Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, July 20, 1902, Page 26

American Matches Made in England for British Use YANKEES GIVE FREE DINNERS TO THEIR ENGLISH WORKMEN. (Copyright, 1902, by Frank G. Carpenter.) (VERPOOL, England, July 10.— L (8pecial Correspondence of The Bee.)—In the manufacturing town of Seaforth, about four miles from Liverpool, not far from the banks of the Mersey, up which steam the greatest of our Atlantic liners, stanas one of the great fortifications of the American inva- slon., It is a gigantic bullding of gray brick, covering acres. It has four stories and is walled with windows. At one end is a smokestack so tall that it can be seen from the sea and over the country for miles around. High above the roof of the bullding are two signe, one marked “Bryant and May"” and the other “The Diamond Mateh Company.” The whole is under one firm and it comprises one of the largest factories of England. The bullding is filied with American machinery, it is operated chiefly by American capital and it has a monopoly of the match business or Greatl Britain and Ireland. John Bull is the gréatest smoker on earth, but 1t 18 Uncle m who furnishes the tobacco and makes the matches to light his pipe. I have already written of the struggte be- tween Bryant & May and the American Mateh trust. For years Bryant & May had the mouopoly of match making in Great Briialn. No one attempted to compere with them and they had little fear of English op- positi.n. Then the American Marwch trust c(ame in. The Diamond Match company, headed by Ohlo Columbus Barber, cast its covetous eyes on the profits of tne British monopoly and sent its men here to investi- gate the trade. Thel{ report was that the chances were excelleni, the matches m use very poor and the possibilities of tne mar- ket ¢mormous. As a result the Diamond Mateh company determined upon the phos- phoric invasion of England, They bullt this factory aad filled it with the finest ma- chinery. Phosphorus Feeds on Human Jaws. Bryant & May had been worklfl; after old methods, Most of their matches were strong in phosphorus, and they had to be dipped in such a way that the phosphorus came in contact with the skins of the workmen. Now, phosphorus is ordinarily very deleterious to those working in it. It is especlally so to the teeth. The workman cor workwoman—for women are chiefly em- ployed In matchmaking—who has a decayed tooth soon finds that she has a decayed jaw, and, if she continues to work, no jaw at all. Tne phosphorus gets into her sys- tem, It eats its way through the tooth to the hone, and the result is the terrible dis- ease known as necrosis. Bryant & May had 1,000 girls working for them, and of these bhuadreds had decayed teeth. All such were affected by the phosphorus, but they worked on In despalr, and dropped out when the disease became so bad that they could not work. The heads of the establishment tried to kvep these conditions a seeret, but they at last came to the knowledge of the public. Much indignation was expressed, a par- liamentary investigation ordered amd the firms was notified that no more such matches could be made. It was about this time that the Diamond Match company began its business. It made its product by snch machinery that the hands of the workmen did not come in con- tact with the wet phosphorus, and its goods were put on the market in competition with Bryant & May's. Before beginning work the Diamcnd Mateh company had a careful examination made of the teeth of its em- ployes. It filled those that were decayed, and employed a regular dentist to do noth- ing else but watch the teeth of the people working in the factory. This is the case today. There are about one thousand girls employed, and these girls have perhaps the purest and sweetest mouths of any thousand girls you can find in sny factory the world over. They are into corps and each corps s under of a matron, whose business it is the girls and to report at once if anything the matter with thelr girl that complaine of a tooth- at once to the dentist, and the or tgé;isge iw.éif £ E ; E THE GIRLS SIT AT REVOLVING TABLES. FACTORY WHERE AMERICAN MATCHES ARE MADE FOR BRITISH USERS. amination of each mouth, and so far there has been no necros!s whatever, ‘While the Bryant & May people were in trouble about their dlseased employes the Diamond Matech company began to flood Above is a photograph of the first section of Swift and Company's big soap delivery, made Saturda ! \ y, July 12, 1902. with nearly 3,000 boxes Swift's Pride Soap, every box of which was sold to retail merchants in Omaha, / bars of soap In this de'ivery would reach 26% miles. in length and is sald to be the largest team delivery of soap ever made in the world to the retail trade. Great Britain with its products. Its ma.ches were made by the finest of ma- chinery. For years Mr. Barber had been studying anl experimenting. He haa spent as much as $10,000 a year for matcn patents United States, his various works at Barber- ton, near Akron, employing about 6,000 peo- ple. He is also a thorough business man in every sense of the word and he brought both experience and brains to aid his pat- ents in working the trade. The Bryant & May people soon found that it was impossible to compete with the Americans. They sent their agents all over the world for patents that they might get new match-making machinery, but there were none to be had. Then they tried mak- ing safety matches, but they did not unger- stand the business and the matches were not a success. The heads woula come off or would fail to light and they proved gen- erally unsatisfactory. The English monopoly had been paying dividends of 20 per cent, but under this competition they saw their business rapidly dwindl'ng. The dividends fell to 14 per cent and it was seen that in time there would be n> dividends whatever. Then the heads of the American company stepped in and held a conference with the munagers of Bryant & May. The Americans showed them that they knew more about the Eng- lish match business than the Engnsn them- selves and proved to them that they could eas.ly crowd them out of the markers. They said they would do this, but that it would be cheaper to buy them out or absorb them than to fight them, and vae, offered them the alternative. The Bryan., & May people gave in and the English monopoly was swallowed up by the American firm. The business is etill carried on under the two names of the Bryant & May and the Diamond Match company. It is now nom- Inally English, but it is really American. and as high as $50,000 in experiments and Yankees Make Matches for Engliand, the result was that he went into the busi- néss equipped with the latest inventlons. He had made a fortune of $8,000,000 or $10,- 000,000 by manufacturing matches for the SWIFT'S MAMMOTH SOAP DELIVERY. ourteen miles high. I went out to Seaforth this morning tc learn how the Yankees make matches for (Continued on Eighth Page.) Delivery consisted of fifty-five teams, loaded South Omaha and Council Bluffs. If placed on top of one another, they would make a column f If placed end to end, the The parade was over a mile —