ally; in 1874, 15,000,000 tons; by the end of this century it is estimated that it will require 25,000,000 tons. In 1860 this country produced somewhat over 900,000 tons; in 1870, 1,800,000; which rose, in 1872, to 2,800,000. In 1874 all the furnaces of the country had a capacity for producing 4,500,000 tons--but little more than half that capacity being then actually used. The growth of this industry is scarcely begun; but it is destined to an enormous development. The most promising points seem to be in the vicinity of Lake Superior and Missouri, though they may be possibly equaled in Tennessee, Alabama and some other regions; Ohio and Arkansas give great promise of future abundance. Of all the blast furnaces in the United States in 1871, more than one half were within the Valley.

Of the 50,000,000 tons of coal estimated to have been produced in the United States in 1873, about one half was from various parts of the Valley; Western Pennsylvania furnishing about 15,000,000 tons, Michigan 30,000, Indiana 800,000, Kentucky 300,000, Illinois 3,000,000, Colorado 200,000; Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia produced the remainder. Texas is said to have fine qualities, and probably considerable quantities of coal, which have not, as yet, been very extensively worked.

Most of the States have more or less copper, but the Lake Superior mines at present throw all others into the shade. From 1858 they have been progressively productive, until, in 1874, out of 19,700 tons of pure copper produced in the country, 17,300 were obtained from them, with all indications of an inexhaustible supply for the future.

In 1870 the census statistics of mining, including quarrying, oil-boring and peat-cutting, amounted to $152,590,000 in value; and of this product $80,400,000 was obtained in the Valley— 4,300 out of the 7,900 establishments being located there. In 1874, 10,600,000 barrels of petroleum-nearly all from the Valley-were produced. In 1870, all the salt produced

COMPARATIVE AND ABSOLUTE VALUE OF METALS. 427

in the country was valued at $4,800,000, of which $3,800,000 was the product of the Valley States.

The product of the borders of the Valley in the precious metals has been comparatively insignificant; yet, up to 1872, all the regions drained by the Valley systems of rivers had produced about $55,000,000, with an annual product at that time of at least $10,000,000, and the explorations appeared to be yet in their infancy. It is not improbable that the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains will produce, when it comes to be carefully worked, at least one third of the annual product of precious metals in the whole country. Yet, except to the development of the regions immediately concerned, this in- dustry is of comparatively small moment. It has been affirmed that these metals cost twice their intrinsic value to obtain, and they are mainly useful as measures, or represen tatives, of value, while iron is stated to add by a thousand fold of its original value when wrought up for the various uses of civilized man, to his actual wealth, or to his capacity for producing wealth; and four tons of coal, employed in gen-. erating steam, is said to produce an effective force equal to the muscular power for labor of 35,000 men.

It is truly significant, that this remarkable region is most eminently rich in those metals most important to man as aids in attaining the highest ends of the most perfect civilization and of the truest prosperity. The Valley has unlimited stores of material for the necessities, the conveniences, and the comforts of man in his most cultivated state, and was evidently constructed for the purpose of bringing together, in a compact body, the largest number and the greatest development of useful industries that will ever be found in any one region of the earth.

CHAPTER VII.

RAPID GROWTH OF MANUFACTURES.

But one generation has passed since the railroad began to lend its aid to the development of the Republic, to any considerable extent. In 1848, but little over 8,000 miles of road had been built. At that time the West had been rejoicing over the powerful aid of the steamboat for more than twenty years, had invested largely in canals, and had found the capacity of water carriage unequal to the vast amount and kind of work required. The proper points were not reached; the cheapness, speed and safety required were unattainable, so great was the rate of growth in production and of capacity in the markets to be supplied. The difficulties of cost, of time, of space, must be overcome.

These were set aside by the railroad. It could be extended everywhere, it was so elastic; it was capable of enlargement to meet all possible necessities in the amount of labor to be done. Nothing so unified the country, so equalized the advantages of different sections, so set aside natural difficulties. While there still remained large margins of profit in all branches of trade it promoted, it was almost as if all the mountains had been leveled and the far interior brought to the seaboard. Yet, this was a brief period, for production was so stimulated that competition reduced the margins, the cost of transport became again an important item, and the first consideration was to reduce it. Mountain districts containing the minerals necessary to the manufacturer were no longer shut out from the field of competition because no navigable stream opened their way to the outside world. A railroad set aside their difficulties and made their wealth of material available. Ease of access to and from every part

RAILROADS GIVE A FREE CHOICE OF LOCALITY.

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of the country diffused its industries by the freedom of movement permitted. As heat and water dissolve different mineral substances from accidental or mechanical combinations and restore to them their freedom to act after their highest law, or strongest affinity, so the railroad gave to industry and trade full liberty to rearrange themselves according to their respective interests. They were no longer subject to arbitrary influences, nor required to remain where they had been placed accidentally, or under the demands of a different or more restricted population and smaller markets.

The Valley was so rounded and full in its capacities of serving the wants of the age; so well formed and so related to the most active and progressive parts of the modern civilized world, as to favor freedom in every line. No development anywhere in the world has ever been so completely free to obey natural law; and this complete freedom came to manufactures with the full development of the railroad system, which relieved transfer from the restraints of distance, time and cost. It unchained activity-rendered it fluid, so to speak -channels were opened in every direction, it could go when it was wanted, and form a reservoir for re-distribution wherever the circumstances favored. Therefore, all the capacities of the Valley were now at command and manufactures sprang up in all favorable localities.

As will be seen by the figures of the following chapter, the amount of manufactures in 1850, '60 and '70 compare as 24, 42 and 145 for the respective periods. Continued backward 1840 may be represented as 10 and 1830 as 4. The manufactures of 1820 were inconsiderable, amounting to a few millions altogether. The increase was still greater up to 1874, when financial difficulty arrested the development of that class of activities, in most branches, throughout the country. Yet, the production was largely for local uses, in the Valley, whose farmers continued to prosper far beyond other classes of the people, and the comparative diminution in volume was less there

than elsewhere. The manufactures of the whole country, in 1850, were very near one third smaller than those of the Valley alone in 1870. All the manufactures of the United States were given as $1,019,000,000, in 1850, and in the Valley, in 1870, at $1,455,000,000.

Such a growth has as nearly the appearance of the miraculous as any operation of natural law can have. This industry has a natural fixity-an obstinacy of attachment to the locality where it has taken root-greater than almost any other. Having invested capital and conformed surrounding circumstances to its requirements, by degrees and much trouble, it does not easily determine to change, and growth is apt to cluster around original beginnings, where the first difficulties have been overcome, and where, in general, various special circumstances favor it. The East had made it a specialty and was ready to increase its production to supply all demands; but, notwithstanding, it must see a very prosperous rival suddenly step into the market. In the twenty years, between 1850 and 1870, the entire increase in the value of manufactures in the United States was $3,213,000,000, of which the increase in the Valley was $1,213,000,000. With all the advantages of the East, its volume of gain above that of the Valley was but $787,000,000, or less than a fourth part of the entire gain. That relative gain was probably largely reduced in the five years following the taking of the census.

This vast growth of manufacturing industries in the Valley was of signal advantage to it. The articles made in its midst were much cheaper-a saving of many tens of millions to the Valley people-while a better home market for produce was made, giving a direct gain of fully as much more to the farmers of that section.

This growth in the center of the Valley was relatively much greater than on the borders. The advantage of entire freedom in the labor system was seen in the transfer of one third of the entire manufacturing interest of the Valley, in 1870,