Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 February 1912 — ENTHUSED ABOUT MATCH FACTORY CONSOLIDATION. [ARTICLE]

ENTHUSED ABOUT MATCH FACTORY CONSOLIDATION.

B. Forsythe Much Elated Over Possibility of Securing Factory Now la Operation. Be Forsythe, the representative of the Rensselaer Commercial Club, and W. R. Meguire, of the United States Match Co. and George H. Healey, o' The Republican, arrived home this Thursday morning from their trip to an adjoining state to investigate a match factory with a view to effecting a consolidation with the United States Match Co., which has erected buildings in Rensselaer. , Owing to the shortness of time to prepare an article for publication, we are able to discuss the result of the investigation but briefly. For pruden tial reasons, also, the paper will not at this time refer to the match company’s name or location or to the name of the manager of the company. At. a meeting of the directors of the Commercial Cliib to be held this even ing and at a general meeting to be held Friday evening the matter will be freely discussed. Mr. Forsythe, who went to the place as a possible investor, returned home very much enthused about the proposition and the writer entirely agrees with him that the consolidation and removal of the factory here, the completion of .the machines now in coursi. installation in the building here would be a magnificent thing for Rensselaer, far larger than we had hoped for and oj much greater employment capacity than the factory promoted by Mr. Sterling. Mr. Forsythe is willing to take stockJn the jfroposltion and hopes to encourage others to do so, for he realizes that to have this factory located here will mean a great thing for Rensselaer. The writer was not a member of the committee selected by the directors of the Commercial Club and therefore'not expected to make any recommendations from a business standpoint, nor would we ask that our business judgment be -given any consideration whatever. On the matter of what we saw at both Elkhart and the other city, we will talk freely at the meeting to be called by President Worland and the members of the board of directors! The machines which Mr. Sterling says ■are to be installed in the factory here are being built in a machine shop at Elkhart. One is completed sufficiently to be operated and was demonstrated to the writer and Mr. Forsythe Tuesday and to E. L. Hollingsworth Monday. Three other machines are partly constructed and the material is in the shop for their completion. There is also in the shop some large and expensive machinery necessary for the construction of the match machines. The machines in the Elkhart shop ar» all Lundgren machines, which are claimed Jo be the best maebin'es manufactured, and the patents fpr which Mr. Sterling holds. The factory In the town later visited occupies a-very adequate building, but it is not modern and was not erected

for match factory purposes and it is not adequately protected from fire. In it thrfee machines were in operation and the committee had the opportunity of seeing the Lundgren and Diamond machines, working pide by side. Another machine of another make was in operation. A machine shop was also busy in connection with the factory and in it another machine was bs ifig built. Box making machines were in operation and the plant was a hive of Industry; the matches were completed, boxed and cased ready for shipment and the process is very Interesting and the machines were working in good order. The factory employs men and women, boys and girls, and it would prove a great thing for Rensselaer to secure the factory and we hope to find our businessmen responsive to the present opportunity. .

The writer will be pleased to give the investigation more extensive review at the meeting or meetings that are to follow, if there is a disposition to enter into the protect offered. Friday Mr. Sterling and the manager of the factory that is operating sill visit Rensselaer with a concrete proposition and they will present that to our people Friday during the day and Friday evening at a meeting to be held and the place for which will be announced in the Friday Evening’s Republican.