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United States, and has been replaced by the work of the loom.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 The value of manufactures exported, exclusive of

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 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, 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

64,660,000 gallons; of natural gas, in 1882, $215,000 value, and in 1909 $63,200,000. Phosphate rock production in 1880 was reported at 211,377 long tons; in 1910 at 2,654,988 tons; salt, in 1880 at 6,000,000 barrels; in 1909 at 30,000,000; zinc (crude) in 1880 at 23,000 tons; in 1909 at 230,000 tons; and the value of stone in 1880 at $18,000,000; in 1909 at $71,000,000.

All these great developments in the industries of the country from 1870 to the present time are the result of natural conditions, coupled with the mental and physical activity which characterizes temperate, occidental man in all parts of the earth. With the great temperate zone area that the United States enjoys, a location remote enough from other countries to minimize the dangers of industrial competition from abroad, a single government extending over that vast area, instead of numerous governments (as is the case in a similar area in Europe, for example), and a people moved by a common purpose and speaking a common language with all these, opportunities for the development of the industries are much more favorable than in countries having smaller areas and subjected to the competition of great masses of population separated from their own by only an imaginary line. This area and population of our own country, under a single

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general government, has been put into close physical and business relationship by the construction of nearly 200,000 miles of railway for use in the interchange of their products and the mingling of the people. The railways in operation in the United States in 1870 covered 53,000 miles and in 1912 approximately 250,000; and though we cannot measure the growth in freight or passenger movement over the entire period, it is interesting to note that the number of passengers carried by the railways of the country grew in the short period from 1890 to 1911 from 492,000,000 to 998,000,000, and the freight carried by them, from 632,000,000 short tons in 1890 to 1,826,000,000 short tons in 1911. With this development of the railways has come a great reduction in the cost of transportation, both of people and merchandise, as is illustrated by the fact that the freight rates on wheat from Chicago to New York by rail have fallen from over 33 cents per bushel in 1870 to less than 10 cents per bushel in 1910.*

* Census reports of the United States (1905 and 1910); Statistical Abstract of the United States (1911); Commerce and Navigation of the United States (1911); Statistical Record of the Progress of the United States, 1800-1912 (all of which are issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor); Year Book of the Department of Agriculture (1911); Mineral Resources of the United States (1911) issued by the U. S. Geological Survey.