Show THE TALE OF A TAILOR abe free trade lime nave 1 cooked aili I 1 was in pennsylvania last week and bad occasion to visit germantown that used to be ono of tho busiest sections of the country it is full of factories which used to bo all running full time and many of them overtime in 1893 but tho fear of arco trado played hakoo with germantown its stores and its wage earners thousands Tho of hands havo been idio or working only on part time and many of them have not had a dollar to spend in a retail store for months being dependent upon relief societies and soup house organizations tor their very existence while in Gennan town I 1 met a friend and asked him how things were used to have a fine position in a factory and I 1 was astonished to hear him say times havo been very bad with me I 1 lost my job at tho factory because it closed down and I 1 have been trying to keep up the payments on our nico home for my wife and children by working as a bill collector there lias been plenty of business in that line but it is bard work to make shoo leather because tho people havo no money to pay their bills 1 I am indeed sorry to hear this was my reply but is there no chanco of your factory resuming 1 I dont like to think when eliat will be said my friend tho new bill collector 1 I would rather think of tho troubles of other people than my own are the people here in distress and trouble with all these factories emblems of industry around us I 1 asked yes be said they aro emblems of idleness now I 1 have just left a sad case let me tell you about it certainly I 1 said try a good domestic cigar he lighted up and began A few years ago a humble tailor came to germantown ho had a few hundred dollars saved up and rented a room in the mill district where he could do work and take odd jobs of repairing ho had an industrious wife who assisted him and they got along nicely adding to their sayings finally ho had his window enlarge cd and bought a few portions of pieces of cloth at a time with the necessary trimmings and paid cash for his purchases he did well and was able to buy a whole picco of cloth from the manufacturer and as his custom increased lie bought several pieces at the same time his trade was among the mill hands lie gave them good satisfaction and had quite a nice little business becoming more and more prosper ous every year and always paying promptly for all his purchases after the panic of last summer ho became somewhat slow in ills payments to lucli an extent that the cloth bouso has at last ecat me to collect their bill and to peek information as to the causo of his falling behind ho explained that some of the mill operators in tho district in which ho was located cre his customer they 6 ordered clothes to bo the mills hart glint down they were thrown out of employment and acro mablo to take alio they had ordered they asked him to carry the garment for them until tho mills started up and their became brighter tho cloth and trimming that he had purchased acro hanging in his store iu the chape of suits of clothes that had made up for bona aldo orders his customers had been unable to take the clothes he was without payment for them therefore ho was cramped for means to meet his obligations to tho cloth house that is about the aholo story in u tow words and it illustrates the condition ot many thousands of others similarly situated many of whom I 1 am now daily forced into contact with through my new business as bill collector it is a hard cabo indeed I 1 said it shows how the au of work affects the manufacturer hi the round of trade a condition that will bo instead of better if tho wilson bill becomes a law and allows largo foreign importations to come into our markets our manufacturers must make lesa goods and our men must work less free trade must always cook the tailors goose B new york april 20 |