Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1887 — OUR INDUSTRIES. [ARTICLE]

OUR INDUSTRIES.

Doings of Organized Labor in the Various Sections of the Country. National Trade District Movement Among the Knights—Among the Mines and Mills. There is a widespread movement among the Knights for separate national trade associations. The harnessmakers will want one; the brassworkers have asked for one; the ironworkers have organized for one; and the coopers, painters, and decorators insist on separate control. A score of other crafts are asking for a separate room in the great Order where they can talk things over. The experiments already made haveshown that there is nothing in the movement of a disintegrating character, but that in reality this step is a cementing one. New England textile manufacturers are generally improving their capacity and putting in better machinery to decrease cost. A New Hampshire firm has ordered a cargo of wool from San Francisco around Cape Horn on account of high freights. The Pepperell Mill, in Maine, has just divided a half million dollars in dividends,, and has a million dollars left. Five national labor unions have just held, their annual sessions—the printers at Buffalo, the shoemakers at Brockion, the iron-workers at Pittsburg, and the machinery workers and miners at Cincinnati. There were 200,000 shoemakers said to he represented through 150 delegates at Brockton. The iron-workers had 180 delegates. Fort Worth, Texas, is to be made a. wool and sheep depot with immense stock yards and scouring establishments. It now costs $1.43 to pay the freight on 100 pounds of grease ana dirt, and this is to besaved by the scouring establishments. Fort Worth says that she will yet rival Philadelphia as a wool center. Four railroads are now being built in. Georgia to center at Atlanta. It will then be the greatest railroad center in the South. These roads will run through coal, lumber, and agricultural sections, and already syndicates are operating along the projected lines, securing control of the most desirable lands. The New York silversmiths have surrendered and gone to work. Nearly all the cabinet-makers’ shops of New York have established the nine-hour system. A new organ (monthly) has been established in New York to represent the- National Federation. The Furriers’ Union voted $45 (O' the Chicago anarchists. A London paper says there is not one corner of Europe where American smallcost hardware is not for sale. Krupp, of Germany; Armstrong, of England, and Hotchkiss, of France, with all their vast resources are unable to produce a monkey or screw-bar wrench equal to the American wrenches. The builders in the small towns all over the country are reporting an increasing demand for small houses. The building and loan association fever is spreading in the West. The outflow of money from sluggish financial localities in the East is stimulating enterprise in a great many small channels. Western cities and towns are developing their manufacturing capabilities rapidly. Denver, Col., is becoming ait important manufacturing center, and will produce $30,000,000 worth of products this year. Eastern manufacturers are pioneering over the West seeking opportunities. The London papefs are complaining that as fast as British workmen leave their shores the gap is filled up with German workmen and workmen from Russia. They don’t want the pauper labor of the continent “shot” there. The remedy is in the highest degree obscure. The question of employers’ right to employ non-uuion labor will not be surrendered without a bitter struggle. Boston building employers have been placing themselves in position to open the fight. The workmen, in anticipation of trouble, are strengthening their lines. Eastern farmers and well-to-do mechanics are lending, through agencies, much of their spare cash on Western mortgages. This exchange ought to have been built up long ago. Money commands very low rates of interest East and exceptionally high rates in the West. One well-known make of boiler has been sold to ihe extent of 122,000 horse power in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Great ingenuity and study are being centered on boiler-making, and marked improvements have been completed within a tew mouths. An enthusiastic Westener, who writes as though he were posted, says $50,000,000 could be safely invested in the sugarmakiiig and growing industry in the South, and that there are excellent opportunities for jute and ramie manufacturing. The Northern investors in Southern, pig-iron plants are greatly encouraged by the active demand in Western markets for the entire product of furnaces. This will lead to further extension of capacity. Coke is scarce. At Dallas, Texas, a half-million dollar cotton mill is to be built. The Roanoke Cotton Mills, Va., are to have a capital of $250,000. Another cotton mill is to be started at Columbia, S. C., with a capital of $500,000. The question of co-operation is not favorably considered in the Knights’ assemblies, and the land theories of George, while favorably regarded at a distance, are not considered good matteis to advance wages with. A great many Philadelphia-made boilers are finding their way into Eastern millsand factories. Four 125 horse power safety boilers have just been put in at East Ware"ham, Mass. The Kansas City carpenters are looking a long way ahead. They announce that they won’t work more than eight bourn after next June, and want 35 cents an hour. The miners are earnestly endeavoring to avert strikes in the future, and, if met with half the candor they feel, measures will be devised by which justice can be done. The expressed opinion of labor delegates at the various trade conventions is that the improving .condition of things justifies the advanced they desire to have made. i