Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — COMPARING THE COST. [ARTICLE]

COMPARING THE COST.

PRODUCING DRESS GOODS HERE AND ABROAD. The Ttn-IMate Industry Fraud May Now Be Exposed—Manufacturers Unite In a Trust to Suppress Competition In the Home Market—TarlfT ShotFacts to Consider. When Mr. Schoenliof was the United States Consul at Tunstall, England, he made a study of the comparative costs of producing dress goods iu England and the United States. He was specially fitted for this work, having himself been engaged as a manufacture of textiles. Mr. Schoenliof shows c early in the following that with free wool we can easily compete with England. He says: “la dress goods a change seems to be taking place which favors the softer goods again, tho same as in men’s wear, against cassimeres, w.iich had a run for quite a number of years. The trouble in dross goods is that one can seldom say irom one season to another what class of goods will be in demand. Hence the domestic manufacturer with his limited market is always tossed about between the rocks of overproductions aud of inability to supply the goods just in demand. In this the foreign manufacturer has an advantage. He originates fashions and designs for America as well as the rest of the world. He can turn his looms witli ease and more readily than our manufacturers, partly because he works on a smaher and more scattered basis (in Germany and France a very large number of hand looms are j still in operation ) than our big concerns, and partly because he has the world’s i nations as his customers and is, therefore, not engaged with his entire fores ! on one and the same class or style of goods. Importations will, for these reasons, always goon, whether we continue advancing the tariff or not, and tho bulk will continue to be made here after increase or reduction of tariffs. Whether with a protit or without depends entirely on whether we happen to hit the thing in demand or not. '1 hat the labor cost plays no great part in this can be seen from a statement of comparative cost relating to dress goods of carded wool, so-called sackings. These goods are very extensively manufactured, and at present seem to have a run. They are of the liannel kind, and what applies to them j in the manufacturing and cost would be j applicable to that class of goods, too. In a slightly modifie 1 form this applies also to stripes or plaids The principal difference here would be that the former are dyed in the piece, the latter in the yarn. But even tnis is an infinitesimal consideration in cost, as will be seen further on. The shuttle, of course, carries with equal speed and equal good will, whether freighted with colored yarn or yarn in the gray.

The goods in America are made from the wool up, carded, spun, woven, dyed and finished in the mill. The English goods to which the comparison relates are made complete in the mill, except the dyeing and finishing, which is done by outside parties. I found the relations to stand thus: Comparison of cost of 6-4 sackings, 6% ounces to the yard, calculated on the pound basis in: , Massachusetts. > England. , Labor. Supplies, Total, Labor, Supplies, Total, cents, cents, cen.s. cents, cents. Scouring, card i n g and spinning 4.8 1.14 5.9 4. 1.5 5.5 Weaving, reaming, burling, etc 9.02 .83 1".47 7.4 .... 7.4 Dyeing... .8 1.1 1.9 8. Fit l’g and flnish'ng2.(s .... 2.0 4. Cha r g e s , etc 11.4 13. Total cts. 32.27 37.9 Wool-. 70. . ' 32. T0ta1.... 81.0227 6H.9 The general cost outside of the wool was stated by the manufacturer as being covered by 33 cents a pound. In England the dyeing and finishing is higher, being done outside. Tho American dyeing cost has to be corrected, being higher than given in my report on these dress goods I intimated then that some corrections might be necessary. What stands for tho pound ought to stand for the yard price, which would make the dyeing cost in all colors, except navy and myrtle, to bo 4.6 cents the pound, dress goods. Allowing for this difference there is still sufficient margin in tho general cost to make American flannels and carded wool dress goods independent of foreign competition, were there no tariff whatever. Tho American weaver gets 2.65 cents per yard of these goods, turns out about 300 yards a week, and earns accordingly 87.95. The English weaver gets 7s 8d per piece of sev-enty-two yards, 2.56 cents per yard, turns out 105 yards on au average, and earns 52.71.

Both are paid by the piece at nearly the same rate. The American operator handles two looms, works harder and longer hours. The Yorkshire girls handle one loom and are satisfied with earning 12 shillings a week Higher than 15 shillings their ambition seldom goes. This Is the alpha and the omega, the question and the answer, in the problem of to day. This class of goods needs nothing so much as free wool to make it exportable. Manufacturers know this very well, and have been very outspoken at times about it. How could it be otherwi e? The general cost of production, aside from woo!, is somewhat below the foreign cost, but the wool costs more than twice as much as abroad. Regarding the wool question in general an American manufacturer and commission merchant writes me: “English goo :s are invariably made out of a blend, and in this, blend there are all the way from five to twenty different qualities of wool, each of which Is associated with it, to give some desirable quality to the goods, either of texture. finish or price.” “lam obliged nearly every week, ” he further states, “to refuse profitable contracts to make goods which would occupy considerable quantities of American machinery, simply because the raw stock and the experience of handling the same do not exist in th's country. The importation of the former is prohibited by the tariff, and the tariff is likewise responsible for our Inexperience in handling certain raw stocks, which have been excluded from this market for upwards of twenty-five years. ” Here we have the whole difficulty. .We have neither the experience in handling raw stocks, nor have we the stocks of wosl required for the blending, because they have been excluded from the market for upwards of twenty-five years. Otherwise we could employ our cheap labar and working methods very profitably on ordei* now going constantly to foreign countries on account of the absence of these necessary requirements.