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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
226
Yard" after the well-known pattern, but it was not long
ere they gave up all hope of success in the fight against
the felt-makers, who had soon found out that it meant
life or death for them—who knew that the Mills bill
meant the destruction of their industry, and as they had
already swallowed so many bitter pills under the dem-
ocratic interpretation of our custom laws and tariff, they
did not want any more of them, and made up their
minds to win or die.
And so it happened that the democratic lumbermen
soon went about their regular business again, closing
even their navy yard before election (for which, as luck
would have it, the felf-makers had to pay) and conse-
quently the lumbermen can be to-night the proudest
men as regards the result of their year's work, compar-
ing the profits to the volume of business, with those of
the felt department. They felt so rich that they invested
a big pile of money in a new barn, which they built, how-
ever, on the Fulton county side, because they have be-
come utterly disgusted with republican Herkimer coun-
ty, where democrats have no show whatever.
ENTHUSIASM.
The republican felt-makers, hewever, were undoubt-
edly altogether to busy with their fight against free-
trade, and it was astonishing how the fever had taken
hold upon them. Who will ever forget the exercises of
the republican guard, which, with its attractive uniforms
had even tempted Colonel Ransom to forget his calling
as a lumberman, and made him use his stentorian voice
in commanding them.
Did they not go,to Devereaux and Little Falls, riding
eight long miles on lumber wagons, over the most mis-
erable road a democratic commissioner could possibly
give us, arriving almost half dead at their destination,
and still marched through the muddy streets, showing
and proving their patriotism, inspiring their brother
republicans, or inducing those who were sitting on the
fence to jump over on the right side and work for the
protection of American industry, American labor, and
American homes.
These latter words, coming from such lips and such
a heart, should alone constitute full recompense for the
gallant marchers !
They worked so hard in politics that they forgot
their regular business, and I think even the lumbermen
will admit that we must not censure them too hard, for
if they had not made such a noble fight, if they had not
laid their every day business somewhat aside and the
Mills bill had become a law, they would certainly soon
have been without any work, for, our democratic cus-
tomers would not have bought the expensive American
felts made by high priced American labor, and our re-
publican customers could not have bought it, even if
they wanted to, having to compete with their demo-
cratic competitors who consumed cheap imported felt,
cheap because made by cheap European labor.
Our democratic lumbermen could well afford to sit
still and not try to fight for their hopeless case, because
as far as their daily bread was concerned they knew
that their free trade democratic customers could not
buy foreign lumber or sounding boards as cheap as they
furnished them, and that no matter how the election
went, their republican customers, as good American
patriots, ivoirid not buy foreign sounding boards, but
would always protect home industry; in this particular
case, because it paid them best anyway.
The felt-makers now come in for
A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
for the coming year:
However, it can be partly explained why the felt-
makers cannot make such a favorable showing this year
in spite of the many improvements for which we are
indebted to our genial inventor, who seems to be de-
termined to make his mark more positive and " lasting "
year by year.
The great delay in finishing the new water-wheel and
race-way, compelled us to run our two large engines
fully 170 days more than usual, and the great expense
connected with that would alone be a very good profit.
Another extraordinary expense was the brick and cement
floor which we had to lay in the fulling room, because
the discharge of steam pipes which had unwisely been
laid under the floor, caused the timbers to rot and de-
cay many years too soon.
Neither does the shoe department show as good re-
sults as I had expected, not because anybody has been
neglectful, but because we introduced so many improve-
ments in quality and style in our shoes that we can
only expect the benefit this year.
REASON PREVAILS.
The following sentences are worthy to be printed in
letters of gold, and to be prominently displayed in every
workshop :—
It is a very great pleasure and satisfaction to me that
I can record here to-night a fact which stands perhaps
without a parallel in these days of strikes and labor
troubles.
It was found that for some styles of shoes the price
for making them was unreasonably high, as compared
with the prices of other styles. The foreman proposed
to me that this should be corrected, and a deduction
made on the price of the one. while the price of the
others should be increased. It was done, and no ob-
jection was made by those who had enjoyed the benefit
of the high prices, and who had earned much higher
wages than their comrades who made the other styles.
Without any ill-feeling the equalization was accepted,
which speaks well for the sense of justice and right pre-
vailing among us, and, gentlemen, you will allow me to
say, that I heartily congratulate you upon it.
BREATHING FREELY.
Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the
Mills bill, and whether or not it was " the deadly rock"
which Mr. Dolge maintains it was, all will rejoice with
him when he says:—
We can breathe anew and feel safe as to our future—
so safe that we will soon lay tire corner stone for another
factory building, larger than our mammoth felt factory,
and my old friend Alphonzo can already pass judgment
on the building plans and specifications, if he will call at
the office, although he will have to count the nails him-
self as he did before, if he wants to report properly to
his neighbors, for I have now even less time to do it for
him, than I had in 1879.
The prosperity of
THE HAMMER COVERING DEPARTMENT
is of a piece with everything else undertaken by the
founder of Dolgeville:—
In conclusion, it is but proper to mention that our
hammer covering department is steadily growing, and
that the demand for our hammers has increased so
much that we had to decline to fill orders for some of
our best friends. I will not now offer an opinion
whether the new patent machine is the cause of that, or
whether the squire and his force deserve the entire
credit—the fact is, however, that we had to supply some
of our oldest friends in the trade with the Patent Ham-
mer Covering Machines. With the additional new ma-
chines which are now under way, undoubtedly the ham-
mer shop will record a still greater success next year,
and crowd the poor shoe-packers entire out of the main
building.
ALPHONZO DOWNED.
The final triumph over the pessimistic Alphonzo
makes good reading:—
You know I went to Utica last fall—everybody in
Dolgeville knew it—and, gentlemen, I have the courage
now to talk to you beforehand of the big factory which
I intend to build—for when I went to Utica and every-
body in Dolgeville knew that I went there to expose
myself to such an extent as to address a public meeting
—not a single soul in all Dolgeville warned me, or en-
tertained any fears about my being caught there and
put into the insane asylum.
How is this ? Why is it ? Surely I have not changed,
or if so, only for the worse, according to the notions of
the old inhabitants. No, I have not changed, but have
gone my way without looking right or left, and have
driven my nails the way that I thought best, without
counting them for my neighbors, so that they could
open an evening debating school at the village store
and generally disagree as to the size of the nails after
they had disagreed as to the number. I have not
changed, but Dolgeville has changed. It has shaken off
its baby shoes and has become a healthy, strong boy
who seems to know pretty near what he is about, but
who has to stand many a hard knock yet, and fight
against ignorance, prejudice, and narrowmindedness,
before he will have made sufficient elbow room for
himself.
HUMMING.
As the factories went up one after another; as they
were filled with machinery, men came along to run the
machinery. Houses went up, streets were laid out, and
where but ten years ago the cows grazed, there stands
to-day one of the noblest school-houses in all Herkimer
county, and if one of our enterprising merchants would
not take such particular pains for his own personal
amusement, to have the words " Brocketts Bridge,"
printed upon his calendars, surely nobody would be-
lieve that the present embryo city had sprung up from
old, venerated, dead Brocketts Bridge.
So high-minded, intellectual and philanthropic a man
as Mr. Dolge could not fail to incorporate in an address
of this nature some weighty remarks upon the all-
important subject of
EDUCATION.
Education, he rightly deduces, is the anchor of soci-
ety's hope, the most potent panacea for the ills that
now afflict the laboring man. His words in this con-
nection demonstrate his honest zeal for the true welfare
of those who live by the sweat of their brows, and
evince his fervent desire to aid in the worker's attain-
ment of a noble destiny.
Surely we have made creditable progress in a great
many ways, but we should have made even more pro-
gress, considering all the favorable circumstances, con-
sidering the large amount of money which is continually
circulating here and considering the large number of
young men we have in our town.
THE FOREMOST DUTY.
It seems, however, that here, as everywhere else,
people think least and last of their foremost duty—their
duty as citizens—their duty to their fellowmen, their
neighbors. If we want to see our town prosper and
grow we must be ever mindful of these duties, no mat-
ter how much we may be discouraged by temporary
failure, by the opposition of malice and ignorance.
I have more than once complimented you on your
patriotism, on the interest you take generally in the fu-
ture welfare of your adopted home. Surely you, mem-
bers of the School Society, can justly be proud of the
results which you have achieved by your labors. But
you cannot afford to stop or even to rest, you must go
on and work and agitate for better schools, so that the
coming generation, your children, can take up the work
where we shall have to leave it.
A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.
Do not forget that everyone of you, whether you
have children or not, is responsible tor the welfare of
the next generation, responsible for the future welfare
of the village.
I have made use of every opportunity which offered
itself to agitate, by word and deed, for better schools.
I have been hammered, maligned, slandered and abused
for it.
THE INEVITABLE FAULT-KINDER.
A man who is in my employ has questioned my mo-
tives by saying that I only took an interest in school
matters and paid $8,000 towards building the school
house because it was to my own personal interest and
benefit, inasmuch as it was necessary to have a good
school in the village if I wanted intelligent workmen
for my factories. Without any reflection as to the
motives and spirit in which the utterance was made by
that man, who is the father of four children, 1 believe,
I do not hesitate to say that his argument is correct in
one respect. I do want intelligent workmen around
me, and the only way to get them in the future, is to
provide good schools for the children.
So far, it has been impossible for me to use any of
the young men. who had finished the course at the vil-
lage school, for any of the better positions in the factory,
for the simple reason that they had no chance to learn
anything at school except to read, to write and to figure,
in a most primitive and poor way.
You will admit that I, personally, cannot expect to
draw any interest from the capital which I now invest
in the village schools, because when the boys who go to
school now will have become men, I shall in the course
of nature, have quitted business.
After entering^ into a clear, lengthy, and satisfactory
explanation of the causes that led to his resignation
from the Dolgeville Board of Education, which part of
the speech has only a local significance, Mr. Dolge
proceeds :—
I resigned as a member of the board and can now
assist the School Society in its noble work to establish
a good school, a school not only in name, but in fact, a
school that shall be
THE PRIDE OF DOLGEVILLE,
yes, of the whole of Herkimer county.
Before I leave this school question, let me say once
and for all, so t. at I may be thoroughly understood by
you all, that I consider the whole future of the working
classes involved in the word ''education." In education
lies their salvation; when they are educated up to the
proper and full use of all their powers, then and then
only will they emancipate themselves from all slavery,
political as well as social.
This emancipation must come not from the outside,
but from the inside, not from some philanlhropical or
political reformer, but through themselves and of them-
selves. And if in this little hamlet of Dolgeville, I can
aid in giving this education, (which I myself lacked and
had to fight the world without,) to others, I feel that I
shall have done something of my duty to my fellow
man.
For the sake of sensation, the papers some time ago
discussed the question " Is Marriage a Failure?" I
think it would be of more importance and benefit if the
question " Is Universal Sufferage a Failure" were to be
ventilated and discussed. In view of what is said and
printed about the last national election, one might al-
most begin to consider whether the above question
should not be answered in the affirmative.
EARNEST EXHORTATION.
It is admitted on both sides that money was used
more than ever, and to an alarming extent during the last
campaign, to buy votes. It matters not which side has
spent the most in this way, the fact remains that there
are thousands and thousands who value a vote,—that
foremost, that most sacred privilege of the citizen to
express his opinion, to aid in shaping the destiny of the
nation, to choose his own rulers, to honor those
who deserve it, to express his will, to pass judgment
upon his chosen servants—at no higher value than the
opportunity to prostitute it by marketing it and dispos-
ing of it for money.
This deplorable fact should and must compel our atten-
tion, it must compel us to iuvestigate, study and learn
the cause, the reason for it, and when we have found
that, to set to work energetically and without delay re-
move it.
I can find but One cause, one explanation, and that is
—lack of education—but one spot on which to lay the
blame—our imperfect and neglected schools.
The contemptible creature who sells his vote, fully
knowing what he is doing, has always existed and will
exist, but he is fortunately the exception and cannot do
any serions injury.
Dangerous, however, is
THE IGNORANT ELEMENT,
which is quite properly called in the political jargon
" flood wood," because it drifts hither and- thither
wherever the strongest current of money may take it,
because it does not comprehend what it is doing.
The ignorant man does not read, he takes no interest
in public affairs ; it matters little to him whether public
affairs are properly and honestly administered or not ;
he will believe the demagogue just as quickly as he will
take five dollars to vote against the doctrines of that
same demagogue, if he gets a chance.
Who are those that sell their votes? A few are scound-
rels, but the majority are ignorant people, and unless