number of spindles in the cotton factories of the Northern States in 1880 was 10,092,000 and in 1910 17,217,000; while in the Southern States the number in 1880 was but 561,000 and in 1910 10,801,000. Thus the number in the Northern States increased only about 70 per cent. from 1880 to 1910, while in the Southern States there was an increase of nearly 2,000 per cent. Even a comparison of conditions in 1910 with those of 1900 shows a much more rapid gain in the Southern States, the figures for 1900 being: in the Northern States, 15,104,000, as against 17,217,000 in 1910; in the Southern States 4,368,000 in 1900, as against 10,801,000 in 1910, an increase during the ten years in the Northern States of but 15 per cent., and in the Southern States of about 150 per cent. Cheap cotton, cheap coal, cheap transportation, and cheap labor offer the explanation of the relatively more rapid growth of the cotton industry in the South. The cost of transporting the cotton from the place of production to the manufacturing establishment is minimized as compared with transporting it to the Northern States. The cost of coal for producing power is low, much lower than that which is required in the manufacturing establishments at the North, which are not able to rely wholly upon water power; while labor in the South is plentiful and obtainable at somewhat lower rates than in the North.

With all the development of the cotton industry in the United States, how

ever, the value of the exports is but trifling when compared with the production or with the value of other lines of manufactures exported. This is due partly to the active competition of the great cotton manufacturing countries of Europe, which, in view of the small cost of transporting a raw material so easily transported as cotton, are able to buy their raw cotton from the United States, transport it across the ocean, manufacture it with the cheap labor obtainable in that part of che world, and put it into the markets of the cotton goods importing countries of the world at very little cost. Besides, the fact that they are manufacturing chiefly for foreign markets leads them to exercise more care in making the material in the form required by those markets than is the case in the United States, which manufactures primarily for domestic supply. In the case of European countries, England especially, a large proportion of the cotton goods manufactured are for the markets of foreign. countries, chiefly the Tropics and the Orient, where light weights and special weights and patterns are required. In the United States a very large proportion of the cotton manufactured is destined for domestic markets, which require in this temperate zone climate comparatively heavy goods and goods made to suit the tastes and habits of Americans and are not, therefore, suited to the requirements, tastes and habits of that great cotton goods importing sec

In the woolen industry the value of the product, the capital invested, the wages paid, and the number of wage earners employed fall considerably below that of the cotton industry. In the United States, as elsewhere, this industry has not kept pace with that of cotton. In the last few decades the world has substituted cotton for woolen goods quite generally, save where extreme climatic conditions or the dictates of fashion have hindered such substitution. The value of the woolen and worsted goods turned out by the factories of the United States grew from $194,000,000 in 1880 to $436,000,000 in 1910, while in the same period the value of cotton goods turned out grew from $211,000,000 to $628,000,000- a percentage of gain in value of product much greater in cotton goods than in woolens and worsteds.

Another of the important industries of the United States, both in the matter of production and manufacture,

325

is that of mineral oil. Little was known of mineral oil in any part of the world for practical use prior to the 60's, and the United States led the world in the development of this industry ever since. The quantity of petroleum produced in the United States in 1860 was but 21,000,000 gallons, and even as late as 1870 it was only 221,000,000 gallons. By 1880, however, the annual production had reached a billion gallons; in 1890 almost 2 billion; in 1900 2 2/3 billion; in 1905 5 2/3 billion; and in 1909 7 2/3 billion. While even a few years ago the United States produced more petroleum than any other single country, it now produces more than all other countries of the world combined. The value of the refined product was given by the census as $85,000,000 in 1890, $124,000,000 in 1900, and $175,000,000 in 1905. The value of the exports of the various grades of petroleum for illuminating purposes and for lubrication, including naphthas and crude oil, has increased during the last decade from about $70,000,000 to over $100,000,000, with markets in practically every country of the world.

The lumber industry is another extremely important factor in the industrial and commercial development of the country. The census gives the value of lumber and timber products in 1880 as $233,500,000 and in 1905 as $580,000,000; and of planing mill products in 1880 as $73,500,000 and in 1905 as $247,500,000. The fact that lumber and other manufactures of wood ex

ported are now approximating $100,000,000 per annum indicates the importance of this industry in our foreign commerce as well as its relative place in the domestic market. The use of wood, however, as already indicated, is somewhat reduced proportionately through the increased use of iron in many lines for which wood was formerly utilized, while clay products (including bricks, tiles, etc.) and cement are now utilized in many lines of construction in which wood was formerly the chief material.

All this development in the manufacturing industries a development more rapid than that of any other great branch of industry in the United States is chiefly the result of the recent application of power and machinery to production in great quantities and at comparatively small cost of articles needed by man. Not only does this great increase in the supply of manufactures contribute more freely than formerly to his actual requirements of daily life, but it has very greatly added to the comforts of his home, improved his methods of travel, his methods of communication, his dress, has affected every day and hour of his life; and this applies not, as formerly, merely to the wealthy and the inhabitants of the great cities, but to the masses. The rag carpet which was formerly the chief covering of the floor of those in moderate circumstances is now a thing practically unknown in the

United States, and has been replaced by the work of the loom. The farm wagon is being replaced by the automobile. The telephone gives to the rural as well as to the city inhabitant instant communication not only with his neighbors but those hundreds of miles away, and this, in conjunction with the telegraph, enables the owner of the basic materials of the world's requirements-food, raw materials, and labor to know the price which the material he owns is bringing in the markets of the world on the day and almost the hour at which he may desire to make his inquiry.

The development in all the great manufacturing lines, the causes of which have been suggested above, has resulted in bringing the United States to the head of the list of the world's manufacturing nations. This, it may be remarked, is not due altogether to superior workmanship, great energy, or greater combinations of capital and machinery, but largely to the greater supplies and better facilities which nature has given us. A country which produces, as does the United States, nearly three-fourths of the world's cotton, more than half of its petroleum utilized in the production of power for manufacturing and transportation, half the world's copper, approximately half of its pig iron, by far more coal than any other country, and which has two-fifths of the world's railways for bringing them together at convenient spots for turning them into the

finished product such a country enjoys exceptional facilities for manufacturing. As already indicated at the beginning of this article, the order of development of industries in temperate zone countries is, first agriculture and then manufacturing. While we may expect, therefore, that agricultural production in the United States will continue at about its present rate through proper care of the soil, and hence intensification of production, we may also expect that the development of that section of our country not visible to the eye in the beginning that which lies beneath the surface- will be proportionately more rapid than that of agriculture, and that this increased production of the mines will promote the relative growth of manufactures. We have but scratched the surface, apparently, in our studies and development of our mines and mining facilities; and, vast as has been the growth in the production and manufacture of iron, steel and copper and in the supply of coal, petroleum, the precious metals, and other articles of this character, we may expect, as a result, still further growth in the industries.

With this prospective further development in our products other than agricultural will come a continuation of the growth of manufacturing, and with this will come, as has already come, a rapid growth in the exportation of manufactures. The value of manufactures exported, exclusive of

327

the class known as foodstuffs partly or wholly manufactured, amounted to but $70,000,000 in 1870, $122,000,000 in 1880, $179,000,000 in 1890, and $485,000,000 in 1900. Then came a remarkable development in the exports of manufactures, which in the short fiveyear period from 1900 to 1905 grew to $611,000,000, in the fiscal year 1911 to $910,000,000, and in 1912 to $1,020,000,000. During this period, when the manufacturing industry developed more rapidly than that of agriculture, the share which manufactures formed of the total exports rapidly increased, having been but 18.62 per cent. of the total in 1870; 21.18 per cent. in 1890; 35.37 per cent. in 1900; and 47.02 per cent. in 1912.

It is only when we consider the great factors of the manufacturing industries, the number of wage earners employed, the wages paid, the value of the raw materials, the value of the products turned out, and the value added by manufacturing, and compare these with conditions at earlier decennial periods, that we realize fully the growth in manufacturing, which is becoming—if it has not already become the great industry of the United States. The census of 1910 shows the number of wage earners employed in the manufactures of the United States as a whole to be 6,615,046, as against 2,053,996 in 1870; the wages paid, $3,427,038,000, as against $775,584,343 in 1870; and the value of products, $20,

672,052,000, as against $4,232,325,442 in 1870. The value of the products turned out by the manufacturing establishments of the country have thus increased practically 400 per cent., while the increase in population was but 140 per cent.

While manufactures are now easily second and may soon become first in the list of the great industries of the country, there are numerous others whose history it is important to trace, especially for their relation to the general development of the country. As already intimated, the industry next in importance to those of agriculture and manufacturing is mining. Indeed, the value of the products of the mines of the country has shown nearly or quite as great a percentage of gain in the period under consideration as that of manufactures. Agriculture developed rapidly down to about the last quarter of the Nineteenth century, and about the same time manufactures began to develop with equal or even greater rapidity. Almost simultaneously with the development of manufactures came a similar growth in mining. The value of the minerals produced in the country was, according to the census reports, $219,000,000 in 1870, $365,000,000 in 1880, $606,000,000 in 1890, $1,107,000,000 in 1900 and, according to the estimates of the Geological Survey, $2,003,000,000 in 1910. Thus the value of the mineral products of the country was nearly 10 times as great in 1910 as in 1870, while the

value of manufactures was ten times as great in 1910 as in 1870. All these figures, it should be understood, however, are but approximations. Dealing with such vast subjects, with information coming from such large numbers of people, stretching over large areas of territory and employing varied methods of calculation, we can only approximate absolute accuracy.

Looking into the details of the development of the mineral industry, it is interesting to note that the quantity of coal produced in the country has grown from 29,500,000 tons in 1870 to 64,000,000 in 1880, 141,000,000 in 1890, 241,000,000 in 1900, and 448,000,000 in 1910; that of copper, from 12,600 tons in 1870 to 482,000 in 1910; lead, from 17,830 short tons in 1870 to 372,227 tons in 1910; iron ore, from 3,031,891 long tons in 1870 to 56,890,000 tons in 1910; petroleum, from 220,951,290 gallons in 1870 to 8,801,000,000 gallons in 1910; gold, from $50,000,000 value in 1870 to $96,000,000 in 1910; and silver, from $16,434,000 in 1870 to $30,477,000 in 1910. In numerous other articles there are no available figures, but as the development of their production began since 1870 we must be content with a later date for comparative purposes. The production of cement, for example, was reported by the census of 1880 as 2,072,943 barrels, while in 1909 it was set down at 65,399,889 barrels. Of mineral waters the recorded production in 1880 was 2,000,000 gallons and in 1909