Sayles Finishing Plants

In the first two decades of the 20th century, there occurred a gradual consolidation of the various finishing plants owned by Frank A. Sayles. To the original bleacheries at Saylesville were joined administratively the various branches of the Glenlyon Dye and Print Works and the National Tracing Cloth Company. The first indication of this trend came in 1906, when the records start referring to the Sayles Bleacheries as Plant A - implying the existence of a larger organization of which it formed a part. In the decade that followed, the various finishing units were increasingly linked by central departments - e.g. the Central Purchasing Department, the Efficiency Department, the Rate-Fixing Department, the Superintendent's Office - that came to coordinate more and more of their activities. This process was formalized in March 1917, when Frank A. Sayles set up Sayles Finishing Plants as an unincorporated trust that owned and operated the various finishing subdivisions. Under the plan of organization that emerged, the Sayles Bleacheries were known as Plant A, Glenlyon's Saylesville operations as Plant B, its Phillipsville operations as Plant C (and later E) and its Valley Falls operations as Plant D.

While heading the Sayles Finishing Plants as President, Frank A. Sayles took in his principal subordinates, Charles O. Read and Kenneth F. Wood, as fellow-trustees. Read, who had been with the firm since 1863, had managed the bleacheries as Superintendent since 1894. That same year, Sayles hired Wood, a recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who became instrumental in introducing concepts of "scientific management" to the company. When Frank A. Sayles died in March 1920 without any sons to carry on the business, control of the Sayles Finishing Plants passed to the Trusteed, Read, Wood, James R. MacColl, and their successors. Even after they incorporated the firm as Sayles Finishing Plants, Inc., in January 1921, it was the Trustees of Frank A. Sayles' Estate who directed the affairs of the company throughout the remainder of its history. As President of the concern, Sayles was followed by a succession of long-time employees: by Charles O. Read in January 1922; by John W. Manley in February 1926; by George E. Sinkinson in 1944; and by Elliot Broadbent in January 1958.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the Sayles Finishing Plants stood in the forefront of the industry, introducing and perfecting finishes for a wide range of natural and synthetic fabrics and fibers. Frank A. Sayles had placed a strong emphasis on industrial research, and this policy was continued unabated by his successors. As a result, the Sayles operations produced a series of major "firsts" in the finishing of textile goods, among which were: the introduction of the mercerizing process (which gave added strength and lustre to dyed goods) to America (1898); the development of a technique of finishing organdies without starch or sizing, to give a lasting sheer finish (1917); the pioneering of anti-crease finishes (1932); the development of a water-repellent finish called Storm King (1943); and the introduction of the Sayl-a-Set finish for spun rayon fabrics, which gave them controlled shrinkage (1944). Other notable events in the history of the Sayles Finishing Plants, subsequent to the death of Frank A. Sayles, included: the construction of the Sayles-Biltmore Bleacheries bear Asheville, North Carolina (begun in 1925, put into operation in 1927); for the manufacturing, bleaching, and finishing of cotton and rayon fabrics; a violent strike at Saylesville in September 1934 that captured national attention; the establishment, around 1936, of the of the first industrial research laboratories in the country; and the World War II monitoring and finishing of 560 million yards of cloth for the government. By their centennial celebration in 1947. The Sayles Finishing Plants boasted that they could handle the production of one hundred mills their own size. Some 3,000 employees were involved in bleaching and dyeing cottons, rayons, and mixed cloths for such diverse products as sheets, curtains, corset fabrics, wash fabrics, and book cloth.

The euphoria surrounding the centennial celebration proved to be short-lived, however, for the fortunes of the Sayles Finishing Plants plummeted in the decade that followed. Basically, the Sayles managers were confronted by the whole array of problems that virtually wiped out the New England textile industry. Such factors as increased labor costs, a considerable falling-off the volume of business, and decreased finishing prices all led to a precipitous decline in the company's earnings. Despite strenuous efforts to cut costs by paring down the work force, streamlining production, and reshuffling departments among the various plants, most of the Sayles divisions were operating at a loss by the mid-1950s. At this point, the fact that the company was run by trustees of an estate proved to be crucial. With their primary concern being the financial health of the estate, rather than the well-being of the plants and the workers, the Trustees moved to cut their losses by liquidating the various finishing operations. By the end of 1957, they had closed down the printed division at Phillipsdale; in May, 1960, they sold the Sayles-Biltmore Bleacheries; and at the end of 1960, the halted the bleaching and dyeing operations at Saylesville. Only the Special Fabrics Company (successor to the National Tracing Cloth Company) continued to manufacture book cloth throughout the 1960s; but the Trustees phased out this division, as well, in July 1971. Thus by the 1970s, Sayles Finishing Plants, once the world's largest finisher of textiles, was no more.