USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume II > Part 32
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Manufacturing Formerly of Slow Growth-To take in a little of the background that lies behind the world of industry in The Bronx, it is to be recalled that manufacturing was a plant of slow growth in America. In the earliest days, the chief function of colonies was considered to be to provide room for the surplus population of the mother country and raw materials for her use. However, in time New York took up all the aspects of a busy manufacturing town which produced not only items required for home consumption, but a large part also of the articles of general commerce between other cities. New York grew, and it grew, until it presently reached the water's edge of further expansion, when the resultant congestion effected a reaction and manufacturing entered upon its period of decentralization activity. So thoroughly has this evolution been accomplished that the place of the erstwhile soap factory
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has now become the De Luxe Apartments; on the site of the paint and varnish works stands the Seventy League Club, and the nest of sweat- shops is replaced by new quarters of the Commonplace Insurance Com- pany. And so on, ad infinitum. New York, and particularly Manhat- tan, can no longer accommodate the enterprises which can not be made to pay the high unit rental which its precious area commands and which another, or perhaps, a dozen other merchandizing or financial concerns are waiting for the opportunity to pay. As history repeats itself New York again yields to its obsession, and trading replaces production. Its replacement is not abandonment, however, but betterment; for the soap factory and the paint works will doubtless be found properly housed in greatly enlarged fireproof buildings in new neighborhoods where labor, transportation and other production elements are favorable and the unit rental rate is not forced to abnormal heights through limitations of en- vironment. Day by day New York's manufacturing conditions have grown better and better ; even the sweatshop problems have been solved and in time those remaining will be eliminated.
In 1731 the Board of Trade report for the colonies stated that there were then no manufactures in the province of New York worth speaking of. Trade consisted chiefly of furs, whalebone, oil, pitch, tar and provi- sions and in fact, except for flour and shipbuilding, the manufactures carried on in New York at that time were almost wholly for domestic use. No statistics were recorded prior to 1810, but from contemporary statements and general records we learn that after agriculture, grain and lumber milling, both by wind and animal power, and shipbuilding, the chief industries carried on in New York during the colonial period were textiles of home manufacture, tanning and shoemaking, baking, brewing and certainly some distilling, sugar refining, metal work and jewelry. Probably some soap and candle making was done, for it is cer- tain that candles were needed for general use. An act was passed in 1732 permitting the export of hats made from beaver fur. Beef and pork packing and fish curing must have flourished almost from the be- ginning, for not only were provisions required for the large number of vessels which frequented the harbor, but they were required also for the West India export trade.
The parade which took place in New York on July 23, 1788, in which all the business and professional men in the neighborhood took part, gives an excellent idea of the trades which flourished at that time. Among those represented were bakers, brewers, with their attendant coopers, tanners and curriers, skinners, breeches makers and glovers, cordwainers or shoemakers, who numbered three hundred and forty, carpenters, furriers, hatters, cabinetmakers, chair makers, ivory turn- ers, and musical instrument makers, coach and harness makers, whip makers, coppersmiths, tin plate makers, pewterers, gold and silver-
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smiths, potters, chocolate makers, tobacconists, dyers, brush makers, chandlers or candle makers, saddlers and artificial flower makers. From the beginning of her history New York's chief concern has been with commerce. Her early prosperity was built on that foundation by men who may truly be described as merchant princes, the "old merchants," spoken of by an early historian, who also dealt in shiploads of merchan- dise of every description. Nevertheless, though of slow development, manufacturing also became exceedingly important. In 1850 the census credited New York with a total of 3,387 manufacturers, employing 83,260 persons, and, be it remembered, the city at that time covered only part of Manhattan Island.
In Greater New York-With its increase in population, manufactur- ing also continued to increase. According to the census of 1920, there were then employed in Greater New York, twelve per cent of all the wage earners engaged in factory work in the United States, while the Borough of Brooklyn with its 8,000 factories, was the fourth industrial centre of the United States. Moreover, in a large number of cases, the works have been removed to the Jersey shore, within the metropolitan district, while maintaining their offices in New York, and, in addition, great numbers of industries maintain their financial and commercial headquarters in New York, even though the actual manufacturing may be carried on elsewhere. For instance, silk is made almost entirely in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and cotton mills scattered through sev- eral States are owned by corporations having their offices in New York. In 1922, the Manufacturers' Association issued an analysis of the manu- facturing census of 1919. According to this analysis, the clothing indus- try came first in point of money value and the number of people em- ployed. In that year, 1919, 253,685 people, in 1,143 factories of various sizes, made clothing which was valued at $1,844,764,042-and this in large measure in The Bronx. In other words, the clothing industry of New York gives employment to numbers which in 1919 did not come far short of the population of Denver, Colorado, in 1921. In the same year, 1919, there were 5,000 factories for food products and tobacco, in which the services of 82,677 persons were required. The value of the products was $749,866,241 and they included bread and other bakery products such as biscuits, pies, and cakes, cheese, prepared chocolate and cocoa, roasted and ground coffee, prepared spices, confectionery, pickles and preserves, fresh and cured meats, and other edibles needed for the food supply of a great city.
The third industry in importance is comprised of metals and metal products, which include Babbitt metal, brass and bronze and copper prod- ucts, typewriters, cash registers and calculating machines ; cutlery and edge tools ; electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies, all of which are
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manufactured in large quantities. Over twenty-eight per cent of the iron and steel shutters, window frames and doors, made in the whole country, are produced within the district of The Bronx and Greater New York. Steam fittings, steam and hot water apparatus, needles and pins, and sewing machines are some of the varieties of manufacture in the metropolitan district, and largely in The Bronx. Shipbuilding remains likewise an important industry in these waters.
Almost ninety-six per cent of the paper patterns. used by the women of the United States and Canada who sew at home are made in New York, at a yearly value of $1,461,648. New York's lapidary work, which is ninety per cent of the total of that industry in the United States, was valued throughout The Bronx and Manhattan and Brooklyn, in 1919 at $27,032,138. Drugs and chemicals, and paints and varnishes, combined, required 825 factories, a large proportion of them situated in The Bronx, in which 26,379 persons were employed, to produce their yearly output valued in 1919 at $242,482,973. Wooden products included baskets, rat- tan, and willow and wooden furniture, cooperage, billiard tables, and bowling alleys, refrigerators, wooden vessels, coffins and lead pencils,
all these in large measure proceeding from The Bronx.
They were valued at $141,282,753 during that year. The combined industries in wood require 1,005 factories, and the time and knowledge of 30,821 per- sons. In these figures, however, the cabinetmaking for pianos, organs and phonographs is included. The making of these instruments alone is a large item, and amounts to over 26 per cent of the total number pro- duced in the United States. The leather industry, which is very large, gives employment to 24,399 persons in 833 factories, where goods of var- ious kinds, from heavy leather belting to ladies' pocketbooks, to the value of $123,280,584, are produced.
Printing and publishing needed the work of 81,454 people in 3,167 es- tablishments. This work included books and job work, steel and cop- per plate engraving, wood engraving and photo engraving, lithograph- ing, newspapers and periodicals. Miscellaneous industries in The Bronx as elsewhere, include textiles, notions, vehicles, store, clay and glass products, dental goods, photographic materials, rubber tires and tubes, umbrellas, and canes, all of which keep 7,227 factories busy, and employ 212,620 persons to produce an output valued at $1,332,484. Manifestly it is impossible to give a detailed account of all these manufactures, or even to mention many of the varieties of goods produced within The Bronx and Greater New York, but certain of them have an historic value, and some of these should be referred to.
Thus shipbuilding may be described as the first industry in the waters or on the land of Manhattan or the mainland above the Harlem. If we except the four huts constructed by Block for shelter during his stay on
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. Manhattan Island through the winter of 1613-14, shipbuilding was the first industry, after agriculture, to develop in Colonial America.
American Bank Note Company-The main plant of the American Bank Note Company is in The Bronx. One of the founders of the bank note industry was Paul Revere, and the company is in possession of a portrait of that historic figure which shows him as the sedate, sober citi- zen intead of the daring night rider portrayed in Longfellow's poem. In his time he filled both rôles with apparently equal success in each. During the War of the American Revolution, Revere was intrusted with the making of some of the paper money for the warring colonies. This modest little order was the foundation of the business of the American Bank Note Company, which from making a few notes for a struggling, poverty-stricken, scarcely organized colonial government, has grown into furnishing paper money, stamps, bonds and other securities for forty- odd of the world's governments, as well as most of the securities used on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Bronx plant has about 1,500 employees, many of whom have been in the service of the company for more than twenty-five years, and some men for more than fifty years. In many cases son succeeds father and sometimes they work side by side. Loyalty and pride in the organiza- tion is the animating spirit. Naturally such a place is guarded day and night by a special corps of watchmen. Outsiders are not admitted ex- cept by special permission and then only if accompanied by a responsi- ble official of the company.
At least twenty years of constant work, based upon great natural apti- tude are necessary before a man can begin to do the work of the vig- nette or picture engravers with even a very moderate degree of success. The vignette or picture engravers are all high-class artists. Really first- class vignette engravers are very few the world over. The work of each has a style and character of its own by which the expert can tell whose graver's tool did a given piece of work. The fine lines forming a vig- nette cut by these experts offer the best known protection against coun- terfeiting. To copy them by purely mechanical means is out of the question and to copy by hand so difficult that these men frankly say that they would hate to have to copy their own work. In order to supply the inevitable losses occurring in the course of years, the company main- tains an art class for young men desirous of entering this profession.
The entire plant is guarded both day and night, but the "Plate Vault" is watched with an especial jealous care. It is a huge place in which are stored the printing plates from which have been made the greater part of the world's paper money, as well as plates for the making of untold millions of dollars' worth of postage stamps, revenue stamps, bonds, and stock certificates. The main pressroom covers two acres of rumbling
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machinery turning out an endless stream of printed paper, every scrap of which represents money. The presses used here turn out more work in a day than any other type of press printing from engraved steel plates. Yet, owing to the nature of the work, their greatest capacity is much smaller than the ordinary presses doing surface printing and only a fraction of what a newspaper printing press can do. The question of exact shades of color is one requiring constant watching and care. The weather outdoors will have visible effects on the results obtained in this kind of printing. For example, printing on a damp day and printing on a dry day are vastly different.
In the plant there is a large well-equipped machine-shop not only for the doing of the repairs constantly called for in such a large plant, but also for the building of new machinery. Rough castings are made out- side, but the real work of building presses and other machines is done in the machine shop, a precaution which prevents valuable information getting into the possession of the wrong parties. The making of inks is a delicate and difficult operation, especially on repeat orders when it is vitally necessary to exactly match the shades of color originally furn- ished in the first issue. In spite of every precaution slight variations will occur in the chemicals entering into the composition of the inks, variations which will affect the exact shade of the resulting color. Such a variation would immediately arouse a suspicion as to the genuineness of the document.
After the work is all done every piece of it must be examined for pos- sible defects and poor work thrown out and replaced. On documents carrying numbers, such as bank notes, bonds, coupons, etc., all numbers must be examined to prevent duplication or omission. An order for any one million bonds, each carrying fifty coupons, means the examina- tion of no fewer than fifty-three million consecutive numbers- one num- ber on each of the coupons, two numbers on the face of the bond and one on the back. Each year the company furnishes hundreds of millions of stamps for various governments and countries, as well as checks for various banks, companies and private individuals. Thanks to the varia- tions in size called for in each order, the only feasible way to make the perforations (the little holes between the stamps of the checks), is by feeding one sheet at a time through the perforating wheels.
Early Industry-The shipbuilding industry in New York received considerable impetus as an indirect result of Peter Minuit's visit to New England in 1627, at which time reciprocal arrangements were effected which necessitated the employment of a considerably augmented ton- nage of coastwise shipping. There was also need of additional tonnage for the Long Island Sound traffic as well as the Hudson River and local ferry service, to encourage the New York enterprises. The first public
» THE GREAT ATLANTIC & PACIFIC
BAKING PLANT OF THE GREAT ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC TEA COMPANY
TERMINAL YARDS OF THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD
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ferry was in operation in 1661 between New York and the shore points in the vicinity of the Jersey Central Railroad's terminal in Jersey City. This was a rowboat service, but team ferries soon became common. In 1636 the monopoly of the Dutch West India Company was broken, and privately-owned merchantmen entered the New Netherland trade. This, however, did not wholly eliminate the Dutch interference with local shipbuilding, but when Holland and England finally made peace the pol- icy of the English Government was to foster the colony's trade.
Of particular interest to The Bronx was the work of William H. Webb, who built and launched in 1853 a steam frigate, "General Adnie- ros," for the Russian Government, then the fastest steam vessel of war afloat. Other vessels built by Mr. Webb were the United States iron- clad ram, "Donderberg," the largest iron-clad ever constructed, and sail vessels of the London, Liverpool and Havre packet lines, including the "Guy Mannering," the first full three-deck freight ship ever built in America, the ship "Ocean Monarch" and the clipper ships, "Helena," "Challenge," "Comet," "Invincible," "Swordfish," "Young America," "Black Hawk" and also the steamships "United States," "Cherokee" and "California." The latter was the first steamer built in New York for the Pacific trade and the first to enter the Golden Gate in 1849.
Clothes and Textile Manufacturing-Almost the most important in- dustry in The Bronx is that of textile manufacturing. The first tailor in New Amsterdam was Hendrik Hendriksen Kip, who is noted, not so much because he made fine clothes, but through his sworn enmity for Director Kieft. Before 1800 all kinds of clothing were costly, and only the well-to-do patronized tailors and dressmakers. Among the mass of the people the women of the community made the larger part of the clothing for their families, sometimes with the help of a seamstress. Of- ten a journeyman tailor was employed to make clothes for the men and the larger boys. Textiles also meant labor for the women, and clothing was handed down from parents to children, from rich to poor, until it had reached the utmost stage of non-wearability.
As time went on the men servants of the merchant prince were clad in liveries made by tailors and as a rule they cost more than the cloth- ing of the merchants themselves. Sometimes when work was scarce, the tailors would have their men make a number of uniforms and keep them in stock. The tailor would also make a few gentlemen's suits and coats and await a demand, but he could not sell these to fashionable cus- tomers, who liked to choose their own cloth and style. Both men and women of fashion often imported their modish clothing. But there was even in the eighteenth century a certain amount of shop work to be done in remodelling or renovating second-hand clothing. Later on a great deal of cheap material was worked up into rough clothing, the so-called
Bronx-46
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"Shop Work." Cheap clothing was also made for sale in the Southern States for the use of the slaves. On the whole, however, there was little demand for ready-made clothing until after the Industrial Revolution began with the introduction of machinery. Nevertheless, in 1796 there were three firms who described themselves as "merchant tailors" and four "slop stores," the latter of which supplied clothing to common sail- ors as they do now. The mention of tailoresses also implies that women were already being employed in the making of men's clothing but prob- ably went to the houses of their employers to sew.
By the middle of the last century the clothing industry had become firmly established in New York and its neighborhood, the work being done in shops where men sat close together on long tables and sewed, for the sewing machine had not at that time been invented. Tailoresses were then, and until after the middle of the nineteenth century, em- ployed to cut women's coats and mantles, and as mantua workers. The "New York Herald," of August 22, 1860, carried an advertisement by George Hearn, for a woman to embroider and trim cloaks and man- tillas. Frenchwomen were preferred for this work. Indeed it was not until ladies' suits of a mannish cut came into fashion that men were largely employed to cut women's clothing for custom work. The strength required to manipulate cutting machines was probably the rea- son for their early employment in the cutting of ready-to-wear garments. The first tailors in New York were all either English or Irish. They were followed by Germans who were employed by English and Irish manufacturers. By 1850 the numbers of Irish in the trade increased. They were employed, according to Pope, as cutters and foremen, whilst the Germans became dominant in the family system.
The manufacture of clothing was revolutionized by the invention of the sewing machine, for in spite of its early clumsiness, tailors saw at once that it might immeasurably increase their output. By 1860 the ready-made clothing trade had begun in real earnest. Warehouses were taken where cloth, mostly of the cheap grades, could be cut. The ma- terial was then given to tailors and others to put together, and the di- vision of labor began. At first the tailor would complete the whole gar- ment as his apprenticeship had trained him to do, but after the intro- duction of the sewing machine, it was soon found that men could quickly learn to operate a machine, and could sew all the long and straight seams without first mastering the tailoring part, so men were given parts of a garment that they could sew without spoiling. A cutting machine was invented in 1873 which could do more work in an hour than ten men. Other machines, such as the buttonhole machine, soon followed. and as a result the industry attained large proportions.
Until the nineties the bulk of the ready-made clothing was produced in these badly ventilated, unsanitary old houses. By 1890, however, leg-
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islation against the sweatshop in the clothing industry was demanded, and this was comparatively easy to obtain. The Law of 1897, which pro- hibited work in tenement houses, made another step, and the construc- tion of modern loft buildings designed for small factories carried it still further. The Education Acts and the influence of the Unions were potent. Conditions gradually became better and the lot of the garment worker in The Bronx as in other parts of New York, is comparable to that of the workers in other industries.
By the end of the nineteenth century the wholesale manufacture of clothing had passed into the hands of the Jews, who have raised it to first place, in value of products, among the industries of New York, in- cluding The Bronx. Skill in design and workmanship, use of good ma- terials, and standardization of measurement, have made the American ready-to-wear garments the best in the world.
In 1919 there were 11,413 factories engaged in the manufacture of clothing in New York, a very large proportion of them being in The Bronx. Of these establishments 8,091 were devoted to women's cloth- ing of all kinds. They employed 169,954 persons with a yearly product of $1,173,440,341. Men's clothing factories numbered 3,322, which em- ployed 83,751 persons, and had a yearly product valued at $671,325,701.
The textile industries have never flourished in New York, partly per- haps because of the lack of water power, which was considered essential in the beginning of the factory system. In the early days of the colony, the Dutch, and later the English, used the flax and wool yielded by their farms in making linens and woolens. In 1657 an attempt was made to introduce silk culture but this was a lamentable failure. In 1787 Gover- nor Moore's report to the Board of Trade refers to the manufacture of linens "under the conduct of one Wells," and supported by the Society of Arts and Agriculture. It employed only fourteen looms and was es- tablished to give support to two families who were sustained by the spinning of flax. In the same report he speaks of the general manufac- ture in the households of two sorts of woolen goods, coarse all wool and linsey-woolsey. These were made by the members of the family or by itinerant weavers. Incidentally it is interesting to note that the Society of Arts and Agriculture was organized to encourage home man- ufacture, as a direct consequence of the hostility which was aroused by the Stamp Act. As the culture of flax moved westward and cheaper cot- ton goods of factory origin were introduced, the making of homespun linen died out rapidly. The first woolen mill was built in New York in 1809 as a result of the embargo of 1807. During the period of the em- bargoes, broadcloth sold at $10 and $12 a yard, and manufacturers of woolen goods made large fortunes. With the raising of the embargoes, however, cheaper goods were again imported, and practically all of these early mills became bankrupt.
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An accompaniment to the great garment making industry is the mak- ing of thread, and silk yarn. Cotton threads and artificial silk yarns are made as well as coarse machine lace, and netting and veilings are manu- factured in small quantities. The first carpets manufactured in New York were made of rags. At first they were made solely at home, but some at least of those advertised by J. Alexander & Company in 1760, seem to have been made by professional weavers. The carpet industry was given a great impetus through the inventions of Bigelow in the mid- dle of the eighteenth century. Carpets of the better kind began to be made in New York about 1821, when John and Nicholas Haight started a factory. They were fortunate in having for their superintendent an immigrant from Kilmarnock, who understood the making of Scots or Kidderminster Ingrain carpets, which became very popular. By 1841 New York had eight carpet factories. Other factories were added, and spread to The Bronx. Of the manufacturers of carpets at present in The Bronx and other parts of New York, nearly all manufacture rag carpets.
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