Part 1 of Silk Industry in America article
Silk Industry in America- Paterson, N.J. Part 2
With no desire to approve these early practices, there is not wanting a good argument in extenuation thereof. No attempt to foist spurious goods under a legitimate trade-mark was involved. The goods were equal to and often of better quality than what they purported to represent. But the female shopper, always illogical, had conceived a deep-seated prejudice against native silk. She did not know that French silk was better at the price than American. She had never compared them. But there was a charm in the word "imported," a confidence in the legend: Soie Francais that knotted the purse strings against other and similar stuffs...
Foundation of the Silk Industry.
John Ryle, the foster father of the silk industry of Paterson and hence of America, died last year; the thews and sinews that never tired, the directing mind, the never-failing heart are no more, but the memories of him will long survive, and in the years to come, when Paterson, surviving all vicissitudes shall have forced out competition from abroad and become the principal source of silk supply for the American continent, the stranger visiting Paterson and inquiring what were the beginnings of this remarkable industry will be taken to the Old Gun Mill and told the story of John Ryle, of Macclesfield and his aged friend, George Murray; of their accidental meeting and of what grew out of it. The enterprise set afoot in the old gun mill in 1839-'40 was the beginning of the silk industry, for, though there had been various attempts at different parts of the country to manufacture silk, notably by Chris. Colt, in 1836, they were, for the most part but desultory and feeble, and lacked the germ of endurance and development. For eleven years John Ryle and his patron had no rivals, then came John C. Benson and others. Silk manufacture in America seemed to have substantial promise, money was not so slow nor so timid; one venture succeeded another, mill followed mill. As might be expected in an infant industry, nursed by practical, cautions men, the more difficult branches, those demanding unusual skill and careful training, were not entered upon rashly. Up to 1862 the Paterson mills confined themselves to making furnishings for trimmings manufacturers; machine-twists, sewing-silks and tram-silks. Not that broad silks and ribbons were beyond their skill, for they had often been successfully made in Paterson. The trouble was with the consumer who was found to have a deep-rooted prejudice against domestic silks. In that year a determined and a successful effort was made in the direction of broad silks, fine trams, organzines, fabrics for women's ties and men's silk wear, and toward establishing them in the market.
Progress of the Silk Industry
1872 marked another era, for then it was that Paterson manufacturers, whose broad silks theretofore had for the most part been used for cutting up into ladies' ties, began the manufacture of dress silks, gauze and grenadine and gros-grain silks, and since then the Paterson manufacturers have hesitated at nothing. They believed that silk goods that could be made anywhere in the world could be made in their city, and they made them. In the face of a strong prejudice against domestic silks they have brought their fabrics more and more into popular notice, and the yearly increase in the product is the best recommendation that could be given of their judgment and persistency. The decade between 1876 and 1886 will furnish an excellent idea of the progress of the silk industry, because reaching from the time when dress silks were beginning to be made for a market strongly prejudiced against them to these later years of certainty, the finest goods being readily made and marketed...