1938 GENERAL MOTORS COMES TO TRENTON

I had no way of knowing it back on March 17, 1952 when I went for a job interview with the Trenton Bearing Company at 1812 North Olden Avenue Extension that I was  entering a profession that would ultimately see America and the Trenton area lose industrial supremacy to foreign manufacturers who could produce products at prices far, far below those required by the American manufacturers. Indeed, I started as a delivery driver for the bearing company, making daily deliveries to the COUNTLESS industrial entities in the area at that time. Just to name a few: General Electric, C.V. Hill, Ternstedt Division of General Motors, Fairless Works Division of U.S. Steel Corp., L.A. Young Spring and Wire Co., Bayer Aspirin, and as indicated above, COUNTLESS other factories and businesses that required machine replacement parts. The graphic posted herewith was one of our MAJOR customers. I made daily trips to Ternstedt Division which ultimately became Fisher Body. They were a major source of income for our little bearing distributorship as was U.S. Steel Fairless Works in Morrisville, Vulcanized Rubber and Plastics also in Morrisville, along with other far flung industries such as Cold Spring Bleachery in Yardley, Warner Company and really, too many others to list in this posting. I ultimately became an inside telephone-counter salesman at the Trenton Bearing Co. along with my equally talented side kick, Bill Kuestner. Things went great until the imports began to arrive in the latter part of the 1950's. Datsun, Renault, Volkswagen, began to bring their autos into America with prices far below those of our American counterparts, all of whom had to price their vehicles far above the foreign competitors in order to offset the relatively high union worker's, and upper management wages. From then on it was DOWNHILL. I remember that U.S. Steel Fairless Works Purchasing agent let it be known that anything foreign would place a vendor on the "no bid" list. Indeed, I remember the day then salesman Charlie Brown returned from a sales call at Fairless and told us of the foreign boycott that extended to even our use of American only automobiles. Trenton and American never recovered from the true "Industrial Revolution" that occurred in post-war America, and today our heavy industry is only a memory.

1932: Trenton WAS an IndustrialGiant

 

Many of the younger set don't know nor realize how very important Trenton and the surrounding area was insofar as industrial prominence. DeLaval, C.V. Hill, Philco, Lenox, Baldwin Hill, Homasote (Agasote), General Electric, Westinghouse, General Motors, American Standard, Thermoid, Sloane-Blabon (Today's Congoleum), United States Steet, and many other industrial giants provided employment for many Mercer County and the surrounding area. Then along came the middle of the 20th century, times were good, salaries and benefits were moving ever upward, the Unions wanted more, management wanted less, and without being too simplistic, post war Trenton began to give way to Japanese and Brazilian steel, countless off-shore products that the high paying industries could not compete with, and within a period of transition, Trenton and the area could safely be defined as a card-carrying member of the "Rust Belt." Above is just a miniscule sampling of the wonderful companies that are no longer part of the "Trenton Makes - The World Takes" lexicon. But we had our time to shine, and it is very unfortunate that American workers couldn't compete with fifty cents and hour foreign workers.

Ralph Lucarella said...

HI TOM....IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE HOW MUCH CHANGE HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE TRENTON AREA SINCE THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY. WE WERE AMONG THE BIGGEST INDUSTRIAL SECTIONS OF THE EAST AND AS GOOD AS THE UNIONS ARE, THEY PROABLY WERE THE MAJOR CAUSE OF EVERYONE LEAVING. GENERAL MOTORS WAS THE LAST OF THE BIG GUYS IN THE LATE 1930'S. LENOX CHINA AND AMERICAN STANDARD AMONG OTHERS WERE NOT ABLE TO INCREASE WAGES AS MUCH AS THE UNIONS DEMANDED. I WAS TOO YOUNG TO GET HIRED AT THE TIME AND FINALLY MADE THE GRADE ON THE POST OFFICE EXAM. AFTER THAT I COULD WRITE A BOOK TO EXPLAIN ALL THE ACTIVITES I GOT INVOLVED IN. BEST REGARDS.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

1886 and 1872: South Trenton's Trenton Iron Company - and Cooper Hewitt

It was a huge industry in South Trenton. These articles have interesting accounts of America's foremost steel factories in the 1860's and 70's., located in the South Trenton area. (Hamilton Avenue and along the Delaware River)

SOME EARLY TRENTON INDUSTRIES

THERE WAS A PAPER MILL LOCATED ALONG THE ASSANPINK CREEK IN DOWNTOWN TRENTON BACK IN THE 19H CENTURY. AS CAN BE SEEN BY THE ALWAYS INTERESTING "TRENTON IN BYGONE DAYS" COLUMN ABOVE, TRENTON WAS ALSO THE HOME OF ANOTHER PAPER MANUFACTURER, THIS ONE MAKING PAPER BAGS. THE STORY OF THAT HUGE SAW BLADE IS ALSO TIED TO THE AMERICXAN SAW MANUFACTURING COMPANY THAT CALLEDPublish Post TRENTON HOME.

1933: INDUSTRIAL TRENTON

WHOA! "CHIMNEYS BELCHING SMOKE? HEY, YOU FOLKS ARE POLLUTING! BACK IN 1933 THE "BELCHING" CHIMNEYS OF TRENTON'S COUNTLESS INDUSTRIAL FACTORIES WERE LENDING A GRAY HUE TO THE BLUE ATMOSPHERE, AND OUR CITIZENS WERE BESIDE THEMSELVES WITH THE KNOWLEDGE THAT AMERICA WAS SLOWLY RECOVERING FROM THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

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THIS FROM HISTORIAN TOM REID WITH A VERY FASCINATING INSIGHT TO THE PHOTO ABOVE. THANK VERY MUCH, TOM!

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TOM WROTE:

Re:CHIMNEYS BELCHING SMOKE.
Pic is of area between N. Clinton Ave and the D&R Canal, and the Southard St and N. Olden Ave Bridges. These bridges are not shown and were vertical draw bridges. In 1943 the super structures was removed for WW ll scrape metal drive. These buildings shown were mostly potteries. A few years after pic taken, part of that canal was our "swimming hole" by sunken tug boats known as "tuggies". This area was just outside our Goosetown neighborhood.Any one wants to talk of that time and area, contact me at:
Tom Reed
Miami FL