In my previous estimate for 1916 I computed that the mean of the pig-iron production in 1915-1916 was 1.3 times the mean of the production in 1911-1912 and starting with the census figure of $6,091,451,274 for 1912 and assuming that the machinery and tools of the country had increased in about the same ratio as the pig iron production I arrived at a total of eight billion dollars, which of course did not allow anything for increase in unit values from 1912 to 1916. I expressed the opinion at that time that these figures, both for 1912 and 1916, were inadequate, and I may add also the figure for 1904.
In 1904 there were 5,676,920 workers employed in the factories of the country at the maximum, and in 1912 about 7,000,000. These figures indicate plant value to the amount of about $580 per worker in 1904 and $870 in 1912. These quotients are not at all in harmony with specific industrial data as I shall proceed to show.
The number of cotton spindles in the United States in 1916 was about 32,000,000, valued at about $800,000,000. The number of persons engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods was not to exceed 400,000. On that basis the cost of the plant used by them was $2,000 per person.
The machinery for a shoe manufacturing plant cost about $2,500 per worker before the war. Now about $5,000.
The Anaconda Copper Mining Co. in Montana in 1916 had about $27,500,000 in metallurgical plant and 5,200 workers, an average of about $5,300 per man. That company normally produces about 20 per cent of the copper of the United States. The data computed
