Products and Marketing
Butter(Vol. 4, p. 889,) andCheese(Vol. 6, p. 22) are brief articles which you should not overlook, although they refer you to the key and article on dairying for details; andOilscontains (Vol. 20, p. 47) an interesting analytical table in which butter is compared with other animal fats.Food Preservation(Vol. 10, p. 612) deals with the cold storage of butter, cheese, condensed milk and milk powder; andRefrigerating(Vol. 23, p. 30) with the processes and machinery employed.Koumiss(Vol. 15, p. 920) describes the milk-wine or milk-brandy prepared by fermenting mare’s milk, and the similar product “kerif” made from cow’s milk. Although the special developments of dairying in various parts of the world are discussed in the articleDairy and Dairy-Farming, the articles on individual countries also contain information of value. The section on dairying (Vol. 5, p. 154) in the articleCanada, and the account of co-operative dairying (Vol. 7, p. 87) inDenmarkshould not be overlooked.
In reading these articles in Britannica, and thinking of the present conditions of this great business, you will be reminded that dairying is an industry of peculiar importance to the whole people of the United States, not only because of the money made out of it, and not only because it gives hundreds of thousands of men employment on the land instead of in crowded cities, but also because itpromises to develop the co-operative action which harmonizes with the best ideals of democracy. The co-operative plants which are beginning to be established by dairy farmers are the only institutions our modern civilization has created in which you find the neighborly spirit that the first American settlers showed in the days when they joined to defend themselves against the Indians. At political meetings, in machine shops and cotton mills and shoe factories, you hear unhappy talk about the relations of capital and labor, about strikes and trusts, about the man on top and the man underneath. But where the farmer’s wagons clatter up to the separator platform, there is combination in the best sense of the word. The Britannica article on co-operation says that the word “in its widest usage,means the creed that life may best be ordered not by the competition of individuals, where each seeks the interest of himself and his family, but by mutual help, by each individual consciously striving for the good of the social body of which he forms part, and the social body in return caring for each individual; ‘each for all, and all for each’ is its accepted motto. Thus it proposes to replace among rational and moral things the struggle for existence by voluntary combination for life.”
(The more important articles have already been mentioned in the preceding pages, but the following list includes many others in which valuable information will be found.)
(The more important articles have already been mentioned in the preceding pages, but the following list includes many others in which valuable information will be found.)
(The more important articles have already been mentioned in the preceding pages, but the following list includes many others in which valuable information will be found.)
CHAPTER IVFOR MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS: GENERAL AND INTRODUCTORY
Technical Education for Manufacturer and Merchant
The article onTechnical Educationin the new (Eleventh) Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Vol. 26, p. 487), written by Philip Magnus, one of the greatest educational authorities in the world, says that:
“The widespread appreciation of the advantages of the higher education among all classes of the American people, and the general recognition among manufacturers, engineers and employers of labour, of the value to them in their own work, of the services of college-trained men, has largely helped to increase the number of students in attendance at the universities and technical institutions.”
A still broader truth is that the men who have learned to think clearly, by whatever study orreadingthey may have developed that power, possess the greatest of all advantages. As the Britannica article onEducationindicates, the true value of education (not simply school education, but all education) lies as much in the influence which intelligently directed study exerts upon the mind as in the immediate usefulness of the information acquired, and the articles in the Britannica not only supply the most recent and authoritative information, but are so logically arranged, one dove-tailing into another, that they give the reader precisely thatorderlyview of knowledge which is the foundation of all mental training.
Since all of the series of chapters which immediately follow and which are intended for merchants and manufacturers, deal with commerce and manufactures, it will be for the reader’s convenience to begin by dealing with those two subjects in general. But certain branches of industrial and manufacturing knowledge are dealt with in special chapters. The articles on banking and finance are described fully in this Guide in the chapterFor Bankers and Financiers, those on insurance in the chapterFor Insurance Men, and those on law in the chapterFor Lawyers. Three of the legal articles should, however, be mentioned here, as they are on especially important subjects:Sale of Goods(Vol. 24, p. 63),Company(Vol. 6, p. 795), which deals with the laws in various countries regulating corporations, andEmployers’ Liability(Vol. 9, p. 356), on this topic so important in modern industrial law and in the relations between capital and labour.
Practical Economics for Practical Men
The broad questions of commercial and industrial policy are discussed inEconomics(Vol. 8, p. 899), by Prof. Hewins;Commerce(Vol. 6, p. 766);Trusts(Vol. 27, p. 334);Monopoly(Vol. 18, p. 733), andTrade Organization(Vol. 27, p. 335), which describes commercial associations in the United States, the work of the consular service, and the organizations in Germany, France, GreatBritain and other countries.Book-keeping(Vol. 4, p. 225), with its up-to-date account of modern accounting methods, card ledgers and loose leaf systems;Advertisement(Vol. 1, p. 235), andMercantile Agencies(Vol. 18, p. 148) may be named as specimens of the many practical articles on business methods which need not all be enumerated here.
Imports and Exports
Much of what you read and hear about the tariff systems of the United States and various other countries and about their influence upon trade is so vague and confusing that you will be delighted with the group of clear, common-sense articles in the Britannica.Tariff(Vol. 26, p. 422) is by one of the most famous American economists, Prof. Taussig of Harvard, and is a very full and fair discussion of the points in controversy.Protection(Vol. 22, p. 464) is by Prof. James of the University of Illinois, andFree Trade(Vol. 11, p. 89) by William Cunningham. You should read with careCustoms Duties(Vol. 7, p. 669);Free Ports(Vol. 11, p. 88), andBounty(Vol. 4, p. 324).Balance of Trade(Vol. 3, p. 235) andTaxation(Vol. 26, p. 458) are both by Sir Robert Giffen.Exchange(Vol. 10, p. 50), by E. M. Harvey, a partner in one of the largest firms of bullion brokers in the world, deals with the movement of gold.Commercial Treaties(Vol. 6, p. 771) is by Sir C. M. Kennedy. Freights are discussed inAffreightment(Vol. 1, p. 302) by Sir Joseph Walton.Lien(Vol. 16, p. 594), with its section on “Stoppage in transitu,” is by F. W. Raikes;Salvage(Vol. 24, p. 97), by T. G. Carver, andBlockade(Vol. 4, p. 72), by Sir Thomas Barclay, the great international lawyer in Paris. Marine insurance, indemnity, Lloyds, and other insurance subjects fall under the chapter of this GuideFor Insurance Mento which you should refer. Cargo-carrying and merchant shipping are further covered byShipping(Vol. 24, p. 983). This article is by Douglas Owen, honorary secretary and treasurer of the Society of National Research, and author ofPorts and Docks; it contains information about the great freight carrying lines of the world that can be found in no other book. Railroad freighting is covered by the articleRailways(Vol. 22, p. 819), in which there is a special section (p. 854b) on the new models of American freight cars.
Manufacturing and Consuming Nations
In the articleUnited States, which contains more matter than a whole book of ordinary size and more information than a dozen ordinary books, the sections (Vol. 27, p. 639) on manufactures and on foreign and domestic commerce, are by F. S. Philbrick, Ph.D.The internal commerce of the United States, as this article states, is in itself greater than the total international commerce of the world, and is so far from exhausting the country’s power of production and consumption, that even when coastwise traffic is disregarded, New York is the most active port in the world. A section (Vol. 9, p. 916) of the articleEuropedeals with European commerce in general. The articles on the great manufacturing towns of Europe contain much information as to industries. Great Britain’s industries are dealt with in the articleUnited Kingdom(Vol. 27, p. 691). The industries of England alone are separately treated in a section (Vol. 9, p. 426) of the articleEngland. Germany’s industries are the subject of sections (Vol. 11, p. 811) of the articleGermany; and it is interesting to note that although Germany has outranked France in cotton manufactures since Mülhausen, Colmar and other important milling centres of Alsace became German, France has retorted byovertaking and passing Germany in the production of linen. The sections (Vol. 10, p. 785) on foreign commerce in the articleFranceshow her position as in the main a self-supporting country, though only a fourth of the cargoes loaded and discharged in French ports are carried under the French flag. It would be a waste of space to enumerate here the articles on Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and other countries, which you will consult in relation to those of their exports in which you are especially interested; but you should not overlook the article on Japan. The Britannica has done commerce a great service in giving to the world at last a good account of this extraordinary country.
The body of the articleJapan(Vol. 15, p. 156) is by Capt. Brinkley, long editor of the JapanMail, whose opportunities of seeing Japanese life from the inside have been greater than those of any other foreign observer. Baron Dairoku Kikuchi, President of the Imperial University of Kyoto, a statesman of great experience and authority, contributes to the article a section (Vol. 15, p. 273) dealing with Japan’s international position. His remarks upon the commercial morality of the Japanese are so ingenuous and so candid that an extract from them cannot be omitted:
Now when foreign trade was first opened, it was naturally not firms with long-established credit and methods that first ventured upon the new field of business—some few that did failed owing to their want of experience—it was rather enterprising and adventurous spirits with little capital or credit who eagerly flocked to the newly opened ports to try their fortune. It was not to be expected that all or most of those should be very scrupulous in their dealings with the foreigners; the majority of those adventurers failed, while a few of the abler men, generally those who believed in and practised honesty as the best policy, succeeded and came to occupy an honourable position as business men.... Commerce and trade are now regarded as highly honourable professions, merchants and business men occupy the highest social positions, several of them having been lately raised to the peerage, and are as honourable a set of men as can be met anywhere. It is, however, to be regretted that in introducing Western business methods, it has not been quite possible to exclude some of their evils, such as promotion of swindling companies, tampering with members of legislature, and so forth.
The account (Vol. 15, p. 201) by Capt. Brinkley of the curious system of creating branches of Japanese business houses is another part of this article which should not be overlooked.
Mill Labour
The proportion of labour cost to the total cost of production is in most industries so great that you cannot study too carefully every aspect of the labour question. The chief articles areLabour Legislation(Vol. 16, p. 7), jointly written by the late Dr. Carroll D. Wright, the great American authority on the subject, and Miss A. M. Anderson, Principal Lady Inspector of Factories to the British government;Trades Union(Vol. 27, p. 140);Strikes and Lockouts(Vol. 25, p. 1024);Wages(Vol. 28, p. 229), by Prof. J. S. Nicholson;Profit Sharing(Vol. 22, p. 423), by Aneurin Williams andApprenticeship(Vol. 2, p. 228), by J. S. Ballin. The articleEmployers’ Liability(Vol. 9, p. 356), has already been mentioned.
CHAPTER VFOR MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS OF TEXTILES
Practical Men Among the Contributors
The Course of Reading outlined in this chapter will help anyone who has to do with the making or with the buying and selling of textiles, in three ways, at least, each of the greatest importance to him—and possibly in many more. Taking up these three:—In the first place, it will teach him many facts about manufacturing and merchandizing in general, and about dry goods in particular, that he could learn nowhere else, because the scope of the Britannica is broader than that of any other book—or, for that matter, than the scope of any collegiate course can well be. In the second place, the number of distinguished men who have devoted their exclusive attention to the subjects upon which they write, and have given to the Britannica the results of their research and of their experience as practical experts—in many cases, indeed, as successful business men—is far greater than the number of men who form the faculty of any university in the world. The fifteen hundred contributors in fact include no less than 704 connected with the staffs of 151 different universities, technological and commercial institutes and colleges in twenty countries. The reader thus gets the benefit of contact with the thought of many, of varied, and always of authoritative, personalities. In the third place, thetextile trade is peculiarly an international trade, the raw materials often traveling from one end of the world to the other before manufacture, and making as long a journey in the finished form, before they reach the consumer, and the international character of the Britannica gives equal weight to the articles which deal with the textiles and with the markets of all countries—a statement which it would certainly not be safe to make about any other book.
Textile Fibres and their Treatment
The articleFibers(Vol. 10, p. 309), by C. F. Cross, whose name has been much before the public in connection with the recent scientific investigation of the subject, compares the fibres yielded by all the vegetable and animal substances used in textiles. The 18 microscopic photographs on the full page plates (facing pp. 310 and 311) and the table of vegetable fibres (p. 311) should be carefully studied.Cellulose(Vol. 5, p. 606) deals with the “body” of cotton, flax, hemp and jute fibres.Carding(Vol. 5, p. 324) deals with the brushing and combing of fibres.Spinning(Vol. 25, p. 685) covers both cotton and linen, and it is curious to note from this article that in preparing yarns for the exquisite Dacca muslins one pound of cotton has been spun into a thread 252 miles long; while the articleDaccasays that a piece 15 feet by 3 was once woven that weighed only 900 grains.Yarn(Vol. 28, p. 906) deals with cotton,woollen and silk yarns.Weaving(Vol. 28, p. 440), by Prof. T. W. Fox, author ofMechanics of Weaving, and Alan Cole, is the first article you should read in a group dealing with processes applied to more than one material. The first section is on the various combinations of warp and weft, and contains 23 illustrations showing the chief weaving “schemes.” A section on weaving machinery follows, and then one on weaving as an art, illustrated with a number of reproductions of famous specimens of hand-loom work. The whole article is full of practical every-day information of the kind the merchant and manufacturer wants to know.Bleaching(Vol. 4, p. 49) describes the chemical processes which have expedited the bleaching of cotton, wool, linen and silk, which it used to take all summer to complete.Dyeing(Vol. 8, p. 744), by Prof. Hummel, author ofThe Dyeing of Textile Fabrics, and Prof. Knecht, author ofA Manual of Dyeing, is another of the thorough articles which entitle the Britannica to rank as a great original work on textiles. Every dye is separately treated, and the latest models of dyeing machinery are carefully described.Finishing(Vol. 10, p. 378) deals with the processes used for cotton, woollens, worsteds, pile fabrics, silks and yarns.Textile-Printing(Vol. 26, p. 694) is by Prof. Knecht and Alan Cole, author ofOrnament in European Silks, and not only describes all the styles of printing, but gives sixty recipes for various shades of colour. The full page plates reproduce fine specimens of early printing. The art of textile-printing “is very ancient, probably originating in the East. It has been practised in China and India from time immemorial, and the Chinese, at least, are known to have made use of engraved wood-blocks many centuries before any kind of printing was known in Europe.”
Cotton and Cotton Fabrics
The elaborate articleCotton(Vol. 7, p. 256) begins by discussing the peculiar twist of the hairs on the cotton seed which by facilitating spinning gives cotton its predominant position as a textile material. The section on cultivation, by W. G. Freeman, deals with the soils, bedding, planting, hoeing and picking, then with ginning and baling. A section on diseases and pests of the cotton plant follows, then a discussion of the improvement of yield by seed selection. The section on marketing and supply is by Prof. Chapman, and his practical study of “futures,” “options,” and “straddles” shows how greatly the movement of prices is affected by speculation and often by artificial manipulation.
Cotton Manufacturing(Vol. 7, p. 281) describes the industry in England, that of the United States, with a special section on the recent developments in the two Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, and also the mills in Germany, France, Russia, Switzerland, Italy and in other countries, including India, China and Japan. It is interesting to note (p. 293) that “Americans were making vast strides in industrial efficiency even before the period when American theories and American enterprise were monopolizing in a wonderful degree the attention of the business world” abroad. As far back as 1875 progress in the United States was so rapid that the production for each operative had increased during the ten years 1865–75, by 100% in Massachusetts as against only 23% in England. One explanation of American success is that the American employer “tries to save in labour but not in wages, if a generalization may be ventured. The good workman gets high pay, but he is kept at tasks requiring his powers and is not suffered to waste his time doing the work of unskilled or boy labour.”
Cotton Spinning Machinery(Vol. 7, p. 301) describes all the machines in great detail and contains a number offull-page plates and other illustrations.Mercerizing(Vol. 18, p. 150) is another important article.
Wool, Linen and Silk
Wool, Worsted and Woollen Manufactures(Vol. 28, p. 805) is by Prof. Aldred F. Barker. The development in wool production of various countries is first described and then the wool fibre is studied and microscopic photographs reproduced to show the structure of different varieties. A diagram of a fleece shows the qualities obtained from various parts of the animal, ranging from the shoulders, where the finest is found, to the hind quarters. Lamb, hogg and wether wools are compared and the article discusses shearing, classing, sorting, scouring, drying, teasing, burring, mule spinning, combing, drawing and spinning. The centres of the industry are then compared, with details as to the special products of each. The article contains illustrations of a number of machines. Articles dealing with certain sources of wool or of the wool-like hair used in textiles, and with the finished products, are:Alpaca(Vol. 1, p. 721), the history of its manufacture being “one of the romances of commerce;”Mohair(Vol. 18, p. 647), which deals with the hair of the Angora goat, familiar from discussions of the Underwood Tariff bill, and dealing with its weaving and the imitations of the cloth;Llama(Vol. 16, p. 827); and the articlesGuanaco(Vol. 12, p. 649) andVicugna(Vol. 28, p. 47), on the two wild animals from whose hair high priced materials, extraordinarily warm and light, are woven.
Flax(Vol. 10, p. 484) describes the cultivation of the crops which are harvested by being “pulled,” roots and all, instead of being cut, the process of separating the capsules from the branches, and the subsequent stages of preparation.Linen and Linen Manufactures(Vol. 16, p. 724), by Thomas Woodhouse, takes up the story where the flax fibre is ready for market and carries it to the point where the yarn is delivered for weaving. The winding, warping, dressing and beaming, and the looms employed, are virtually the same processes and machines that are used for cotton. The article states that the finest linen threads used for lace are produced by Belgian hand spinners who can only get the desired results by working in damp cellars, the spinner being guided by touch alone, as the filament is too fine for him to see. This thread is said to have been sold for as much as $72 an ounce.
Jute(Vol. 15, p. 603) deals with the vegetable fibre which ranks, in its industrial importance, next after cotton and flax and with the processes employed in its manufacture.
Silk(Vol. 25, p. 96) contains illustrations of cocoons and worms, microscopic photographs of fibre, and pictures of the moths which produce wild silk. The section on the fibre and its production and preparation is by Frank Warner, president of the Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland; and that on the silk trade by Arthur Mellor, a well known manufacturer of Macclesfield, the great British center. The degree of fineness to which silk thread can be spun is stated (Vol. 28, p. 906) to be such that 450,000 yards of thread have been produced from one pound of silk, and this is slightly in excess of the fineness of the Dacca cotton thread already mentioned as producing 252 miles for a pound. But at Cambrai the lace maker’s linen thread already described has been made as fine as 272 miles to the pound, and the drawing of platinum wire to the fifty-thousandth part of an inch in thickness (Vol. 28, p. 738) seems hardly more wonderful than this. Spider silk is as valuable as the best qualities of the silkworm product, but spiders are such fierce cannibals that it is necessary to keep each one in a separate cage, and the cost of doing this has prevented the fibre from beinggenerally used (Vol. 25, p. 664). Artificial or “viscose” silk is described in the articleCellulose(Vol. 5, p. 609), and is a textile of which the importance is rapidly increasing.
Felting is an even older textile process than weaving, just as weaving, which no doubt originated in basket making (Vol. 3, p. 481) is older than spinning. The articleFelt(Vol. 10, p. 245) deals with asphalted felts used for roofing as well as with the hat felts; and the articleHat(Vol. 13, p. 60) gives further details as to both woollen and fur felts and describes the machinery for hatmaking, which originated in the United States.
Save that gold, silver and other metals are occasionally used in cloth or gauze,Asbestos(Vol. 2, p. 714) is the only mineral employed in textiles, and its value for jacketing steam pipes and boilers and for insulating fabrics and fireproofing gives it great importance.Ramie(Vol. 22, p. 875) is not so largely used in textiles, but experiments in the production of better fibre are being made.
Shoddy(Vol. 24, p. 992) is an article which shows how unfair it is to treat the re-manufacture of “devilled” fabric as an illegitimate if not absolutely fraudulent branch of the textile industry, for really serviceable cloths are woven from it, and masses of poor people who would otherwise be in rags are thus comfortably clad. “Mungo,” another re-manufactured cloth, is described (Vol. 28, p. 906) in the articleYarn. Pine-apple fibre is described (Vol. 10, p. 311) as of exceptional fineness and is used in yarn cloths of the best quality. The articlePine-apple(Vol. 21, p. 625) describes its culture.Sisal Hemp(Vol. 25, p. 158) is used in bagging as well as cordage, and the same is true ofPhormium(Vol. 21, p. 471), sometimes called New Zealand flax. Paper pulp yields a yarn which is used in some cheap fabrics as described (Vol. 5, p. 609) in the articleCellulosealready mentioned.