The PRESIDENT. Will you please answer the questions, Mr. BOURNE? Answer both of them, please.

Mr. BOURNE. Well, we were running formerly what Mr. KNIGHT has been advocating; namely, a six-inch traverse and inch and three quarters ring

Mr. KNIGHT. Not on twenty-eight yarn?

Mr. BOURNE. No; not on twenty-eight yarn, but from twenty-twos to coarser. And we have made a change from an inch and three quarters ring to a two-inch ring and a seveninch traverse; and we save fully half the doffing and one half the expense of spooling. And that, in a coarse mill, is quite an item. For you fellows running on very fine numbers, it would not be worth talking about. But we spool by the job, of course.

The PRESIDENT. I presume they are drifting, in most mills, in that direction; to larger rings and a longer traverse.

Mr. BOURNE. I do not think it would have been possible to do it without the improved separator. We must have the latest separator, I think, such an one as made by the DRAPERS, or the Lowell Machine Shop. I do not think we could do it with one of the old ones. This has made it possible to change

to the longer traverse.

Mr. KNIGHT. I will say that the separator we use is three and one half inches wide.

The PRESIDENT. If there is nothing more to be said on this topic, we will pass to the next; "Methods of making up Costs." Mr. HENRY F. LIPPITT, of the Manville and Social Manufacturing Companies, if he is present, will open the subject,

METHODS OF MAKING UP COSTS.

By Mr. HENRY F. LIPPITT, Providence, R. I.

This subject of making up costs is a matter which, under the old methods of manufacturing, was quite a simple one. Where there was but one grade of cotton, one or two numbers of roving, and perhaps three or four numbers of yarn, and three or four styles of goods woven, it was very easy to take a system of averages and get your pounds of cloth; and from your pounds of cloth find the cost per pound of each of the different departments; and call that the cost of manufacturing the goods. But since the diversity of manufacturing that prevails to-day has come in, those averages are very deceptive; in fact, they are so deceptive that they are not only useless, but they are dangerous, because, as often occurs in relying on averages, the man who has charge of selling the goods of a mill either sells a high cost style of goods for too low a price, or he refuses a contract on a low-priced article because he thinks he cannot afford to make it at the price; when, if the thing had been figured out accurately, he would discover that he should not sell the high contract, and he should sell the low one, both to the advantage of his mill.

In trying to carry out the principle of finding out accurately the cost of each style of goods, we have gone to a good deal of labor. And, to begin with, we have taken the fixed charges of the mill, such as the taxes and insurance, and assigned them to their different departments in proportion to the value of the machinery, etc., in the different departments. The power has been assigned to the different departments in proportion to the amount of power that is used in each. The office

expenses have been assigned, and the other fixed charges have been divided up in such ways as seem in each instance most proper. We then started with the carding room and carefully figured the cost of each number of roving on the basis of what it would cost if the mill was making only that number of roving. Perhaps I ought to say here that I am talking of a mill where the extreme variation in the numbers of yarn made is as much as fifty, perhaps, and where the variation in the count of the goods is often from one hundred and fifty to two hundred threads to the square inch; that is, it goes from perhaps a fifty-six square in one case to goods counting 96 x 200 and above in the other. So you can easily see, not only that they are using different grades of cotton, not merely that they are putting different grades of cotton into different numbers of yarn, but even putting different grades of cotton into the same number of yarn, in accordance with the purpose for which it is to be used. For instance, in making forty warp, if we were going to put in a light weave, we would make it out of an inch and one-eighth cotton; if in a very severe weave, out of an inch and three-eighths cotton. So it will not do even to take the number of yarn and figure the cost on an average. We have got to consider all the elements that enter into it. As I was saying, we take the carding room and figure it out for each number of roving that is made, on the basis of what it would cost if the carding room made that number of roving alone. And we add to it the cotton that that number of roving is made out of, and add to it its proportional part of the fixed expenses that I have already spoken about. We then have a statement, or a list, of the cost of each number of roving. We then take the spinning department, the spinning and mule room, and figure the piece-work cost of each number of yarn, and add to it its proportional part of the fixed expenses; add to that the cost of the particular kind of roving out of which it is made, and we have the cost, so far, of our different numbers of yarn. We then take our various kinds of goods and figure carefully the proportion of warp and filling that there is in them; and, of

course, knowing the cost of these yarns, we get at the cost per pound for the yarns of the goods. We then add to that the cost of weaving, and the proportional part of the fixed expenses that have been charged to the weave room, and, in that way, get the cost of the particular style of goods that we have under consideration. This cost is then put upon a report that is sent to the office, that is, to the selling department, which is all that they have in regard to the cost of the goods. This report consists of columns which give a description of the goods of course, the pounds per loom per day, and the cost per loom per day, as has already been explained, I hope, intelligibly. On that is put, at the office, the price at which we sell the goods, and a column is then put down which shows the receipts of each loom in comparison with the cost for running each loom; and the difference between the two constitutes the profit, which is also put here. We also figure it up on the basis of the cost and receipt per pound, and have the profit per pound. We suppose it is a profit. In these times it does not always turn out that way; but, heretofore, it has been a profit. So that the final report which is made use of in selling the goods is a sheet like that, which simply shows the cost per loom and the cost per pound, the receipts per loom and the receipts per pound, and the profits per loom and the profits per pound. Of course the profit per loom or the profit per pound amounts to the same thing. It is merely another way of expressing the same thing; but it is sometimes convenient to have it in both forms. Now, in figuring up a report like that in a mill with a large number of styles (we have about one hundred), it is a very elaborate process, and it cannot be done by a mere clerk. It has to be overlooked very carefully by somebody who knows exactly what class of yarn is being put into the different styles, and what class of roving the different numbers of yarn are made out of, and all the other particulars. It takes a great deal of time to do it, and is so elaborate that we only do it about once a year. We also have monthly reports in which we merely put the cost of the goods, the weaving of the goods,

and the number of yarn out of which they are made, and use that very largely for comparative purposes. I do not know whether I have made myself clear or not. I would be very glad to answer any questions anybody may care to ask.

A MEMBER. I would like to ask him what he considers the difference of cost between spinning 40s yarn from an inch and an eighth stock, and 40s yarn from an inch and a half stock.

Mr. LIPPITT. Mr. Chairman, that is so largely a question of figures that I would not like to attempt to answer it. Of course in spinning No. 40 from long staple cotton, you put in less twist and get some benefit that way. The difference in cost is not the full cost that shows in the difference in the cost of the cotton. It is a matter which it is very easy to figure, when you have the proper data before you.

The PRESIDENT. The next speaker on the same topic is Mr. FRANKLIN NOURSE, of the York Manufacturing Company."

Mr. GOODALE. I had a note from Mr. NOURSE stating that he could not be present, and asking me to read his paper for him.