI RESOURCES

jefferson City, Mo-, Dec. 6.-The
acquired art of converting apparently
useless natural material into ne
cessity of value and beauty reached a
high state of development and per-
lection in Missouri during 1919 when
novelty manufacturers transformed
worthless, rough, ugly cumbersome
miscle shells into lustrious attractive
buttons and mother-of orna-
mcnts with first wholesale value of
S413,353 commodities which, finally,
in the retail trade sold for a million
dollars, announces a Bureau of Labor
Statistics bulletin constituting adj
vance information from the 1920 Mis-
souri, Industrial Red Book, promul-
gated today by Commissioner VIM.
H. Lewis.
The pearl buttons factories which
last year added this additional dis
tinction to the ever-growing reputa-
ton of Missouri as a manufacturing
state ere located in Hannibal, Louisi-
ana, Palmyra, Lagrange, Canton and
Memphis, all fiourishing manufacture
ing communities of Northeast Mis-
souri,, either on or not far inland from
the Mississippi river, and in Windsor,
Henry county, and Warsaw, Benton
county. These eight manufacturing
establishments which that year gave
employment to 42S more or less high
ly skilled workers, represented an ag-
gregated investment sof $285,604. The
masculine portion of this small army
of toilers, numbering 800, excluding
those VINO performed heavy manual
tasks chiefly supervised and controll-
ed the operations of the heavy shin
ing machines of steel which, gradu-
ally, punched, cut and ground the
clumsy, unsightly mussel shells, stage
by stage, turned them into white,
clean mother-o f-peal discs of varying
dimensions, ready for the finishing
touches. More delicate and intricate
machines, directed by more dexterous
and careful men and women, bored the
holes into the discs which are known
to the industry as button blanks and
supplied the final polish which devel-
ops the glistening rainbow lustre so
familiar to commodities of pearl.
Feminine Toilers Well Paid
The feminine portion of the Missou-
ri pearl button factory toilers of 1919
consisted of 119 women and girls who
earned from Sc to $18 weekly when
the establishment operated. The ma
jority young and agile lasses, sorted
the buttons, discarding the imperfect
ones and sewing those which reached
the required high standard of compile
ton and splendor, by dozens onto
cards, and packing the cards into
paste board boxes ready for the final
retail market.
The constantly increasing shortage
of mussel shells in the clear water of
the Mississippi river. north of its con-
fuence with the Missouri, once the
chief sou~ce of supply, has caused
mussel dryers to turn their attention
to the scant supplies which exist here
and there in the streams of the
Ozarks. This fact led to the estab-
lishment of the button blank factories
which now flourish in the two enter
prising Missouri communities, Wind
son and Warsaw. These manufacture
crs only produce pearl button blanks
which are shipped and sold to the fac
tories at Hannibal, Louisiana, La
Grange and Canton, in northeast Mis-
souri,, where the thread holes are Dor
ed, the final polish applied and other
finishing touches added.
Mussel Scarcity Increased Button
Worth.
For the pearl button industry Of
Missouri and elsewhere 1t can truth
fully be stated, without fear of CONTRA
diction that the higher cost of living