Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-11
BY Harry b. Hunt
E Service Writer

HAZLETON, Pa, July IL
Americas finest silks and laces,
from the ilmiest. most cobwebby
materials TO heavy-bodied brocaded
satins or poplins and charmeuses,
are b~y-products of Pennsylvania
great anthracite coal industry.
Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it?
One naturally thinks of a coal dis
trict as grimy and black, a region
of heavy labor, producing a coarse,
unsightly raw material.
Silks and laces? They %conjure
up thoughts of sunshine and flow
ers, not of sooty, smoking culm
banks, nor of streams ink-black
from the dust of the breakers.
Yet from Sunbury to Scranton,
along the Susquehanna, and south
for SO miles whenever you spot the
towering dump of an anthracite
mine village, if you will look you
will mine or the clustering homes of
find almost without exception,
an. accompanying silk mill.
Not all of these mills produce the
silk textiles. Those as a rule are
only in the towns OF 5000 population
or more. But where the town can
not support a spinning or weaving
mill. be sure there will be a factory
turning out silk shirts or knitting
silk socks and stockings. For coal
and silk are partners in industry in
the anthracite belt!
Cite Hazleton
Why il this true? For answer,
the circumstances attending the Sc
lection of Hazleton as the site for the
mills of the Duplan Silk Corpora
ton. rs years ago, may be cited.
This corporation, M of the larg-
est in the district, owes its being as
does the whole Pennsylvania silk in
dustry, directly to the enactment of
the Dingley tariff.
The duty set up against importa-
lions of manufactured French silks
caused J.. L. Duplan to decide to es-
tablish the silk industry on this side.
In an effort to locate the proposed
mills he visited cities and towns first
in New England, then in Pennsyl-
vania. What he wanted was a misty
valley, which would insure proper
humidity of the atmosphere. Halle
ton W on his list and he came here.
tead of being in a valley, Halle
on a mountain top. The
available was ornamented
line ave and traversed by
IN sewer. The militia, he was
lad recently been called out to
a nina strike. Everything
led most unsatisfactory and
Ian was or his way to leave the
n when he CHANGED to pass a
yblic school at the time the child
IN were being dismissed.
As described in a history recently
Fsued by the company:
In a few moments he was sur
unded by a crowd of rosy-cheek-
happy-faced youngsters, and out
the building there seemed to issue
endless stream of the same kind.
pretty sight itself, and es-
tially the various types of nation
tues represented, Immediately fas-
mated Mr.. Duplan. Upon being told
ere were 10 or Is more such
hools in the city and surrounding
wnships, the disadvantages of the
cation were sufficiently outweighed
permit Hazleton to take its place
n the list OF towns eligible for the
sa2psed mill"
women and Children
IN other words, here in the an
tnracite fields, was found a great
source OF potential labor-women
and children-who were ineligible
Tor employment in the mines. For an
INDUSTRY in which such workers could
employed, the presence of these
thousands of women and children
more thar offset disadvantages of
Such was the beginning and such
us cause. With the establishment of
nrSr mill. the avaIopp,ao4 -