Thursday, October 7,1971.
Lodi, N. J., Bids Farewell To United Piece Dye Works After Years Os Pleasant Association
(Editor’s Note: The follow*
* Ing story appeared in the
September sth issue of The
Sunday Record, Hackensack,
N. J. Editor . Suitphen tells
i aa interesting, but sad story
about the plight of United
Piece Dye Works in Lodi,
N. J.)
So inextricably interwoven
are the histories , of United
Piece Dye Works (UPDW)
and the Borough of Lodi that
it seems all but unbelievable
that this month sees the final
Signing of the bill of divorce*
ment which really first begaq
in 1944 and ended with the
plant’s closing in 1957.
This month the office at
the old site will be closed and
headquarters, except for the
New York City service office,
will move to East Windsor in
Mercer County. It is the final
chapter in a history which
began in 1831, which climbed
to the top of the dyeing in
dustry, and then slowly dis
integrated until, as far as
ijodi is concerned, there is
nothing left but real estate.
Theodore Boettger, a found
er and former board chair
man of UPDW, at 95 still
lives with a daughter, Miss
(Louise Boettger, at the state
ly white pillared mansion on
the corner of Prospect and
Central Avenues in Hacken
sack. They almost daily re
sist the blandishments of real
estate agents. Boettger was
associated with United Piece
for 66 years until his retire
ment in 1969.
One-Show Town
For four decades or more,
Lodi was a one-industry town
and the industry was the dye
works. The fortunts of Lodi
and its citizens flowed and
ebbed with the fortunes of the
dye works.
And the history of UPDW
Jjosely parallels the history
of the silk industry in and
around Patterson. High taxes,
high labor, new techniques
Farm Tips
ByDr.J.W. Pou
Agricultural Specialist
Wachovia Bank A Trust Co. NA.
You’ll recall in our last article that we talked with E.
Clinton Stokes, Agribusiness and Rural Affairs Specialist
for the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. Today,
we continue our discussion with him about the use of
pesticides.
Q. Mr. Stokes, recently there was a great deal of
discussion throughout the news in North Carolina about
finding the gypsy moth near Fayetteville. Could the
banning of some pesticides have any bearing on the control
of this gypsy moth?
A. DDT has been the primary pesticide used in the past
to control the spread of the gypsy moth. They are now
using a product called “Seven” which is not a persistent
pesticide. It does not last as long. It is not as toxic, but it is
supposed to restrain expansion of the gypsy moth. The
experience has not been beneficial.
Q. Well, then, it would seem that in considering whether
to ban or not to ban —or to substitute or not to
substitute - we would have to weigh one danger against the
other and come up with some reasonable conclusions about
which is the lesser of two evils, you might say. How do you
suppose it should be done - this decision making?
A. I think we have to measure the benefits against the
risks for any particular pesticide or whether we use any at
all or not. In the case of the gypsy moth, by not using DDT
we have harmed the environment rather than helped it. The
trees are bare. Erosion will be greater. The beauty will be
less. Fire hazards are greater. The value of homesites and
property has gone down because of this denuding of the
foliage, and one other important factor, they have found
that the oxygen supply has been reduced materially by the
loss of this foliage.
Q. Do you think it at all possible that the ban will be
lifted on DDT in order to effectively combat the gypsy
moth - if this is what it takes?
A. This is certainly hopeful. They have permitted its
continued use for cotton, for the boll weevil, because they
know of no substitute. I think they will gradually find that
some substitutes are less desirable.
Q. Now, North Carolina is tobacco country, and I
understand that DDT was also banned for bse against
tobacco pests. Do you have any comments on this matter?
A. According to reports, they have jumped from the
frying pan into the fire. By controlling DDT which was not
harmful to people -it was only more persistent in terms of
the environment - they have had to switch to parathion.
Now this product is very toxic to people. In fact, there have
been several reports of people having been killed by its use.
Q. In light of that fact, is there thought of any change
in returning to DDT use for tobacco?
A. I haven’t heard of the reports of It, but the fact is
that information is being better understood now. They are
realizing that they actually know less about the substitute,
parathion, than they know about the safety of DDT'
Q. Another very much reported story in the press
recently was the case of horses with encephalomyelitis in
Texas induced by mosquitoes. Now, were there any
indications that a change in the use of pesticides resulted in
more mosquitos and resulted then in more encephalo
myelitis?
A. This I don’t know. The spread of the disease came up
from Mexico. I don’t know how strong their application of
the are, but we do know that in trying to control
the encephalomyelitis disease, they are spraying how at
tremendous expense - cost to the government -by air
plane all over southern Texas. They are using Malathion
instead of DOT. It remains to be seen, and we can only
hope that this Malathion will control it long enough to
reduce the infestation.
either drove the plants else
where or closer them entirely.
But while they were boom
ing, they supported the com
munity and occasionally
fought with it
Just to focus the picture,
UPDW never owned a yard of
silk or later of rayon or the
other synthetics.
It dyed materials on con
tract .from suppliers. Its in
ventory consisted of the dyes
and the factory equipment. It
owned no raw products. And
at one time, Miss Boettger
said it was doing 90 per cent
of the piece dye works in the
country as the nation’s larg
est plant.
Some in this area lend to
conclude that because UPDW
has closed its Lodi plant it
isn’t operating. Far from it!
When economics began
catching up with the Lodi
operation, UPDW quickly saw
the necessity for diversifying
its enterprise. At one time
it had four plants in New
Jersey. These have all closed.
It operates dye works in
Blueficld, Va.; Charleston,
S. C.; Edenton, N. C.; Los
Angeles and Middletown, Pa.
Its 1970 corporate report
showed total income of more
than S2B million and net
earnings of more than $2.5
million.
Prerequisites
The history of UPDW be
gins long before it was even
a dream or before its found
ers were born. There are
some basic elements needed
to establish a dye works:
people and raw material.
But none of these functions
without another commodity,
water.
So where you find a dye
works, you find water.
That’s the way it was in
1831 when James Rennie
built the first dye works on
the Saddle River and he was
later joined by his brother
Robert. One expects they
became ithe first polluters of
the Saddle River. No one
cared then. This was pro
gress.
In 1891, Fred and Albert
Blum established the Alex
ander Dye Works, named in
memory of their father. Five
years later, Henry W. Boett
ger, who had operated his
own dye works in New York,
built a plant nex,t to the
Alexander plant, on the old
Rennie site.
A Natural
There was, according to
the best authority, Albert H.
Heusser’s “The History of the
Silk Dyeing Industry In the
United States,’’ relations of
goodwill rather than those of
rivalry between the two op
erations. Each enterprise,.
says Heusscr, were side by
side neighbors at Lodi, run
ning independently and mak
ing steady progress.
The coming merger was a
natural. This was accom
plished in 1903, and United
Piece Dye Works came into
being. Theodore Boettger was
vice president.
The new company prosper
ed and became the center of
Lodi and its neighbors. United
•Piece Dye Works, says Heus
ser,; after 23 years of pro
gress most naturally stands
in the front rank among es
tablishments of this character
in the United Sates. One of
the Blums not clearly iden
tified by Heusscr noted that
in 1911, nothing - like silk
printing had been attempted
in Lodi. UPDW installed five
machines for this purpose. In
1916, said Blum, “extensive
preparations were made to
handle the scientific weigh
ing of all silk goods.” All
was well in 'the silk dyeing
industry.
Trouble lay ahead.
UPDW was caught in the
violent, ugly labor wars
which swept through the
whole Paterson silk area
right after World War I and
which continued through most
Forest Industries Plant New Trees
ATLANTA, Ga.—Challenged
with growing a whole new
Southern forest by the year
2000, North Carolina’s forest
products industries planted or
distributed 53,295,000 seed
lings during the IS7O-71 tree
planting season.
Tyfer
Os Edenton
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THE CHOWAN HERALD
of the 1920’5. This was the
era of William D. “Big Bill”
Haywood and Elizabeth Gur
ley Flynn, and they kept the
labor pot seething for sev
eral years.
But the labor troubles
were only the tip of the ice
berg. Silk was dying; not
dyeing, dying.
In a report in June, 1967,
Charles Blount, now honorary
chairman of the board of
UPDW, noted that originally
the processing operation was
100 per cent silk and is now
98 per cent synthetics.
“By 1930," Blount writes,
“silk was well on the way
out, being replaced by syn
thetics. Management had been
unwilling 'to accept inevitable
change, and volume dropped,
causing increasing losses."
Combined with the Great
Depression, massive problems
faced UPDW. To the rescue
came the Reconstruction Fi
nance Corporation with a $1.5
million loan. It must have
been bitter tea for Ted Boett
ger, staunch Republican and
delegate to ithe 1932 Republi
can National Convention.
But troubles were not yet
behind. Rising costs, higher
wages, increasing taxation,
compelled United Piece to
look beyond Lodi for the
new plants which were to
keep it in existence. The
end, perhaps not yet in sight,
was just over the horizon.
Backtracking
It’s necessary to retrace the
steps for a few years to learn
why.
In 1936, this newspaper
carried a story saying that
UiPDW was going to close its
New Jersey plants-and move
to New England. That was
slightly premature. But it
was prophetic.
UPDW said union wages
demands were prohibitive. It
claimed taxes were exorbit
ant. The mayor of Lodi then
was Michael “Packy” Cav
allo, a compact, tough little
politician who rarely gave
Seedlings planted in North
Carolina this last season rep
resent 11 per cent of all seed
lings planted or distributed
for planting by pulp and
paper, lumber and plywood
companies in the South, ac
cording to a survey by the
ground. He said If UPDW
moved, the schools would
close and relief would end.
Neither transpired, of course,
but in the end, UPDW had to
shut house for precisely the
reasons that had been
spawned 20 years earlier.
There are far fewer one
industry towns these days,
and most of those that were
are in trouble. Lodi is un
Dress Revue Is Exciting
Event With 4-H Work
By JOAN JORDAN
Chowan County Dress Revne
Winner-
One May evening at Cho
wan High School the cur tain
opened to reveal a small
scale fashion show. It was
Hone ether than the Chowan
County Dress Revue. The ■
theme for the evening was
“Over the Bridge to Spring
Fashion.’’
The unique thing about
this fashion show was the
fact that the clothes didn’t
come from any fashion de
signer or store. All the
fashions were made by the
17 girls modeling them.
The clothes were judged
on neatness, how well they
were made and how they
looked on the girls. There
were three winners: ’Pre
teen division, Loy Ann Bunch;
early teens, Marion' OOHul;
senior division, Joan Jordan.
The winner of the senior
division, on the county level,
is awarded the privilege of
participating in the district'
revue. The district includes
all of Northeastern ’North
Carolina and it is quite 'an
honor to be selected to go to
state competition.
The State Dress Revue is
one of the main events at
4-H Club Congress. All dur
ing the week the girls parti
cipating model for judges and
pose for pictures. They are
Southern Forest Institute, At
lanta, Ga.
The recently completed
survey covered forest indus
tries and private forest land
owners ill Alabama, Arkan
sas, Florida, Georgia, Ken
tucky, Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Tennessee,
Texas and Virginia.
Besides wood for more
than 5,000 different products,
the South’s all-purpose for
ests supply other benefits,
too. Trees provide beauty,
places for recreation, wild
life habitat, soil erosion con
trol, watershed protection,
and trees are essential for a
healthful environment.
Studies show each acre of
young, vigorous growing for
est produces four tons of
wood and converts six tons of
carbon dioxide into four tons
of oxygen each year, enough
oxygen to meet the annual
needs of 18 people.
Old, over mature and dying
trees, on the other hand, con
sume oxygen and compete
with other living things for
the usable oxygen in the air.
Throughout the South,
493,300,000 little trees were
planted or distributed for
planting during the 1970-71
season. In North Carolina,
52,998,000 pine seedlings and
[297,000 hardwood seedlings
(were planted last season. Os
I this total, 50,040,000 little
trees were planted on indus
try owned .. land; 3,255,000
seedlings were distributed to
private landowners.
7,088,000 little trees planted
in North Carolina last sea
son were genetically superior
seedlings. Genetically su
perior seedlings—often called
Supertrees grow taller,
straighter, bigger around and
up to 25 per cent faster than
ordinary trees.
“Trees are one of Nature’s
few renewable resources,” ex
plained Southern Forest Insti
tute Executive Vice Preai
dent George E. Kelly. "As a
matter of fact,” he continued,
"there are now more tree*
growing in our Southern for
ests than anytime in the last
30 to 35 year*. But to meet
the nation’s future wood
needs, the South must grow
its Third Forest by the year
2000 to replace the Second
Forest, which is providing
our present timber supply."
"Almost 200 million acres
of trees are now growing in
our part of the country,"
Kelly said. "And through
wise harvesting and careful
regeneration of the , trees
winch are harvested, govern
ment, industry and private
landowners—working togeth
er—can help assure there will
always be enough wood in
our all purpose forests to
meet America’s future
needs," he concluded. 1
dertaking massive urban re
newal, and for the first time
in more than half a century,
UPDW will play no part in
•Lodi’s present or future. It
has a rich heritage and it's
never pleasant to see an old
friend depart.
In the 1930’s when Bergen
County’s state senator was
expelled Jrom the legislature,
modeling ni preparation for
the big night.
The final night is an ex
citing experience for all the
girls. It U a large scale pro
duction and they’re usuaßy
very elated as they parade
in front of the lights. In the
big moment of the night the
state dress revue winner is
announced. She will repre
sent North Carolina in na
tional competition.
The clothing project is a
great opportunity for girls
interested in design and
fashion. But then it’s just
one of the many opportunities
that 4-H offers.
How to Evaluate Your
Local Water Service
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Water Service” is a 48-page
evaluation manual for public
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managers. It helps them to
analyze their systems in
terms of capacity, mains,
distribution, pumping, hy
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other factors.
According to the publisher,
Johns-Manville, it is expected
to help the industry evaluate
its systems and upgrade them,
in relation to the increasing
public demand for higher
quality water rather than
just quantity.
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SEARS. ROEBUCK AND CO. EDENTON. N. C.
the Republican party in Ber
gen County was run by
County Chairman Douglas G.
Thomson, president of Citizens
National Bank of Englewood;
Walter G. Winne, county
counsel; Edna G. Conklin,
Republican state and na
tional committee member, and
Joseph A Brohel, head of the
state Civic Service Board
and comptroller of United
Piece Dye Works. It was
sometimes said that the deci
sions which were not made
on the platform of the Citi
zens Bank were made in the
comptroller’s office of UPDW.
Fantasy perhaps, but no
fantasy is the fact that
Notice Os
Public Hearing
Edenton Town Council will
hold a public hearing in the Mu
nicipal Building at 8 P. M., on
October 19th, 1971, with regards
to the rezoning of a parcel of
land located at the intersection of
Old Hertford Road and Paxton
Lane from R-20 to R-11.
All interested parties will be
heard at this time.
W 6. Gardner,
Town Administrator
Page 7-A
United Piece Dye Works, Its
officers and its employes be
came and will remain Bergen
County institutions.
CARD OF THANKS
We wish to take this means
•to thank our many friends
and loved ones for their
cards, visits, gifts and most
of all prayers for our concern
while we were patients in
Chowan Hospital. We are
most grateful and humble and
want you to know your in
terest was much appreciated.
May God’s richest blessings
abide with you forever.
•Lovingly yours,
Gurney and Maggie Harrell