No. 124.] 41 



sales annually must have been not less than $600,000, but during the 

 years '3S, '39 and '40, would not average $200,000, showing a 

 falling off of $400,000 per annum. The Roxbury Company made 

 many valuable discoveries and improvements in machinery, for the 

 manufacture of the article of India rubber; and so great was con- 

 sidered the secret of working India rubber at that time, that no work- 

 men were admitted into the departments where the goods were 

 manufactured, without first giving bonds as security from the expo- 

 sition of any secret connected with the operations, being hired for a 

 term of years and with increased pay, &c. (the stock exchange records, 

 in the city of Boston, make a sad developm.ent of the unfortunate 

 stock India rubber companies ; the widow and the fatherless alike 

 suffered in their downfall.) Since 1839, individual enterprise has 

 stepped into this branch of domestic manufactures, and has made, 

 and is still making vast improvements in the manufacture of this 

 article. Over-coats, cloth, shoes and sheet rubber is now" manufiic- 

 tured in this country far superior to auy thing of the kind ever 

 imported from France or England; and these articles are now taking 

 their rank among the staple ones of our country. Seldom a merchant 

 comes to cur city now to make purchases but that he takes some arti- 

 cles of India rubber goods to make up his assortment, and the demand 

 is firmly and steadily increasing for this article of domestic msnufacture. 

 There is now in the United Stiites about fourteen establishments en- 

 gaged in (he manuAicture of India rubber goods, such as carriage cloths, 

 shoes, beds, hose, coats, life preservers, cushions, «Scc. These establish- 

 ments areall on a smaller scale, and mostly, if not all conducted by pri- 

 vate enterprise. These fourteen employ about two hundred and fifty 

 operatives, mostly females, and are located as follows : two at Provi- 

 dence, R. I., three in New Jersey, one in New-York city, one in 

 Troy, N. Y., tvi^o in New-Hampshire, three in Massachusetts, and 

 two in Connecticut, all doing: ^ iair I'vins business. 



The two establishments in Providence, confine themselves wholly 

 to the manufacture of sheet rubber, and sheet rubber shoes, producing 

 yearly about 80,000 pairs of shoes, averaging a market price of seven- 

 ty-five cents per pair, and affording ample returns for the investment. 

 The other establishments manufacture all kinds of India rubber 

 goods; w'hilst the aggregate capital employed by these fourteen, must 

 be about $120,000, and the amount manufactured and sold about 

 $200,000 per annum. 



The importations from Para, South America, of India rubber shoes 

 (the only place in the world where they are manufactured from the 

 sap of the tree,) is enjoyed as a regular and well organized monopoly 

 by a few gentlemen in this city and Salem, Mass. It is very difficult 

 to get one of these traders even to take a letter from hereto Para, unless 

 they can first see the contents of it; such is their fear that the prices 

 current should reach that place. But the American sheet rubber 

 choes are fast taking the place of the imported ones, and bid fair in 

 a few years to drive the Fara shoes entirely out of maiket. The 

 importation of rubber shoes from Para this present season, is about 



[Senate No. 124.] F 



