Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1895 — AN OVERDONE INDUSTRY. [ARTICLE]

AN OVERDONE INDUSTRY.

Chas. B. Landis, writing to the Indianapolis News from Delphi, Dec. 24, sounds a note of warning, and incidentally gives considerable information about the canning industry of the State, its past history and future prospects, together with an array of statistics that is worthy of attention and consideration. Mr. Landis states that there were sixtytwo canning establishments in operation in Indiana during the season of 1894. There are in process of construction at this time from twentyfive to forty new plants. This rapid increase is attributed to the efforts of manipulators who are making the location of new canning plants a special business. The methods of these self-sacrificing patriots are given in detail. They go into a neighborhood and systematically work up a 3-ittle boom for a factory, skillfully catering to local pride and ambition ,to gain their ends—which in all cases |s to sell the plant at an exorbitant torice. The agent is profuse in promises that his plant will turn out firstclass products, as,.they generally do, but his assurances that a ready market can always be found for the same not been verified by the experience of a majority of those unfortunates who are left to “hold the sack.” Mr. Landis estimates that

the ,average factory will turn out 1,000,000 cans per annum. With sixty-two canneries already in full blast, and with the already assured increase ia their number in operation, the output of canned goods in 1895 promises to breach phenomenal proportions that is likely to result in a “slump” in the market and the annihilation of all profits. Div* idends on this class of stock in the immediate future are likely to be painfully apparent by their absence. The work of establishing these factories is alleged to be simply a gigantic confidence game that is being worked by the same parties who, a few years ago, gulled the farmers Indiana into sinking many thousand dollars in creameries that stand today as idle as a gravestone—unhappy reminders of their owner’s credulity and innocence. The moral of it all is: “Take care! Beware!”