Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/914

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MASON—MASSACHUSETTS

(1913); The Da/odil Fields (1913); Lollingdon Downs (1917); Reynard the Fox (1919); Right Royal (1920); Enslaved and other Poems (1920); King Cole (1921); and in his sombre plays, The Campden Wonder (1907); The Tragedy of Nan (1909); Pompey the Great (1910); The Faithful (1915); and Good Friday (1916). He also published some prose war sketches, Gallipoli (1916); The Old Front Line (1918); St. George and the Dragon (1919).

MASON, ALFRED EDWARD WOODLEY (1865- ), English novelist, playwright and politician, was born in Camberwell May 7 1865 and was educated at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Oxford. Whilst at Oxford he played Heracles in a pro- duction by the O.U.D.S. of the Alcestis of Euripides, and when he left the university he joined a theatrical company and toured for a time in the provinces. He soon, however, abandoned acting for literature. His first novel, A Romance of Wastdale, was pub- lished in 1895. He followed it by the successful Courtship of Mor- rice Buckler (also dramatized) in 1896 and Miranda of the Balcony (dramatized in New York) in 1899. Amongst later novels The Four Feathers (1902); The Broken Road (1907); Running Water (1907) and The Turnstile (1912) are the most notable. At the Villa Rose (1910), an experiment in the detective story, was successfully dramatized and presented at the Strand theatre, London, in July 1920. Besides the dramatization of his novels, he wrote as original plays Colonel Smith (igogj, The Witness for the Defence (1911) and Open Windows (1913). He sat as Liberal member for Coventry in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910. During the World War he held a commission in the Man- chester regiment and later was on the general staff of the R. M.L.I. He also went on missions to Spain and to Mexico for the Intelligence Dept. of the Admiralty and utilized some of his experiences in a novel The Summons (1920).

MASPERO, SIR GASTON CAMILLE CHARLES (1846-1916), French Egyptologist (see 17.848), died in Paris June 30 1916. During his second term of office as director-general of the Service of Antiquities at Cairo he was made an hon. K.C.M.G. (1909). He retired in 1914.

MASSACHUSETTS (see 17.850). The pop. in 1920 was 3,852,356, an increase of 485,940 or 14-4% since 1910, as against 20% in the preceding decade. Nearly one-third of the state's inhabitants lived in metropolitan Boston. Less than 1-3% were negroes; 27-9% were foreign born, of whom 24-4% came from Canada. The average density of pop. was 479-2 per sq.m., as against 418-8 in 1910. The urban pop. (in 169 places of more than 2,500) was 94-8% of the whole as against 92-8% in 1910. The pop. of the 13 chief cities was:


1920

1910

Increase per cent

Boston Worcester Springfield New Bedford Fall River

748,060

179,754 129,614 121,217 120,485 112,759

670,585 145,986 88,926 96,652

H9,295 106,294

n-6 23-1 45-8 25-4

I-O

6-1

Cambridge Lynn Lawrence . Somerville Brockton Haverhill Holyoke .

109,694 99,148 94, 2 7<> 93,091 66,254

53,884 60,203

104,839 89,336 85,892 77.236 56,878 44,"5 57.730

4-6

II-O

9-8 20-5 16-5

22-1

4-3

Agriculture. Farm property in 1920 was valued at $300,471,743, including live stock valued at $33,524,157. The total value of farm products in 1919 was $87,558,456 -crops representing 61 -3 % of this, and animal products 38-7 per cent. The leading crops and their percentages of the total crop value were: hay and forage 37-5%, vegetables 28-5% and fruits 18-2 per cent. The production of the chief cereals was as follows, in bushels:


1919

1909

Maize Oats

1,921,607

1,515,933 23,238

2,402,738 2,029,381 32,926

Winter Wheat ....

21,337

1.7 1

11,916

6o.d

Barley Rye

11,832 46,261

9,021

59,183

The yield of apples in 1909 was 2,550,259 bus.; in 1919, 3,187,210. Two-thirds of the cranberry yield of the United States in 1920 was raised in the bogs along the S.E. coast of the state. Of the animal products 73 % were of the dairy and 26 % poultry and eggs.

Mineral Products. During the decade there was a large increase in the production of building-stone, crushed rock for road and street making, and sand. In 1913 the value of the products of mines and quarries and their manufactured derivatives was $11,292,723. The production of monuments and tombstones was: 1909, $2,852,650; 1918, $2,571,750. The value of clay-products of the state decreased from $1,647, 362 in 1908 to $1,451,7 1 5 in 1918, of which latter amount $1,230,711 was the value of common brick.

Manufactures. Massachusetts, with a limited local market for its manufactured products, scanty resources in the form of raw materials, and a declining trans-Atlantic commerce, has added little to its railway and terminal facilities. Only four states are smaller in area; yet in 1918 only four states exceeded it in the value of its industrial output. Its advantage has lain in having a surplus of capital, in its unsurpassed supply of skilled labour and in the supe- rior organization of its factories. In its earlier development it utilized its local water-power, of which it had a liberal supply. Then it became largely dependent on coal for fuel, imported at increasingly high cost. In 1910 the total value of manufactures was $1,490,527,- 386; in 1914, $1,641,373,047, and in 1918, $3,851,346,215, an increase over 1900 of 324 per cent. While the increase in value is largely to be accounted for by the increased prices, the state as a whole made commendable industrial progress. In textiles (cottons, worsteds and woollens), in boots and shoes, boot and shoe cut stock and find- ings, rubber footwear, and in fine writing-paper, Massachusetts in 1919 was the foremost state.

The following table deals with the manufacture of leather and shoes, cut stock and findings:

Boots and Shoes.


Estab's. Reported

Employees

Value of Products

1909 . 1914 . 1919 .

469 464 474

47-710 76,944 77,196

$187,045,767 200,529,858 361,090,261

Boot and Shoe Cut-Stock and Findings.


Estab's. Reported

Employees

Value of Products

1909 . 1914 . 1919 .

391 420 422

8,353 8,170

9,964

49,297,I48 54,658.155 118,310,617

The value of boots and shoes and cut stock in 1918 was 40% of the country's output, New York ranking second with 13-4 per cent. In 1918 the textile industries employed 30 % of the manufacturing wage- earners, the products being 30-9 % of the total industrial output and being valued at $1,191,650,551. Nearly one-half of this was in cotton goods and formed 28-9 % of the output of the whole country, N. Carolina, the next largest producer of cotton goods, turning out 13-4% of the whole. The output of woollen and worsted goods in 1918 was more than 30% of that of the whole country, Pennsylvania producing the next largest amount. The increase in value from 1900 to 1918 was 5-78% snowing a marked decrease in quantity when the difference in prices is considered. The increase in the value of boots and shoes and cut stock for the same period was 136% showing small increase in quantity. Boston and Worcester were the principal centres for foundry and machine-shop products, valued in 1918 at $341,751,367. Other industrial products, in order of importance, were: rubber goods, $120,757,575; tanned, curried and finished leather, $81,462,273, in the manufacture of which Massachusetts was second among the states; paper and wood pulp, $91,428,346; slaughtering and meat-packing, $117,730,023; printing and publish- ing, $73,267,130, of which $39,104,873 was the value of news- papers and periodicals; electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies, $83,742,359; cordage, twine and jute goods, $45,574,887, in which the state was second only to New York; furniture, $17,058,360; jewelry, $9,526,836, Massachusetts ranking second only to Rhode Island; and confectionery $40,869,064, in which Massachusetts was third among the states.

The state is also noted for its fishing industry, the fleets visiting the Newfoundland Banks being very important, with Gloucester and Boston as chief centres of the trade. The value of products in 1920 was $7,596,905. Cod were valued at $2,311,011; haddock, $2,655,303; mackerel, $748,682; and halibut, $518,598.

Education. Several fundamental changes were made in the organization of the educational enterprises of the state in 1919. Among the most important were the consolidation into a new department of education of several related activities, the abolition of the Board of Education and the creation of the Advisory Board of Education, consisting of six members and the Commissioner of Education, who is ex-officio chairman. The passing of the Board of Education, established in 1837, marks the close of an important era in the development of a state policy of education. In vocational