The Tariff in Our TimesTarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
History
The Tariff in Our Times
Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva)
Tariff -- United States -- History
increase his product, and the laborer, who in the shoe industry is paid
by the piece, to increase his earnings.
The management of the new organization proposed at the start not to
raise the royalties paid at the time the combination was formed for the
use of the various machines, and it has never done so. It proposed also
to take off what had been a custom in the business—the initial charges
for installing machines. Indeed, the company claims that while before
the combination the initial charge for fitting out a factory was
$12,000, it now is but $1700. In the case of many of the metallic
machines, as they are called, the practice was to charge no rent, but to
require the manufacturer to take from the companies certain findings,
like tacks, wire nails, and eyelets; the company charged its own price,
not the current one, and in this way got its pay. These prices probably
were always high, but the company claims it has never raised them. That
is, the new organization proposed to make no changes in what the
manufacturer had been paying, but to increase its profits through the
greater continuity and perfection of the service of its system.
But this of course meant that the manufacturer should use all the
machines in its system; that is, all those that it had tied together.
And to make sure that he did this, the company prepared a remarkable
lease, requiring that all the machines it made pertaining to the
bottoming of shoes beginning with the lasting of the uppers should be
kept together; that is, that no outside machines for any of these
processes could be used, and if an attempt was made to introduce one,
the company had the right to take out the remaining machines of the
system.
In addition to the regular bottoming and lasting machinery the company
handled a large number of general machines, and it was specifically
provided in the leases of each of these that it should not be used on
shoes that had been lasted and welt-stitched, or turn-stitched on other
machines than those put out by the company. The penalty for using the
leased machine with outside machines was the forfeiture of all leases in
all departments—also the breach made the lessees liable to an action for
damages.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account