Manchester Matter

Huge along the Merrimack River banks at Manchester, N. H., the biggest cotton textile mill in the U. S., silent since last September, was ordered liquidated in July (TIME, Aug. 3). Sale of the fixed assets of Amoskeag Manufacturing Co., which once employed 18,000 Manchester workers, was set for mid-October and notices of the auction went up on Amoskeag's long string of buildings. Last week these notices were taken down amid more whoops of civic satisfaction than Manchester had heard for months. From the hazards of auction sale and the hands of Boston trustees, the property of played-out Amoskeag was largely retrieved, subject to almost certain approval of court and creditors, by Manchester's own citizens.

Ever since Amoskeag closed down last autumn leading Manchester businessmen have worked hard to get the mills going again, under the same or different management. In the event of a knockdown sale these gentlemen apprehended mighty Amoskeag converted into junk, providing neither jobs for Manchester workers nor business for them. Fortnight ago a citizens' committee headed by Manchester's onetime Mayor Arthur Edmond Moreau decided to buy the plant themselves, sell all or any part to manufacturers who would guarantee to use it.

Incorporating last week as Amoskeag Industries, Inc. Manchester businessmen received from Public Service Co. of New Hampshire a subscription of $100,000, from New Hampshire Fire Insurance Co. another $100,000, from local banks and private commitments enough to enable them to hand over to the liquidating trustees in Boston a check for $500,000 as 10% payment on an agreed price of $5,000,000. In addition to its first $100,000, Public Service Co. of New Hampshire promised to pay Amoskeag Industries $2,250,000 for the hydro-electric power plant which had driven Amoskeag looms and spindles. Cautiously said Amoskeag Industries' President Moreau: "Maybe by winter some industry will be located in the plant."

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