Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1892 — Here and In England. [ARTICLE]

Here and In England.

In his letters to the New York Times, Mr. Selevenhof, ex-Consul of the United States at Tunstall, England, writes as follows of the comparative cost of producing carpets hero and In England. Carpets are made at a lower cost here than even in England, at least In the lower grades, sijch as ingrain carpets, and as cheaply as there in the lower grades of brussels, etc. A comparison of the cost and manufacturing methods of two-ply ingrains shows the following: .—Philadelphia— Leeds , La- Ex- La- Exbor pense Total bor pense Total Belling cost.. Yam 38.75 28 75 Weaving 5.25 I 70n4 50 I Gen'l labor. .2.07 ] 8,76 { a2 ° General 00st. 24 I ~. 5.0 1 „ „ Belling cost.. 2.0 ( 4-4 J 2.5 ( 7-50 Total 7.92 1.4 51.07 8.23 7.05 44.61 In England much of this class of goods is still made on hand looms. The rates quoted above are from a power mill near Leeds. The band-loom weaver gets 10 cents a yard (5 pence). He obtains the yarn and roturns the finished carpet The labor cost is calculated at the same rate in the two methods of work. What the band weaver guts more (10 cent* against 8L 26 cents for the

power loom work) ia taken from the S< cents i harged in the above comparison! under "General expense,” which, of; course, is considerably higher In powerloom weaving than in hand-loom weav-t tug. The comparison between English andj American cost shows that the labor cost,, from the yarn ud, is somewnat higher! in England. The higher English cost ofl “general labor” on the yard price is ini this instance due to the fact that it isj distributed in America over a much! larger output. The same refers to thei general expense item. Tho higher cost! of yarn is due entirely to the higher cost of wool in consequence of the wool tariff. Without this tax we can easily export carpets, as can bo scon from the foregoing comparison, and from the selling of carp ts. This at the time barely covered the cost of production, and certainly would hardly do so now, under the McKinley blessings (so assiduously invoked by certain carp't manufacturers)* culminating in the re: ont forced sale# and prosent stagnation.