Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1891 — American and English Shoe-Making. [ARTICLE]

American and English Shoe-Making.

The London Boot and Shoe % Trades Journal gives an interview with a Mr. A. Harden, an American who is in England for the purpose of introducing American shoe-making machinery there. This Mr. Harden makes some statements which should bo read with interest in this country. The London journal says: “Invited to give his opinion upon our systems and quality of work produced, ho expressed himself as considerably surprised at the high degree of excellence attained by the mixed up methods now prevailing here, and candidly admitted that there was little to be desired in the latter respect, but in the former he considered we wore just about in the same position as the Americans, were about twenty years ago; but he could observe that many of the manufacturers were of a progressive type, and with the facilities afforded by the numerous, large and well-appointed factories we should rapidly overtake his countrymen, the two things necessary being the adoption of good machines and systems and the cooperation of the workmen. The workmen in America had learned that machinery was beneficial to them and to the whole community. It dispensed with a great portion of manual labor, the men using brains instead. It also meant to them higher wages and shorter hours, to the manufacturer increased profits, and to the community at large the advantages accruing by the cost of production being lessened, thereby superior goods could be bought at even reduced prices, and so increasing the consumption to such an extent that hand labor could not cope with the demand, and he was certain our workmen would speedily become cognizant of the above advantages. ” If the system of shoe manufacturing in England is twenty years behind ours, where is the need for our 25 per cent duty on boots and shoes? Certainly it is not necessary to protect labor, for, as Mr. Harden points out, our machinery gives the. laborer an advantage over his foreign competitor. In a late number of the Boston Boot and Shoe, Recorder its Brockton (Mass.) correspondent reports that an Englishman had been in that city and had said that he found labor cheaper there than in England. Brockton is the largest boot and shoe manufacturing center in the United States, and it Is claimed by the correspondent just quoted that wages are higher there than in other places in New England and the West Ex-Consul Schoolcraft is authority for the statement that a pair of shoes costing 35 cents

to mako In this country costs CO ter make in England, this being due to the greater use ot machinery here and to the greater efficiency of our labor. What become.B. then, of the claim that our laborers in boot and shoe factories need protection from fore'gn competition?