42 
WISCOJ^SI^ STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
might be reduced. We cannot count upon it. x\merica needs all 
her resources, and whether democrats or republicans be in power, 
we cannot hope for a reduction of import duties. We must, there¬ 
fore, make up our minds to lose the American market. It has been 
oomplacently said that the Americans do not make the entire watch, 
but are dependent upon Switzerland for several parts of the watch. 
This is a mistake. The Walthan company makes the entire watch, 
from the first screw to the case and dial. It would even be diffi¬ 
cult for them to use our products, so great is the regularity, so mi¬ 
nute the precision w^ith which their machines work. 
“ They arrive at the regulation of the watches, so to say, without 
having seen it. When the watch is given to the adjuster, the fore¬ 
man delivers to him the corresponding hair-spring, and the watch 
is regulated. [Sensation among the audience.] Here is what I 
have seen, gentlemen. I asked from the director of the Waltham 
company a watch of the fifth grade. A large safe was opened be¬ 
fore me; at random I took a watch out of it and fastened it to my 
chain. The director having asked me to let him have the watch 
for two or three days, so as to observe its motion, I answered, “ On 
the contrary, I persist in wearing it just as it is to obtain an exact 
idea of your manufacture.” At Paris, I set my watch by a regulator 
on the boulevard, and on the sixth day I observed that it had varied 
thirty-two seconds. And this watch is of the fifth American grade; 
it cost seventy-five francs (movement without case). On my arrival 
at Lode, I show’ed the watch to one of our first adjusters, who 
asked permission to take it down — that is, to take it to pieces. I, 
however, wished first to observe it, and here is the result which I 
noted: Hanging, daily variation, seconds; variation in different 
positions, from four to eight seconds; in the heated room the varia¬ 
tion was very slight. Having thus observed it, I handed the watch 
over to the adjuster, who took it down. After a few days he came 
to me and said, word for word: “-T am completely overwhelmedj 
the result is incredible, one would not find one such watch among 
fifty thousayid ofi our manufacture^'' This watch, gentlemen, I 
repeat to you, I took at hazard, out of a heap, as we say. You un¬ 
derstand from this example that the American watch may be pre¬ 
ferred to the Swiss. I have finished, gentlemen, and I have told 
you of things such as I have seen them. It remains for us to profit 
from this sad experience, and to improve our manufacture. ” 
