Manufactures; Power used in manufactures; Mining; Railroads, steam craft ... - United States. Census Office. 10th census, 1880

REMARKS ON THE STATISTICS OF MANUFACTURES.

These tables include every establishment of mechanical or manufacturing industry which was returned at the Tenth Census as having had during the census year a product of five hundred dollars or more in value.

The following exceptions should be noted, viz:

1. The manufacture of fishery products is exhibited under Fisheries. 2. Quartz milling and petroleum refining are exhibited under Mining and Quarrying. 3. The manufacture of gas, and manufacturing by steam railroad companies, will be made the subjects of separate reports.

Establishments, wherever practicable, have been referred to the locality where the works were situated.

The statistics of cotton goods include: (1) specific mills, i. e., mills which manufacture cotton into a fabric known and sold under that name; and (2) special mills, working raw cotton, waste, or cotton yarn into hose, webbing, tapes, fancy fabrics, or mixed goods, or other fabrics which are not sold as specific manufactures of either cotton or wool.

Dyeing and finishing textiles do not include the statistics of estab lishments connected with cotton, woolen, or silk factories, but only the operations of independent dye-works, bleacheries, and print-works, the values of the products reported being merely the values added to the fabrics by the processes of these establishments.

The statistics of iron and steel manufacture embrace blast furnaces, bloomaries, and forges, rolling mills, and steel works of all kinds.

Shipbuilding includes the building and repairing of iron and wooden vessels of all classes, boats and canal-boats, and the manufacture of blocks and spars, marine engines, oakum, oars, and sails. The operations of the various navy-yards of the United States are not included. In all comparisons between values reported in 1870 and in 1880 it should be borne in mind that the values of 1870 were expressed in a currency which was at a great discount in gold. The average premium on gold during the twelve months (June 1, 1869, to May 31, 1870) which constituted the census year was almost exactly one-fourth (25.3) per cent. A premium on gold of one-fourth is equal to a discount on currency of one-fifth. For purposes of comparison, therefore, the values

of 1870 should be reduced in that ratio.

The fact that, in the face of a large increase in the number of hands employed in manufactures, of the amount of material consumed, and of the values of the products, THE NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS shows hardly an appreciable gain from 1870 to 1880, notwithstanding an increase of 30 per cent. in population, is amply accounted for by the well-known tendency to the concentration of labor and capital in large shops and factories. The establishments of 1870 showed 8 as the average number of hands and $8,400 as the average amount of capital; those of 1880 showed 10.7 as the average number of hands and $10,992 as the average amount of capital. A very good example of the ef fect of this cause is found in the coopers' trade, where, with a reduc

tion in the number of establishments from 4,961 to 3,898 (or 22 per cent. nearly), the hands employed have increased 11 per cent. This cause has not, however, operated equally to produce a proportional reduction in all branches of industry. Thus, in the carpenters' trade (a) we have the average number of hands employed 5.9 in 1880, against 3.9 in 1870. But this increase in the average number of hands does not alone explain the decrease in the number of establishments. We have also to take into account the effect of the growth of the sash, door, and blind factories, doing on a large scale and by the aid of machinery what was formerly done slowly on the spot by the individual carpenter. We have, then, to take into account the growth of the wheelwright trade. In 1870 there were 3,613 establishments, employing an aggregate of 6,989 hands; in 1880 there were 10,701, employing 16,108 hands. We have next to take into account the introduction of machinery into the furniture and cabinet-making industry, replacing much of the former work of the local carpenter in rural districts and small towns. We have then to consider the immense extension of the contract system of erecting buildings, the effect of which is to disconnect an increasing proportion of the working carpenters of every city or large town from actual shops and constitute them a movable, readily disposable force, to be hired now by this contractor and now by that, according as jobs arise. We have, last, to consider the rapid substitution of brick and stone for wood in building, evidenced by the fact that the number of persons employed in the manufacture of brick in the United States has increased more than 50 per cent. in ten years. In the same way, while the cross-roads blacksmith-shop is still a necessity of tens of thousands of localities, very much of the work formerly done by blacksmiths is now done on a larger scale by wheelwrights, locksmiths, or machinists, or in hardware factories or establishments producing numerous specialties in iron and steel.

Space will not allow us to take up trade after trade to indicate the conditions which have affected its rate of growth during the decade just past; but the above will serve to show the variety and the nicety of the considerations which require to be taken into account in this connection.

a The statistics of manufactures in a census of the United States have never embraced the full production of the hand-trades of mason, carpenter, blacksmith, cooper, painter, plumber, and perhaps some others of less importance. The reason for this is stated in the remarks which preface the tables of occupations. In the text above we assume that the tendency to omit the productions of artisans working singly at these trades, having perhaps no distinct shops, and working perhaps (in rural districts) but a part of the year, operated with approximately equal force in 1870 and