New Britain herald., 1928-10-04
EIIZARETHTON, TENN.

ELlZABETHTON, TENN.
Herbert Hoover will speak IN
Elixabethton, Tenn, on Saturday
night Why should the Republican
nominee make his only southern
aneech In a dinky little town In the
Tennessee mountains? Who ever
heard OF Elizabethton before it was
announced eas the place for this
mon partisan address?
Two years ago Elizabethton hao
z,%00 inhabitants-and perhaps that
was stretching the population figures
n bit, Today it has 10000 inhabl-
tants: in a years time 1t expects to
double that number, II not treble 1t.
This is a romance Of growth, an
amazing development.
The reason for it ia that a Ger
man industry is building a plant
costing $5s,000,oo0 in Elizabethton.
A wing of this huge plant will be
dedicated Saturday, and it is for this
reason that Hoover will be there
The candidate unquestionably VIII
mention the fact that had 1t MOI
been for the tariff wall the German
industry would not have found i
necessary to build such q plant II
this country in order to reach th'
American market.
But the development OF this mon
ster industry means more. The prod
uct manufactured Is synthetic alF
hot rayon, but a brand new sub
stitute for silk which experts have
been unable to differentiate from the
real thing. The process is a clost
monopoly, patented, and is the re
suit of a generation Of effort by thu
flrm in the effort to revolutionizt
another industry. The result is de
scribed by Frank Bohn in the Re
view Of Reviews:
I'VE see q venerable chemist a
work in that German laboratory
After directing his staff for half I
lifetime, We see him, at last, rails
his face from his task and indu'g
himself in q smile. That smile ha
meaning. A year or two later we Sc
a crowd of japanese working girl
troop out OF silk mill. They hav
lost their jobs. Tomorrow one o
them may return to her Old home Il
a cabin on a hillside in the bacl
country. There she will help I
crowd the arabic soil of he
native land.
Meanwhile In East Tennessee
another girl, a bright lass with
happy and hopeful heart, leaves he
cabin home In the mountains for tn
first time. She trudges miles dow
the rough road and then takes tn
auto-bus on the main highway t
the town Arrived at the great ne'
silk factory, she gets the job lost t
the girl in Japan"
Natural advantages are said t
have decided the firm to locate tn
huge plant in East Tennessee. Tw
years ago the site-seekers proceede
by motor through that state. At
point tar up in the mountains the
found great spring of water.
dubbed from clean sand and grave
and q chemical analysis showed
was perfectly pure, such as is needle
in silk plant. Summer and white
it flowed, more than 100000 ga
Ions a day. The nearby town We
Eiizabethton. That is how the mi
got to be built there.
There is much in this story to Ell
thuse the imagination. 1t IL usele
to lament the fact that the gree
mill was not built in New Englar
instead of Tennessee. Proximity
the cotton fields-synthetic silk
made from cotton-was the fir
consideration, but there We're othe
that were equally important.
If this firm could have placed
goods in America without paying
tariff it unquestionably would ha'
preferred to manufacture
product along the Rhine and ha'
been satisfied to ship it here. b
that could not be done without Il
ultimate price to the consumer bell
too much In the neighborhood
genuine silk. So on account of Il
tariff, Hoover will probably tell Il
world. the great mill was created
this country.
1t is impossible to gansay SUI
q claim. 1t 10 one Of the reasons wi