was nearly double that assigned by Mr. Mulhall to the manufactured products of Great Britain in 1894; and, according to the United States census estimate, was considerably over a third greater than the value of the British products in 1900. In the United States nearly 1,000,000 more persons were employed in 1900 in manufactories than were similarly employed in 1899 in Great Britain. Mr. Mulhall also estimated that if the extra value of United States products due to a protective tariff be included, the United States produced about one-third of the total manufactures of all nations. He claimed further that American manufactures multiplied twenty-fold between 1840 and 1894, while those of Europe only doubled. Manufacturing is absolutely the most rapidly growing of the American industries, and has become of coördinate importance with, if not of greater importance than either of the two other leading American industries—agriculture and trade and transportation.
The net value of the products of manufacture in 1900 was more than double the value of the net products of the farm. Even after the crude materials contributed by the farm, the forest, the mine, and the sea have been eliminated from the total net value of manufactured products, the value remaining still exceeds by more than one-sixth the net value of agricultural products. The value of manufactured products was twelve times as great in 1900 as in 1850, whereas the value of agricultural products was only three times as great. The number of individuals engaged in manufacturing was nearly a fourth less than the number in agriculture and over one-fourth greater than the number engaged in trade and transportation. See paragraph on Occupations in section on Population.
Natural Advantages. There is nothing strange in the large proportions which the manufacturing industry is attaining. There is no other territory under one government in the world with so much productive power. The abundance of raw material required by the manufacturing industries, the degree of availability, including transportation facilities, and the capabilities of the producers are unequaled. Both food supplies and agricultural materials for manufacture are cheaper, more abundant, and more varied in the United States than in any other manufacturing country. The well-distributed forests contain most varieties of timber needed in large quantities, and in amounts that admit of heavy exportations. The mineral resources also include nearly every variety required for manufacturing industries. In the production of the two minerals which constitute the basis of modern manufactures, coal and iron, the United States ranks foremost, and, indeed, produces nearly a third of the world's output of each. Moreover, the deposits of these minerals, together with deposits of limestone, which is needed in fluxing the iron ore, are frequently found in the same locality.
The transportation facilities include 18,000 miles of navigable rivers and a railway mileage that is greater than that of all Europe and that is over 39 per cent. of the railroad mileage of the world. The competition of the waterways with the railways gives the country the advantage of cheap rates. Another advantage about which little is said, but which, nevertheless, is great, is the freedom of interstate commerce. In no other equally large area in the civilized world is trade unrestricted by customs, excises, or national prejudice. The freedom which the United States enjoys from tradition is another factor of prime importance. At the same time the manufacturing industry has profited by reason of the contribution of ideas of people schooled under different industrial systems. The immigrant, like the native-born, is animated by the prospects of large possibilities, and a greater energy and ingenuity pervades industrial society in the United States than is known in the European countries. As a result the individual laborer accomplishes more in this country than he does abroad.
Mulhall says that nearly all American manufactures are produced by machinery, while in Europe more than one-half is hand work. With respect to the completeness of organization, the minuteness of its subdivision, and the rapidity with which work is expedited, the United States also excels. The United States has developed a system of ‘interchangeable mechanism’ which has proved of inestimable value to the progress of the manufacturing industry.
Localization. The manufacturing industry is very unevenly distributed over the country. There is a decided tendency to centralize in limited localities. The greater part of the manufacturing is carried on in the region north of the Potomac and Ohio rivers and east of the Mississippi. The centre of manufactures has always been well to the north and east of the centre of population, but has at every decade moved westward, and was nearer the centre of population in 1900 than in 1850. In 1850 the New England States produced 27.8 per cent, of the total products of the United States, and the Middle States 46.4 per cent. Notwithstanding the great increase in both sections, their relative production had decreased respectively to 14.4 and 38.0 in 1900. About 1850 the Central States were occupied chiefly with agricultural pursuits, and produced only 14.3 per cent. of the total product. But nowhere else in the world has there been so rapid a transformation of the occupations of the population. In 1900 that section produced 30.7 per cent of the total product. The Southern States suffered greatly in consequence of the Civil War, the per cent. of the total product contributed by that section having fallen from 10.3 in 1860 to 6.6 in 1870. Since 1870, however, there has been a rapid revival of industry, and in 1900 it produced 9.1 per cent. of the total product of the country.
In the localization of industries the factor of transportation in its relation to the supply of raw materials and the market has been one of primary importance. This applies especially to bulky and heavy products which are shipped with difficulty. Thus Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio become the iron-manufacturing region, since coal and iron are brought together here at a minimum cost. Live animals cannot be so easily shipped as packed meats, and hence the slaughtering industry is confined mainly to the West. The saving in the cost of transportation is a chief reason for the recent development of cotton manufacturing in the cotton-growing region. Proximity to the supply of wood and iron, and convenience to the market, give the Lake States the advantage of manufacturing agricultural implements at a
- Vol. XIX.—43.
