SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS. 253 



live comfortably and cut down expenses is the main question, but 

 we will have none of it until we have exhausted our materials. 



The New England States, with New Jersey, Delaware, Mary- 

 land and Western New York, have, at least, twentj^-five years start 

 of us. Old England, about one hundred years. This answers the 

 question boldly : cheap labor, economy of materials, small profits and 

 economical living. Our East has not got so far along but that she 

 has her foot in our markets, and there is nothing small about it 

 either, — the foot, I mean. Every grocery store has its dried fruits, 

 fruits in jars, in cans ; jams and jellies in pails and by the tub full. 



1 was conversing with a dealer in fancy fruits at Kansas City, 

 and he said there were no goods that sold as well as our imported, he 

 pointed to a stock of jars containing raspberry and strawberry jam, 

 imported from England. The brand had a name for purity and first 

 quality, they were in pint jars and sold for twenty five cents each, I 

 examined the goods and believe the fruit and sugar were of first 

 quality. I stepped into a glass factory and learned that jars would 

 cost four and a half cents each if bought by the gross. A. quart of 

 raspberries eight cents, one pound of sugar eight cents, labels and 

 packing one cent, cartage and freight to jobbers one cent, discount 

 two per cent to jobber (four mills). The price figured thus is 

 twenty two cents to the jobber, he must have ten per cent, so he 

 sells to the dealer at twenty two and a half cents, the dealer to secure 

 himself and carry the goods must have twenty five per cent, so he 

 would be compelled to charge for mv jars of jam twenty eight cents; 

 therefore in order to compete with England [ must put my berries 

 in at five and a half cents and do the packing for nothing. This is 

 not a plea for protective tariff on English imports, for New England 

 with New Jersey, Delaware and Western New York have had at least 

 twenty years of a start in the art of cheap packing of fruits. Pro- 

 tective tariff indeed; what ! protect the West from the East, the 

 North from the South, Northern Illinois from Southern Illinois, one 

 country from another? Nonsense, is it not. Better let him whose 

 nose first comes to the grindstone lift it in the air occasionally than 

 to weigh him down until this useful member is ground out of 

 resemblance. 



Jam in pails and washtubs I did not examine, but ten cents a 

 pint in this state means fruit from the commission house and glu- 

 cose with cheap sugar. A short time ago I visited a large packing 

 house that was engaged in putting up jelly and apple-butter in the 

 month of June, the manager very kindly showed me around the 

 factory, the fruit was taken out of yellow cans into which it had 

 been packed by the growers in eastern and southern states, some of 

 it they had received from commission men and packed themselves. 

 The packers furnish the cans and pay about what would be the cost 

 of gathering and packing the fruit if done in Northern Illinois, yet 



