Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1887 — TRADE AND LABOR. [ARTICLE]

TRADE AND LABOR.

f hilaJciphin Record. Workmen at Anniston, Ala. iron’ works are paid $1 to $4 per day. Thirty electrical roads now being built wijl’be running before winter shall have ,set in. ■ Some splendidly equipped vessels are i being built for freight service on the lakes. Knights of Labor in Atlanta, Ga., buy only from those,who advertise ip labor papers. All cf the best fire brick used in Alabama is taken from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Northwestern Pennsylvania expects to have the largest plate glass works in the world. The Knights of Labor are quietly -extending their organization, especially in the West. Large works are to be established at Chattanooga, Tenn., to erect electric light plants. A new wire mill will be erected at Braddocks, Pa. It wid employ one hundred men. The “largest” tile and pottery works ever-built in this country are talked of at Austin, Minn. From all accounts, between 2,000 and 3,000 coke ovens will be erected during the next twelve months. Brick making will be pushed more a tively on account of the pressure for supplies in the early spring. The lumber manufacturers have orders for all the stock they can deliver within the next thirty days. Labor is in demand in nearly all crafts. Armour is building a packing house in Chicago to cover five acre 3. A device for utilizing the power of Niagara river has been sold in two counties bordering the river for $62,500. Coal operators in the West are very stubborn in their opposition to the semi nionthly payments demanded by law. The Chinese government has bought 6,000 tons of steel rails, and the Indian government has just ordered 18,000 tons English manufacturers are jealous of the prospects opening up before the American manufacturers of iron and steel. The “pluck me” stores, against which the Pennsylvania Legislature raised its arm, are still flourishing throughout the State.The projection of new cotton and woolen mills indicates that the textile industry is not so bad off as some jobbers put it. Builders say there will be much more vork done next winter than usual, especially in alterations, exterior and interior. The largest elevator in the world is to be built on Goose island, Chicago. The dimensions will be 476x150 feet, and 225 feet high. The builders will first feel the decline in activity. A vast amount of work is i.under contract to be finished by Oct. 15 and Nov. 1. One hundred coke ovens will be built at Coaldale, Ala., and, a large steel mam ufacturing plant will be located at North Birmingham. A Bessemer steel plant will be erected at Antimony City, Ark., and a large iron fence manufactory will be established at Plattsmouth, Neb. » —— : Five million dollars have Been subscribed to build a new town near Stevenson, Ala., where manufacturing will be done on a large scale. The largest smelting and redaction works in the country are to be erected at Tacoma. Cost $2,000,000. Labor is snuffing fresh opportunities there. The manufacturers of agricultural implements and tools are organixing for the purpose of advancing prices and dividing business up among themselves. In English mills a replacement of machinery is necessary every ten years. In American mills, the machinery being better made and lighter, runs much longer. . ~ The leading lights in the South are advising all Southern young men who want to stand in the front rank of the, world’s leaders to go into manufacturing. A man shoveling dirt a shovel one pound heavier >v ,an It need be, will lift 0,000 pottlids more in a day of ten I hours than he would with a shovel one pound lighter. Nearly all the glass works in the < country are receiving heavy orders, and ' a « manufacturers think the demand will be string enough to mV ce an ad ' vapee before wilder. The erection of ten,?tiiefii houses for employes is now quite a common thing in the new sections. The houses are well built, roomy, and rent cheap or sell on reasonable terms. The distribution of merchandise and manufactured products,is now going on at a greater rate than it was twelve months ago. The increase has Ijeen estimated at 5 per cent. Mechanics who work in lead afenHen" driven into'consumption. A life-saving respirator has teen introduced in California arid other places West that - saves the workmen very much. The question as to what is the exact mechanical-equivalent oi heat has long puzzled engineers. The latest experiments show that one pound of water raised 1° F. is equal to oneponndlifted 769 feet. The boot and shoe manufacturers are selling large supplies to lumbermen and miners in the Northwest. Some manufacturers have withdrawn their

salesmen from the road, and will try the j old plan of doing business. I Three valuable coal beds in the We3t known aa tire Gunti son deposits, eover 1,000 square miles, and contain lignites, bituminous and anthracites. Railroad, mining and manufacturing interests are opening up these fields. In the machine shops arid car and locomotive works, as well as in the ship yards and tool works, employment will . be more abundant than it was last winter, and a great deal of new machinery is being put up for a hnsv winter’s work. Kansas sugar-making enthusiasts expect to have this country independent - of foreign sugar in a few years. Land there can be made to produce from ten to fifteen tonsof sorghum-cane. Besides this sugar, ten gallons of molasses per ton is made. A company with a capital of $590,000 has leased fifteen miles of coal landß near Paris, Tex , and will open it at once. Capitalists from East Saginaw, , Mich., have purchased two or three counties of West Virginia mineral land to develop it. / -The Mlnneapolis flour-makers have shipped forty-one barrels of flour this year for thirtv-3even barrels last year. The mills are turning out 160,000 barrels per week. For every 100 bushels of potatoes raised last year, only 84 are raised this year. One coal mine in Western Pennsylvania is ventilated with natural gas. The fire which gives the upward current is a natural gas flame. Pipes are used to collect the gas, which is conducted to the bottom of the ventilating shaft after having been burned. German plumbers melt the frost out of the ground by spreading a layer of • quicklime, over which i 3 put a layer of show, apd these layers are repeated several times, a jcordihg to the extent of the frost. Next morning the ground is ready for pick and shovel. The clothing'manufacturers are pursuing a very cautious course in manufacturing for winter distribution. A great many foreign goods are coming in, and this fact disarranges the plans of American manufacturers. Many work, men have been thrown off. In the bituminous mines there is a demand for nearly ail the miners, and but. few- are coming from abroad. Mining labor, which ordinarily is obliged to roam to and fro over the country in “Seasons” this winter will be more stationary, and employment will be more steady. 1 The monster steam hammer of Krupp, the German gunmaxerl is nearly two-hundred feet high. The hammer falls on a block of metal weighing 20,000 tons. One of the cross pieces bears an inscription which, trautlated, reads: “Let her go, Fritz.” Ail access to •jthe works is forbidden. The horsepower employed is equal to ‘ = The boot and shoe manufacturers of England are much pleased over the latest trade developments. Dealers are buying fewer high and more mediumpriced goods. A year ago the prices ranged all the way from $3 50 to $4.50, Popular prices are now between $2.25 and $3 for shoes. Only specialties are commanding.outside prices.- Everything points to an early winter business. in inducing their employers to adopt the new price list. The extent to which organized iabor can actually advance the value of labor over what labor, could bring without such organization is a subject which has received but little attention from employers or employed. Labor answers by referring to all the numerous advances that have been made, which it counts as so mu.li gain, l.ihployers deduct increased cost of rent and living and increased expenditure induced by higher wages. The gain, while something, is less than it appears, tu be on account of off setting causes. Two million dollars will shortly be invested in textile mills in a dozen or more Eastern towns. The Maine manufacturing centers are beginning to feel the stimulus of increasing manufacturing activity. Several large cotton concerns are enlarging their .. facilities, among them the Lonsda’e, the Globe, j the Merrick, and the Amoskeag. Great 4 ” improvements are being introduced into these ngw mills. The Lonsdale is\ finishing one Of the finest factories ever built. The Otis Company is building a arge mill, 410 by 118 feet. The Pacific r Grhpany, at Lawrence. Mass., i 3 build- - immense mill 444 bv 74 feet, ing ail tmn* The Cheney Bros, ale- building A mUI 825 by 60 feet. All the Eastern silkmil is are very busy. The demand for skilled labor in machine shops of all kinds throughout the country is greater at this time than for several years. Special arrangements have been made to secure English and German labor within the next ninety efaysP Farm hands are being initiated into to mysteries of the machine shop, tempted by the higher wage 3 offered. Leading manufacturers are beginning now to recognize the very urgent necessity for technical education. Foreign laborers, although skilled in iheimwn country, have to be in many respects re-taught here. A number of shops in Indiana, Illinois and West of the Mississippi are at this time in need of skilled workmen, and there is an * emigration of machinists from the East to the West, although it has not large proportions. 1