744 Making of Clogs, Clog-Soles and Clog-Blocks. [Nov., 



" bt spoke " retail trade- with customers who like their foot- 

 gear made to measure. A man might have a good chance of 

 working up a small local trade, but he could not increase it 

 largely without meeting competition from machine-made and 

 imported clogs. His success would depend on (1) real superi- 

 ority; (2) economies effected by getting local alder made up 

 locally, which would otherwise go north as clog-blocks and come 

 south again as clogs ; and (3) facilities for getting* suitable leather 

 on special terms. It is not thought that clog-sole machinery 

 would be worth introducing into a small concern, and there is 

 no reason to suppose that a big industry would pay. 



The presence of clog-block cutters in alder-growing districts 

 would be a helpful factor in launching small experiments, since 

 the cutters or their employers are in touch with other branches 

 of the industry. It would not be impossible to provide the essen- 

 tial safeguard for men undertaking a new venture ; that is, to 

 see that they have some alternative outlet in case of decline or 

 failure in the trade. This could be done by connecting the 

 industry with wood -dealing and other wood-crafts and perhaps 

 also with boot-repairing. The small-scale craftsman can rarely 

 afford to be a " one-job " man. Clog-solers are reputed to be 

 scarce because during the War they were wanted out in the 

 woods -and did not care to settle down again to indoor work. 

 Probably their real reason was the competition of machine-madp 

 clogs which drove them away from their former occupation. 



There is a tendency for skilled journeymen to move away from 

 areas where machinery is displacing their special craft, and to 

 set up small businesses in some remote or rural district for a 

 market in which competition from the machine-made product is 

 not acutely felt- It may or may not be a local market, but it 

 is a special market in which their specialised skill, or personal 

 qualities, have value. It may. for instance, be a retail trade, in 

 an article of distinctive quality, made under conditions in which 

 the compensating advantages of personal skill and of any 

 economies in getting the small lots of material near at hand, 

 balance the advantages of big-scale production and wholesale 

 distribution. 



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