AND TRAD BISHOP AND KELLER jitMmmmMmmmMmimmmmmimmmmmmimmtmtmmmimmim iiwiniiiiiniiiB t PLEA^iFl DO NOT REMOVL THIS BOOK CARDI . ^^ILIBRARYQr ft' University Research Library JAN nm 2 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below JAN 5 1950 I93i ^OCT 2 5 193S ur.M R 1935 DEC 2 1935 JAN 3 )93b 5EP 2 6 1942 DEC 4 1942 M^ !942 Form L-9-5»n-5,'24 \'l ■AND THE NEED OF A WOKLU OF MEN FOR ME." — Browning .^> INDUSTRY AND TRADE HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THEIR DEVELOP- MENT IN THE UNITED STATES BY AVARD LONGLEY BISHOP PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN THE SHEFFIELIJ SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE UNIVERSITY ALBERT GALLOWAY KELLER PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY IN YALE UNIVERSITY GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW Y(JRK • rillCAOU • LONDON ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMHUS • SAN FRANCISCO -^8^55 ( ()i-VRi(;irr, i9is, iiv .ward L()\(;i,i;v lusiioi' AM) ALBEKT (iAl.LOWAV Kl.I.M K ENTF.RK.n AT STATIONERS' HALL ALL KUillTS RESliUVED 218.10 IjLNN and company • FRU- FKIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 35+ PREFACE The aim of this book is to present a simple but adequate account of the development and present status of this country's industrial and commercial life. Representative industries are treated in the several chapters, and considerable attention is given to agencies and methods of distribution. But the dominant pur- pose of the authors has been to afford a perspective of our workaday life as a living and developing whole. It is hoped that the student may carry away from these pages the concep- tion, not of a series of unrelated methods of earning a living but rather of a working together of us all into what we may well call the nation's life. War times are not normal times, at any rate for industry and commerce. The whole economic organization must at such periods be adjusted to the dominant issue. What we have to say, there- fore, refers for the most part, and unless otherwise specified, to normal conditions under peace. Doubtless the world conflict will have a powerful influence in shaping the future life and destiny of this nation ; but amidst the uncertainties and distractions of the time we cannot well estimate the scope of that influence nor is it safe to predict what results will come to pass in the ensuing years of peace. In any case, it is well for the young American to know where his country was when the great era of dislocation and readjustment was ushered in, for then he has at least one reliable landmark from which to judge as to the future national course which he must assist in charting out. In this book we have not tried to set down minutely accurate statistics ; we have used round numbers that can be more easily iv INDlsrRV AND TRADE retained in memory ; but we regard them as entirely representa- tive of essential conditions. They represent such fidelity to actual circumstances as is demanded for a perspective view. The authors have drawn freely upon the standard treatises in the various lines touched upon in the text, such as conservation, immigration, transportation, and industry and trade in general, and much use has been made of government publications, espe- cially those of the Census Bureau. Our obligation to such sources is a general one scarcely admitting of specification. THE AUTHORS New Haven, Connecticut CONTENTS PACE Introduction ' PART I. BASIC FACTORS IN OUR INDUSTRY: LAND AND PEOPLE CHAPTER I. Productive Areas and Physical Factors affecting Production 5 II. Natural Resources 20 III. The Human Element 33 IV. Social Development 44 PART II. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES V. Cereals 55 VI. Vegetables and Fruits 70 VII. Sugar 83 VIII. Cotton 92 PART III. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES IX. Cattle ; .... 105 X. Swtne and Sheep 118 XI. Horses and Mules 133 XII. Fisheries 140 PART IV. MINERAL INDUSTRIES .\III. Coal and Petroleum 153 XIV. Iron 166. .\V. Gold and Silver 173 .\'VI. Other Minerals 182 vi IXmsiRV AND TRADE ClIArTUR I'AGn rAR'I" W MANlFACrrRlNC INDISTRIKS X\'ll. Ai>\ANTA(.i:s oi" THI-: 1'mti;i) Stati'.s i-ok Mami-ai itk- isc. AM) Tiuc Localization oi' Indi'stkiks .... 193 Win. Food and Kindkkd Products 210 .Xl.X. Metallic I'KoorcTs 222 XX. Textilks 233 XXI. Ll'MBER AND PAPER 245 XXII. Leather and Rchber 259 XXIII. Chemicals and Dvestuffs 273 XXI\'. Electrical ]\L\chinerv and Apharatiis 284 PART M. TRANSPORTATION f XXV. Beginnings of the American Transportation System . 291 ■ XXVL Turnpikes and Canals 304 .\X\'n. Railroads 317 X.W'III. Natural Waterways and the Merchant Marine . 330 XXLX. The Influence of Transportation upon A.merican Industrial Develop.ment 345 PART VII. THE PROMOTION OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES XXX. International Competition for Industrial and Com- mercial Supre.macy 353 XXXI. Marketing 3^^~ XXXII. The Financing of Industry and the Deyelopmknt of Corporations 375 XXXIII. Labor Adjustments 3^5 QUESTIONS 401 INDEX 419 K^^''^, 7 ' ,^. t:^m^^.^^ -^ *^.; INDUSTRY AND TRADE INTRODUCTION It will not be long before every school student is " out in the world." That is what he or she is getting ready for during the school years. There is a living to make and a life to lead, and all must get into the game. But it is poor business jumping into a game whose conditions and rules we do not know. We don't want to make a hit and then run to third instead of first, or we shall pretty soon be sitting on the bench, watching better-informed people play. The game this book deals with — the game of labor and industry — is one we cannot stay out of unless we want to be professional loafers or tramps. We want to take part in winning prosperity for our country, and for ourselves along with it. No country is truly prosperous if its people are afraid of work. The industries of a country are the basis of its well-being. Yet mere work or industry is not enough ; the labors of us all must be intelligent if they are to set us high among the nations and peoples. And that means that we must be thoroughly informed about what we have to do with, here in America, and how we can best put it to use. We shall win out as a people, and also as individuals, in proportion as we possess wide and exact knowledge. We want to know what is being done in the industrial and busi- ness world so that we can better decide where to put in our efforts 2 INDUSTRY AND TRADE to best advantage. And not that alone — \vc also need to know what has been done in the past ; for that will show us how things have come to be what they are, and will give us hints as to how they can be improved still more. Knowing about the history of our industries furnishes us with a sort of map or chart of our country's life from which we can the more readily lay out our future course. Successful peoples have always had to learn what they had to do with and how best to use it. The young Indian brave had to know what game there was, where to find it, and how to la}' hand on it, or he failed in his career as a hunter. He must know where the best flint was to be found for his arrowheads, where he could most easily ford the rivers, how to dry and preserve skins and meat, and many another practical thing. He must know the rules of warfare and the chase, so that he might be a help and not a hindrance to his fellows. If he learned all this — and it took effort to do so — he became a respected and admired member of his tribe. He made himself a career. It is the same with us. We must know where the iron and copper are and how to get them out ; where and how to build roads and railways ; how to mill and market wheat and corn ; how to build ships and sail them. We must know the rules of industry and business and how to be a help and not a hindrance to our fellow citizens. If we learn all this — and it will take study to do that — we shall become respected and solid citizens of the Republic. We shall each make a career. We shall be able to pull our own weight, and more, in the boat. There can be no greater satisfaction in life than that. To bear an intelligent part in the destiny of the nation, as well as to make a personal success for ourselves, we must know our land and its people. What sort of a land have we, and what sort of a population ? Then, what can we get out of the land ? Shall we try to raise bananas in Maine, or fish for cod in the Mis- sissippi, or mine for coal in Florida ? We need to know our best resources and where they are, and not be easy marks for confidence-men or robber-nations. Cotton and coal, meat and INTRODUCTION 3 wheat — these are not dull, uninteresting" things. They are what we live by, as a nation, and win success with. It is interesting to watch a big train sweep by ; but it is more fascinating to think of the endless stream of commodities which it helps to move and of the trade which takes things from the hands of men who never heard of us (and who live, perhaps, halfway around the globe) and delivers them at our doors. Understanding the workings of industry and commerce helps in the game of living — that is clear enough. But it does more. It gives one a wider vision of things. You look at all the busy life of your country and of the world, and you see it as a great panorama of human beings and nations working together to make human life a fuller and happier thing. This is an inter- esting thought ; and that sort of thought, and a widened vision, make one's own life more full and satisfying. The happiest man, said one wise writer, is the man with the greatest number of interesting thoughts. It is well worth while to know things, and particularly worth while, in this age, to know the fundamental facts about our nation's life. Some of these we are about to recount in the pages that follow ; and we shall begin with the most fundamental, by considering the land and the people that go under the name America. .,..■■>■■ .:V, ../■^■.:"-i>''^*;*v,„, .,^ i)])ul()us nation unless that nation possesses wide areas of land. Land-wealth of the United States. The American nation has been favored in this respect. ' There has always been more than enough land for the use of its population. As the nation has grown from its small beginnings in colonial times, wide areas have been added to its holdings, and the ])()pulation has always had plenty of space over which to spread and within which to develop its life. In fact, within recent times we have acc|uired areas in ])arts of the world (juite distant from us, so that tlu-re is a good deal of our territor\' which does not belong to " I'lic I nilcd 6 INDUSTRY AND TRADE States Proper." Such regions are Alaska, the PhiUppines, Porto Rico, and the X'irgin Islands. Area of The United States Proper. In this book we are to give our attention almost wholly to the United States proper and its industrial activities ; that is, to that portion of our territory which lies, east and west, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and between Canada, on the north, and Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico, on the south. This area includes about three million square miles — a figure which may mean more to us if we recall that each of these square miles includes six hundred and forty acres. This is an immense area ; the United States is nearly as large as the whole continent of Europe. The distances in this country are vast : that from the Atlantic to the Pacific, across the country, is about twenty-five hundred miles, or nearly as far as the direct steamship route across the Atlantic ; while the distance between our northern and southern boundaries is about twelve hundred miles. It is evident that we are not likely to suffer, for some time to come, from lack of land. General location of our land. Mere quantity of land does not count for so much by itself ; the land must be so located as to be of advantage to the people occupying it. The United States possesses great advantages in being situated in the middle of the North American continent, neither too far north nor too far south. This means that its climate is favorable, as we shall see, for the development of a vigorous civilization based on a strong industrial life. In fact, it has been very fortunate for us that we were located north, rather than south, of the equator ; for human civilization has been developed in the north latitudes rather than in the south, so that our neighboring nations have been those of Europe and Asia rather than those of Africa and Australia. There is much more land in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern, and so we have been surrounded by populated land-areas rather than by waste regions of salt water. Also, as civilization has developed, it has been fortunate for us that we have bordered upon the narrower oceans of the Northern Hemisphere, for the FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION 7 water has become a means of connection and communication rather than a barrier between nations. Quality of the land. Land may be large in amount and not so badly located, but if its quality is poor it is not of much use. The Desert of Sahara is large enough, and for many centuries it has been near lands of a high civilization, but the quality of its land is such that it has never supported more than a very scanty population. It is also fortunate for a country if its land is not all of the same sort. Our country is not noted for uni- formity and monotony of physical features ; its land is of many types, yielding a corresponding variety of natural products, and thus supporting a great many different kinds of industry. The physical features of the United States have, from the very be- ginning, had a marked influence in determining the occupations and activities of the people. Different areas of our land have had contrasting qualities, due to differences in climate, weather, alti- tude, kinds of soil, and other factors, which determine what the quality of the land shall be. But the quality of the land deter- mines its productive capacities, and the productive capacities deter- mine the industries. It is these industries which we are chiefly interested in studying, and so it is necessary for us to under- stand beforehand the nature of our productive areas, in their broad general outlines. Quality of men. No matter how excellent the location and quality of the land, it is useless without the application of labor upon it. This country was of no use to the rest of the world, no matter how extended and fertile its area, until a population had occu- pied it which could make use of the country's resources. But the quality of any population is largely dependent upon certain physi- cal features, such as climate, the influence of which upon the life of human beings determines, in large part, what they are and what they can do. In viewing the physical factors affecting production, to which we now come, it is necessary to consider their influence not only upon the land and its crops but upon the human beings who are to develop the land and raise products from it. 8 LNDLSTRV AM) TRADE riivsicAi. Factors ini lli:ncin(; pRoni-CTiON Before we can enter upon the description of our natural areas we must consider the general effects of certain physical factors which really determine the quality of land and men and the possi- bilities of production. The more special effects of these factors will be seen when we come to take up the several special indus- tries. Some of these factors which affect production have already been named ; we shall consider climate, latitude, altitude, nearness to the sea, winds, ocean currents, topography, rainfall, and soil. Climate. The importance of climate as a controlling factor of a country's destiny can hardly be overestimated. It exercises a far-reaching influence upon plant and animal life and upon that of human beings. Climate is really a combination of the elements of heat and cold, moisture and dryness. The plant life of the tropics forms a striking contrast with that of the arctic regions ; and, even within the same latitude, the vegetation of arid regions is very unlike that of humid regions. Again, the animal life of the tropics or of arid regions may be contrasted with that of the polar areas or of the damp forests. Human life also, in these several regions, shows great differences, which correspond to the differences in plant and animal life. Factors of climate. Probably no other physical factor has so great an influence in man's activities in getting a living, that is, in his industrial activity, as has climate. There are a number of factors which unite to determine the character of climate, such as latitude, altitude, nearness to the sea, winds, ocean currents, and general topography. All of these combine to affect tempera- ture and rainfall ; that is, degree of heat and degree of moisture. Latitude. The amount of heat received from the sun at any given place depends chiefly upon latitude. An excess of cold or of heat affects normal human effort. It is in the temperate zones that labor can be carried on most steadily and with the greatest success. Here physical toil can go on the whole day, either within doors or without, for practically the whole year. In the colder FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION 9 regions very strenuous effort results in little more than the mere maintenanee of life; in the hot regions human energy is weakened and there is a strong desire to avoid work ; but in the temperate zones steady eftort is not only possible but good for one, and when it has been put forth its reward is generous. It is, there- fore, a very important condition of the industrial life of the United States that the whole country is within the temperate zone and that only a small portion of it is even subtropical. It will be seen that the most vigorous industrial life of the country is in those portions which lie north of even this subtropical belt. Altitude. Elevation above sea level is a factor which has a marked influence upon temperature. As we ascend from the sea the cold gradually increases, so that even at the equator the moun- tain tops ma}' be covered with snow ; the side of a high mountain may show belts of plant life all the way from equatorial vegeta- tion at the base to arctic plants near the summit. Hence w'e see that in the matter of temperature a high altitude is equivalent to a high latitude. Nearness to the sea. Land bordering on the sea takes its tem- perature to a large degree from that of the water. The water both receives and radiates heat more slowly than does the land ; and so nearness to the sea levels down the extremes of temperature and makes the climate of the shore more even than that of inland areas. The weather-changes in a single day in a region with a continental climate are often greater than those of an entire year in a region with a tropical, maritime climate. Winds. However, since winds are very effective in carrying heat and cold, a continental climate may, by reason of prevailing winds, be found near the coasts of continents, and vice versa. The winds also carry moisture over the earth, and thus are, in another way, efficient in determining climate. For example, the trade winds and the monsoons are specialists in the conveying of moisture ; the very life of India depends upon the monsoons. Winds are, therefore, important factors in determining where man shall live and what he shall do. 10 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Ocean currents. It may be said, first; that winds help deter- mine the course of ocean currents. These currents greatly modify the climate of certain lands through their effect upon the tem- perature of the air above them. For example, the Gulf Stream carries so large a body of relatively warm water into the North Atlantic that it is effective in raising the temperature of the winds which blow over 'it. Hence the climate of western Europe is milder and more humid than it would otherwise be. On the other hand, the cold Labrador current keeps the eastern coast of North America cooler — a contrast which becomes more forcible when the climate of England is compared with that of Labrador, both countries lying in about the same latitude. Topography and aspect. Topography has an influence upon both temperature and rainfall. In the valleys of mountains, for example, important differences in temperature occur within short distances. The fact, also, that there are no mountains to break the wind allows the entrance of cold winds from the north upon the central plains of this country. Aspect means the slope of the land in respect to the sun — whether the slope is towards the sun or away from it. In general, in the Northern Hemisphere, regions having a southern aspect or exposure are much warmer than regions of the same altitude and latitude that slope toward the north. Wheat grows on the southern slopes of the Alps at twice the altitude reached by it on the northern slopes. In the United States a favorable location for gardens and orchards is on hills with a southern aspect ; the farmers say that crops in such places " get more sun." In the Southern Hemisphere the reverse is true. Rainfall. The annual rainfall upon the earth varies greatly for different regions ; almost all places have some rain or snow at some time during the year, but the total annual fall of rain varies from less than one inch to more than four hundred inches. The amount of rainfall in a region affects the character and quantity of plant life ; this determines the character and quantity of animal life, including that of human beings ; and the character of the plant and animal life determines largely what man can be and do in the locality. FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION ii Rainfall and agriculture. A region with less than ten inches of rainfall annually would be unfavorable for human life ; and an average of twenty inches is desirable, if not absolutely neces- sary, for agriculture. But it should always be remembered that the time when the rain comes is more important than the yearly amount ; over twenty inches would not be enough if it fell at the wrong time of the year, say, in the winter, w^hile less than twenty inches would suffice if it all came during the growing season for crops. A fine corn crop has been reported from Kansas when the rainfall was only eight inches for the year ; but in this case the rain came mainly in the spring and early summer. Large areas of the United States have a fair amount of rainfall, which, fortunately, comes usually during the growing season and meets the needs of our crops. Irrigation. Men have learned to bring water to places where it is not to be found in the ordinary course of nature ; irrigation is now making it possible to cultivate with profit areas deficient in rainfall. Soil. By soil we mean the outer covering of the earth, which rests upon the solid rock as a sort of mantle. Sometimes it is only a few inches thick, sometimes several hundred feet. It is formed from the rock by the action of physical and chemical forces. Since soil is, directly or indirectly, the ultimate source of food, shelter, and clothing, its power to yield these necessary articles must finally determine the quantity and quality of human life. Where soil is poor, there is a small population, and vice versa. The cultivation of the soil is the basis of civilization, and from it come the raw products of industry. Plant foods. In order that plants may grow, there must be present in the soil certain chemical elements known as essential plant foods ; if these are lacking, plant life will not flo^^-ish, un- less they arc introduced in the form of fertilizers. There are nine essential plant foods : carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, lime, magnesia, potash, phosphorus, and sulphur. There are elements other than these in soils, but they are not absolutely necessary to 12 INDUSTRY AND TRADK support plant life. A productive soil must have water in it ; this appears as a minute film surrounding the soil particles and hold- iniT in solution the various elements essential for the support of i:)lant life. Soils also contain air, without which they are barren ; this air supply can, of course, be increased by the loosening of the soil. " A soil," says Van Hise, '" perfect in chemical and physical condition, containing neither water nor air, could not by any possibility sustain life." Productivity of soil. In a country as large as the United States there are to be found many different kinds of soil, which vary greatly in their suitability for the different crops raised by man. As a general rule, a coarse gravelly soil is rather barren ; a lime- stone soil, a clayey soil (if not too fine), or a glacial soil is productive — in the United States some of the best food- producing areas have the ad- vantage of a glacial soil. Soil and climate. Soil and climate together form a basic combination in determining the variety and abundance of plant life, and so of the animal life which is dependent upon it. But man's responsibility in the use of these two factors is very diverse. Climate is a thing which man cannot change ; while it is within his power to make the soil poor by unscientific use of it, or, on the other hand, to make it better by careful use. He may there- fore rail at the weather or the climate all he pleases and defy anyone to lay the fault at his door ; but if he foolishly ex- hausts his land, plainly he has only himself to blame. LEADIXG CITIES ALONG THE " FALL LINE " TYPICAL EARLY MANUFACTURING PLANT A MODERN MANUFACTORY — ROLLING MlLUj ■3 il.\i\KT~~_ , ' • i //x ' ^ \'^ w$5 1 £ \ \ ] W^" MT/ IRON ORE DEPOSITS OF THE UNITED STATES After Harder being concentrated in a few places. It is particularly fortunate if coal deposits are located not very far from iron deposits. But now, if we place one point of a compass on each coal area in this country and sweep a circle with a radius of five hundred miles, practically every part of the country will be included within a circle. This represents graphically the advantages available to American manufacture. Iron. Just as coal is the most important nonmetal, so iron is by far the most important metal. Industry of the present day NATURAL RESOURCES 25 is built on iron ; there is scarcely an economic activity of any sort that does not require it. ;We need not recall the superior physi- cal qualities of this metal which make it indispensable to civiliza- tion. It is cheap, because it is common and is easily reduced to the metallic state ; but it is even cheaper, naturally, where it is most abundant and where it is near coal deposits. Iron is found in nearly every state in the Union, and at the present time is oil. AM) (,AS l-IKLDS OK THF. UNITED STATES, WUH llll': rKlNCll'AI. OH. PIPE-LINES mined for blast-furnace use in three fifths of our states. This country leads all others in the annual production of iron ; but, in spite of the wide development of our resources along this line, only a small fraction of the known deposits has been touched. Petroleum. The known areas of petroleum fields total, for this country, about eight thousand four hundred and fifty square miles. In spite of the rapid and accelerated production since the fields were first tapped, in 1859, it has been estimated that there still remain to be taken from the ground from eight to ten limes as much oil as has been extracted up to date. 26 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Natural gas. Natural gas, says an expert, is " tlie most per- fect form of fuel which nature has furnished us " ; it is of higher efficiency than the so-called "producer" gas, because it is prac- tically free from nitrogen. This country leads the world in the extent t>f natural-gas fields, having a combined area of about ten thousand square miles. The fields are scattered widely over the country. This natural-gas resource affords, perhaps, the worst example of reckless waste by a careless people : high-pressure wells have not been capped ; other wells have been set on fire and allowed to burn indefinitely ; in getting the petroleum, with which the gas is associated, the gas has been allowed to escape freely into the air, with no attempt to save it ; and there has been not a little w-aste in transporting it through leaky pipes. Other minerals. There are numerous other mineral resources which are important in American industrial life and which have left a mark upon the industrial history of the country. One of the most useful of these is copper, in the production of w^hich we have for a number of years surpassed other nations. Experts tell us that it is impossible to estimate our copper deposits with much accuracy ; and the same is true of other of our mineral resources, such as gold, silver, lead, and zinc. With respect to all these minerals we are important producers, and our output has been fast increasing ; at the same time we have developed, on the side of technical process, the means for handling with profit lower and lower grades of ore. Our resources in aluminum are likely, as time goes on, to become the basis of an impor- tant industry ; they are really illimitable, for the entire crust of the earth contains, on the average, about eight per cent of aluminum. Further, this country is well supplied with building stone and other structural materials, such as clays, slate, and cement ; and there are important deposits of phosphates and other mineral fertilizers, which, because of the exhaustion of the soil over large areas of the country, are coming increasingly into demand. NATURAL RESOURCES 27 This preliminary survey of mineral resources will serve as a background for our treatment of the mineral industries, presently to come. We now turn to the natural resources in living things, with which our country is endowed. Forests. The native forests were not the product of man's labor or foresight. There are, of course, young forests that have been planted and raised by human effort, just as there are rubber plantations or herds of horses as distinguished from "wild" rubber trees or wild horses ; but all of the forests which have been used in the United States hitherto were natural forests and so belong among the natural resources. Our original forests sur- passed, both in extent and value, those of any other civilized nation ; and they constituted a great advantage in the competition of peoples. No other element in man's environment has been more extensively utilized by him, or has entered more intimately into his life economy, than the tree. Food, clothing, and shelter have all been derived from the forest ; so have materials for fuel and lighting, and for the building of edifices of all kinds, of ships, and of other useful structures. This may be the iron and steel age, but, even for building, wood is not yet dispensable. Forests of the United States. The original forests of the United States have been classified by the National Forest Service into five main divisions, which comprise a vast extent of wood- land overgrown by the most useful staple varieties of trees available for general industrial and commercial development. The Northern Forest reached across the northern part of the country, from the Atlantic to, and including, Minnesota, and com- prised New England (except Connecticut and Rhode Island), the larger part of New York and Pennsylvania, an extension from Pennsylvania along the Appalachian Ridge to northern Georgia, and more than half of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Originally, it is estimated, this forest covered some one hundred and fifty million acres, and was composed of white and red pine, spruce, hemlock, cedar, balsam, fir, birch, black cherry, and other hard woods. 28 INDUSTRY AND TRADE The Southern Forest stretched along the coast from southern New Jersey, south and west, including much of Delaware, Mary- land, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, some of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, and all of Florida and Louisiana. Here were, originally, about two hundred and twenty million acres; and the leading wood was yellow pine, although there were great quantities of cypress, magnolia, and oak. The Central Forest is between the two above-mentioned areas and shades gradually into thjem. It was once a great hardwood growth, covering some two hundred and eighty million acres and containing walnut, maple, oak, elm, and ash in abundance. The Rocky Mountain Forest covered, originally, about one hun- dred and ten million acres. Yellow pine was the leading wood, though other soft varieties occurred in abundance. The Pacific Forest embraced the timbered areas of California, Oregon, and Washington. Here, originally, about ninety million acres were covered with redwood, yellow pine, Douglas fir, and other similar trees ; and here were, and still are, the giant trees of which we see pictures in the magazines. Present condition of our forests. This is a description of our country's forests as they once were, rather than as they now are. We have been using up our forests faster than they can grow, so that there are still standing perhaps less than two thirds of the total original growth; also we have used up the best wood, so that probably not more than half of the salable timber which we origi- nally had still remains. But we have somewhat awakened to the folly of our course and have learned from the Europeans, whose original forests began to give out a long time ago, how to use more economically what we have and how to reforest the areas which have been cut. The profession of forester is becoming quite important among us, whereas years ago no one ever heard of such a vocation. Water power. Water itself is a necessity to life — it is really more than a resource. The human body is more than half water, and its fluid constituents must be regularly restored. Without it 29 30 INDUSTRY AND TRADE there could bo no industrial history, because there would be no history at all. Its indispensability in agriculture has been alluded to under the topic of rainfall (p. lo). But all this is self-evident if one stops to think ; in this place we shall confine our attention to the importance of water powder as a natural resource. Water power and other power. For ages man has used the force of falling water ; in colonial times in this country it was the great source of power in industry, and settlements were located where it was to be had for the mills. Numerous manufacturing towns arose along the waterfalls of New England and along the "fall line" farther south; they may use coal and steam nowadays, but their original industrial momentum came from the water power. The steam engine has rather generally replaced water power in manufacture ; but the movement toward the con- servation of natural resources has drawn attention back to the water-power resource. The prospect of the advancing exhaustion of the coal beds and the rise in the price of coal has set people to considering the plan of using water power much more than they do. Water power is now coming again to be regarded as a very valuable natural resource, that ought to be preserved and developed, if not for this generation, at least for a future one. Water power of the United States. The best information upon the water-power resources of the country is that compiled for the National Conservation Commission, in 1908, by the United States Geological Survey, although other and later government reports contain much information. From these it appears, among many other important matters, that the potential water-power resources of the country are geographically much concentrated: some 72 per cent is found in the Mountain and Pacific states ; and nearly one half of the total (42 per cent) is located in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Therefore, unless this power can some- how be carried or transmitted over great distances, it cannot be rendered widely available. It has often been assumed that we could, in time, use water power for running the bulk of the in- dustrial plants throughout the countr)- ; but this is very doubtful. NATURAL RESOURCES 3 1 Limits to the use of water power. Five great groups of states — the New England, Middle Atlantic, East North Central, West North Central, and West South Central — are already using power very much in excess of what they could ever, at best," get out of their water-power resources. These groups included, in 191 2, sixty-seven million inhabitants, or 70 per cent of the total population of the countr)^ Water power, however developed, can never supersede all the steam and other power now in use and to be produced — not, at least, under any conditions now known. Until some new and unforeseen method is devised for extending greatly the distance over which electric power may economically be transmitted, so that the enormous power resources of the West- ern states can be developed and carried into the Mississippi Valley and to the Atlantic coast, the greater part of the country will have to rely, for the larger proportion of its power, on sources other than falling w-ater. Plant and animal life. The nature of the flora (apart from the forests) and fauna of this country has not exercised the influence on its history which one would perhaps at first sight expect. The type of wild plant and animal existing in a region is most important to a savage, and often very significant for the colonist; but when a nation has surrounded itself with the conditions of civilization, this no longer matters very much. Plants and animals can be transported about from country to country, so that it amounts to very little just where they were native — of what country they were natural resources. Also both plants and animals have been so changed by the activity of man, in breeding and improving them, that they are no longer genuine natural products, such as, for example, a pine or a spruce. Plant and animal life of North America. However, it is not right to dismiss this topic without any consideration. We should at least recall the fact that the earlier settlers became acquainted with Indian corn here — a product destined to play a great part in commercial history, whether it can be correctly called a natural resource or not. And when we turn to the animal life native 32 IXDISTRV AM) IRADI'; to this country, including' the lish of the neigliboring waters, it is scarcely fair to say, as one writer does, that "the animal life indigenous to North America had enormous significance to the aborigines, less to the colonists, and has scarcely any to us to-day." The fur trade may be a thing of the past, but the fisheries are still with us, as a later chapter will show. In general, however, the flora and fauna of this country cannot be compared, as natural resources of a lasting type, with those other resources which have been mentioned above, (^ur important plants and animals are, in the form we know them, the products of human thought and effort rather than of nature. The native products are gone or are altered. Their importance is historical rather than contemporar)', as will appear in the following chapters.^ CHAPTER III THE HUMAN ELEMENT The land-plus-man unit. The basic factors of American in- dustrial development with which we started are the land and the men — the land, with its various natural qualities, and the men, with their various inborn or acquired characters — the land, capable or incapable of affording to man such resources as he needs for living, and the men, capable or incapable of developing what the land can afford them. Always the unit of production is, we repeat, land plus man. The men. But now we have made a broad survey of the land and its resources, and before we try to picture our national indus- trial development it is necessary to render some account of the human element of the problem. We now know what sort of a land the men had to deal with ; and it is time to consider what sort of men there were to deal with the land. Our next topic is, therefore, the character of our country's population. Human races. The peoples of the earth differ from one another in several respects: color, stature, shape of head, and otherwise. On the basis of these differences they have been classified into different races, say into five : the white, yellow, black, brown, and red. Such distinctions do not concern us here, for when it is a matter of industrial development, the color of a man's skin does not count if he possesses the industrial virtues. But along with these external differences go others that do concern us in our study. Tt is clear, for example, that the white and vcllow 34 INDUSTRY AM) IRADE races are the only ones which have developed, in their own countries and without outside aid, a high civilization ; and, what is more, the)" are the only ones which have shown the mental qualities and attainments necessary for such advance. There is such a thing as a race character, just as there is a personal char- acter ; and only the white and yellow races have shown them- selves to be in possession of a race character that fitted them for the advanced industrial development upon which an advanced civilization must rest. In comparison with the white and yellow races the others appear to be backward or undeveloped. The nonwhite Americans. There are two of these backward races which have entered to form part of the population of the United States proper : the Indian and the African. The rest of our population is almost wholly of white stock. We wish briefly to consider the Indian and the negro, first of all, after which we can devote our undivided attention to the main section — the whites — in our population. And what we shall have to say about the Indian and the negro will help us to see more clearly what qualities of mind and character are essential for a high industrial development. The Indians. This race occupied, in pre-Columbian times, the whole of North and South America, with the exception of a narrow strip of the North American coast which bordered almost wholly on the Arctic Ocean. The Indians of North America are, in general, so much alike that they are classified only on the basis of language. The tribes that occupied what is now the United States were hunters, first and foremost ; there were in America few animals capable of domestication — in any case, the Indians had not domesticated any of importance — and so they could not rise to the cattle-raising stage ; and while they planted maize, squashes, beans, tobacco, and some other agricultural products, their cultiva- tion was on a small scale. Being hunters, they had the regular character of hunters : they were brave, warlike, and resourceful. They were not as lazy as some writers give us to understand, but they lacked the qualities necessary for the development of THE HUMAN ELEMENT 35 steady industry and a high civihzation. What they might have attained to if they had been left alone we cannot say, but the fact is that they could neither withstand nor become part of the w^hite man's civilization. They were therefore pushed farther and farther west as the w-hite man advanced, and presently constituted an unimportant element in the country's population. Influence of the Indians. However, it is a fact that the his- tor)^ of our country would not have been just what it was if the land had been entirely empty when discov- ered ; and if we want to get some idea of the beginnings of what we now are, we can- not ignore the Indian. For as the white man moved into the coun- try he had to meet the fierce resistance of the natives, who time and again succeeded in de- stroying what he had made. Again, on the other hand, the suc- cess of the newcomers was often rendered possible by their adop- tion of Indian methods — methods which the savages had tested out through long ages of experience and had found best fitted to conditions. What was learned from the Indians. Thus the pioneers adopted the Indian dress, and learned much from him as to the location and use of the land's resources. Friendly natives saved the settle- ments in a number of cases by giving food or showing the set- tlers how to get it. The pioneers adopted Indian foods, and with them their names, such as mush, succotash. And if the Indian had not already developed the production of maize and tobacco. AN INDIAN CHILDS DINNER 36 IXDUSTRV AM) i RADK certainly two very important items in our earlier and later com- merce would not have been present. The Indian impress is left upon our history, and no account of American industry is complete unless something is said about the aborigines. The Africans. The second of the undeveloped races which are included in our population has had a strong influence upon our national development ever since it has been here, and will be a great factor in our destiny for an indefinite time to come. The Indian has ceased to be much of a problem for us ; he has perished, or been shut up in reservations, or has come to be a part of the population little distinguished from the rest ; but the negro is always with us. The negro is one of the most signifi- cant of all American problems, and no young man or woman interested in the welfare of the native land should fail to realize it. The problem is a broad social one, but its industrial side, which is all we can undertake to speak of here, is a ver)' important part of it. Slavery. It was with the idea of furthering our industries and developing our resources that the negro was brought here from Africa. We have said that the effective unit is not land, nor yet man, but a compound of land plus man. The man is the power that makes the land amount to something. Now there was land enough in the South as well as in the North ; it was the man- element that made the difference. Let us go somewhat into the reasons for this difference in the man-element. Climate and settlement. In a previous connection we have seen that climate is a factor of great importance to the life of man. For the white man the warmer climate is sometimes dangerous. He may be able to live in the tropics and subtropics, but he cannot work well. When he moves from region to region he tends to cling to the sort of climate to which he has been used/ immigrants to this country, for example, are not likely to settle much farther south than the countries from which they come — - that is, since they come from Europe, for the most part, they are unlikely to settle much farther south than, say. New Jersey THE HUMAN ELEMENT 37 or Pennsylvania, which are on about the same parallel of latitude as Italy and Greece. If one examines the census map which shows the center of population of the United States as it has shifted westward decade by decade, he will be surprised to see how far north that center is and how little it has moved north or south. The line of its movement shows roughly the course of the stream of immigration. The conclusion is that the white man naturally sticks to the cooler latitudes. The need of labor in the South. Thus the white race lias, as it were, avoided the South of this country, even though it is not really tropical. But this means that the land in the South was .MOVEMENT WESTWARD OF THE CENTER OF POPULATION SINCE 1790 The centers of population are shown by stars left, SO far as the whites are concerned, without men to develop it. However, there have always been rich natural resources in the South, and there are crops of great commercial imjjortance which cannot be raised in the North, as, for example, cotton and sugar. To meet the demand for these, it was necessary to get power to apply to the land, and the only power there was, before the invention of highly developed machinery, was men. i^ut the warm regions are not uninhabited ; there are men there who do not mind the heat of the tropics, for they have been born and raised in it ; they are, as we describe it, acclimatized. The Indians were thus acclimatized, and the Spaniards tried very hard to use them by enslaving them ; but the Indian never was a good slave, being too wild and fond of liberty. The Indians 3« INDL'STRV AND TRADE would even commit suicide rather than do slave labor. And so the white man turned to another tropical race, the African, to get his labor supply. The slave trade. The Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, and other peoples in lesser measure, early began to bring negroes to America, to the mines and plantations, as the best labor force suited to the climate ; and our country became one of the termi- nals of this slave traffic. The story of the importation of slaves MAKING HARNESS AT TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE into Virginia and the South is in all the United States histories ; it began almost exactly three hundred years ago, and lasted about two hundred years. The negroes thrived and increased in this country, and now, out of a population of over one hundred million, about one tenth are persons with African blood. Position of the negro in the United States. If we can sup- pose that there had not been any slaves at all brought into this country, we can imagine how different the industrial and social development of the nation might have been. They were used THE HUMAN ELEMENT 39 to agriculture, and so fitted into our system ; but they contrib- uted little except the labor of their hands. From the state of slavery they were suddenly elevated, as a result of the antislav- ery agitation and the Civil War ; they were granted citizenship and the vote. Negro education. There have been many projects of negro education within the last fifty years. The most sensible of these have aimed to teach the negro better ways of living and the simpler trades. The hope has been that when he has learned to live more wholesomely and to be industrious and more fully self- supporting, he will be better able to advance to still higher stages of usefulness and education. The negro is at present an impor- tant factor in the industry of the South and is needed there ; but he has never been an outstanding and independent figure in the development of American industries and trade. Whether he will become so in the future depends upon the opportunities accorded him, and his utilization of these opportunities. The white immigrants. Except for the Indians, we are all immigrants to this country ; but some of us are native-born and some are not. The ancestors of some of us have been native- born for a long way back ; those of others of us were foreign-born not many generations ago. Let us try to get some idea of the stream of white immigration as it has flowed, mainly from Europe, into this countr)'. The first settlers. The first settlers in this country were pre- dominantly from the most highly civilized states of western Europe :) England, Scotland, France, Holland, and Germany. This was an excellent beginning, especially since the conditions of the time were such that the immigrants represented the best stock of these advanced countries. For the motives to migration were ambition to improve material conditions of life ; independ- ence of judgment and unwillingness to submit to intellectual or religious oppression ; and other motives that spoke well for the quality of the men and women in question. Not all the immi- grants were of this type, naturally enough ; there were ruffians 40 INinSTRV AND TRADE and scoundrels ; and there was a whole class of paupers or kid- naped parties who sold themselves into temporary slavery in order to pay for their passage. But in the main the early immi- gration drew from the best existing sources, and the quality of the population was high. Circumstances, as we shall see in the next chapter, conspired to give this population some very de- sirable qualities ; but circumstances could have done little with- out the original good material to work on. The immigrants were, for the most part, serious, thrifty, industrious people, intelligent, EARLY SETTLERS GOING TO CHURCH well educated according to the standards of the time, quite strict in their moral codes, and, what is of the utmost importance in such cases, remarkably adaptable to the new conditions in which they found themselves. The resourcefulness of the "Yankee" began with the first settlers. In brief, they represented excellent human material to be applied to the development of the new land. Mid-century immigration. The stream of immigration which was to form the population of our countr)^ continued to be of this general type up to the Revolution and after. As a matter of fact, however, the growth of population was due chiefly to natural in- crease, for up to 1820 the stream of immigration was a rather THE HUMAN ELEMENT 41 thin one. But because of the building and completion of the Erie Canal, the planning of the first railroads, and other enterprises, there was created a demand for labor which the native population could not supply, and the arrivals rapidly increased. Small parties of Scandinavians began to arrive; around 1850 many Germans fled hither from political discomfort and oppression at home ; and the potato famine in Ireland, in 1845, drove many Irish settlers to our shores. The Germans as a rule went West and took up farm lands ; while the Irish generally lingered in the Eastern towns or drifted into construction camps. Later immigration. Up to 1882 the incomers to this country were from western Europe, They were often poor and some- times turbulent, but they managed to get along together and to unite in forming what was essentially a single type — the Amer- ican. They were not too far apart in their national ways and civilization to be able to understand one another. Those who came in poverty often rose, in a few generations, to prominence in the community. There is no manner of doubt as to the value of the mid-century immigrants for the development of industry. Immigration since 1882. But in 1882 another stream of immi- gration began to make itself felt — one originating in southern and eastern Europe, chiefly, at first, from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. In the year mentioned came the first inclusive Eederal immigration law, and also the first Chinese exclusion act. Aston- ishingly large numbers began to arrive, the maximum occurring in 1907, in which year we received 1,285,349 foreigners within our boundaries. People began to wonder whether we could turn all this mass of foreigners into Americans, however effective our "melting pot." In 1896, for the first time, the incomers from Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia outnumbered those from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Scandinavia. Character of recent immigrants. We shall try to sum up some of the main facts about the nature of our later immigration. The incomers are predominantly male and of middle age or younger, and physically they are selected specimens, for they have had lo 42 INDUSTRY AND TRADE pass physical tests in order to be allowed to enter the country. If it were merely a question of having a number of able-bodied males to do rough work, these facts would be favorable. But if it is desirable for immigrants to settle down and found homes, then the lack of female immigration is unfortunate. This immigration of recent decades is evidently not one of families, as it was in the earlier days. Still more unfavorable is it that the new immigration shows a large percentage of illiteracy, and that the great majority of the immigrants can, for a while at least, do nothing better than common, unskilled labor. The possible Samuel Slaters, Goodyears, or Edisons among them have not been revealed. Can all the immigrants be made into Americans? It is per- fectly plain that the newer immigration is not of as high a type industrially as was the old. The fact of the matter is that the new immigrants do not come to us well adapted to fit immedi- ately into our life. This is due to the fact, undoubtedly, that they have lived in Europe under conditions so different from ours that their habits and ideas are very different from our own. To a large degree this can be remedied by education, and has been repeatedly so remedied in the case of the young ; but it is always hard to learn new ways, especially for older people, and if the immigrants are going to come in such masses, it is a question whether we shall educate them in time to prevent them from altering our system in the direction of their own. The question is as to the capacity of the '" melting pot." One thing is certain : we cannot take them as they come to us ; something has to be done with them if they are going to become Americans and enter into our social and industrial system as part of it and as factors to develop and improve it. The older immigration came along, settled down, and practically took care of itself ; it melted naturally into the type which we call American, and presently began to contribute to the advancement of our national industrial prosperity. All these new'er immigrant races have their good points ; and if they do not come in such numbers as to swamp us, by unremitting effort we can mold them toward our type. THE HUMAN ELEMENT 43 Importance of the immigration question. Ihese questions about tlie human element in our national development are matters which ought to be realized and, as far as possible, understood by every )oung American. We have all got to work together if we are going to succeed ; and to work together we must be and must think pretty much alike. Our national resources, of which we have seen something in the preceding chapter, cannot be devel- oped with success unless the quality of the men corresponds with the quality of the materials. The land element in production is favorable to prosperity of the highest t)'pe ; we have plenty of men and shall be able to get all we need ; the great question now is as to the quality of our population, and whether it will come to work together as a unit in the development of national wealth out of abundant natural resources. W'e are a medley of races, — the "mixing ground of the nations," — but the medley should always be melting into a single race and nation, as it did in the older times. CHAPTER I\' SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT The American type. In the preceding pages we have spoken of an " American type " as if it were a definite, permanent thing. There is no permanent national type; the character of no nation or people is changeless. Every living being, and every people, must adapt itself to conditions of life if it is to live ; and life conditions do not remain the same age after age. Even climate changes somewhat, and many of the conditions of environment, such as the presence of forests or wild animals, have been altered greatly by man himself. No doubt if Washington or Franklin could return to earth, he would find the type of American of the twentieth century very different from that of the eighteenth. How was it formed ? However, there are elements in the en- vironment, and in race character, which do not change very rapidly or much ; if the same race continues to live in much the same environment, it is likely to retain most of its characteristics. There are also cases where different races come to occupy, one after another, the same environment, with the result of becoming similar ; and at least one case, that of the Jews, where the same race has retained its characteristics, although it has scattered widely over most earthly environments. Also it is true of races, as of persons, that "as the sapling is bent, so is the tree inclined"; it is of great importance to a person how his childhood was passed, and to a nation how it began. For the experience of earlier stages of development is likely to leave an impress which only a long 44 SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 45 time and great difference of life conditions can remove. We wish, in this place, to indicate some of the important factors which have contributed to form what we call the American type — the one to which we hope that our immigrants will approach as they live on among us. As we are writing about industry chiefly, we shall give most attention to the industrial side of the American type, although there are many elements of a social and political nature that must be mentioned, since they deeply affect industrial life. Frontier society. The early settlers came, as civilized men, into an undeveloped region of the temperate zone. They founded a temperate frontier society. This is a very significant fact, for it draws in its train many marked social consequences. Here is a place where climate has exerted a great influence over the life of man. F'or if two frontier societies, composed of the same national stock, one of which lies in the tropics and the other in the tem- perate zone, be set over against one another for comparison, a contrast due almost wholly to difference of climate is immediately evident. It is perhaps well to touch upon Vhat contrast, first of all, for it will assist us to understand the differences between the South and the North of our country; for while our South is not tropical in the strict sense, yet it extends to the borders of that belt and comes somewhat under its influences. But we shall brine: out this contrast by first describing briefly, and principally for the light it sheds upon the temperate frontier society, the outstanding characteristics of the frontier society or colony of the tropics. The tropical type of frontier society. The effect of the tropical climate upon the white man is enervating, where it is not worse (p. 9). It is harder upon women, and especially upon children, than upon men ; and so the tropics are but thinly populated by the white race, and most of the whites are males. This means that the white race cannot keep up its numbers in these regions. If the men who stay there for years marry, they are likely to take native wives and produce a race of half-breeds. The per- manent element in the population is the acclimated native ; or, in the case of the tropical regions of America, the American 46 IM)rsiR\ AM) IKADK native plus another tropical native — the negro — who has been brought in to do the labor which the white man cannot perform. This makes a set of differences in the population, which divides into classes, with the aristocrats at the top and the sla\es at the bottom ; the population is not of tiie same kind, or homogeneous, throughout. Economic dependence. If the tropics had had no natural re- sources, or if these had been the same as tho.se of the temperate zone, the white man would not have been interested in them. But in the warmer regions there can be produced certain things which are in great demand in northern latitudes, — cotton, sugar, spices, rubber. — and precious metals were to be gotten there. Cotton and sugar, however, cannot very well be raised on the small scale ; and the demand was such that the tropical colony generally confined itself to raising one staple crop. If that crop succeeded, there was wealth ; if it failed, destitution and dependence upon out- side help. All the eggs, so to speak, were in one basket. And the methods of production were wasteful, for the white man. or his chartered company, was after immediate profits. The settler did not expect to stay k)ng, and if he could make his pile, cared little for what he might leave behind him. He cared nothing for the country ; it was not to be his home. A one-crop country must necessarily be a dependent one economically. Political dependence. And it was likewise politically dependent. The natives and half-breeds were the permanent element in the population and far outnumbered the whites ; and they were gen- erally so treated by their masters that they hated them cordially. The few white aristocrats and owners at the top of the social scale had to depend all the time upon the support of the mother- country, and had no desire or impulse to break aw^ay and form an independent state. So the tropical colonies have, as a whole, re- mained politically dependent upon some northern power and have not grown into modern independent states. They have remained in a protected relation, as "protectorates" or crown colonies, ad- ministered by a governor sent out from the mother-country ; and SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 47 even in those cases where thc\- are nominally independent they are not stable states like the United States and Canada. The temperate frontier society. In striking contrast with such conditions are those tvpical of a colony founded in the temperate zone. Of all such societies which have at length become great nations, no other has attained such prominence as has the United States ; it is the most outstanding example of the developed frontier society of its type. Consequently, as we pass now to the frontier society of the temperate zone what we shall have to say will be almost wholly with reference to our own country — the foregoing sketch of the conditions of a tropical colony having been introduced chiefly with the idea of causing the contrasting conditions of our own country, in its earlier stages, to stand out more clearlv. Particularlv to be noted is the influence of these conditions in forming and molding the "American type " to which we ha\-e several times referred. Population. If the white man moves from Europe to a new country of approximately the same temperate climate as that to which he is accustomed, the change is regularly beneficial to him in a physical way. It stimulates him ; there is no enervation like that of the hot lands. There is nothing in the change, either, that is deadly to the women and children ; in fact, the rate of increase of a P^uropean population regularly rises when it has moved to the new land. And although the hardships of the frontier put something of a curb (m the migration of women and children, and although there is always a preponderance of males in such regions, still colonization in the temperate zone is largely by families rather than bv male individuals. It is the more so because the mtention of the immigrants is permanent settlement rather than transitory fortune-making. The result of this is that the whites breed within their own race and that there are fewc-r half-breeds by far than in the tropics. And this means that the ))opulation is more of a single type — more homogeneous. It is physically sturdy, rapid of in- crease, and largely unmixed. It pushes the natives aside without intermarrying much with them, and holds the land by and for itself. 48 INDL'STRV AND IRADK Labor. In this climate, also, the white man was able to work as he could not in the tropics ; far from injuring him, work was a good thing for him. Nature did not drop gifts into his lap, — to live he had to bestir himself, — but she rewarded effort with generosity. There was no need of an acclimatized labor force ; and although negro slavery was tried out in the North, it was found that slave labor could not compete with free labor, and the experiment was not carried far. Meanwhile the free labor poured in with the stream of immigration and settlement. Resourcefulness. This free population, however, was obliged to become adaptable and resourceful, for there was not much aid from without. There was little in this country that represented a desired novelty in Europe — no one of those tropical products, such as spices, sugar, coffee, for which a large demand existed. The Spaniards, who were after such products, and also precious metals, paid hardly any attention to America north of the Gulf of Mexico, The fur and tobacco trades, involving concentration on single products, were nearest like the enterprises which were characteristic of the warmer lands. In general, where the tropical colonies have set their fortune on raising a few luxuries on the large plantation scale, remaining almost dependent upon the mother-country for necessities, the temperate colonies have been destined to raise a variety of necessities, on the small scale, and so have, by providing for their own needs, become independent of outside aid. The eggs were in several baskets. Our forefathers produced few things that were not produced in England, and, on the whole, received little help in working out their fate. But this meant that they had to be alert and adaptable to conditions if they were going to get on ; they had to be full of resource and do things for themselves somehow. The boy who is helped over every difficulty by his father develops little energy and resource- fulness ; but when a boy is thrown on his own powers, he often shows astonishing ability to take care of himself. The Yankee. So it was with the colonists ; the " Yankee " got so he could turn his hand to anything, and his inventiveness and SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 49 resourcefulness in meeting the many dangers and needs of exist- ence in a rough environment have made him a proverb. The stamp set upon him has come to be a sort of national tradition. Our history has been full of alert and clever action, in good causes and in questionable ones ; and in respect to mechanical invention applicable to industrial development we are equal or superior to other nations. It belongs to the American type to show such qualities ; and they were first developed by the colo- nists, especially those of the northern section of the Thirteen Colonies, in their effort to cope with their life conditions. Democracy. But now there was another set of elements that entered to mold the national type. Our countr)' was the first of a number of powerful modern democracies. But democracy does not simply happen. Let us see what there was in the beginnings of our history that made for equality, freedom, and independence. Equality among the settlers. There was no great fortune, to be made by settling in temperate North America ; it attracted no Pizarro. It was no place for men with great wealth, for there was no big enterprise, except the fur trade, to invest it in. And it was also no place for lazy paupers or plundering ruffians. W'e have seen that the earliest settlers came here because they wanted to live and believe as they wished — in respect to politics and religion, for example. In other words, the early immigration to this country was that of people on about the same level of wealth and social standing — pretty much alike, and each thinking himself about as good as the next man. There were exceptions ; but the stream of immigration was, as a stream, composed of similar elements. Equality due to conditions of life. And when the settlers got here, the conditi(Mis tlicy met with helped along the feeling of similarity and equality, and speedily leveled any pretensions of superiority resting on birth and social condition. There was no need for any man to remain inferior to any other man ; and so it was impossible for any man to maintain superiority over others, unless such dominance rested upon real qualities that were daily tested out, before all men, in the life of the community. The 50 INDLSTRV AM) IKADK landlord could have no such position as he had in England, where there were n^ore men and less land ; if a man did not want to pay rent for land, he could move on into the country, clear some land, and be his own landlord ; if he was not paid wages that made him virtual! V his employer's equal, he could become his own master easily enough. The easy reversibility of the positions of employer and emplo\-ed is illustrated by the story of the employer who hired a man and paid him in corn and sheep. Presently lie told his employee that he could hire him no longer, as he had already paid him nearly all the propert)- he had. " Very well," replied the workman, "you can now work for me and earn it all back." Independence. Now this sort of a situation made people very independent and gave them a feeling of the equality of men. It is still to be seen in less developed parts of the country and among populations that have remained more true to the colonial type, where servants are " help," and you do not get things done for you very readily, although the people are not wealthy and are eager to earn, unless )'ou put it on the grounds of asking a favor. Furthermore, there was an even wider feeling of independence that came from the self-sufficiency of the communities. Pro- ducing, as they did, a variety of necessities rather than a single article of export, such as sugar, these communities were not eco- nomically dependent ; they could live on their own supplies with- out support from outside. Nor did they need constant protection from the mother-countr}- against the natives or the slaves, as colonies in the tropics are likely to need it, owing to the fact that the native and slave element is always preponderant in numbers. And this independence in the economic and social fields had the inevitable effect of making the population feel politically self- sufficient. Political freedom and individualism characterized the temperate colonies ; and all of them have gradually worked them- selves out into political independence. They have all become independent states ; and the strongest of them is the United States, which led off in declaring its independence of outside con- trol. And no one should be deceived into believing that Canada. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 51 Australia, and other temperate sections of the British Empire are the less independent in reality because they still acknowledge a nominal bond with Great Britain. Prosperity. Something of the eftect of frontier conditions in a favorable region upon determining the type of population can be seen from preceding paragraphs ; our beginnings in this coun- try certainly had a strongly molding effect upon American society. The founders of our nation were a fine racial stock, to begin with ; then they were set down amidst conditions which conspired to make and keep them adaptable, resourceful, ambitious, self-reliant, and independent. They prized industry and talent ; and they especially prized education. A man with an alert and well-stocked mind had a chance in this country that he could not well complain of ; a far better one than could be gained by accident of birth. What wonder, then, that Americans have developed an unparalleled national prosperity, beginning with such richness of natural re- sources, a population of high cjuality, and a social organization so favorable to the display of the best qualities of the people ! Persistence of the frontier. However, it is possible to make a good beginning and then to fall away from it and wander off on other paths. It was one of the great advantages of this coun- try that it long had with it the frontier influences which we have sketched. These influences on national life were not lost, because we had the frontier always with us. Once the states of the Atlantic seaboard were our frontier ; then it was western Penn- sylvania and New York and the rest of the strip west of the Appalachians ; presently it was the states just east of the Missis- sippi ; then those just west of this river; then tlie 1^'ar and Farther West. Always the frontier moved westward, but it never ceased to show such conditions as have been outlined, and to react, through the influence of its life, upon the life of the nation. W^e had an immensity of land for the population to move into ; the pressure of population on land could not be- come heavy, for there was always an outlet and a relief. Tlu' country was always underpopulated. ;_^ INDUSTRY ANT) TRADE Men at a premium, l^ut where there is much land and few men there is a demand lor men, and men are at a premium ; and when men are in demand, that means that there are high rewards for their services and efforts — good profits, high wages, considerate treatment. This gives the men self-respect, inde- pendence, and other valuable qualities, just as enslavement demeans them and makes them cringing. Prosperity may even make them conceited, self-assertive, overconfident, and con- temptuous of others ; material success may make them blind to things of a less material value. The American type has doubt- less impressed foreigners as boisterous, raw, and bumptious ; but it has been strong and wholesome, with capacity for growth and improvement. Industrially it has astonished the world with its performances. And, on the whole, it has pulled together, showing itself capable of preserving its integrity despite the huge influx of aliens ; in fact, it has impressed itself upon these foreign elements in such manner as to draw them into the nation as real parts of it. In general, there has come out of the melting pot a pretty consistent product. The passing of the frontier. This country is still partially frontier ; it is still underpopulated, having only some thirty-odd to the square mile, as compared with older countries, where this figure runs into the hundreds. However, it is filling up, and the frontier character of the society is vanishing. As the land loads up with population the conditions of life cannot help becoming more and more like those of older countries — men will be less in demand because there will be more of them in proportion to the land ; and so there will no longer be in existence those frontier advantages of which we have spoken — equality of oppor- tunity, freedom of individual action, and so on. If the American type is not to be altered, we shall have to give some effort to pre- serving it ; here is a case of conservation of natural resources which has escaped the attention of some conservationists. American social life. In the last two chapters we have doubtless appeared, at times, to be getting rather far away from American SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 53 industrial development. But the development of the industries in a society is not a thing by itself, apart from all others ; it is intimately linked up with all other parts of the social life. The human element must be reckoned with, and also the manner in which the human element has developed in the mutual relations of men with one another, as they live on together in the community and the nation. Industrial and political development are always more or less interconnected ; it could even be shown that the type of a people's family or religious life influences to a consider- able degree its type of industrial life. In these last two chapters we have tried to introduce enough, but not too much, concerning the influence of factors that are not directly industrial, in order to give the student a broader outlook upon the nature of indus- trial development than he could get from mere facts and figures of a strictly industrial order. We are now the better fitted to understand the meaning of the facts and figures having to do with the several most important of our national industries, and with our trade. PART II. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES CHAPTER V CEREALS Agriculture. In telling about the various ways in which the population of this country has dealt with its natural environment to make a living, we shall begin with the agricultural industries. This is because farming was in colonial times, and is now, the foundation of all industry. All the needs of man for food, clothing, and shelter are supplied by products of the soil ; for all animal products would disappear along with all the animals were it not for the food supplied by plant life and derived from the eartli. Agriculture is, as Napoleon is reported to liave said, " the founda- tion of commerce and manufacture." Many of the raw materials important and indispensable for manufacture are deriwd from agriculture, to say nothing of the farmer being the producer of food to support human life in general. Agriculture is an industry that cannot die (;r lapse unless the race is to pass away. Other industries may be temporary — mines may become exhausted — but agriculture must persist. It goes without the saying that agriculture is always a powerful bulwark of national strength. Agriculture and the physical factors. As compared with other industries agriculture is more intimatelv dcpcnrlcnt upon tlic 56 INDrSTRV AND TRADE physical factors of natural environment reviewed in our first chap- ter ; indeed, these factors are the really determining ones in the production of crops. And this is said in full realization of the powerful influence upon those other industries which is exer- cised by climate, weather, water supply, and the other factors mentioned above. Agriculture in the United States. Agriculture has always been the foundation of American industries and trade ; it has been the principal source of our wealth. Throughout the whole colonial period it was the main industry ; in fact, it was the only really dominant employment of the country until the beginning of the nineteenth centuiy. Even in sections which derived consider- able income from fishing and commerce, such as New Eng- land, agriculture was nevertheless the foundation of things. Up to 1880 fifteen out of twenty-one presidents of the United States were farmers or the sons of farmers. Not until 1880 did the combined value of all the manufactures of our country surpass the value of the agricultural products ; and, in spite of the tremendous advances made in our manufactures during the last few decades, there are still more of our population engaged in agriculture than in manufacturing. So that it is fair to say that agriculture still continues to be the dominant factor in our national wealth. Our preeminence in agriculture. We have also surpassed all other countries in agricultural development; we lead in the annual value of farm crops produced. This preeminence is due to a com- bination of favoring factors, some of which have been mentioned above : diversity of fertile soils ; diversity of climatic conditions, so that numerous crops can be raised (in the wheat belt, corn belt, cotton belt, tobacco belt, etc.) ; an energetic and resourceful popu- lation ; cooperative state and Federal departments of agriculture, which further the interests of scientific methods ; and a highly developed transportation system, allowing of the ready marketing of crops. The following are representative types of agricultural industries. CEREALS 57 Cereals. Cereals hold the leading place among the great vari- ety of foodstuffs raised by man for himself and for his domestic animals. The most important cereals are maize (Indian corn), wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, and sorghum (including the millets). Buckwheat may be added to this list, though it is not strictly a cereal. The cereal crop has always occupied the larger part of .„;.- .^M ■ •/Vr *' j^gWBft^q^^Bl^B PS^Jt" '9 '^ ^^^^^El^rnl FIRM) OF MAIZK our cultivated land, and there are produced in this country, in an average year, upwards of 5,000,000,000 bushels of cereals, having a value of $3,000,000,000 or more. Maize. Maize was the only cereal of importance native to the Americas. It was probably not native to the United States. However, when Europeans first opened up the New World, this plant was being raised from Canada to southern Chile, and was a staple vegetable food of the Indians. In colonial times it formed the principal food crop; and it held its position until wheat .s INDISTRV AND IKADIs was broLiijht in Ironi liuropc aiul became common. Maize was the great gift of the Indians to the white man ; the colonists quickly adopted its cultivation from the natives, and it was lucky for them that such a resource existed. Maize comes to maturity speedily and its yield is large, although it requires less cultivation than almost any other food crop ; it was thus wonderfully adapted to crude pioneer farming. In colonial times the amount produced CORN PRODUCTION KV STATES (IX MILLIONS OF P.CSHELS) After map in Monthly Crop Rcpoii in New England was comparatively small ; but other colonies — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, the two Carolinas, and Georgia — were exporting corn extensively; and Virginia exported, more than once, over 575,000 bushels. This grain surplus was exchanged for necessary European products. Corn in the West. It was the opening up of the West that paved the way for an unheard-of development of corn production, for the real cereal belt of the country lies west of the Alleghenies. The completion of the Erie Canal, in 1825, and the later con- .struction of railroads insured cheap transportation for the crops ; CEREALS 59 and the fact that corn turned out to be an excellent food for cattle and hogs stimulated production. In some )ears there was so much corn in the West that it was used for fuel. About 1870, in certain districts, corn was considered a cheaper fuel than coal at nine dollars a ton — and this does not refer to the cobs alone, but includes the grain on the cob. Perhaps we could not find a better illustration of the natural productiveness of the Western farms than this case of burning up as fuel a food now in great demand in the world. The corn crop. In 1870 our corn crop for the first time ex- ceeded 1,000,000,000 bushels, and in only three years since (1871, 1873, and 1874) has the yield been under that figure. No coun- try has ever surpassed ours in corn production, nor have we any serious rivals in this line. We raise about four fifths of the world's corn ; and this crop easily leads our others in money value, as well as in acreage and quantity produced. About one half of the corn is raised in the "corn belt," which includes the states of Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. The average yield is close to 30 bushels per acre. Corn exports. Our exports of corn are small. Corn meal does not keep well enough for exportation ; and Europe lacks facili- ties for milling the kernels. As a matter of fact, the people of Europe do not prize corn as a food for man to anything like the degree it deserves ; some of them seem to think it a hard- ship to be obliged to use it, even in war times, instead of wheat. This astonishes an American when he first learns of the fact. Most of the world's maize is used to feed stock, and this is especially true since, despite our own use of corn meal as a food for man, we, the greatest producers of corn, are also lead- ing producers of meat products. We really export our corn "on the hoof " ; that is, in the form of beef and i)ork. We cause the corn to be transformed into meat before we send much of it abroad. But thus transformed it becomes, as we shall see later on, one of our most important export materials. This explains the rather surprising statement with which this ixuagraph begins. 6o INDUSTRY AM) TRADE Wheat. The use of wheat bread as a staple article of diet is now regarded as a mark of higher civilization ; wheat is a sort of aristocratic food. This is a kind of tradition, though there is some sense in it, for it is not so much the superior value of wheat for sustaining life that makes it desirable as it is its greater attrac- tiveness, both in the matter of taste and in the great variety of forms in which it may appear upon the table. There is a good deal of fashion in foods, as well as in dress, and wheat is the fashion among civilized nations of the Occident ; it is preferred to corn, as we have seen, for com is regarded much as Dr. Johnson regarded oatmeal — as horse food for the civilized Englishman, although Scotchmen, whom he hated, were low down enough to eat it. This nonsense of fashion extends even farther ; for it is the fashion to in- sist upon using wheat flour which is almost perfectly white, but whose whiteness results from getting rid of what is the most nutritious part of the wheat grain. However, the use of "whole wheat" is becoming, with the extension of real knowledge about the constituents of the grain, somewhat more the mode, and is insisted upon by some people who wish to be considered scientific in the matter of their eating. Wheat in the colonies. Wheat was not knowm in America be- fore Columbus ; but in the Old World its cultivation reaches back to very ancient times — in fact into prehistoric ages, for wheat grains have been found in the ruins of Swiss lake dwellings. We cannot be sure about the exact circumstances of its introduction COLONIAL GRIST MILL CEREALS 6i into America. There is a story of a Spaniard who found a few grains mixed in with his rice, and who carefully picked them out and planted them, thus introducing the cereal into the Spanish-American colonies. Wheat was probably brought over by early English colonists and sown by them. For a time Virginia gave considerable attention to its culture, several hundred acres HAKVE.STIX(; WHEAT having been sown to wheat as early as 1648 ; but the tobacco crop proved to be so much more profitable in Virginia, despite the demand for wheat, that the latter was allowed to decline. Wheat was early grown in New England, but there seems to have been trouble in raising the crop, so that the colonists fell back on corn and potatoes. Wheat almost passed out of cultivation with the opening of new lands in the central colonics, just as the wheat production of the Atlantic states declined in the fare of the superior productivity of the Mississippi Valley in the middle of 62 INDl'SIRV AND i'RADK the nineteenth eentury. Hut at the time of the Revolution wheat was one of the leading exports p| the Northern colonies, and the prominent wheat producer of 1750 was New Jersey. .(\^ Wheat in the West. About the middle of the next century the center of wheat-raising began to move rapidly westward. In 1849 onlv a little over 5 per cent of the total wheat crop was produced in states west of the Mississippi, while the Atlantic coastal states WHEAT PRODUCTION BY STATES (IN MILLIONS OF BUSHELS) After map in Mojithly Ci-op Report » were responsible for over half. Pennsylvania was then the chief wheat state in the Union. But by 1869 the Atlantic states were raising only a fifth of this crop, and the center of production was swiftly moving into the real " wheat belt." This was due to sev- eral causes, such as the rapid settlement of the prairie lands of the Ohio and upper Mississippi valleys, the suitability of the climate and soil in those sections, the development of railroads toward the west, the improvement in agricultural implements, the invention of the threshing machine, and other such preparations for culture on the srand scale. CEREALS 63 The wheat crop. Our country contains the greatest wheat fields in the world. The largest yield of wheat which we have e\er had, in a single year, was 1,011,000,000 bushels, in 191 5. The center of its production is some distance west of Des Moines, Iowa, hav- ing moved, since 1850, nearly seven hundred miles west and one hundred north. Our crop amounts to about one quarter of the world's product. The average yield per acre in the United States AN IMMKNSIC (iKAIX KLKVATOR IN THE WEST is about 1 5 bushels ; if much care is given to the crop, where it is not raised on a large scale, the yield is considerably greater than this figure. Industries connected with corn and wheat. Connected with wheat and corn production are many manufacturing industries, ~ such as milling and bolting the flour, and a number of storing and transportation industries. Grain elevators and transportation agencies give employment to much capital and many men. Of an average annual crop of about 700,000,000 bushels of wheat, we 64 INDISIRV AM) TRADE now need fivo sixths or more for our own use ; the remainder is exported either in the raw state or in the form of flour. The Great War called into use in America a great variety of wheat substitutes, so that unusually large shipments of wheat might be released to be sent to the Allies. Oats. This is one of the grains which has been in some countries unpopular as a human food, but in northern Europe FLOUR MILLS AT MINNEAPOLIS it is much used for^ that purpose. Said a Scotchman who was joked by an Englishman because men ate in Scotland what horses ate in England, " That is why you have good horses in England and we have good men in Scotland." In this country oats are used chiefly as stock food, and by man in the form of oatmeal, rolled oats, etc. There was a sort of wild oat, called pin- grass, native to this country, but the variety we use was intro- duced from the Old World, where it was used in very early times. CEREALS 65 The oats crop. The cultivated variety of oats was introduced into America near the beginning of the seventeenth centur}-, and in colonial times oats formed an important crop in New England and the middle colonies. The plant thrives best in a fairly cool and moist climate ; the leading oats-producing states have always been the northern ones ; at the present time 80 to 90 per cent of our crop is raised in the North Atlantic and North Central / • / a \ j t • \ \ '^'^ \ / • / / 'M •■ A 561# ]_ 9(\ UrA "ft" 325 36f# l~^ ^ \ • \ • )2L OATS PKODLXTIOX 15V STATES (IX MILLIONS OF BUSHELS) After map in Monthly Crop Report States. As early as 1840 the annual crop amounted to 123,000,000 bushels, and development has been so rapid that we now raise over 1,000,000,000 bushels a year — the largest yield of any country, although European Russia is a close second. The aver- age yield per acre is not far from 30 bushels — much larger than that of wheat, and slightly above that of corn. Barley. This is one of the earliest of cultivated cereals. The plant is very hardy and will stand considerable cold, but it can be grown successfully in a comparatively warm climate ; thus it is adapted to a wide range of conditions. Until rather recent times 66 INDLSIRV AND IRADK barlev has been used extensively as human food, and barley bread is still a common article of diet, especially for the poor, in certain regions ; but as wealth and civilization have extended, wheat has supplanted barle\- as human food, and barley has been used almost solely for animal food and for malt. The world's barley is produced chiefly by Russia, Germany, and Austria- Hungary. BARLEY PRODUCTION BY STATES (IX THOUSANDS OF BUSHELS) After map in Monthly Crop Repoii The barley crop. This grain was introduced into the colonies early in the seventeenth centur}', being sown in Massachusetts in 1620, and in Virginia in 161 1 ; in the latter region it soon de- clined before the dominant tobacco production, but it remained an important crop in the middle colonies and New England. Barley never got a real foothold in this country, however, until recent years. In 1840 we raised a little over 4,000,000 bushels, and as late as 1870 less than 30,000,000. But at present the barley production is on the rapid increase ; in 1900 the area sown to barley was still less than 3,000,000 acres and the harvest was 59,000,000 bushels, but since that time both the acreage and the CEREALS 67 production have greatly expanded. The crop is raised chiefly in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Cahfornia, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Rye. Rye is a close relative of wheat, but its cultivation began much later than that of wheat and barley ; it was not cultivated in the Roman Empire much before the time of Christ. It is an extremely hardy cereal, will grow on poor soil, and will stand a / • 1 • \ ii a?5 • f 1 J GO" If • 666 0^ 50V_X!i-- 52 \ 1*^* 531 • S/ • ■i'J2 -1655 \ 4500 ^ "3072 1 50 I 935 f • 667 1 • 231 • 90 \ 10 20 V 1— r- ^ V ^ JJ RYE PRODUCTION BY STATES (IX THOUSANDS OF BUSHELS) After map in Monthly Crop Report severe climate. Once xyo. was much used for human food, and is so used now in Europe, notably in Scandinavia, North Germany, and parts of Russia, where " black bread " is a staple food of the peasants. Elsewhere it is mainly a cattle food, or it is used in mak- ing intoxicants, such as whisky in America and vodka in Russia. The rye crop. Rye was to be found under cultivation in this country in 1648. By 1801 the country exported nearly 400,000 bushels, and rye production spread pretty generally over the North- ern states. In colonial times it was commonly used as human food, being mixed with Indian meal in bread-making ; and this sort of bread for a long time remained popular in rural New ICngland. 68 1M)L STRV AM) I'RAUE But rve has not shared to any great extent in the agricultural expan- sion of the country ; its march westward has lagged far behind that of other cereals. The acreage of rye is to-day little greater than it was thirty or more years ago, but since the yield per acre has in- creased to about 1 6 or 17 bushels, the annual crop has grown some- what; however, it is still under 50,000,000 bushels, out of a world crop of 1,500,000,000 bushels. The states raising the most rye are Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, the Dakotas, and Pennsylvania. HARVESTIXG RICE WITH MACHIXKKV Rice. Wild rice is found over wide areas in the United States and is rather common in the north central part of the country. It was parched by the Indians. But the rice of commerce is an imported product, probably native in southern Asia, where it was cultivated ages ago ; it was brought comparatively recently to Europe, supposably by the Moors into Spain. White rice is the variety originally introduced into this country. The rice crop. Rice was introduced into Virginia in 1647; into South Carolina, by accident, from a sailing vessel from Madagas- car, in 1694 ; into Louisiana in 1 718. It took first place in the CEREALS 69 agriculture of South Carolina. About 1700 it became an impor- tant export article, being in much demand in Europe and the West Indies, and its culture spread rapidly. By 1850 we were raising over 215,000,000 pounds a year, of which South Carolina furnished 160,000,000 pounds and Georgia 39,000,000. The Civil War nearly killed the industry ; labor was demoralized, and the dams and gates, used in flooding the fields, got out of repair. Since the war the industry has slowly recuperated, but its center has shifted so that now Louisiana and Texas lead in production. Our present crop is between 25,000,000 and 30,000,000 bushels a year. The yield per acre is relatively large, so that rice makes a cheap food for people on a low scale of living, as in the East ; in wheat-eating countries, like ours, rice is unduly neglected as a staple food, being used rather as a table delicacy. Sorghum. There are many varieties of sorghum, several of which are grown in this country. The seeds are used as food for man and beast, as well as for making alcoholic beverages. Sweet sorghums are a source of sirup and sugar. The brush of the broom-corn variety is made into brooms. Some varieties are used widely for hay and silage. The sorghums flourish in warm, dry regions, being notably resistant to drought. They play an impor- tant part in the agriculture of the southern part of the Western High Plains region, but are by no means confined to this area. Buckwheat. This is not really a cereal, but is allied to plants like the dock, sorrel, and smartweed. It was brought to this country by the Dutch and sown on Manhattan Island for horse feed. The seed is now used to some extent as poultry food; and the plant is sometimes raised solely for the honey it yields to bees. As everyone knows, its chief appearance upon the table is in the buckwheat griddlecake. It has been grown chiefly for home consumption, and production has not flourished. In 1840 about 7,000,000 bushels were raised; in i860 about 17.500,000 bushels; in 1870 about 10,000,000 bushels; to-day the yield is between 15,000,000 and 20,000,000 bushels, of which New York and Pennsylvania raise more than half. ^i&:i5 CHAPTER Vl VEGETABLES AND FRUITS Their importance. The importance of vegetables and fruits for the well-being of men does not need to be explained to anyone ; but perhaps we now understand better as a people than we ever did before the importance of producing these foods. Vegetable gardens can be located almost anywhere throughout the country, and even in city lots. Early conditions. jMost of the vegetables and fruits commonly raised in this country were not native to it ; in fact, only a few of them were native to the New World. The Indians had re- course to certain berries, nuts, and wild fruits, and they cultivated rather widely beans, squashes, and other minor vegetables ; but nearly all the vegetables and fruits of commerce were developed in other countries and were introduced here by the settlers. This was done so much as a matter of course that we have but little information concerning the origin and first stages of the vegetable and fruit industries of the country ; almost everybody, in earlier times, did some gardening on the side ; the clergyman, the law- yer, and even the physician were in some degree farmers. In fact, any one of these professional men might have to collect his fees, on occasion, in produce — "in kind," as such payment was called — for in the new country there was often a dearth of money. Rents were not seldom arranged to be paid in kind ; so that, in reality, garden products attained a dignity now held by coins, bills, and checks. VEGETABLES AND FRl^ITS 71 Later conditions. Gardening of this sort was on the small scale; the raising of fruits and vegetables for commercial purposes dates, in this country, from about the middle of the nineteenth century. Up to that time they were raised for local consumption, for the most part, and were eaten, of course, only in season. The idea itself of having vegetables and fruits out of season reaches back only a few decades, and was started by certain Northern cities that had good transportation connections with farming districts not far away. But with the advance of transportation, centers of popula- tion were enabled to extend their reach and their demand. Once the movement was well started, large areas, particularly in the South, came to be devoted to garden crops ; and there are now whole sections of the country whose agricultural efforts are devoted almost wholly to supplying Northern markets with fresh vegetables and fruits out of season. Transportation of vegetables and fruits. This whole movement, as is easily seen, depends upon the excellence of the transporta- tion system. The carrying trade for garden products and fruit from South to North was in the hands, first of all, of the steam- ship lines ; and it is said that the first consignment dates from 1847, when a small quantity of lettuce, radishes, mint, and straw- berries was brought to New York. In the spring of 1885 arrived the first all-rail shipment of garden truck from the South to New York. In the eighties came the first carloads of oranges from Florida, and about that time the first large consignments of straw- berries. From these small and recent beginnings there has devel- oped an enormous trade, which is by no means confined to business between South and North ; for there is a flow of vege- tables and fruits to every town and city from its more immediate agricultural environs. Indeed, the population is becoming some- what spoiled by the luxuries it has thus gained, and people arc coming to feel it a hardship if they cannot have these extraordi- nary advantages which were denied to all humanity up to recent years. The former luxuries are coming to be thought necessities — necessities that one must have, however much the having of 72 INDISIRV AND TRADE them increases the cost of living. But, on the other hand, it must be reahzed that the very existence of great centers of population would be impossible were it not for the development of food transportation on a large scale and from greater and greater distances. We shall now enter into some details respecting the raising of the several most important vegetable and fruit crops. Vegetables Potatoes. The potato is very rich in starch, and is a widely consumed and fav- orite food in both Europe and America. Next to bread, the potato is the staple food in this country ; indeed, it enjoys a reputation of supe- riority which has led less- informed people, in time of scarcity, to provide them- selves with it at an immensely increased price, when such a food as rice remained com- paratively cheap. They have believed, mistakenly, that potatoes were a real neces- sitv for people doing heavy manual labor, and have rebelled against using substitutes. The potato crop. Roth the white and the sweet potato are native to America. The former grew wild on the plateaus of both NEW POTATOES A POTATO PLANTER VEGETABLES AND FRUITS 73 Mexico and western South America, and was there encountered, in the sixteenth century, by the Spaniards. It was early introduced into the colonies and has long been produced as a food for local consumption. But as a commercial item neither the white nor the sweet variety attained much prominence until about the middle of the nineteenth century, when the development of transportation — here again the condition allowing of wide industrial expansion i^b-^ 1/ /r^ ~ — _______^ j\ /r\ *H •A • r^ ^^ / 4Sk. j^^ / • „ 1 '"{ — — V'?!] (§^^ ffi V / • / • / ^1 !•/ 1*'* ' •"•'*. 1" •, \ •x-t ' ' F ^•Z^^^St r H ^ \ ^ V • , h H \VHrrE I'OTATO PRODUCTION BY STATES (IX MILLIONS OK lU'SIIELS) After map in Monthly Crop Report — made shipments possible. At present potatoes stand sixth on the basis of annual farm value — that is, value before leaving the farm — being surpassed only by corn, cotton, hay, wheat, and oats. Though widely cultivated, the potato is raised for the most part in the northern and eastern sections of the United States; Minne- sota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maine are prominent producers, and the irrigated regions of the Far West are beginning to contribute copiously to the annual yield. Potato cultivation. The average yield per acre for potatoes is between 90 and 100 bushels — a large figure as compared with 74 INDUS'l'RV AND I'RADE the average for wlieat, l^ut in order to raise a good potato crop, much more care and expense have to be undergone than in raising wheat and other cereals ; wet weather, dry rot, and the potato bug (Colorado beetle) are dangers to the crop that must be endured or provided against. Taking into con- sideration our im- mense agricultural area, our yield of potatoes is relatively small ; in a normal year France pro- duces more than we do, while Germany's crop is five or six times as large as ours. Even the United Kingdom raises about two thirds as many pota- toes as are grown in the whole United States. The possi- bility of increasing our potato yield is almost unlimited. Beans and peas. These include many varieties and are known as legumes. They have nodules, or warty- looking protuberances, on their roots, where are to be found mil- lions of microscopic bacteria having the power of making nitrates from the free nitrogen of the air and of storing up these nitrates in the plants. Hence, if the roots of the plants are left in the soil, it becomes so much the richer ; and one way of fertilizing poor soils is to sow a crop of legumes and then plow the whole crop in. NODULES ON ROOTS OF BEANS VEGETABLES AND FRUITS 75 The crop of beans and peas. Peas and beans have long been grown in this country, both for human food and for cattle fodder. The natives raised some varieties before the white man came ; and they were planted as early as 1602 in New England, and 1644 by the Dutch. They were raised also along the southern Atlantic coast, and were even exported, in small quantities, before the Revolution. The annual export for the twenty years prior to '^mm lff#5# ' ^'^^"^r v'^pi^i A LOAD OF GARDEN TRUCK MOVING TO THE CITY 18 1 7 amounted, on the average, to 90,000 bushels. At in this country the relative yields of both crops are small pared with the case elsewhere ; this is probably because our nitrogenous food from meats and dairy products, of w consume a large amount per capita. British India, Italy, and Spain are among the largest producers of legumes these countries the bulk of the people is living on a muc scale than is the working population of our country. Other vegetables. Numerous other garden vegetables basis of local industries throughout the country, i)ut we need to go into further detail. In a word, it ma\' be s present as com- we get hich we Russia, ; in all h lower arc the do not aid that 76 INDUSTRY AM) I'RADE since the rest of the garden vegetables are rather bulky, and also perishable, there is not a very wide market for them, excepting for out-of-season distribution. Such products are the several varie- ties of garden truck ; they are, for the most part, raised and con- sumed locally. Perhaps the sugar beet should receive especial mention. In Europe it has generally been cultivated and pulled out of the ground with exceeding care, lest it be bruised and thus spoiled ; but in this country it is torn rudely from the ground, and then, depending upon our superior transportation system, we hurry it to the sugar-beet factory before it has time to decay. In Europe, also, the beet from which the juice has been pressed (beet-cake) is of considerable use as food for stall-fed cattle ; whereas in this country, where cattle can be pastured or fed upon forage, it is of less importance. And the beet-sugar industry, as we shall later see, is of relatively small significance among us. Fruits Fruit-raising. In the early history of this country fruits, being regarded as luxuries, were scarcely used by the mass of the people. But attention came to be directed to them by the wealthy and cultured classes ; and once started, fruit cultivation advanced apace, until at the present time fruit-raising has come to be an important industry throughout extensive areas of the country. In general, the fruits we raise are those of relatively low food value. It is not meant to say that fruits are not necessary and wholesome for the human body — quite the contrary ; but one could scarcely live on apples, pears, grapes, peaches, oranges, and other of our American fruits. Their food value is not sufficient ; they are largely " flavored water " as distinguished from such fruits as dates, figs, bananas, and other products of a warmer climate, which have a high food value and form a real "" staff of life " to the people who raise them. But ever^'one likes fruit, and where the standard of living, as in this country, will allow of it, there is a place for a high development of production. VEGETABLES AND FRUITS 11 Apples. The apple is an Old World product, having existed in Europe, in both the wild and the cultivated form, since prehis- toric times. In early colonial days it was difficult to bring young apple trees across the ocean ; but there were no native trees, and so the fruit had to be grown almost exclusively from seeds, which meant that the trees were very long in coming to maturity. The .Jg^ ^ E'"^ Mlb ^^^^' 1 \ 1 ,-.;;.•-_--, Vi --J^ia** A ROCHESTER FRUIT NURSERY introduction was, therefore, a slow process. Also the growing of trees from seed, and allowing them to mature without grafting, results in a poor quality of fruit — all of which facts may account for the circumstance that for nearly a century and a half apples were grown in this country almost exclusively for cider. Not until 1830 did our government begin to collect statistics concerning orchard products. However, there were some apple trees to be had even as early as 1640, for it seems that in that year five hundred young apple trees from a nursery in Massachusetts were exchanged for two hundred and fifty acres of land. 78 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Apple-raising. Up to KS25 or so our apple orchards were confined cliietiy to New England and Long Island, though there were some in New Jersey and New York. Toward the middle of the century there came about a marked improvement in the industry, due to the assistance of the government, the formation of horticultural societies, and other such encouragement. Nurser- ies became numerous, Rochester and other centers in New York State having taken up this specialty. Prizes were given for choice apples, and attention began to be given especially to winter varie- ties. Then, with the development of steam navigation across the Atlantic, we began the exportation of the fruit; by 1859 we were exporting 1 20,000 barrels from Boston alone. Varieties continued to improve and knowledge to be gathered as to the adaptability of this or that variety to a particular climate or soil. Then apple culture began to spread over the whole country. The apple crop. At the present time the eastern part of the country is preeminent in apple-raising, though the Pacific states produce some superior fruit. Both in acreage and in annual value of product the apple far exceeds all other fruit crops. The states which lead in the number of apple trees of bearing age are those of the northeastern region, and New York is the chief apple- producing state. Peaches. The peach is an Old World product, having been cultivated in China from very early times ; thence it spread toward the west and for a long time has been planted in sheltered spots in Europe. It seems to have been rather commonly known in all the colonies previous to the Revolution. Peach-raising. The peach tree is not so hardy as the apple, and climate is an important factor in its life and productivity. Severe winters and late frosts are likely to injure the buds and tender twigs. Again, this tree is cultivated in rather restricted areas, which are widely scattered over the country. Several of these may be mentioned : western New York ; the region imme- diately east of Lake Michigan ; that east of Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland and Delaware ; Connecticut, especially upon the southern VEGETABLES AND FRUITS 79 slopes of the hills overlooking the valley of the Connecticut River ; northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri, along the southern slopes of the Ozarks ; the state of Georgia, which is usually the largest peach producer of the Southeast, and which has the advantage of the Northern market, without competition from other regions, at a time when peaches from other sections DRVIXf; CALU'OKNIA PEACHES have not yet come into tlie market ; and, finally, California, whicli shows climatic conditions favorable to the crop, and which nor- mally produces more peaches than any other state in the Union. The California product is marketed widely in the cities of the East, and is sometimes sent abroad ; but much of it is dried or canned, especially when the market for the raw fruit is unfax'orable — as is true also in other peach areas. Grapes. The grape has been cultivated from time iiiinu-mo- rial. We do not know where it originated, but il was an ( )kl So INnrSTRV AND TRADE World product and early sj^read over Europe. It was carried from Great l^ritain to America in early colonial times. However, we were not entirely dependent on Europe for the vine ; there are several varieties of nati\e grape, notably the Catawba, which have been domesticated. The vine did not attain any great prominence until about the middle of the last century, when grape-growing, A FLOURISHING VINEYARD especially for wine, took a considerable start. Since that time the industry has grown to such proportions that the annual value of the grape crop now stands third among the fruits, being exceeded only by the apple and peach crops. Grape-raising. There are two leading areas in the United States where grapes are grown extensively as a money crop : the eastern grape belt, in New York, between the eastern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario and the central part of the state ; and VEGETABLES AND FRUITS the western belt, in California, where numerous Mediterranean varieties have been introduced. In the eastern belt American varieties lead ; in the western, European varieties. California is by far the largest producer, followed by New York, Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, and North Carolina. Oranges. The orange tree is an Old World product, having been grown in China and India since very early ages ; its culture spread to America by way of Europe in recent times. The plant is essentially a tropical or subtropi- cal one, and so can be grown success- fully only in the warmer sections of the country. The sour orange was brought to Florida by the Spaniards in 1560; it ran wild, and until about 1880 large groves of wild oranges were to be found. The planting of orange groves for commercial purposes is of recent date ; it is said that this was first done by some Northerners who went to Florida after the Civil War; and as late as 1880 the industry was still in its infancy. By 1890 orange-raising had made considerable progress, and since then has increased rapidly, especially in California. Oranges are on the market now every month in the year, for the crop does not come to maturity all at the same time. Unex- pected frosts cause occasional great loss in the orange groves, amounting to millions of dollars. And along with the oranges the grapefruit is increasing in importance, although but a few years ago little or nothing was heard of it. AN ORANGE GROVE IN FLORmA 82 IXDL SIRV AM) TRADE Other fruits. There are numerous other important fruit crops in this eountr\-, among them the strawberry, plum, pear, cherry, raspberry, and blackberry. These are very widely cultivated garden crops. We raise also lemons, dates, figs, and olives, whereas not long ago such of these as we used came from abroad. Owing to the variety of climate in this vast land, ranging from cold almost to tropical, there seems to be no limit to the possibilities of intro- duction of plants from other lands. However, unless we find some region particularly favorable for fruit, such as California, it may pay better, from a business standpoint, to bend our energies to the production of crops where we have a distinct natural advan- tage. This is the case with wheat and corn ; we can do better to sell these and buy from abroad those products in the growing of which the people abroad have an advantage over us. Canned fruits and vegetables. The canning industry based upon vegetables and fruits is a very extensive one in this country. We hear but little about the beginnings of it until near the middle of the last century; in 1846 fruit and vegetable canneries were in operation in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Newark, Portland, and Eastport (Maine). Those of Newark prepared the canned goods for Dr. Kane's arctic expedition. After 1850 canneries began to develop rapidly under the stimulus of an increasing de- mand for goods ; they were introduced on the Pacific coast as early as 1856, and by 1866 they existed in most fruit-raising and vegetable-raising regions. The industry has had a phenomenal success. Likewise the dr)'ing of vegetables and fruits, which is another method of preserving them for use out of season, has become a prominent adjunct to the basic industry. ''■\!!/" ' ' I ''''■'^' [[32^33-^ T^^ ff~^:. CHAPTER VII SUGAR Extent of sugar production. This is one of the most valuable products derived from the vegetable world. It is essential to the life of plants, many of which have food reserves stored away in the form of starch, which, after being converted into sugar, is used by the plants themselves. From several plants available for his use, man has learned to extract the sugar in tremendous quan- tities ; the amount that figures in the world's commerce reaches twenty million tons annually, and in addition to this there are large quantities that do not figure at all in commercial statistics, being produced and consumed locally in countries of the Far East, in Africa, and in other places where it is impossible to keep track of production. Sources of sugar. In the tropics sugar is often derived from the sweet juice of certain varieties of palm ; in cooler regions, such as Canada and the United States, the sugar maple provides maple sugar. Honey was undoubtedly the first saccharine sub- stance used by man ; in using it he depended, of course, upon the collections made by bees from myriad plant sources. The " land of milk and honey " was, in Bible times, the land of luxury and plenty. The love of luxuries. We wish here to pause for a moment to remark that human industry and commerce have never con- fined themselves to merely useful products. In the case of fruits, it is not the absolute food value that makes them attractixe and in f^3 84 INDUSTRY AND TRADE demand ; and the same thing is true of sugar and other commer- cial products later to be mentioned. They are wanted because they please the palate — because they respond to desires that are above and bevond mere existence. The savage would spend an amount of effort and care in getting a supply of honey to which nothing except dire hunger would have driven him had his object been merely common food. There never was any other form of human trade which surpassed the trade in spices in the eagerness and in- tensity with which it was pursued. Again and again it has been shown that luxuries will appeal to a people where necessities make little or no impression upon them. We shall have occasion to recall this fact, from time to time, as we go on. Sugar as a luxury and a necessity. In the case of sugar, which is before us, we do not mean to say that it possesses no food value, — quite the contrary, — but it is the taste of sugar that made it popular. It was once a rare luxury ; it was very scarce in Europe in the Middle Ages, and was even used as a medicine for lung and throat troubles. In those days a young man could please a young woman as much by securing her a lump of sugar as he could now by giving her a big box of candy, but he did not get off any cheaper. What was then a great and costly luxury has now become a cheap necessity ; anyone who, in normal times, CUTTING SUGAR CAXE SUGAR !5 cannot afford sugar is very poor indeed. Many such luxuries end by becoming necessities ; it was with sugar as it is coming to be with floor coverings, hardwood floors, and the telephone. Nowa- days we think we cannot get along without things which our ancestors never dreamed of having, and thus our life is constantly becoming more costly and more complicated. It is perhaps well for us that occasional pinches force us to drop back on the simpler things and to moderate some- what our insistence upon what are really luxuries. Sugar, however, while it is a luxury when used with reckless profusion, and while it may, so used, do detriment to the body, has its distinct food value, as some others of the luxuries have not. The cane and the beet. We return now to the common sources of com- mercial sugar. Of all the plants from which it is derivable, there are two which have stood the test better than the rest, namely, the sugar cane and the sugar beet. I'he former came into use long before the latter and deserves first mention. Sugar cane. This is a large, grasslike plant which thrives best within or near the tropics, where it grows to a height of twenty feet. The stems are often a couple of inches in diameter and have a tough outer covering inclosing the sugar-containing tissue, which is soft. Sugar cane is another very anciently cultivated plant, of Asiatic origin. Its culture spread westward to Africa, Sicily, and southern Spain, and thence, early in the sixteenth SUGAR BEETS 86 IXDL STRV AM) TRADK centun', to Brazil. It was introduced into Haiti in 1520 and soon afterwards was to be found in Mexico. Introduction of the cane. The Jesuits are said to have brought the cane to this country in 175 1, when they introduced some plants from San Domingo into Louisiana ; but httle headway was made until 1794, when persecuted Frenchmen fied from San Domingo to Louisiana. Later on the culture extended somewhat into Texas and also to the east; in 1805 an enterprising Georgia planter secured and set out one hundred young canes, which rapidly propagated, the culture being extended into Florida and Alabama. But it soon appeared that the Louisiana plantations were by far the most productive, and the industry never got on very well elsewhere; in 1850 eleven twelfths of the country's yield of cane sugar and molasses was from Louisiana. This situa- tion has not altered much in more recent years. In 1820 a hardier variety of cane was introduced from Java, which enabled the Louisiana plantations to be extended farther toward the north, with the result of much enlarging the area of production. The cane-sugar crop. Cane-sugar cultivation in this country has had its ups and downs. Until 1843 our imports exceeded the domestic production, but in that year the latter more than doubled the former; in 1846, 1848, and 1854 more was pro- duced here than was imported. Then came the Civil War, which ruined the industry: Louisiana produced 191,000 tons in 1862; 28,000 in 1864; 5000 in 1865. Not until 1871 did this state again reach 80,000 tons ; but shortly thereafter a more prosper- ous period set in. The average yield from 1886 to 1891 was 163,000 tons, and the expansion continued until the greatest pro- duction on record — 398,000 tons — was reached in 1904-1905. At present the annual yield averages between 200,000 and 300,000 tons for Louisiana, with a few thousand tons for all other districts in the United States proper. Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, however, produce much cane sugar. Conditions of cane-sugar production. It is said that the best climate for raising sugar cane is one whose average temperature SUGAR 87 is about 80° F. and where the rainfall is sixty inches or more a year. This is about three times the annual rainfall necessary for successful farming of cereal and vegetable crops. Sugar-cane culture belongs to the tropics and subtropics and can never be more than a local industry in this country. It is in British India, and especially in the two islands of Java and Cuba, that its greatest success is assured. Cuba produces considerably more than half of the whole amount for the continent of North America. "- !^ ',,.^:i.''v''*i^iu«^ A liEET-SUGAK KACTUKV Beet sugar. Despite the fact that the derivation of sugar from the beet is a modern achievement, nearly half of the world's present crop of commercial sugar is thus derived. Not until the middle of the last century did the industry rise into any promi- nence. J^ut its advent has wrought far-reaching changes in the whole sugar industry, which have reacted, in turn, upon the economic life of millions of people. Only a short time ago sugar, as we have seen, was a luxury ; to-day it is a staple article of consumption in most parts of the civilized world ; and it is largely the expansion of sugar-producing from its previous tropical fields that has allowed this change to come about. 88 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Sugar-beet raising. The sugar beet is a variety of the com- mon beet, and grows best in the cHmatic environment of north temperate latitudes ; a greater weight of roots per acre can be raised in warmer regions, but they are not so rich in sugar. As regards soil, wherever ordinary farm crops — wheat, maize, or potatoes — will grow, there the sugar beet will get on if the drainage is good. Beginnings of the beet-sugar industry. Toward the latter part of the eighteenth century it was shown, in Germany, that sugar could be obtained from beets. The first Napoleon did much to encourage the industry in France, especially in 1812, when the French were cut off by blockade from a cane-sugar supply ; at one time he caused the sum of a million francs to be appropriated to its encouragement. But after the fall of the emperor production almost died out. By 1820 it was reviving agaiii, and has since developed swiftly and extensively, until it is very large. In this country experiments began as early as 1838, one David Child, of Northampton, Massachusetts, having produced 1300 pounds of sugar in that year. In 1863 the Gennert Brothers, of Chats- worth, Illinois, went into the business on a 2400-acre tract ; they and a like establishment in Freeport consolidated in 1870 and produced in that year 200,000 pounds of sugar at moderate cost. Other experiments w^ere made in different places, and finally, about 1890, the production of this variety of sugar was firmly established ; up to that year only three factories had been estab- lished in the country, and they were all of small capacity. The beet-sugar crop. Our present production of beet sugar is over 700,000 tons, out of a world's total commercial production of somewhat less than 10,000,000 tons. Our states of largest yield are Colorado, California, Michigan, Utah, and Idaho. As yet, however, Europe has a great preponderance in the beet- sugar industry; European countries began earlier, and their governments have helped the industry by granting subsidies and liberal bounties. SUGAR 89 The Manufacture of Sugar Manufacture from the sugar cane. The first method of getting the sweet juice from the cane was the natural one of chewing and sucking ; the teeth were the mill. Then came the hand mill, which had two rollers, set upright and about an inch apart. Such machines, with wooden or iron rollers, were wasteful, for they extracted only about 25 to 40 per cent of the juice. Later on, steam power was intro- duced, the rollers were increased in number and size, and fi- nally in the modern mill the producer manages to extract 80 to 90 per cent of the sweet fluid. This is an unattractive-looking, dark-greenish substance with a pleasant odor. It contains impurities in the form of dirt, pieces of the plant, and various other foreign matters dis- solved in the juice, all of which must be removed. The older method of getting the sugar out was known as the " open-kettle " process, for the juice had to be boiled. It was treated chemically also in some of the processes, which helped tS bring to the sur- face a scum that could be taken off. The sirup was finally brought to a proper condition for granulation, which was a critical point in the procedure ; later it was led off into coolers for granulation ; and then the raw sugar had to be refined. The vacuum pan. Evaporation in open pans w-as slow and expensive. The most important improvement in turning the juice into sugar was made when it was discovered that the hot vapor FILTER PRESSES IN SUGAR MANUFACTURE 90 IM)L:STRV AM) TRADE rising from a vessel of boiling cane-juice could be used to evap- orate the water from a second reccj)tacle. Tlie idea was put into practice as early as 1S30, but the real credit of the invention i)e- longs to Norbert Rilleaux, of Louisiana. After much expense and labor had been undergone in working out tlie details of the invention, Rilleaux's apparatus was put into operation in 1845, It did not work so very well at first, but the tests of 1846 proved successful and laid the foundation for the elaborate system of evaporation now in use wherever capital and intel- ligence have combined to carry on the industry. By the middle of the century there were multiple evapo- rators, consisting of a series of pans, by the use of which up to 85 per cent of the water contained in the liquor is removed by steam. Additional processes. As early as 1834 bone black was introduced as a means of clarifying the sirup, and a nearly chemically pure white sugar was the result ; this was then shaped into loaves by the use of molds. Sugar is now treated with lime, phosphoric acid, and soda for removing the last impurities, and is bleached by sulphur dioxide. It is evaporated in a last pan, called "strike pan," to the point of crystallization. The molasses is separated from the sugar by whirling it in centrifugal machines. Manufacture from the sugar beet. The beets have first to be thoroughly cleaned ; following this they are dried and weighed MIN<,I.1\(, sL'GAR WITH FLUUJ BEFORE WASHING SUGAR 91 in scales which automatically dump their load when the desired weight is reached. The roots are then cut up for removal of the juice ; they were formerly reduced to pulp by pressure, but the slicing process has been found superior. The removal of impurities. The juice is extracted by water contact, which causes an exchange of the sugar juice within the plant for the water cells without. Raw-beet juice cannot be evaporated, for it contains certain foreign substances which cause it to become thick like gelatin if subjected to heat. These im- purities are removed by adding milk of lime to the juice, which is then heated, carbon dioxide being passed through the limed solution. The result is the removal of most of the impurities, though certain other chemical processes also must be employed before the standard purity is attained. The evaporation is then accomplished by the use of the vacuum pan. The process of sugar manufacture is very complicated, but these are the main facts. CHAPTER VIII COTTON Fibers. The agricultural products hitherto described have been chiefly food products ; practically all of them have been produced to be taken into the human or animal body. But now we come to a product whose fiber is sought, above all, as a material for clothing. It represents by far the most important material used by man as a body covering. Conditions of cotton-raising. Cotton, except for one variety, is not native to the New World, but the early discoverers and explorers found the Indians cultivating this variety from New Mexico to Brazil, north and south, and from the West Indies to Peru, east and west. The plant grows in widely scattered regions of the world, between the latitudes of 40° north and 30° south. It is a warm-climate crop, needing plenty of sunshine, copious rainfall during the growing season, and, for the best yield, a soil containing silty clay. If the pods open too soon it is bad for the crop ; on the other hand, frosts are a great danger. Early cotton-raising. The settlers of this country planted cotton as early as 1621, and it was under rather careful cultiva- tion in South Carolina by 1666 ; it appeared in Maryland gardens in 1739 and was tried in New Jersey shortly before the Revolu- tion. Owing, however, to the difficulty of separating the cotton fiber from the seed, and the slowness of hand-manufacturing, there was little demand for the raw product, either in this country or abroad, previous to the Revolution. 92 COTTON 93 Importance of the industry. From such humble beginnings has risen an enormous industry. In 1790 our cotton production was 4000 bales ; in 1850 it was nearly 2,300,000; in 1890, over 8,500,000. The present yield fluctuates around 15,000,000 bales. The world-demand for cotton has grown immensely during the last century and a half ; it has come to replace other fibers 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1900 1890 1880 1870 1860 1850 1840 1830 1820 1810 I8OOB 1790 1 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 %mm ^223 Ma '^MM.'ml COTTON PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1790 (IN MILLIONS OF 500-POUND BALES) After diagram in Statistical Atlas of the United States as the most common or widely used textile for the manufacture of clothing. It is a characteristic American product, just as spices are characteristic of the eastern world ; we raise, in an average year, about three fifths of the world's raw cotton. Cotton has been an outstanding factor in our national history and development : it has exerted a strong influence upon our political, industrial, and commercial life ; it has had a most important bearing upon the labor question ; it has affected our diplomatic relations with other countries ; and it has been for decades the dominant source of our purchasing power abroad. 94 INDUSTRY AND TRADE ELI WHITNEY Conditions favoring the industry. What brought cotton to its dominant position was a combination of favoring circumstances. In England cotton was for a long time used as an adulterant for linen, but it was not thought that cloth could be made from it alone. Then came the invention of machines (improved loom, water frame, spinning jenny, power loom, steam engine), enabling the spin- ning and weaving of cotton to be readily accomplished. And at length came the Whitney cotton gin, which so far surpassed all previous types of gin that it did away with the arduous labor of separating the cotton fiber from the seed, and gave cotton at once a great lead over other fibers in utility and cheapness. The inven- tion was made by Eli Whitney, of New Haven, Connecticut, in 1792. Furthermore, the expansion of the country toward the southwest was favor- able to the advance of cotton-raising ; from the original centers it extended into Ala- bama, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Then the Louisiana Purchase gave us Louisiana, Arkansas, and other territory beyond the Mississippi, and the state of Mississippi began to develop rapidly. Florida was annexed in 1820, and Texas acquired, at length, in 1845. And all this time the foreign demand was on whitxey's cottox gin COTTON 95 the steady increase. Such facts explain in large part the rapidity and extent of the growth of cotton culture. Effect of the Civil War. The Civil War practically stopped production for four years ; and the interest of the outside world in cotton was so great as almost to lead to European intervention in favor of the South. Production was attempted in the North, but the climate made it unsuccessful ; the plants flourished well COLORADO COTTON-PRODUCING AREAS OF THE UNITED STATES After map in Bulletin S'o. isi, United States Bureau of the Census enough, but the bolls containing the fiber would not mature. As soon as the war was over we again took our place as the world's chief producer of cotton ; a production of nearly 4,500,000 bales, in 1859, had fallen almost to zero, and then, by 1869, had re- covered to about 2,750,000; but the output had gotten back to over 5,200,000 in 1879. Varieties of cotton. The so-called "' cotton belt " of our country is about 1450 miles long, from east to west, and about 500 miles wide, from north to south, and includes all the southeastern states from the North Carolina coast through Texas. Within lliis belt 96 INDUSTRY AND TRADE there are two kinds of cotton grown : the " sea-island " and the " American upland," The former is the best type, from the stand- point of trade, to be found in the world ; its fiber is longer and finer than that of any other variety. This was the plant native to the New World, and therefore the one known to the Indians before the Discovery. The very best of this variety is grown on the sea islands along the coast of South Carolina, but not a little of it is found on the mainland of Georgia and Florida. Only a little — under 100,000 bales — is raised ; and it is so highly prized that a large part of the crop is ex- ported. The upland cot- ton is the variety most commonly grown in this coun- try, and is thus most largely rep- resented in commerce ; it is not native, but is supposed to have been brought here from Asia through Europe. The fiber is of medium length, and shorter and coarser than that of sea-island. Nature of the plant. The cotton plant is cultivated as an annual ; that is, the seed is sown every year, and when the plant has produced its full yield of pods it is destroyed. It is a low shrub, that develops a pod, or boll, containing the seeds (about the size of small peas) and a quantity of " lint," which clings tightly to the seeds, the whole bursting, at maturity, out of the boll. The fiber is from half an inch to two and a half inches in length, and it takes about seventy-five medium-sized bolls to make a A COTTON-PICKIXG MACHINE COTTON 97 pound of raw cotton. The fiber is of such construction that its strands cHng together and do not sHp on one another ; this enables them to be twisted into thread, and finally woven into cloth, even though they are short. Harvesting. The harvesting of the crop has been done up to the present time almost wholly by hand ; the cotton-picking season COTTON OINS IN AN UP-TO-DATF, COTTON MILL was one of the busiest times under the old slave system, and it is still a period that calls for much hand labor. The bolls do not all ripen at the same time, and a machine that will pick off the ripe bolls may so injure the plant that the unripe ones may not mature properly. Cotton is usually picked four times a season, the largest yield coming from the second picking, and the small- est from the last. Though cotton-picking is unskilled labor, and cheap, yet this item is the costliest in cotton production. An average day's work for one person would be the picking of a 98 INDUSTRY AND TRADE hundred pounds ; it would thus take three milhon people two months to gather a big crop. Preparation for the market. Nothing can be done with the fiber until it is separated from the seeds. Here is where its manu- facture really begins. Superseding hand labor here, the cotton gin rapidly and efficiently combs out the seeds ; then the fiber is worked out into sheets, and in that form goes to the press. The seed was at first thrown away, but, as will presently be seen, it is now a valuable by- product. The bales were formerly made by tramp- ling the fibers in a box ; but machinery now bales the cotton much more compactly, bagging it and inclosing it in iron bands without human assistance. The bales w^eigh about five hundred pounds apiece. Localities of cotton- manufacture. The indus- try calls for advancing transportation facilities, for the bales must be carried to the factories. And the chief factory region is still in New England ; only recently has Southern cotton-manufacturing made a serious bid for first place. New England has possessed certain local advantages for manufacture : water supply, nearness to materials and fuel, nearness to markets, favorable climate, a good supply of efficient labor, plenty of capital, and, of course, the momentum of an early start. Massachusetts is still the leading cotton-manufacturing state, but in recent years North Carolina has come to occupy second place. SIMXNIXG COTTON IN THE OLDEN DAYS COTTON 99 Spinning. The immediate product of the cotton fiber is thread, and the thread has to be spun. This was a famihar process in very ancient times, and consisted, at the outset, of merely rolhng the fibers by hand ; then the spindle, a sort of top-like instrument, was invented. Much more modern is the spinning wheel, of which examples may be seen in any collection of colonial instruments. This wheel was used chiefly for wool and flax, but it is an important link in the chain leading to all modern spinning and weaving de- vices. Then came the spin- ning jenny, which enabled a number of threads to be spun by one operator at the same time ; and the water frame (so called because run by water power) and the mule, by which stronger threads could be spun and the process otherwise improved. The detailed description of these various inventions can be found in standard encyclopedias. To-day the spinning mule has more than a thousand spindles, all of which are operated by one person. Weaving. Jkit the threads are of comparatively little avail until they are woven into a fabric. Weaving has been long known among even the most backward peoples, who made baskets by interlacing reeds or withes ; then fiber threads were employed and a loose-textured cloth manufactured. The instrument here employed was the loom, in combination with the shuttle. Threads were hung from a cross-piece of wood, or a branch, and other threads passed over and under them, as in the stringing of a tennis A MODKRN SI'INNING MACHINK 100 INDUSTRY AND TRADE racket ; the shuttle carried the end of the cross-thread. These instruments are the basis of modern weaving machines ; first came the apphcation of foot power, and then the power loom, patented in 1785, It is impossible in a book of this kind to give even an approximate notion of the working of these more complicated inventions — again we refer to the standard encyclopedias. AN OLn-FASHIONED LOOM The factory system. Now it is to be noted that the earlier spindles and looms were used in the home, but the developed machines, costly as they were, demanded not only more room than the cottage could spare but also much capital. They naturally led to the development of factory industry to replace that of the home. With these inventions fewer workers could turn out a much larger product in a much shorter time, and the result was a great wave of misery for people who had hitherto gotten along pretty well by the work of their hands. Many such cottage workmen could not live in the old countries under the new conditions, COTTON lOi and this was one of the reasons for the immigration of such a fine and industrious element of population into the United States. The period is that of the Indus- trial Revolu- tion, brought about chiefly by the inven- THK INTERMEDIATE ROVING FRAME, WHERE SPINDLES TAKE OFF, DOUBLE, AND TWIST AGAIN THE ROLL, OR ROPE tions, which we have al- ready told of, in the textile manufacture. Merceriz- ing. Several other impor- tant processes of great moment are also connected with the manu- facture of cloth ; for example, mercerizing. This process, as applied to cotton, consists in treating the yarns or woven goods with caustic soda and sulphuric acid, the result being to give the surface of the material a smoother finish and also a luster like that of silk. The process suc- ceeds best with sea- island fiber, since this is naturally somewhat beaming the wari* to he washed and dvi:d I02 INOrSTRV AND TRADE silky. Of course if cotton can be made to look like silk, it is a more valuable fabric ; it can be used also to adulterate silk. Dyeing and finishing. The dyeing and finishing of cotton goods is also very important ; more than half of the cottons woven in this country are colored, by dyeing or printing, before they are used. Some of the commonest modern dyes are prod- ucts of coal tar, a thick, dark liquid that gathers in gas pipes when the gas is being taken from the coal ; from it some most remarkable results have been reached in the production of dyes of several colors. The dyeing is done sometimes before the spinning takes place and sometimes after the weaving is done ; to make it permanent a mordant, or " biter," is used to fix, or "bite in," the color. Such a material is alum. In general the vegetable dyes are less likely to fade than the mineral ones. Cottonseed Uses of the seed. When the cottonseed, once separated from the fiber, ceased simply to be thrown away, it was employed to some extent as fertilizer ; but all this is now changed, for the seed has been discovered to have many uses formerly unknown. For example, it yields a valuable oil. The Chinese knew this a long time ago and used the oil for illuminating purposes. In the western world it was the Englisli who first made oil from cotton- seed, and in this country the industry dates from about 1870. Treatment of the seed. The seed is first ginned over again to take off the fuzz, or "linters," still sticking to the seed ; then the hulls are removed and the seed crushed under heavy pressure. The oil is used in cookery, in soap-making, and to mix with other oils. And this is not all that is gotten from the seed. The cake left after pressing is dried and pulverized, forming cotton- seed meal, which is used to feed stock and also as fertilizer. Cottonseed meal constitutes almost as great a value in this coun- try as the oil. Even the husks of the seed are useful ; formerly they were burned and the ashes used as fertilizer, but now they are mixed with the meal to make stock feed. ' Batting Wadding ct..ffi t^^„\ f„, /Pads, cushions, comforts, horse collars, Stuffing material for I mattresses, upholstery Absorbent cotton Mixing with shoddy LiNTERS"\ Mixing with wool in hat-making Mixing with lamb"s wool for fleece-lined underwear Felt Low-grade yams — Lampwicks and candlewicks, twine, rope, carpets f Smokeless powder ^Coating for metals 'Varnishes < Artificial leather l^ Waterproofing ■Cellulose (^ Pyroxylin Writing paper ^ Guncotton, nitrocellulose, or pyrocellulose - Feed Fertilizer Fuel ' Packing Hulls "i Household utensils Bran — Cattle feed {Stuffing for horse collars Basis for explosives Cellulose — Used same as under Linters Paper stock — Pressed-paper products ' Fertilizer Dyestuffs r Cattle I Poultry' 'Cake and Meal-J Feed for-^ Horses and mules Swine ^ L Sheep ( Bread ^ Flour ' ^ Cake I^Cracker ' Cosmetics r Celluloid Collodion Plastics < Varnishes Artificial silk [^Photographic films Meats-. Crude r Animal compound lard Bleached or deodorized oil -i Cooking oil |_ Salad oil Hydrogen- /Lard substitutes ated oil \Synthetic stearin— Vegetable compound lard Prime summer^ f Salad oil yellow oil ] rWinter oil J ^'^"'"8 o''\es w mter on < p^^^-^^^^ sardines Cold pressed oil -^ [^Winter white oil 'Refined] (^Stearin- Oleomargarine oil 1 Emulsion for medical purposes I Substitute for sweet oil (^ Deodorized oil Off-grade sum-f'^^in'^rs' oil , ™"y^"°^°''lHi^rogenated oil — S>'nthetic stearin — Soap Putty f Washing I powder ['Glycerin — Nitroglycerin 1 Acidulated P'oots-; foots or black grease .Soap 'Candle pitch acids Stearic acid — Candles Washing powder Soap ' Roofing /Composition tar \ roofing linoleums Distilled Insulating materials fat ■! Stearin pitch or J Oilcloth acids cotton-oil pitch] Waterproofing Cheap-paint base Cotton rubber Artificial/ 1 ■pholstcring lcather\ Bookbinding PRODUCTS AND USKS OF COT'IONSF-ED ^ Possible uses to which small (luanlities only arc dcvolcd. 103 104 INin-STRY AND TRADE By-products. In all industries there is much waste at the outset. It is not then seen to be waste, because there is no known use for what is discarded. But as time goes on and the competition of industries becomes keener, the processes are studied more and more minutely and every effort is made to save ; for the saving of apparently useless materials often makes the difference between the successful plant and the one which goes PICKING AND LOADING COTTON under. We reproduce on page 103, from a recent Ccjisns Bulletin, a chart of the products and uses of cottonseed, to give the reader some idea of the saving that has been accomplished from what was once a waste product — in fact, a public nuisance, for the rotting seed, forming as it did a mass of decaying matter, was sometimes that. The cotton cities. All of our great industries, including cotton culture, have contributed strongly to the development of cities and transportation interests ; as Chicago centers upon the grain busi- ness and Pittsburgh on steel and iron, so have Charleston, Savannah, Galveston, Vicksburg, and Memphis centered upon the cotton industry. This industry has practically made these Southern towns, as the other industries mentioned have made the Northern ones, and it has done this very largely by forcing a development of transportation. PART III. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES CHAPTER IX CATTLE Killing the animals. Domestic animals represent one of the great conquests of man over nature. When all animals were wild, they meant to man only what they meant to one another — a source of danger, a source of food, or a competition for food that both parties wanted. In any case the animals represented an unfriendly, when it was not a hostile, element in man's environ- ment. A large part of man's activity has been expended in killing the animals — sometimes simply for his own comfort in being rid of them, as in the case of the lion or the mosquito, and again for the sake of feeding on their bodies. That he has been very successful in this enterprise is a matter of general knowledge, though there are still certain minute living things that he cannot yet eradicate, such as the microscopic germs of disease. Domestication, liut man did not confine himself to utilization of the dead bodies of the animals ; he learned, after a while, to capture them alive and to tame them. Then they bred in cap- tivity, and he surrounded himself with numbers of them which he had domesticated and upon which he could rely for a constant supply of food. This domestication of animals was one of the greatest of human exploits, for it made life much less subject to chance ; food-getting in the hunt was always more or less 105 io6 INDUSTRY AND IRADE precarious, but now man could get from his animals not only food but articles for clothing and shelter. And he learned, besides, to employ the special qualities of his animals — the scent of the dog, the strength of the ox, the swiftness of the horse — to assist him in the struggle for existence. Possessing them, he became really as keen as the dog, as strong as the ox, as swift as the horse ; he appropriated their qualities to himself and lived his life the more safely and successfully thereby. Breeding. And as he bred his beasts he selected for preser- vation those which he most valued. These were the ones which produced the next generation, and that next generation kept and even increased through inheritance the desirable qualities of the parents. Man became able to mold by his action the qualities of his domestic animals ; he bred them for the things which he wanted of them, and animal-breeding became a science and an art that produced the most astonishing results in adapting the animals to man's purposes. Some of the domestic animals have been bred, in the course of ages, to be so different from the wild stock from which they came that we cannot be sure as to just what that stock was. The same is true, of course, in regard to domesticated plants, but it is more striking, perhaps, in the case of animals ; for, though animals were more plainly hostile to man, yet they have been pulled over, as it were, from the ranks of his enemies to fight on his side in the battle of life. Wealth in domesticated animals. The wealth of a country in these days, long after the beginnings which we have sketched, lies in good part in its domestic animals. They still furnish the materials for food, clothing, and shelter, and they have not ceased to be useful in assisting man in his labors. In our modern civili- zation the most important domestic animals are cattle, horses, sheep, swine, and goats. These were all domesticated ages ago, and the form in which we know them is, as we have said, quite altered from that shown by their ancestors when first they became attached to man's service. In a very real sense they have been made what man ranked them to be. CATTLE 107 Origin of the best breeds. It takes a high civihzation to produce a highly bred domestic animal ; savages have not the knowledge, skill, or means for producing and holding a special and superior breed. To keep up a good breed, it is necessary to prevent it from crossing with inferior or wild stocks ; there must be in- closures, which the savage seldom has. Hence the best domestic breeds have come from regions of old and advanced civilization ; that is, from the Old World, and chiefly from those parts of it where human civilization began — namely, in southern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. This explains in part why the Americas have contributed no important domestic animal to the world. Few American breeds. But America seems also to have been singularly lacking in animals suitable for domestication. The Indians domesticated the llama and alpaca, but these were never of more than local importance. The bison was not domesticated ; probably the hunting was so plentiful that there was no stimulus toward domestication. But when the Old World animals were once introduced, they were found to be well adapted to our climate, vegetation, and environment in general ; the horse, for example, originally brought by the Spanish, ran wild in great herds over the Western plains. At the present time the United States form one of three main sources of supply for animal food- products, the other two being Argentina and Australasia. Cattle The beginnings of American cattle-raising. Bulls and cows were first brought to America by Columbus in 1493 ; the Spanish breeds were introduced into Mexico about 1525 and form the basis of the Texan stock. From these were probably derived the cattle possessed by the Indians at the end of the seventeenth century. Portuguese cattle were introduced into Newfoundland in 1553, and the French brought Norman cattle into Canada a little later on. The various colonists from the northern iuir()]:)ean I OS INDUSTRY AND I'RADK countries introduced tlieir own breeds, l-roni these various stocks descended the great numbers of cattle found later in the United States. In the early days, and for a long period, cattle were valued chiefly for their hides, and breeding for the purpose of keeping stock pure was not much attended to until early in the nineteenth century. Oxen were used for heavy labors, for in colonial days horses were far too costly for farm work. One or two cows were kept for their dairy products, which were chiefly for home use, though if there was a surplus it could be disposed of at the village store. The demand for meat. It was with the concentration of popu- lation in towns and cities that there developed a demand for cattle as a meat supply. In New York, in 1678, we are told, the average number slaughtered yearly was four hundred, and in 1694, four thousand. In 1680 the price of beef was about two and a half pence a pound. Neglect of cattle. For the first half-century of our colonial period the cattle, especially in the winter, were much neglected ; shelter was not provided, or, if it was, it afforded little protection. Cows were not milked in the winter, for there was a prevalent belief that winter-milking would kill them. Little or no food was stored for cattle ; even in winter they browsed on what they could find in the fields and along the roads. Naturally they became very thin and poor in the cold season, and many of them died of hunger and exposure. In general, they were much smaller than our present stock. The horses were worked hard and under- fed ; after a heavy day's work they were simply turned into poor pasture, and the same sort of neglect was the portion of the sheep and swine. Westward movement of the industry. Cattle-raising is a busi- ness characteristic of frontiers, and as the frontier in this country moved westward, the cattle industry moved with it. At the same time the growth of population in the East created a demand for meat products ; the first fattened or stall-fed cattle that ever crossed the Alleghenies journeyed on the hoof from Ohio to CATTLE 109 Baltimore in the spring of 1805. This was the only way to get cattle from the frontier over the mountains to the region of demand. Beginning early in the century, then, there developed a profitable industry in the fattening of cattle on corn during the winter, the animals being driven to the East when the spring came. Ohio and its neighboring states first developed this enter- prise. Then, early in the second quarter of the century, there DISTKIBUTIOX OF CATTI.E (OTHRR THAN MILCH COWS) BY STATES (NUMBERS IN THOUSANDS) After map in Monthly Crop Report arose an interest in improving the breeds of live stock ; the ex- hibits of cattle at county fairs stimulated an interest in this matter. The industry began to take on a modern tinge and to show its possibilities ; improvement brought prosperity and profits, and success stimulated to further improvement. The cattle states. The industry continued to follow the frontier. As late as 1850 the states having the greatest number of cattle lay, with one exception (Ohio), along the Atlantic seaboard ; the states having over one million cattle were, in order, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida. Fifty years later there no INDLSIRV AM) I'RADE were eighteen states and territories which had at least a miihon cattle each, but by this time the great cattle states were in the West, with Texas, Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska in the lead. The Eastern states, which had formerly contained extensive areas suit- able for grazing, had been filling up with population, and these sections became too valuable for the former purpose. Then, also, grazing on the large scale called for even more extensive areas KOUXD-UP' ON A WESTERN RAN'CH of pasture. The very best environment for stock-raising on the large scale is, for this country, the High Plains region, just east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Not only are the choicest grazing grounds here, but because of deficiency of rainfall for farming the agriculturist puts up but small competition ; rainfall insufficient for farming, however, may be quite adequate for grazing. Cowboys and farmers. In recent years the development of irrigation in the semi-arid regions of the West is making some impression on the cattle-raising industry. The encroachment of the farmer has often resulted in a hot set-to between him and CATTLE III the cowboy — between the "fence men" and the "no-fence men." The cowboys resented anything, hke a fence, that might Hmit freedom of motion and of utihzation of pasture ; and they used to cut the wire fences and otherwise hamper the farmer in his business. It is the old fact again that as soon as an area ceases to be frontier, with characteristic frontier conditions, then it is no longer suitable for a frontier occupation, such as grazing. iJISTKIlil'TIoX OF .MIIXH COWS 15Y STATES (NUMUEKS IN THOUSANDS) After map in Monthly Crop Report However, from some of these regions where irrigation and plant- ing are in vogue beef is still shipped out in large quantities ; this beef production is due in good part to the alfalfa, an immigrant crop well suited to dry regions, several harvests of which can be cut in a season. During the winter months, and in periods of great drought, alfalfa is the staple food of the cattle. Progress of the industry. The development of cattle-raising in this country has shown rapid progress in the last half-century. Of all our domestic animals cattle form the largest item ; but their value is considerably less than that of the crops raised on our farms. In a recent year the states having the greatest number 112 INDUSTRY AND TRADE of milch cows were Wisconsin, New York, Iowa, and Minnesota ; those having the largest number of other cattle were Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. Many of the states in the High Plains region have great numbers of cattle other than milch cows. The latter are conspicuous by their absence, because these states are far remote from the great milk-consuming centers of population. Refrigeration. The marketing of fresh beef in places remote from the locations of raising and slaughtering the animals, to say ICING REFRIGERATOR CARS nothing of an export trade in this commodity, has had, in its development, a strong bearing upon our cattle-raising industry. These enterprises were possible only with the progress of re- frigeration, which has been practiced since about 1875. The early refrigerator car was an adaptation of the freight car ; double floors, roofs, and sides were provided, and the intervening spaces were packed with sawdust. The car had a large ice-box, the water from which, as from a common refrigerator, dripped out through a hole in the bottom of the car. The first shipment of refriger- ated fresh beef forwarded under such conditions was made from CATTLE 1 1 3 Chicago to Jersey City in the seventies. Naturally the sale of beef in distant markets greatly stimulated the production of cattle raised for meat. Export of fresh beef. Then came the export of fresh beef across the ocean. In 1875 a New York merchant shipped a few carcasses to Liverpool by steamer, the meat being kept cool by hand-operated fans. The project was successful and was repeated later in that year on a larger scale, the fans being operated by steam ; and presently the shipments, while still very small as compared with later ones, had increased markedly in amount. Since these beginnings the industry has steadily progressed, and improved methods have been introduced to keep the meat in good condition. An idea of the sudden growth of the industry can be gained from the fact that while in October, 1875, our exports of fresh beef totaled only a few thousand pounds, for March, 1877, they amounted to over 6,700,000 pounds, and for the whole year 1877 they exceeded over 55,000,000 pounds. Export of live stock. About the time that fresh beef began to be exported there commenced also the foreign shipment of live stock. This industry continues to-day on a large scale, for British and other European importers prefer to slaughter the animals themselves where practicable. Accordingly we find numerous steamers leaving our coastal cities loaded with live stock destined mainly for Great Britain. It is rather more expensive to ship the cattle alive than to send the beef, for some cattle die on the way, others fall off in weight, and all of them have to be fed during progress to the coast and on the voyage. Meat packing. A further powerful stimulus to cattle-raising has been the tremendous expansion of the meat-packing industry. Time was when thousands of cattle were slaughtered each year for their hides, tallow, and horns, their fiesh being discarded be- cause there was no method of preserving the meat except by drying, or "jerking." About 1880 was perfected the process of hermetically sealing meat in tin cans, which enabled it to be kept for a long period. Then arose great packing plants in places TT4 INDUS I' RV AND TRADK wlicrc cattle were fattened and slaughtered. The earlier packing plants were in Chicago and Cincinnati, but later Omaha, Kansas City,andother centers devel- oped and be- came impor- tant. In con- nection with meat-packing, what we have said in regard to cottonseed A STAGE i\ MILK DisTRiiiuTioN manufacturc The milk has been shipped from the country to the city in refrigerator ShOUlu DC re- cars, and this team hauls it to the distributing points in the city railed With cattle also we find the development of processes for utilizing every scrap of useful material in the animal carcasses, and also the combination of a number of contributory industries around a main plant. Dairy Products Development of the dairy- industry. The production of milk for food is an im- portant branch of the cattle industry. We have seen that the colonial farmers generally kept cows, and that their butter and cheese were homemade. But as population increased, the villages had to be supplied by neighboring farmers who peddled the milk every day ; and the business has grown and developed FILLING CREAM l;()TTI.i:s 1;V HAND SOURCES OV TIIK MII.K SriM'I.Y OF NEW YORK CITY "5 ii6 IXDl'STRV AND TRADK as city populations have had to be suppHed from the surrounding country. The map will give some idea of the extent to which a big city is always drawing upon the country. Also the means of transportation has altered ; the small milk wagon has given way to the automobile and to the milk trains which daily rush, in the early morning hours, into the large cities. Modern sanitary methods. And the dairy industry has been much complicated by the modern demands for cleanliness and BOTTLING MILK IN A SANITARY DAIRY sanitation. Milk easily becomes impure and soon spoils, so that neatness and speed are essential if there is to be no disease com- ing from the milk supply. In the best of modern dairies the cows are milked by machinery, the attendants are dressed as care- fully as surgical nurses, and the milk is pasteurized. Inspection by municipal authorities is frequent, and unsanitary establishments are speedily put out of business. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of pure milk as food, and authorities have come to insist very rigidly upon its quality. This has, of course, resulted in an increase in the price of milk, but the benefit is worth the CATTLE 117 cost ; it is astonishing that there was not more disease in the past, considering the carelessness with which the milk supply used to be treated. Butter and cheese. Butter and cheese are two very important products of the dairy. The centers of their production need not be so near the market as in the case of milk. Until 1830 cheese was made in the farmhouses, and was given in exchange for sup- plies from the village stores ; but thereafter it was realized that there were profits in cheese-making, and a change in the manu- facture came about. Separate "' cheese houses " were built on farms, and about the middle of the century the cheese factory came into vogue. The milk was collected over a wide area, con- veyed to a favorably located factory, and there converted into cheese. The cheese factory, says one author, is the gift of the New York dairymen to the world. The factory system spread rapidly between i860 and 1870; by 1866 the state of New York alone had over five hundred factories, and by 1870 there were about thirteen hundred in the whole country. In recent times the industry has continued to expand in a remarkable degree. Similarly butter factories have developed to take the place of the former home industry. Centers of the dairy industry. Such specialization in the pro- duction of dairy products has resulted in giving us a dairy indus- try quite distinct from the live-stock industry with which it was more closely associated in its beginnings. The main centers of the dairy industry are in the Eastern states and in the various states of the corn belt. Other products. There are other products of cattle-raising be- sides the beef and the milk. Chief among these are the hides. Cattle-raising is a different thing when leather is the product con- templated. Rut these a.spects of the subject are to receive mention in a later chapter (XXII). ^M^JIi'ililiS n'-M^.Vri ^^■^ggS^.^i^fc?^- CHAPTER X SWINE AND SHEEP SwiXE Nature of the animal. Swine were native to the Far East, but spread in very early times to the western world. They are easy to keep, being tame and hardy ; and of all our domestic food animals they are the most prolific. They come to maturity in a few months. We kill, in an average year, over three quarters of our hogs without impairing their numbers. Further, the hog is not particular in the matter of his diet — is, in fact, a fine door- yard scavenger, eating anything and everything with cheerful lack of discrimination. It is pretty easy to keep a pig, and if facilities are available it is profitable to rear large numbers. Early stages of the industry. Hogs were introduced into this hemisphere by Columbus in 1493. Later, the Spanish brought them to Florida, and the Portuguese to Nova Scotia and Newfound- land. There were swine in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609 ; and they reproduced so rapidly thereabouts that people had to build palisades to keep them out of town. They were introduced into the Plymouth colony in 1624 and into New York the following year. But these early arrivals were of inferior quality ; it has taken care- ful breeding, selection, and feeding to produce the best breeds of the present. In early colonial days, and on the Western frontier later on, pigs were not always, or even usually, kept in pens, but were allowed to run wild and feed on nuts, roots, and other forage. 118 SWINE AND SHEEP 1 19 The wide use of pork. Pork has always been a palatable and, at the same time, a comparatively cheap meat. This is due chiefly to the fact that the hog lives on cheap food and is so wonderfully prolific. Pork is a favorite meat practically all over the world, even among many savage peoples ; for the hog easily adapts himself to a variety of natural conditions and is at home almost anywhere. Breeds of swine. Aside from the unimproved variety of swine there are numerous breeds well known to stock-raisers. Large size was formerly the chief aim of the breeding, without much regard being paid to the proportions of the body. Not until after the Revolution was much attention paid to improving our breeds of swine, but during the succeeding half-century considerable progress was made. Between 1820 and 1S30 the Chester White breed was developed by crossing some white swine common in Pennsylvania with some imported white stock from England ; and about 1830 the Berkshire breed was introduced from England. The latter breed yielded a good percentage of lean meat and was in favor as a producer of bacon and ham ; but it was not until 1870 that it came into general favor. The Poland-China breed was developed in Ohio about 1840 by crossing other breeds; known under a variety of names until 1872, it was finally termed Poland-China in that year by a national convention of swine- breedcrs. Further favorable results were attained by crossing this breed with the Berkshire. It is astonishing to what scientific accuracy and effectiveness hog-breeding has now advanced ; to become an expert breeder requires much ability, study, and experience. Says an expert, writing in the Twelfth Census Report : The interest in swine-breeding in recent years is illustrated by the dates of first registration of the different swine-breeders' associations, which were as follows: American Beriishire, 1875; Standard Poland-China, 1877; Central Poland-China, 1879; American Chester White, 1884; American Essex, i8cS7; American Duroc-Jersey, 1890; and Standard Chester White, 1890. As a result of this interest on the part of breeders, swine in this country have attained an admirable standard with regard to form, bone, per cent of offal, and line of maturity. I20 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Pork and slavery. Swine production in this country's earlier daj's had its close relations with slavery. Bacon was a cheap food, and was in great demand in the slave states for the slaves. But the planters who had the slaves did not raise many pigs, in view of the far greater profits to be obtained in planting a few large crops, such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar. This allowed parts of the country better adapted to hog-raising to find a favorable market for their pork products in the slave states ; the corn states HOGS i;i:iN(; (okn-mji imik .market in the northwestern section and in the Central West seized the opportunity and came to command the Southern market. For corn and hogs go together — w'here you find the one you are likely to find the other. "Hog and hominy" has been almost a synonym for food in general in certain parts of the country. " Corn on the hoof." This relation of the two industries of corn-raising and hog-raising deserves further attention. It appears that certain farmers discovered that corn-fed pork was sweeter and otherwise superior to the swill-fed. But in the days before the building of Western railways corn was cheap enough, we have seen, to be used as fuel ; it was certainly a sufficiently inexpen- sive stock food, for it sold, at times, for five or six cents a bushel. SWINE AND SHEEP 121 The idea developed of herding the hogs in pens, instead of letting them range about as formerly, and of feeding them on the abun- dant corn. This enabled hog-raisers to put them on the market well fattened at any time they wished ; and, once the enterprise had proved itself practicable, the industry developed rapidly in the corn states. This was about seventy years ago, in such states as Kentucky and its neighbors just north of the Ohio River ; and from this region the indus- try spread farther west- ward with the march of population beyond the Mississippi. Even when railroads had come to form a network over these states, hog-raising continued on a large scale, because the pork could be sent to mar- ket as readily as the corn ; thus the corn was sent in "on the hoof." A large pork-packing business soon developed in the Western cities ; for Western hogs were largely packed when slaughtered, whereas those of the East were more commonly consumed freshly killed. The cities conspicuously associated with the pork-packing business in its earlier stages were Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Louisville. Location of the industry. At the present day the swine belt is practically identical with the corn belt. The great region for swine, not only for the United States but for the world, is that group of corn-producing states which we have already had occa- sion to mention : Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, PORK IX A PACKING-HOUSE, CHICAGO 122 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Texas, Kansas, and Ohio. Considerably more than half of the swine in the country arc to be found in these eight states, which retain a large percentage of their corn, in order to con\ert it into pork before it is disposed of. The " lard hog " and the " bacon hog." The American hog is called the lard hog, as distinguished from the so-called bacon hog of Canada and luu'ope. It is the corn that makes the difference, DISTRIBUTION' OF SWINE BY STATES (NUMBERS IN THOUSANDS) After map in Monthly Crop Report for it is a great fattener ; while the bacon hog comes from the barley-growing districts of Canada and Europe. It is because barley costs more than corn to produce that the stock-raiser can- not afford to feed grain to the swine ; they live as far as possible on grass, and especially clover. But this diet results in "more lean meat in the pig's body than is found in the American hog, and those in America who like English bacon must send abroad for it. We therefore import bacon, although we export to PZngland and Ireland vast quantities of cheaper pork. The most important center of European hog-raising is in the barley regions of Germany SWINE AND SHEEP 123 and Russia, along the Baltic ; these countries, next to the United States, are the largest producers of hogs ; but we raise sexeral times as many of these animals per annum as the two combined. Pork-packing. In the case of swine, likewise, appear the wonderful economy and efficiency of the packing plant. Nothing is wasted. Hair, intestines, hoofs, and bones are utilized for mattresses, brushes, sausage casings, glue, fertilizer, and other products. Grease, soap, gelatin, etc. are by- products. The pack- ing plants turn out more than a hundred articles which are not used as food. The meat is marketed in almost every known form — fresh, salted, smoked, canned, pick- led, dried, and so on. Slaughtering. In the case of hogs, we are led to remark upon the rapidity and effi- ciency of the slaugh- tering. This astonishing development of industry comes out, of course, in the butchering of cattle and sheep, but it is perhaps more in evidence in the case of the hog. Says a writer in the Twelfth Census Report : FHXING TUliS WITH I'UHIC LAKl) The hogs are driven to a large solid wheel, with chains fastened at inter- vals along the rim. With these chains the hog is shackled by one hind leg. The wheel revolves, slowly raising the squealing porker. As he gets near the top, the hog is detached automatically from the wheel, and a hook attached to a sloping rail carries the victim to the butcher. With a swift moti(jn, almost 124 INDUSTRY AND TRADE mechanical because of its long practice, the throat is cut lengthways, and the caroiss is run along a short distance to allow the blood to run out, which is drawn off and used largely in the manufacture of fertilizers. After a short time has been allowed for this draining, the carcass is plunged into a bath of scalding water. It is then brought automatically to a table, across which it is dragged through a scraping machine by an endless chain. This machine does the work better than it could be done by hand, leaving the bristles in much better condition. It does its work very thoroughly, its blades being mounted on cylinders coming in contact with every part of the body. To insure perfect results, the body is then gone over by hand scrapers, after which the carcass is thoroughly washed with a hose. Next the head is nearly severed, the gambrels are cut, and the body suspended by them from the rail. The body is then opened and dressed, the leaf lard is removed, the head is taken off, the tongue removed, and, lastly, the body is split in two. All this is done at the rate of twenty hogs per minute. Thence the two halves go to the chill room, where they remain about twenty-four hours, until after the animal heat has left the body and it is thoroughly chilled. After this the sides are run to the cutting tables. Sheep Utility of the animal. The sheep is yet another of the anciently domesticated animals ; the wealth of the Israelites and other pas- toral peoples of antiquity was largely in sheep, which were origi- nally raised for their skins and milk as well as for their meat. They also figured largely in religious ceremonies, being one of the chief sacrifices. In modern times they are valued for their flesh and wool ; and improvements in breeding are designed to better their qualities along these lines. Early sheep-raising. There were wild sheep in America before the Discovery (the Rocky Mountain sheep has always been an interesting animal to the hunter), but there were no traces of domestication. Later the Indians of the arid states of the South- west became great sheep-raisers, but their animals were descended from Old World stock. The domesticated sheep was probably a native of Asia and thence spread widely over the face of the earth. Columbus, once more, was responsible for the introduction of the Old World product; he brought sheep to America in 1493. Of all the early European settlers the Spanish and English were SWINE AND SHEEP 125 most active in bringing over the sheep. In the sixteenth century the Spaniards introduced them into Florida and Mexico, where they multipHed rapidly and whence they speedily spread both north and south, especially into Texas, New Mexico, and Utah. The English brought sheep to Virginia in 1609, but their increase was slow at first, owing to the destructive activity of wild animals ; and the same was true in New York, whither they were brought from Holland in 1625. In early colonial times sheep-raising A SHEPIIKRD AND SHF.RI' could be most safely carried on in regions which afforded natural protection against wild beasts, as, for instance, on the islands along the coast. The merino. The breed of sheep most prized for its wool is the merino, which, while it probably originated in Asia Minor and was thence brought to the West, received such care and underwent such improvement in Spain that that country is always thought of as the originator of the breed. The merino sheep is, so to speak, all fleece. His coat hangs loosely on his body, and its folds provide a great amount of space for wool ; whereas the old unimproved German sheep had 5500 hairs per square inch. 126 INDUSTRY AND TRADE the merino has 40,000 ; and he has a good many square inches to have his thousands on. And this fleece weighs him down to such an extent that he cannot leap fences and do damage as his longer-legged and less handicapped fellows can. Once upon a time a New England sheep-raiser became disgusted with his animals because they were always doing damage to neighbors' crops and getting him into trouble, and he tried to raise, from a queer young ram, animals whose legs should be so short and bowed that they could not jump fences. He succeeded, and the resulting breed was called Ancon. They were quite the rage for a time ; but then came in the merino variety from Spain, which speedily ran the Ancons out of favor, so that now they are merely a name. The superiority of the merino lies in the fineness of the wool and in the amount or weight of wool for each individual fleece. The wool is so close as to enable the sheep to endure very cold weather ; this ability to resist the cold and to live on the coarsest food, combined with an unequaled docility, has made the merino very satisfactory wherever it has been imported. Introduction of the merino. In order that the very best wool might be available for home manufacture, there were imported into this country, in 18 10, twenty-six thousand merino sheep, which were distributed throughout the country. Owing to the depression in the industries of the United States following upon the Napoleonic Wars, in 18 15 and 18 16, wool could not be marketed, and so whole flocks of merinos were slaughtered ; but MERINO RAM SWINE AND SHEEP 127 with the revival of manufactures after 1820 attention was again given to the merino. By this time, however, the Spanisli merino had been bred with the native Saxon sheep, producing the Saxony merino, in which an extreme fineness of wool had been developed at a sacrifice of other cjualities. But the marked physical weak- ness of the Saxony merinos, together with the general decline in the value of wool, prevented them from ever gaining a strong hold in this country. The karakul. A new departure is now being made, in both the United States and Canada, by the introduction, on special ranches, of the so-called " karakul " sheep. These are common in Bokhara, western Turkestan, and neighboring regions and produce the valuable article, ranked as a fur, called Per- sian lamb. The results so far obtained since the intro- duction of karakuls, in 1908, indicate that these sheep can be raised as suc- cessfully in this country as in their original, home. The pure-blood lambs yield the most valuable pelts ; but when karakuls are crossed with our ordi- nary breeds of sheep, there is said to be a marked improvement in the wool and in the character of the mutton as well, and the lambs are said to be heavier than the average of those born of our usual breeds. The mutton breeds. There was a marked change in the sheep industry about tlu- middle of tiie nineteenth century, consisting in the transition from the raising of the (ine-wool sheep to the © Bureau ol Animal Industry, U. S, Uept. of Agiia THE SKIN OF A KARAKUL LAMB 128 INDUSTRY AND TRADE production of the coarse-wool and mutton sheep. The mutton breeds were brought from Canada and England and were widely distributed east of the Mississippi River. This grade of sheep helped to increase the output of distinctively combing wools; and to improve the mutton breeds French sheep were introduced and crossed with other varieties. In the states east of the Mississippi the mutton breeds gradually gained the ascendancy ; farther west, as population increased and meat became relatively more in de- mand than wool, the mutton breeds came to be preferred. The total consumption of lamb and mutton has increased appreciably during the last ten years ; a few years ago more than nine and a half million sheep and lambs were slaugh- tered in plants subject to federal inspection. The number now aver- ages a good deal above this figure. Besides the mutton there are other carcass products derived, such as tallow ; one of the objects in raising sheep is to get their fat. In the past there was even a variety known as the " fat-tailed sheep," which had large deposits of fatty tissue at the tail — so large at times that the tails required artificial support in the form of little carts. Other products of the carcasses are such as are derived in the packing-houses from cattle and swine. The so- called " catgut " is made from sheep's entrails. Breeding for meat. At the outset of the twentieth century- the merino and English types of sheep were nearly equal in number in the United States, but since that time there has been a marked tendency to increase the mutton breeds, especially in the more thickly populated regions east of the Mississippi. A FAT-TAILED SHEEP SWINE AND SHEEP 129 Westward movement of the industry. Owing to the abundance of good pasture land in the West, the center of sheep-raising has moved westward along with other pastoral industries. Before 1840 there were about 18,000,000 sheep in this country, of which the greater number were in the Atlantic states, between Virginia and Maine inclusive, and in the Ohio River basin. In 1850 and i860 Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, in order, were the A S1IKI'1IKI{D AM) HIS FLOCK states having the most sheep; in 1870 Ohio still led, but with California second, and New York third; in 1875 California had reached first place, followed by Ohio, Texas, and Michigan ; in more recent times the order became : Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho, Ohio, California, Oregon, and Texas. There have occurred some interesting shifts, but the West has won out. However, there arc many sheep cast of the Mississippi still — about one third of the total number ; in fact, sheep are to be found in respectable numbers in every state in the Union. The I30 INDUSTRY AND TRADE number in New England is small, though this section offers attractions for sheep-raising. The case of New England is not so bad as it was represented to be by the humorist who said that the sheep farmer had to let his sheep down between the rocks, by the hind legs, to get the few blades of grass. Other sheep-raising countries. The United States is one of the leading sheep-raising countries, but comes third after Australia DISTRIBUTION OF SHEEP BY STATES (NUMBERS IN THOUSANDS) After map in Monthly Crop Report and Argentina ; other important producers are Asiatic Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, New Zealand, and South Africa. It will be noted that several of these are in the south temperate zone. This zone, with less than 1.5 per cent of the earth's population, has well on towards one half of the sheep ; it shows ten sheep per person, whereas in the world as a whole there are about three sheep to eight persons. The countries are remote, semiarid, and sparse of population ; the sheep thrive, and there is room enough. Sheep are stupid and defenseless and have to be taken care of, and that is done by nomadic herders .SWINE AND SHEEP 131 and sheep dogs at very small cost. The relation of sheep-grazing to rainfall has been expressed as follows : In Australia a plain with ten inches of rainfall will support ten sheep to the square mile ; if there are thirteen inches it will support twenty sheep ; and if there are twenty inches, seventy sheep. Wool and shearing. Our domestic wool is of two distinct classes : that which is taken from live sheep and that taken SHEEP KEITKMNf. I\ AITIMX TO THE VALLEYS from carcasses and known as " pulled wool." Of our total pro- duction of a little less than 300,000,000 pounds, by far the largest proportion is sheared wool. It is the common practice in America to shear sheep but once a year, generally in the spring, but in the South and Southwest they are often shorn in both spring and fall. The reasons for double-shearing are varied, the factor of climate (heat) being the chief one ; loss of wool from the tearing off of the longer fleece on underbrush is another reason. The two fleeces generally outweigh a single one, but the 132 INDUSTRY AND TRADE extra wool, it is said, docs not, in all cases, make up for the cost in time and labor of the second shearing. The increasing weight of fleeces. At the beginning of this century the average weight of a fleece was 6."] pounds, which was I.I pounds greater than in 1890 and 1.9 greater than in 1880, During the last half-century the average weight of the American SHEARING SHEEP fleece has increased about 140 per cent — a fine tribute to the efforts of the sheep-breeder. At present the average weight per fleece has risen to nearly 7 pounds ; thus the increase within the last fifteen years or so has not been as marked as it was in the preceding decades. Wool imports. It is somewhat surprising, in view of the fact that we raise so many sheep, to find that normally we import up to more than one half of the wool required for domestic con- sumption ; during the last few years, according to a report of the Secretary of Agriculture, these importations have ranged from nearly 250,000,000 to over 500,000,000 pounds each year, the average being over 300,000,000. CHAPTER XI HORSES AND MULES Introduction of the horse. Fossil remains prove the existence of the horse both in the Old and the New World in an earlier geological period. But he became extinct on this continent, so that when America was discovered there were no horses here. The first brought over came with Columbus, who carried with him, as we have seen, several varieties of domestic animals on his second voyage, in 1493. The first horses in that part of America which is now the United States were landed in Florida in 1527 ; there were forty or so of them, and they all died soon after their arrival. De Soto took horses with him on his western journey, which were abandoned and became, in all probability, the ancestors of the wild horses of the Southwest, on the Texas plains and the prairies. These animals were, then, of Spanish origin. The French introduced horses into Acadia in 1604 ; in 1609- I'lnglish horses were brought to Jamestown, Virginia; in 1623 horses of Dutch origin were introduced into New York ; and in 1629 came the first arrivals in Massachusetts. Horse-breeding. At one period in our colonial history horses were so cheap that careful breeding was neglected and the animals ran down in size until the colonists became anxious about the matter and put into effect laws to forbid the breeding of under- sized horses and to jirohibit them from ranging at large. It is said that the typical American horse has sprung from tin- '3.5 134 IXDrSTRV AND TRADE THE EXTINCT FIVE-TOED AMERICAN HORSE Stock imported into Acadia, Virginia, New York, and Massachu- setts, constantly improved by crossing with the best Old World breeds. The really sig- nificant improvements — in size, strength, speed, and other qualities — have been made within the last century. A United States cen- sus report speaks of this matter as follows : The first horses imported for breeding purposes were the English thoroughbreds, a cross between the Arabian and the Barb. They were brought to this country about 1750, but the total number imported prior to the Revolution did not exceed fifty horses and twenty mares, which were distributed in Maryland, Virginia. New York, and North Carolina. Immediately after the Revolution, how- ever, racing became popu- lar, and many thoroughbreds were imported. The French- Canadian horse is the de- scendant of horses brought to Canada by the French. They have become reduced in size, but still retain the good qualities of their Nor- man ancestors and constitute one of the best breeds of farm horses. Roadsters and, in less degree, coach horses are bred from trotting stock. There are English and other foreign breeds or types of coach horses, but they are not much used in this country. Foreign draft horses of all the well-known breeds have been constandy imported into this country, but the English Draft, the Clydesdale, and the Percheron are most common. There are also Belgian and German horses. A THOROUGHBRED HORSES AND MULES 135 Improved breeds. An important event in the horse-raising industry was the importation of the Percheron breed ; this type of horse was a great improvement in the type of draft horse. Before this the best burden-bearing horse had been the Conestoga, a type associated with the well-known stage-coach period, when the Conestoga wagons plied between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Horse-racing. The trotting horse is, to a very large degree, an American product. When Americans took up horse-trotting as a A CONESTOGA WAGON sport, they soon developed a type of trotter which could outrace all comers. For the trotting horse good roads were a necessity, and as good roads are a nineteenth-century product, so is the trotter ; up to near the middle of the last century the buggy was little known, as the usual method of traveling was on horseback. The horse car. The introduction of the horse car on the streets of American cities, and its general use for a period, created a new demand for horses. Cities and towns everywhere, but espe- cially in the West, were growing rapidly, and business in general 136 IXDrSTRV AND TRADE was very good. The introduction of horse cars called for a great many horses, whose lives in tiie cities were short. This was due to rough pavements and otiier unfavorable conditions and also to ill-usage. Horse-breeding was much stimulated, and in the nineties the supply began to overtop the demand. By 1895, however, electric plants were so widely installed in connection with street- car systems that the horse was practically supplanted in that THE FIRST RAILWAY CAR IX WASHINGTON industry. This change threw many horses, formerly used for hauling street cars, on the market, and soon the demand for cheaper animals was gone. The demand for horses. The widespread extension of the trolley into country districts stimulated the demand for horses. Popula- tion grew up along the new transportation lines and, rents being low in the suburbs and countr}% people settled farther and far- ther out. But until the development of the trolley express they needed horses for the transportation of their goods to the city. Also the tremendous foreign demand for wheat and other cereals has brought about heavy exports, and more and more horses and mules have been needed to cultivate the land. The domestic demand for the cereals has increased at the same time ; and the heightened interest in beef and other animal products has called for an increased production of corn and hay for feeding purposes. HORSES AND MULES 137 But such a development has demanded more cultivation and more animals. In fact, since about 1896, when horse cars were becom- ing extinct, there has been a considerable foreign demand for our horses. This exportation was stimulated at first by the very low domestic prices of American horses and, later, by the great Euro- pean War. On the whole, in spite of the swift advance of the electric railway, the bicycle, automobile, and motor truck, as well / • 1 v / • a \ ''* \ •\ • • 452 • lai 1- / • / 365 Ax. — ^#ps^ r) { ><£)• V^"* 434^ yZr-----' ^. 1-1 1.120 M40 \^ / • 250 ^■^-^ 743 275 / 1 ( • ^^ 1 \ 243 S )i*^ UISTKIIU HON OK HORSES HV STATICS (XU.MHERS IN THOUSANDS) After map in Monthly Crop Repoi-t as of all sorts of farming implements driven by mechanical means, the development of htjrse-production has progressed at a fairly even rate. Regions of horse-raising. The farmers and ranchmen of the Western states raise more horses for the market than do other producers. The " blue-grass region " of Kentucky, with Lexington as a center, is one of the well-known districts for horse-raising. Here are reared mainly trotters and driving horses instead of draft animals. Horses, also, go with corn production ; the colts are fattened on corn and sent to Eastern markets. 138 INDl'SI'RV AM) I'RADK Horseflesh. We have considered the horse almost exckisively from the standpoint of his use as a transportation agency. Origi- nally, like the rest of the domestic animals, he was eaten ; and he still is. It is difficult to say just how much horseflesh is eaten in this country, for it is not a popular food. Doubtless this preju- dice will sometime disappear, under pressure of need, as it has done on occasion heretofore. A good deal of horsehide is now and has always been used, — baseball writers commonly refer to the ball as " the horsehide," — but whatever there is to say about horse leather, as well as about pigskin and sheep leather, will come in better under the leather industry, to be taken up in another chapter. Mules Nature of the mule. The mule is a cross between the ass and the horse and has been known since remote antiquity. It is a very tough and hardy animal and excellent for draft use. It can stand a warmer climate than the horse and is therefore com- moner as a carrier in our Southern states, where there are, in some cases, more mules than horses. Says a census report again : The hot, moist climate is quickly fatal to horses when hard worked, while mules bear it with impunity and endure hardship, overwork, and ill-usage without great loss, an element of considerable importance in a countrj- where work animals are handled largely by ignorant and careless laborers. Their hoofs are very hard, and are shod either not at all or at infrequent intervals. Their average working life is longer than that of horses. It is claimed that the mule will do equal work on less food than the horse, but this is open to serious doubt. They will, however, eat coarser forage, and can be carried through the winter in fair condition at less expense. Virtues of the mule. It has been said that the reason why the mule does not displace the horse in a country like this is in large degree a matter of pride ; the horse looks more respectable and acts better than the mule. However, the mule is credited with more intelligence, especially in work on mountains and in mines. It is a calm, obstinate animal, hard to " ratde," and has been HORSES AND MULES 139 known since antiquity for its sure-footedness. To "work like a mule " is a phrase that explains itself ; as long ago as Homer's time mules were called " hard-working." It is fair to say that the mule does not deserve his unpopularity, but he evidently has no pride to injure. Value of the mules. There are at the present time over four and one-half million mules in the United States — about one fourth the number of horses. Their rate of increase for the last fifty years has been approximately the same as that of horses. The present farm value of the mules is a little over half a billion dollars. CHAPTER XII FISHERIES An important resource. Fishing is comparable to hunting rather than to the raising of domestic animals. There is no field for taming and domestication of fish ; it is a question of taking advantage of a supply provided by nature and, later in the devel- opment, of conserving and stimulating that natural resource. It is needless to say that men have practiced various methods of securing food from the water fauna since the beginning of human development, and the possibility of getting such food has had, throughout history, a powerful influence upon the destiny of nations. Fishing in our early history. Had it not been for the fishing possibilities the early history of our country might well have been very different from what it was. The earliest explorers and navi- gators noted the abundance of fish in American waters, and also of whales, which are really mammals but which are generally included in a treatment of fisheries under the topic of " whale fisheries." The New England colonies in particular owed their origin in no small degree to the opportunities for developing fisheries in their waters and in adjacent stretches of ocean ; one of the main ideas in founding settlements in Massachusetts was to build up fishing interests. Massachusetts became, from the beginning, a center of fishing activities, and the same thing may be said, in less degree, of the other New England settlements. P'arming and fishing went hand in hand, but the former pursuit 140 141 142 IXDl'STRY AND TRADE was subsidiary ; every good harbor became crowded with boats and fringed with shipyards. There stretched along the shore, from the New York end of Long Island Sound to the Saint John River, a fringe of villages whose chief interest was fishing. Among them certain ones, such as Gloucester, attained great prosperity and reputation. As early as 1731 Massachusetts had 600 vessels and 6000 sailors at sea, half of them in the fisheries. Fishing grounds. ( )ur fishermen have had access to one of the two leading food-fish areas of the world. One of these comprises the waters of western Europe, with the North Sea as a center, and the other the western waters of the Atlantic, especially along the coasts of Newfoundland, the maritime provinces of Canada, Quebec, and the New England and Middle Atlantic States. A great variety of fish inhabits the waters covering the eastern con- tinental shelf of North America — cod (the "beef of the sea"), mackerel, herring, halibut, and many others. Formerly whales also were common in these waters as well as farther away. New England's fisheries. It is not surprising that New Eng- land should have held nearly a monopoly of the commercial fish- eries of this country until near the middle of the nineteenth centur)', but this was not due solely to its fish resources. It was a question of the comparative profitableness of fishing as over against other occupations. South of the Hudson River the middle colonies raised cereals, and the Southern colonies tobacco, rice, and other warm-climate products ; while forests yielded lumber and naval stores. Though these southerly states had good offshore and inshore fisheries, their agriculture was so much more profit- able for the time that the fisheries were relatively undeveloped. But in New England, while agriculture was the most important single industry, it did not so absorb all attention ; in many respects the sea industry was more profitable. Out of it, too, rose shipbuilding, navigation, and commerce, which gave to New England a greater variety of industries than was to be found anywhere else in the colonies. FISHERIES H3 Fishing and shipping. Here we must stop to consider the fact that the fisheries of any country have a very close and intimate relationship with various other aspects of national life. A con- siderable percentage of the marine tonnage of important maritime countries is always engaged in deep-sea fishing. Very often it has been true that a nation has owed its general maritime pre- eminence to the schooling in seamanship which its people have A NEW ENGLAND FISHERMAN IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE INDUSTRY acquired in fishing. Such an influence the fishing industry of the United States has had upon its shipping and other interests, both in individual states, as in J;hc case of New luigland, and in the country at large. The best sailors that we have had in the merchant marine have come from the coasts where the chief in- dustry has been fishing for cod, mackerel, and whales. These men had learned to encounter without fear all the perils of the sea ; they sailed in the heaviest weather and " never struck a topsail as long as there was a mast to fly it from." These were the men who won our naval triumphs in 18 12, and they lonji remained the most valuable element in our whole maritime 144 INDUSTRY AND TRADE establishment. Their ships visited every corner of the earth, often being the tirst in the field, and they thus became the pioneers and scouts of our merchant marine. It is said that the first American flag ever seen in I'Lngland was on the mast of a whaling ship which had entered the Thames. The life of these fishers was fraught with great dangers, particularly on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and in the whaling voyages ; the reader of Kipling's " Captains Courageous " and Dana's " Two Years before the Mast " has gathered some idea of the life they led. It was a rough existence, but those who had endured it contributed strength to the fiber of the nation. Fishing rights. Strictly speaking, the fishing that is done in national waters must be within the three-mile limit from the shore, as only that belt belongs exclusively to a nation. Beyond that limit anyone has the right to fish. Naturally there has been a good deal of dispute, with recourse to legal proceedings, con- cerning fishing rights. Fishery products. But we must not, beginning as we do with sea fishing, fail to realize that a good part of our fish resources are in the lakes and rivers, or forget that there are other water products which are to be reckoned into our fisheries. There are many arti- cles other than food that are derived from the fisheries, — for ex- ample, oils, fats, and waxes ; furs and leather ; fertilizers ; shells ; bones and ivory ; glue ; isinglass ; sponges ; and so on. Numerous industries are organized to work up these various sea products. Importance of our fisheries. In tracing further the develop- ment of our fisheries we find that the wars — the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War — all dealt severe blows to our fishing industry. But it recovered from them all and now surpasses that of any other country in the world. We shall take up a few of the important branches of fishery, briefly tracing their development. Whaling. This industry began on Long Island, in the cutting up and trying out of stranded whales ; it was a sort of com- munity business, and citizens were summoned to do their part FISHERIES 145 when there was a chance for it. Later they took to small, and presently to larger, boats and ships, and did not wait for the sea to throw up the booty. But the whaling industry as a big business did not get a strong hold among us until after the War of 18 12. Up to that time it was a more or less important New England enterprise. The tonnage of whaling vessels in 18 18 was less than seventeen thousand. By i860 the size of the whaling fleet had so increased that the annual value of its takings exceeded HAKl'(JO.\lN(i A WHALE From an old print the value of the products of all other fishing interests put to- gether. Our whalers went to practically any place on earth where their prey was to be found, and the products of their labors formed an important item in our foreign trade. Massachusetts was the center of the industry, and the names of Nantucket, Marthas Vineyard, New Bedford, Gloucester, and Marblehcad were identified, in practice and in story, with this picturesque vocation. Decline of whaling. But soon after the middle of the nine- teenth century whaling began to decline. The whales were be- coming more scarce, and the perils and cost of getting them, in arctic latitudes for instance, were on the increase. Then, too, the 146 INDUSTRY AND TRADE expanding manufactures of New England attracted investment. At just this time, to put on the finishing blow, when the produc- tion of whale oil was falling off and its price rising, petroleum was discovered, and "the prosperous days of the whalers ended when oil poured forth from the rocks beneath the surface of the earth at Titusville, Pennsylvania." Scarcely any other industry in the countr}' has shown such a revolution as that of the whale fishery during the last sixty years. Formerly capital to the extent of tens of millions of dollars was invested in it, and it gave employment to tens of thousands of men ; but now it has declined to a posi- tion of comparatively small importance, even in those regions where it formerly flourished most. Whale oil is still in some demand, and the high price of whalebone is a stimulus that keeps some life in the whaling industry. But the old whaling towns have fallen on evil days, or have been obliged to set their course of destiny by other stars. They are in ruins, or have had to sacrifice their romantic and picturesque character by adapting themselves to other vocations. Cod-fishing. In colonial days cod-fishing was an important in- dustry, especially in New England. After the Revolution it strug- gled with adverse taxation levied on hooks, lines, cordage, and duck, but by 1829 it was on the upward trend, and from 1820 to i860 it was generally prosperous. The highest tonnage ever employed in the codfishery was in i860, when it reached 136,654 gross tons. The leading states in this industry were Massachu- setts and Maine. Cod-fishing has not declined as much as whaling, though it has diminished somewhat in importance since i860. The lessened demand for deep-sea fish has been brought about by a rapid increase in the takings of cheaper kinds of sea foods, such as salmon, herring, and shellfish — cheaper because of the smaller expense incurred prior to their arrival at market. Many ports of Maine and Massachusetts from which great numbers of vessels had made regular trips to the Great Banks of Newfoundland have given up this business in favor of the inshore fisheries. The supplying of fresh fish to summer FISHERIES 147 resorts has been found more profitable, as well as less dangerous, than the old offshore voyages which had been carried on during the preceding period. Mackerel-fishing. The mackerel fishery did not amount to much except locally until 1820; up to that time the mackerel was commonly used as cod bait, and only those which were fresh caught were eaten. The first trip for mackerel, where the DRVIXG KISH AT GLOUCESTEK, MASSAClHiSKTlS idea was to salt them on board, is said to have been made in 1818; but when once the possibilities of salting were seen, the enterprise speedily developed. It was never as sure, however, as cod-fishing ; the fisherman can usually find the cod, but the supply of mackerel is likely to vary from season to season and from place to place. Also, as long as the fish had to be taken by line — before the invention of the purse seine, late in the century — the catch was often small because the fish would not bite. Massachusetts has been the center of this industry, wliich has, like the codfishery, declined somewhat since the Civil War. I4S INDUSTRY AND TRADE Other fisheries. Other important fisheries of New England arc the herring, shad, hahbut, oyster, lobster, and menhaden. It should be noted that drying and salting fish as a method of preservation is not so nearly universal as it used to be. The vessels engaged in deep-sea fishing nowadays make much use of ice, thus keeping the catch fresh until they return to port. Power boats are now much in use, especially inshore, and the fish can be hurried back and marketed without being cured in any way. Then, by refrig- erator cars, fresh sea-products may be speeded far inland. New England's supremacy. What has been said about fisheries applies in large part to New England, which is really the great center of the industry. Gloucester has long been famous as a great fishing port, with several thousand people employed in the work ; the same is true of Boston. A large percentage of the annual catch is made directly off the New England coast. Thus New England deserves prominence in a treatment of fisheries ; her lobster and oyster industries will receive mention a little later on. Fishing south of New England. Despite New England's long start, the fisheries of the Eastern coast south of New England are now the most valuable which we have ; they did not come into prominence until 1850, but have since then attained their emi- nence. This has been due to several causes : railroad develop- ment, increase of population, use of refrigeration, and development of the canning industry. New England was supreme so long as fish were merely salted or pickled. With the growth of population and rapid transportation, together with the use of the refrigerator car, people not alone on the coast but inland began to develop a fondness for fresh fish, and the cured cod and mackerel could not compete. In any case the demand became larger than New Eng- land could meet, and the North and South Atlantic states broke into the market. The former group of states furnished not only cod and other offshore fish but shad, bluefish, and oysters. New Jersey and New York are the leading producers. Among the South Atlantic states North Carolina occupies a prominent place with the oyster, mullet, shad, trout, striped bass, and clam. FISHERIES 149 Gulf fisheries. Of the Gulf-coast fisheries it may be said that they have rich resources available, but that they attained commer- cial importance only after i860; as yet they are only partially developed. Florida's fisheries exceed those of the other Gulf States in productivity and include a great variety involving the oyster, mullet, sponge, and shrimp. CATCHING SALMON wmi A SKINE Pacific-coast fisheries. The fish of the Pacific coast are about the same as those of the Atlantic coast in the same latitude, namely, cod, herring, halibut, and the rest. But it is the salmon that gives prominence to the Western fisheries. Nowadays the salmon fishery is important only on the Pacific. The salmon come up the rivers to spawn, filling the beds of the streams so that they appear to form rivers of fish, and are easily netted. Salmon-fish- ing was carried on by the Indians and early settlers, but it was not until the development of the canning industry, about 1864, 150 INDUSTRY AND TRADE that the Pacific sahnon came into commercial prominence. Since then, both in the Pacific states and Alaska, the industry has enjoyed a rapid development. Sealing. Perhaps in the interests of completeness the fur-seal industry of Alaska should receive mention, although it does not belong to the United States proper. The Pribilof Islands, in AX ALASKAN SEAL ROOKKRV Bering Sea, remain the breeding ground of the largest fur-seal herd in the world. Since Alaska was purchased, in 1867, the government has received a revenue of several millions for the privilege of taking seals. The leasing system was abolished in recent years, and measures have been adopted for preserving the seals. Next to the salmon fishery the fur-seal fishery is the most valuable on the Pacific coast. Oysters. The most valuable item in the fisheries of this coun- try, already referred to incidentally, is the oyster. Oysters are taken in greater or less quantities along the waters of practically FISHERIES 151 every state on the coast of the country, but the most productive areas are those of Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. The Indians used the oyster and brought it, in the seventeenth cen- tury, to the settlers of what is now New York ; it is said that Pearl Street in New York City received its name from the fact that it was once paved with oyster shells. The industry began a triumphant progress about 1850 in nearly all the areas which have since become im- portant in production. This coun- try furnish- es 80 to 90 per cent of the world's supply of oysters. Lake and river fish- eries. The fisheries of the Great Lakes and of the Mississippi River and its tributaries are of small significance relatively to those of the sea. The promotion of our fisheries. Taken as a whole, the annual wealth produced by all our fisheries is less than the annual farm value of any one of our leading agricultural crops ; it is but a small fraction of the value of our wheat. But that does not mean that it is not an important national industry. It has been so recognized of late, and efforts have been made to extend as well as to preserve it. The United States Bureau of Fisheries and various state commissions attend to the artificial propagation and distribution of young fish in interior waters, and there arc numerous laws designed to protect fish that are desirable in commerce or sport. There are undoubtedly many varieties of fish UNLOADIXf; OVSTEKS 152 INDUSTRY AND TRADE whose use is restricted because of prejudice or because they are unfamihar ; the authorities have organized enterprises to take such fish and introduce them into the market. Such a common water-creature as the porpoise has its possibiUties in the particulars of hide, blubber, meat, and so-called " porpoise-jaw oil," which is of a very fine quality. To an age which has its attention directed A CALIFORXIA FISH HATCHERY. PACKING SALMON EGGS FOR SHIPMENT toward economies, the services of science in helping to keep down the cost of living by discovering cheap substitutes ought to be very welcome. Government support. The office of Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries was created by Congress in 1871, and in 1903 it was made a bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor — now the Department of Commerce. Among the duties of the Bureau is the increasing of the quantity and the bettering of the quality of our fish supply. PART IV. MINERAL INDUSTRIES CHAPTER XIII COAL AND PETROLEUM Minerals and mining. In Parts II and III we have seen some- thing of the progress of American industries that have to do with hving things — plants and animals. We come now to the minerals. There are, first of all, some obvious differences between plant and animal products, on the one hand, and minerals, on the other, which, obvious though they are, ought to be taken note of. The minerals are the typical natural resources ; you can mo\'e animals and plants about from country to country, — we have seen that the best of our plant and animal industries have to do with imported stock, — but your minerals are just as they were originally laid down, and you take them as you find them. It is the minerals that have moved man, not man the minerals. Again, the minerals cannot be " raised " ; they must ultimately become exhausted, while the domestic plants and animals may be made to increase at the will of man. Once again, the factors of environment — climate, rainfall — which determine organic life have no influence whatever upon the minerals. Coal occurs in any latitude whatso- ever, irrespective of present-day climate ; and if this is true of coal, which is, in origin, organic, it is not surprising in the case of the other minerals. The conditions favorable to the opening and development of a mine are the presence of p()])ulation and 'S3 154 INDI'SIRV AM) TRADE good transportation, and if the mine is rich enough it is likely to suninn)n such conditions into existence. Metallic and nonmetallic minerals. The minerals of commerce are unevenly distributed over the earth. Some are very common, as, for instance, coal and iron ; others, as tin, nickel, and platinum, are extremely localized. Minerals may be classified conveniently into metallic and nonmetallic. The former comprise iron, cop- per, gold, silver, lead, quicksilver, zinc, aluminum, and antimony. There are to be found in the United States alone over fifty non- metallic minerals ; among them it is coal and petroleum that form the big items in industry and commerce. In our annual output of minerals, which is valued at about two billion dollars, the nonmetallic minerals exceed the metallic in value. Importance of the mining industry. Imposing as is our annual output of minerals in amount and value, it is worth only from one fifth to one third, on the average, of our farm production ; every year the corn crop alone exceeds in value all the non- metallic minerals mined. However, the actual value in dollars of the products of a country's mines is no index of the relative importance of the mineral industry as compared with other pur- suits within the nation. If it were, mining would have to be con- sidered a secondary American industry. But it is clear enough that the progress of agriculture, manufacture, and commerce is. in large degree dependent upon the use of minerals ; progress in civilization in general has regularly depended upon their presence. With such considerations in mind, the reader will see that mere size and value of immediate product is not the decisive fact about an industry, and that the mineral industries have, in a sense, another sort of product that can scarcely be measured ; namely, the basis and support which they lend to most other industries. This is particularly marked in the case of coal and iron, for upon these modern civilization really rests, and without them it could not have become, nor could it remain, what it is. Evidence for these general statements will appear as we go on to consider the various mineral industries of the countr}' in a more special way. COAL AND PETROLEUM 155 Coal Nature of coaL Co^l is what was originally a vegetal deposit, laid down ages ago and subjected to great pressure ; its existence and use remained unknown to man up to relatively recent times. European travelers in the early Middle Ages reported that the Chinese burned black stones, which smoldered and remained alight all night. There are two kinds of coal in common use : the bituminous, or soft, and the anthracite, or hard. The former contains from 85 to 88 per cent of carbon, lights easily, and burns with a bright flame. The latter is much denser in struc- ture ; it contains up to 95 per cent of carbon, lights with con- siderable difficulty, and burns wdth a bluish flame while kindling. Another variety, called lignite or brown coal, is of much less use in industry than either soft or hard coal ; it contains only about 70 per cent of carbon. Soft coal is used for the generation of steam, while hard coal is used for domestic heating and cooking, especially in the eastern part of this country. Soft and hard coaL Soft coal is mined chiefly in Pennsylvania, but a good deal is produced by West Virginia, Illinois, and Ohio. The largest field, called the Appalachian, extends 900 miles, from New York to Alabama, with a width of from 30 to 180 miles. A second field runs through Virginia and North Carolina, and a third across Indiana, Illinois, and western Kentucky. Hard coal is mined in Pennsylvania, where there is an anthracite area of nearly 500 square miles. The largest vein, called "The Mam- moth," was once 40 feet thick, but has been almost mined away. It is necessary now to work the thinner veins, and the coal, unless carefully picked over, is likely to be full of slate and other stone. Early use of coaL The colonists, of course, got most of their fuel from the forests. It was not till 1750 that coal was dis- covered, near Richmond, Virginia, and not much was done with coal-mining until after the Revolution, when there were shipments made to Philadelphia, New ^^)rk, and lioston. Coal was found near Pittsburgh before 1760 and was in general use in the regions 156 INDUSTRY AND TRADE near the mines, both for manufacturing and household purposes, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Anthracite was dis- covered near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in 1762, but there was great difficulty in getting it into the market. The people of the time could not make it burn, and the first successful users were blacksmiths. Later on it was the invention of es- pecially adapted grates, as well as the discovery that an anthracite fire ought not to be poked all the time, that helped its prog- ress. Yet 365 tons from the Lehigh district were enough, even as late as 1820, to meet the de- mand. By 183 1 the ship- ments from this region reached 40,000 tons. The use of coal to smelt iron. Thus the produc- tion of coal for commer- cial purposes goes back, in this country, scarcely a hundred years. The Virginia deposits, near Richmond, were the first to be regularly mined ; 48,000 tons were taken out in 1822, and 140,000 tons in 1833. Since coal is a bulky and heavy article for its price, only the mines which were near natural or artificial transportation facilities could be developed. It was not until coal was used in smelting iron on a large scale, and until the railroads had been built to carry coal to iron-smelting works, that the pro- duction of coal, especially of soft coal, received an impetus. The anthracite variety got a start over the bituminous because the EARLY L'SE OF COAL AT BLACKSMITH S FORGE COAL AND PETROLEUM 157 companies which first produced anthracite were also building the first railroads and canals. Until about 1840 the only fuel used in our blast furnaces was charcoal ; although England had dis- carded it early in the century, our abundant forests and the relative ease of transporting wood caused us to retain it. When we first began to use coal in the manufacture of pig iron the iron industry was at once revolutionized. But anthracite was the principal coal used at first ; the year 1855 was the one when anthracite first sur- passed charcoal. Bituminous coal overtook charcoal in 1869 and anthracite in 1875. Coal and the railroads. The other great factor which caused the remarkable growth of the bituminous-coal industry was the rapid development of American railways, especially after the Civil War. This affected, in the first instance, the eastern and central coal states — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. It in- creased the demand for iron in railroad construction, thus involving the need of more coal, and it also opened up the westward shipment of coal, both for the railroads themselves and also for the industries that sprang up with the advent of the railroads. The close connection between the growth of our rail- way system and that of the coal industry is easily seen. In a country like this, where distances arc very great, the fact that COKIi OVENS AT rnTSBUHGH, PENNSYLVANIA T5S INDUSTRY AND TRADE coal constitutes the largest item of railroad expenditure causes rail\va)s to become interested from the very beginning in getting fuel at the cheapest possible cost. The great development of the iron and steel industry in the latter years of the nineteenth cen- tur)', and its continued advance since the opening of the twentieth century, have greatly stimulated the demand for coal. The amount of iron manufactured by the use of anthracite has con- tinued to decline, while the use of bituminous has steadily in- creased. This change was greatly stimulated by the use of coke, a residue of hard carbon left after heating certain grades of soft coal in ovens under a limited air supply. There are certain of our grades of coal, especially those of the Connellsville region of western Pennsylvania, which show superior coking qualities. Coke has come to be used more and more in the manufacture of pig iron, until over 90 per cent of this product is thus made. Development of our coal production. The total amount of coal extracted from our mines up to and including 1845 is estimated to have been 27,700,000 tons, but 1846 saw a product of S,ooo,- 000 tons; 1850, one of 7,000,000; 1875, one of 52,000,000; 1900, one of 270,000,000; and the present period a yearly out- put of over 500,000,000 tons, of which less than 100,000,000 are of anthracite. The total amount extracted from coal mines up to 1914 was 2,537,517,000 short tons of anthracite and 7,820,- 167,000 of bituminous, and the quantity still remaining to be mined is estimated as about 99.5 per cent of the original supply. Our consumption of coal. The per capita increase in the con- sumption of coal in the United States has proceeded at a rapid, not to say a spendthrift, rate. It was less than a quarter of a ton per year in 1850, while it is now, despite the increase of population, more than five tons. Waste and conservation of coal. We have been and are still wasteful in our employment of this great and never-to-be-replaced natural resource, both in the mining and in the use of it. There is great waste in mining : pillars of coal are left to hold up the walls, and thinner layers are disregarded ; and it is even worse COAL AND PETROLEUM 159 when the pillars are robbed of their coal without being replaced by other supports. For every ton of coal mined and marketed, perhaps as much as half a ton is lost through waste in mining. Some of this is inevitable, however. The so-called "' beehive " coke ovens are wasteful, and there are, all along the line, other leakages from this store of resources. The consumer is wasteful also : imperfect combustion is common ; the full utilization of the energy stored in the coal is neglected. The feeling has been that there is an exhaustless plenty of this stuff and that it is cheap — so cheap, in fact, that it is more economical to save the time and effort necessary to realize economies of material. This sort of thing can continue in a new land with abundant natural resources, but there are unmistakable signs that our country is no longer a new one and that we have to give up some of the happy-go-lucky habits of our past. We shall presently be obliged to imitate certain of the ways of people of older coun- tries, which we have viewed with amused and lofty contempt. Over the coal fields, and over the coal bins as well, there is being extended that movement for the conservation of natural resources of which we have spoken from time to time. Coal is indispensable. For if one looks about him with a see- ing eye he will observe that coal is something that stands, in a very real way, between modern nations and national decline — yes, national annihilation. Practically all our industries, by which we prosper, and even live, would be impossible without this natural substance. We can never hope to carry on our big indus- trial operations with wood as a fuel, even if we had the wood, which we have not. On the wood supply we could not even, for many years, keep ourselves warm enough to live. But the only other fuel is coal. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that in climates where fire is needed for living, coal has a large fraction of the indispensable quality which we usually associate with air and water. Once the race got along without coal and did not abso- lutely need it, but later on people got it and proceeded to build upon it as a necessity of life, until conditions have become such i6o INDUSTRY AND TRADE that it is indispensable for life. Once, too, early man did not know how to make fire ; but later he learned how, and the result has been that men are now living in many places on the earth where they could not exist without fire. It is impossible now to go back to the fireless age — even the " fireless cooker" needs tire to begin on. Coal made possible the development of a whole industrial and social system which was impossible without it. The size of population has increased in dependence upon this system. The system could not persist without the coal, and so the population and the living could not go on without it. The need of economy in the use of coal. This is what we mean when we say that the failure of coal would mean, as things now are, national decline and annihilation. But coal, thus important for human life, is a substance limited in quantity on the earth ; there may be huge deposits of it, but when used up it is not renewed, thus differing from air and water in a very serious respect. There- fore it behooves human beings, in the interest of future genera- tions, to use this priceless commodity, cheap though it seems to be, with the least possible waste. It is already clear that the future is going to be less easy-going with us than the past has been ; as the big coal veins are used up and the smaller ones have to be mined, the cost of coal, especially anthracite, must steadily rise. The realization of these facts may serve as a hint to a well-meaning but thoughtless people. Petroleum Early uses of petroleum. It is highly probable that petroleum ("rock oil") in some forms was in common use two or three thousand years before Christ. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans appear to have been familiar with some forms of petro- leum, such as bitumens. " Sicilian oil " was used for illumination by the beginning of the Christian Era, having been formerly employed for burning in the lamps of the temple of Jupiter. In the Far East also bitumens have been in use for ages ; the Baku COAL AND PETROLEUM i6i deposits of petroleum have been known and utilized, in one form or another, for a very long time. Oil from the ground, which was capable of burning brightly, would have impressed any primi- tive people as something supernatural, and it is not at all surprising that it should early have figured in religious ceremonies. A medicine and a nuisance. There is evidence that petroleum was known and used by the Indians before the Discovery ; at any rate there are legends to this effect. It is characteristic of savages and half-civilized people that such a substance should be adopted as a medicine. The Seneca Indians gathered small quantities of petroleum, which they found in the springs ; and since the white settlers became acquainted with this substance through the Sen- ecas, they knew it, for more than a century, by the name of " Seneca oil." Attempts were made to introduce it among the whites as a medicine, but in spite of the prevalent idea that a medicine, to be effective, must smell and taste abominably the bad odor and taste of petroleum made against its popularity. Then came the salt-makers, who were troubled more or less with petroleum in their brine. They had to dig deeper and deeper for salt as the demand increased with population, and finally began drilling wells. This was over a century ago. Some of these wells yielded more oil than brine, but it was regarded as a nuisance by the well-owners, who used all sorts of devices to get rid of what turned out to be a new natural resource. Early steps in the industry. Attempts to bottle petroleum and sell it as a medicinal water, as well as projects to sell it as an illuminant, were failures — the evil odor and other disagreeable qualities worked against it. In the meantime, however, attempts were being made to distill oil from coal and shale, such oils not having the repulsive qualities of petroleum ; the results of these attempts suggested the possibilities of purifying the rock oil. But as there were no real oil wells the supply of crude oil was insufficient to lend much encouragement. Skimming water surfaces or deriving a small amount from brine wells was a discouraging process. 1 62 INDISTRY AND TRADE The coming of the oil era. It was 1854 before there was an oil company — the rcnnsylvania Rock Oil Company — which made the petroleum industry its business. Incorporated in New York, its property consisted of one hundred and five acres of Watson's Flats, near Titusville, Pennsylvania, including an island where Oil Creek and Pine Creek joined. For eight or nine years oil had been gathered on this island from surface pits. In 1857, after the expenditure of con- siderable money by the original promoters, these properties were taken over by a company organ- ized in Connecticut, and a plan was soon developed of increasing the yield of crude oil by well-drilling. Edwin L. Drake, a con- ductor on the New Haven Road, was put in charge. After a year of conflict with great difficulties he managed to reach petro- leum in the first sand, thirty-three feet through rock and almost seventy feet below the surface. When the pump was applied, it was found that the well produced at the rate of twenty-five barrels a day. This was in August, 1859, which date marks the beginning of the real petroleum era in this country and in the world at large. The oil craze. There followed a period of great excitement, recalling the gold strike in California ten years earlier. About 1 860 western Pennsylvania w^as the scene of immense activity and speculation. Adventurers from all parts of the country hurried there and sunk wells in great numbers. Camps and towns rose out of the primeval forest all through this so-called " oil region." DRAKE S OIL WELL COAL AND PETROLEUM 163 Some of the wells promptly gave out and the population shifted elsewhere, so that certain . towns which had sprung up as if by magic vanished almost as quickly as they had appeared. Pithole City, which in 1865 was the largest post office in the state, next to Philadelphia, has now disappeared altogether ; its site became a farm. Rapid development. For about fifteen years after the successful driving of Drake's well Pennsylvania produced almost all the crude oil for the country, but about 1885 the first important development outside of this state took place — in the Lima field FILLING ISAKRELS WITH OIL of northwestern Ohio. Men were searching for natural gas when they discovered oil. The development was rapid ; four years later millions of barrels were being turned out annually. One by one other fields were opened up, each contributing its share in the development of a huge industry. An increase of a hundredfold or a thousandfold in a few years has been typical of the develop- ment, but it has not been possible to rest content at any stage. The oilman's creed, we are told, is to drill unceasingly in new fields and old. Grades of oil. The oil areas of the ITnited States are grouped in certain fields, largely on the basis of geographical position, but the grouping is coming to be based more and more on fun- damental differences in the type of oil produced. The oils of the Appalachian field are mainly of paraffin base and free from l64 INDUSIRV AM) JRADK asphalt and other undesirable elements. They yield by ordinary refining methods high percentages of gasoline and illuminating oils. The Lima-Indiana oils and those of Illinois contain greater quantities of undesirable elements, while the mid-continent variety varies within wide limits. Oils from the Gulf field are likely to FILLING A SHIP WITH OIL BY MEANS OF PIPES have more asphalt, while the Wyoming and Colorado product is, in the main, of parafifin base and submits to the ordinary refining methods. Oil production. This country contributes about 60 per cent of the world's product. Of our production the Appalachian field accounts for about 9 per cent, the Illinois for about 8.25 per cent, the mid-continent for nearly i"] per cent, and the California for over 37 per cent. Developments connected with the industry. The development of the petroleum industry has had a marked effect on the eco- nomic and social life of this country and on that of the whole COAL AND PETROLEUM 165 civilized world. The various commercial products of petroleum — such as kerosene, gasoline, benzene, naphtha, lubricating oils, paraffin, asphalt, and various by-products such as vaseline and candles — are now in common use, and many of these products are considered to be necessities ; yet about half a century ago they were not to be had and the need of them had not been dreamed of. Our country is the great exporter of petroleum products to all parts of the world. The oil lamp is an example of an invention summoned into being by the industry, and now going out as other illuminants have superseded it. This lamp was largely an American product. Kerosene, when used as sperm oil had been, gave off a red flame, much smoke, and an offensive odor, but American ingenuity developed the burner and chimney to clarify the flame and avoid the smoke and odor ; it was per- fected by i860, part of the work of perfecting it being due to Austrians. Pipe lines and Standard OiL There is another aspect of the influence of the petroleum industry on our national life, connected with its transportation. Special tank-cars and oil-containers had to be developed. The barrel was soon outgrown, even as a con- tainer at the wells. Then came the development of pipe lines conducting the crude oil hundreds of miles to the refinery. But this enabled the discoverers of this method — which demanded much capital and, after being built, constituted a monopoly — to squeeze out the smaller producers and to form one of the most powerful trusts in the world — the Standard Oil. Immense gains have been made by this corporation, but, with all its profits, it has over and over again reduced the price of oil. CHAPTER XIV IRON Iron in antiquity. Iron ore is widely distributed throughout the world ; probably no other mineral except aluminum occurs in such abundance. No one knows when iron was first used by man, for iron rusts away easily and does not remain, like flint, or even copper, to bear evidence of the life of prehistoric ages. But it is probable that man learned to use the metal in extremely early times. In any case both Assyrians and Egyptians had it many centuries before Christ ; in a dry climate like that of Egypt iron rusts away slowly, and so a few ancient iron implements have been found. Also there are many savage tribes known whose members are on a plane of civilization much lower than that of our remote predecessors but who are able to smelt a very good variety of iron and to make all sorts of efficient tools and weapons from it. It is reasonable to argue that if such people had arrived at the iron stage, certainly ancient peoples much superior to them in culture must have done so. And the oldest literature of which w-e know mentions iron as an everyday familiar object. Early stages of the industry. However, it seems quite clear that the use of iron was not known in America previous to the Discovery. What metal implements the Indians possessed were of copper. The iron was here, but all the knowledge and skill needed to make it available had to await the coming of the white man. And the first form used was largely so-called "bog iron." i66 IRON 167 For a long time the iron used in New England was not mined, but derived from the lakes and ponds that abound in that section. Smelting. Genuine iron ore, in order to be available for man, has to be smelted ; thus the iron is obtained from the ore and freed of impurities. Of course the fuel used earliest was wood ; the savage African made an underground retort, with alternate layers of ore and fuel, and assisted the combustion by the use of a blowpipe, worked with rude hand bellows. Later in the development of the industry, and lasting down to modern times, came the use of char- coal. This was the colonial method. The ore was placed in a bed of ignited charcoal, whose heat readily reduced it to a lump of metallic iron, one end of which could be hammered and drawn out into a bar. The product was "wrought," or "malleable" iron, or " bloom." Out of this still rude proc- ess was gradually developed the blast furnace, whose product was obtained in fluid condition and run into sand molds, forming " pigs." Other spe- cially constructed molds were needed to form castings of various shapes. But the metal thus obtained was hard and brittle ; it was " cast," as distinguished from malleable iron. However, owing to the fact that the blast furnace speedily became the regular agency for getting the metal from the ore, its typical product, the pig, has become the rough standard for measuring iron production. Out of this raw form comes practically all the finished iron and steel. The colonial iron industry. Having indicated the general lines of development in the process of ore treatment, we now return to the colonial iron industry. Aside from the collection of bog iron, there was some little mining and smelting in Virginia by A I'.LAST FU KNACK i68 INDUSTRY AND TRADE the early colonists, but it did not last. The Salisbury iron beds in Connecticut were among the first to be worked steadily ; they were famous in their day, and for a hundred and fifty years were the source of an important industry. Anchors and cannon were made there at the time of the Revolution and in large numbers for that age, likewise many flintlock muskets. New Jersey, Pennsvlvania. North Carolina, and ]\Iar}'land also were mining iron ore twenty or thirty years prior to the Revolution. In New York, however, the opening of mines in the northern part of the state occurred only after 1800. The day of small things. We might say that at the time of the Revolution iron w-as being used, on a small scale of course, in every colony — in fact, that it was being man- ufactured in more places in the country than it is now. It was the day of small things and of poor con- ditions of transportation. The iron that was needed had to be produced locally, and the fact that the ore was so widely dis- tributed made such local manufacture a possibility. It must be recalled that the British government discouraged the manufacture of iron, not wishing the English industry to be interfered with by competition or limitation of its market. This forced the produc- tion into out-of-the-way localities, since the regions most remote from the seaboard were less likely to be inspected and repressed. There was plenty of wood at hand, and so wherever there was any FILLING PIG-IRON MOLDS WITH MOLTEN METAL IRON 169 knowledge of smelting, the process started up ; and the product was a strong and excellent quality of charcoal iron. It was rudely formed into such articles — bars, nails, etc. — as were locally in demand. Westward movement. During the half-century or more follow- ing the Revolution very little progress was made in iron-making ; charcoal was still used, though it had been practically abandoned in England by 1 800, for in England the coal and iron were in close proximity, and the wood was coming to be more and more scarce in some of the smelting districts. There was also, among us, little change in the general character of the industry ; it was still local, although it had spread practically all over the country. There were fewer plants in the South, but the industry had crossed the mountains and was growing in Ohio as early as 1805. By 1840 furnaces and forges were numerous throughout the Central West. The industry was kept in its primitive condition chiefly because of the vast extent of the country, coupled with inadequate transportation facilities. Conditions prior to i860. Down to the year 1850 lead and iron were the only metals worth mentioning that were produced commercially in the United States. The output of iron fell off in the decade 1810 to 1820 from 54,000 to 20,000 tons; in 1830 it was 165,000, and double that figure in 1840. There were some ups and downs in the next years, but it touched 800,000 tons on more than one occasion. In i860 it ran over a million tons. The use of hard coal for smelting. During this half-century Pennsylvania was preeminent in iron production; in 1840 she produced more than three times as much as New York, the near- est rival ; in i860 over half of the iron produced in the country came from Pennsylvania. This state was much advantaged by the changes in type of fuel. Between 1840 and 1850 many experi- ments were being made with coal, both bituminous and anthra- cite, but it was 1 849 before the anthracite iron became important enough to set the standard in iron quotations, so that the standard 170 1M)L Sl'RV AM) IRADE became the ton of anthracite iron instead of charcoal iron. In the vear 1S54 the two fuels had jModuced almost the same amount, but in 1S55 anthracite was 40,000 tons ahead. The use of soft coal. This success was quickly neutralized by the entrance of bituminous fuel. This fuel was in common use in England long before we adopted it ; it was about the middle of the eighteenth century that the English iron-makers took up the use of coke made from bituminous coal, but it was not until after the Civil War that the process got its momentum here. Anthracite was enabled to hold out because it was easy to get, cheap, and showed some advantages when it came to trans- portation ; it was also near the iron region (Lehigh) where the start was made. But as soon as the center of the great coke in- dustry — western Pennsylvania — became connected with the East by railroads, the geographical advantage of the anthracite area w-as at an end. In 1875 the bituminous fuel overtook the anthra- cite and the center of iron production shifted just across the Appalachian Mountains to the basin of the Ohio River. Location of the mining regions. The iron mines upon which the industry now chiefly depends are those farther to the west ; of the available iron ore about 75 per cent is in the Lake Superior region. It may be stated here that of the available iron ores at least half are owned by the United States Steel Corporation. This Lake Superior region (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin) con- tributes four fifths, and the Southern District (Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, the Virginias, Maryland, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas) about one seventh, of the total annual output of ore for the country. The old Northern District (western New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa) contributes a little less than 4 per cent. The demand for iron. The output of the mines since 1870 has increased at an unparalleled rate. This is the great iron age : iron is used for railroads, structural purposes, ships, munitions, and a thousand other important purposes. We arcv^so used to this fact that w^e fail to realize the amount of metal needed ; but IRON 171 let one stand by a railroad track and realize that the steel strip on which he places his foot reaches to San Francisco without a break — and not one strip alone, either, and not to San Fran- cisco alone — and that all this metal has had to be mined and worked over by the hand of man, and the iron industry in this country begins to take on more massive and imposing outlines. AN" IRON-MIMNf; KEfJIOX I\ MICHIGAN Advances in production. Huge quantities of the metal have been demanded for huge undertakings. The figures for per capita consumption show, as is natural, an immense rise. The present production of pig iron in the United States is about 30,000,000 long tons, worth over $400,000,000. This is less than the value of our wheat crop, but among minerals it is exceeded only by coal. The world's annual production of pig iron is about 63,000,000 tons, so the share of our countr\- in iron production is a large one. Factors favorable to the industry. Less than fifty years ago the United Kingdom was preeminent in iron and steel produc- tion, the United States holding second pUice but far behind the 172 INDUSTRY AND TKADK leader. It was the development of the Lake iron region and the application of the Bessemer process during the eighties which really established the American steel industry, so that by 1890 the United States surpassed all rivals. And there were other fac- tors which helped considerably : an abundant supply of cheap coke and limestone ; machine methods of all sorts ; plants of large capacity under a highly economic system ; and an adequate home market entirely controlled by home manufacturers. There is no manner of doubt that the above factors have strongly contributed to the increase of the industry, however much one may be inclined to disapprove the presence of certain of them. The war demand for iron. Here we have infringed somewhat upon the subject of manufacture — for steel, at any rate, belongs to that topic rather than to the present one — and thus have anticipated slightly what is to be said later on. It remains to be noted that the importance of iron deposits came out strikingly in the Great War ; the control of such deposits was a bone of bitter contention throughout the struggle. Germany early seized the iron regions of northern France, and it has been stated by a high French official that the enemy, from the very outset, sought to maintain possession of the French deposits, and that the attack on Verdun was for the purpose of confirming and per- petuating this possession. It is estimated that into ever)' acre in the vicinity of Verdun an average of fifty tons of metal — chiefly iron and steel — have been shot, the whole amount being 1,350,000 tons; it has even been proposed to mine it out again. And Verdun is not the only region that is full of metal from projectiles. But all this iron and steel had to be mined some- where and worked up into proper form. When an idea is gained of the rain of shell on the battle fronts, some conception of the demand upon the iron deposits can be attained. All this looks like gigantic and insane waste, but it is worth the price if benefits that are not material are purchased by losses that are material. CHAPTER XV GOLD AND SILVER The twin metals. Gold and silver have been mentioned to- gether for many ages as the precious metals ; and although there are now a number of more costly ones, these two are still commonly linked one with the other. Both have been used for ornament and both for money. They are still employed for this latter purpose in civilized countries, although for most such countries gold is the standard of value and silver a common coin used for making change. Gold Nature of gold. This is a widely distributed metal, being found in almost all countries of the world, as well as in the waters of the sea ; it is common in volcanic districts. It occurs in various forms — as veins in quartz, as nuggets, and in so-called "placer deposits " (that is, in small particles, or dust, mixed in with gravel or sand). What called attention to gold was doubtless its attractiveness to the eye of the childlike savage ; and it has remained alluring to the discriminating eye of the civilized man. It is also durable, neither rusting away nor otherwise wasting by chemical change. It is said, doubtless with some exaggeration, that all the gold that has ever been mined is now, unconsumed, in the possession of the race, with the exception of that which has, by shipwreck or otherwise, been lost. The metal is also 173 174 INDUSTRY AND TRADE easy to work, being soft and ductile, and was for this reason a favorite of the savage peoples, w^ho had difficulty with the harder metals. Gold coinage. Gold is a metal which, because of its softness, suffers much from abrasion ; it is therefore ordinarily alloyed with copper or some other harder metal, the grade of fineness of the compound being expressed in carats. For the same reason gold INDIAN JEWELRY AND ORNAMENTS OF GOLD has to be alloyed in coins ; and it is, indeed, under modern con- ditions, not very well suited to form a circulating medium. The coins, unless of high value, are too small and are usually a nuisance to carry about, as they are often mistaken, in a poor light, for coins of about the same size but of much inferior value. The gold certificate circulates much more freely and satisfactorily than the gold coin, while for small values silver, nickel, and copper are more convenient. Indian gold. The Indians knew gold very well and employed it in making trinkets of a more or less crude order, although some of the more advanced tribes had learned to form it into images and GOLD AND SILVER 175 artistic shapes. The natives of Mexico and Peru had great quanti- ties of the metal which were looted by ruffian conquerors like Pizarro ; the ransom of the Inca is reported to have been a room- ful of gold articles with a total value of some $15,000,000. The Spanish " Silver Fleet " sailed regularly from the Isthmus to Spain with cargoes of precious metals. In fact, it was the consuming desire for the precious metals, joined to the hunger for gain from the spice trade, that led to the voyages of discovery, culminating in those of Da Gama and Columbus. And the Spanish, intent upon such ends, neglected, as we have said, the areas we now call the United States because they afforded no promise in this direction. Increase of the stock of gold. Although gold has been known so long the amount mined previous to the middle of the nineteenth century was comparatively small ; the in- crease at that time was due to the opening up of the mines of California and Australia. There was another increase betw^ccn 1900 and 1909, but since then the production has been fairly constant. I'Vom the standpoint of actual value as compared with other sources of earthly wealth the annual output of gold is small ; it is worth less than our wheat, not to mention corn. But it must be recalled that all gold produc- tion is a permanent addition to the stock already gathered, and since prices are estimated finally in gold as the standard of value, an increase and consequent chca])ening of gold means rising prices. OXK OF THE Sl'AMSII SILVER FLEET 176 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Processes. The increase of gold has been possible not only because of the discovery of new deposits but also because of the development of processes for the profitable treatment of ores of a lower and lower grade. At first all gold-mining, where it was not merely the picking up of larger or smaller lumps, was placer- mining. The simplest mechanical device for separating gold parti- cles from sand was a pan, in which the sand and gold were shaken PLACER-AIIXIXG about until the gold, being heavier, sank to the bottom ; thus, slowly and painfully, the metal can be separated out. This is called panning. Also a small stream of water, running rapidly down a trough or sluice, on the floor of which cleats have been placed at intervals, can be used. The gold-containing earth is thrown in and the gold settles in the depressions. In real placer- mining banks of earth are broken down by a powerful stream of water from a hose and the earth treated with water to obtain the gold grains. Dredging consists in using an implement not unlike that employed in deepening channels ; the earth dredged up is GOLD AND SILVER 177 run through sluice boxes. These processes have to do, of course, with gold which has been washed out of its original setting by natural forces ; it involves much less investment of capital than actual mining. Improvement of processes. But when gold-bearing quartz is mined, the masses have to be crushed and the gold collected from the pulverized material. Here is the place where improvement of I'A.WING (iOLI) processes has appeared most notably. There were formerly inevi- table losses in the mining and extraction ; much waste material, called tailings, was rejected and cast aside. It is good evidence of the improvement in processes that beds of tailings have been worked over with profit by modern methods of extraction. The process has gone on until it seems that the limit of the lowering of the grade of ore must be approaching, for in some instances two thousand pounds of material are being mined and milled to get an ounce of gold. We cannot expect that the grade of the ore can be lowered much more than this. i/S INDUSTRY AND TRADE Development of the industry. In our colonial times gold-mining was an unimportant industry. The deposits in the eastern part of the country are insignificant, the best being on the Atlantic slope in North Carolina, where, in 1799, a large lump of gold was picked up — the first indication of its local presence. Grad- ually a few mines were opened and worked in a crude way, but what gold was obtained came chiefly from washings. Later on quartz-mining was pursued to a limited extent, sometimes at great expense but not with a corresponding profit. When the gold mines of Cali- fornia were discov- ered, these Eastern enterprises were al- most entirely aban- doned. The average annual value of gold mined in the United States for the dec- ade 1 830- 1 840 was 511,697,000. Then came the California gold strike, in 1849, and the yield for the year 1850 was in the neighborhood of $50,000,000, At present our annual product is worth about double this sum, having remained fairly constant during the last ten years. California and Colorado are by far the largest producers, with Nevada and Alaska as important contribu- tors. In the preceding figures the Alaskan output is included. Silver The high value placed on silver. Silver is found at times in a native state, but it occurs more commonly in ores along with other metals, such as copper, lead, and zinc. It is therefore not nearly so easily obtained as is gold in the nugget or dust form, A (,mll)-(>uaki/ Li;i:siii-:ii GOLD AND SILVER 179 and this accounts for the fact that in remote antiquity silver was valued equally with gold, or even above it. This metal is not so well known among savage peoples as gold. But the American Indians were well acquainted with it, especially the Mexican and Peruvian tribes ; the latter had accumulated the vast quantities of it, which, along with the gold, worked so powerfully upon the cupidity of the Spaniards. Immense quantities of silver were looted ; later, immense quantities were mined by the conquerors and car- ried back to Spain in the famous "' Silver Fleet." But they did not turn their attention to the lands now known as the United States. Colonial silver-mining. In some of the Eastern colonies silver in small quantities and mixed with lead ore was found about the middle of the eighteenth century ; such a vein was worked with some profit in Massachusetts, and a number of other states in the East once contained rather insignificant silver mines. When the population moved westward, and the large lead-ore deposits of the Upper and Lower Mississippi were discovered, they were found to contain some silver. But this was seldom in paying quantities, for in the earlier days of silver-mining the metal could not be extracted from the ore as readily as at the present time. In 1850, of the silver dollars in use, 99 per cent were of Mexican or Peruvian metal. And the same situation existed with respect to silver plate. Silver had been coined in Massachusetts as early as 1652, but the metal has regularly been an import up to relatively recent years. Silver discoveries. The amount of silver produced in this country up to 1H34 is officially reported as "insignificant" ; from 1834 to 1857 its value was $868,000; until 1859 the annual value was less than $100,000. The critical point in American silver-mining was the discovery, in 1859, of the largest deposit in the world. This was on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. Between 1850 and i860 prospectors had ranged, for the most part on foot, over the whole Western mountain region. They wandered from ledge to ledge, picking uj) specimens from time to time and cracking them or reducing bits of ore with charcoal ISO INDUSTRY AND TRADE and blowpipe. In the discovery year Henry Phinney and Henry Comstock chanced upon some promising silver deposits inter- spersed with free gold, and they laid a claim to a mine. Phinney sold out to Comstock for a pinch of gold dust, and Comstock himself soon sold the property. Then it was discovered that marvelous wealth lay hidden away in this claim, and the tidings spread like lightning over not only the United States but the whole civilized world. A period of frantic excitement ensued, such as is described in Mark Twain's "' Roughing It," and there followed a great inrush of people and the growth of new large towns, notably Virginia City, Carson City, and Silver City. Nevada was admitted to the Union in 1864, and the Central Pacific Railroad was extended through the region, passing within twentv miles of the point of first discovery. The Comstock Lode. Between 1859 and 1866 it is said that about §70,000,000 worth of silver was taken from the Comstock Lode alone, and a good deal of gold was associated with the silver. Between 1859 and 1876 about $200,000,000 worth of gold and silver were drawn from this lode, of which about $120,000,000 were in silver. Within a few years subsequent to the big initial discovery silver had been found in considerable quantities elsewhere in Nevada and in neighboring states. The United States at once came to the front as a silver producer ; at the present day Nevada, Montana, Utah, and Idaho are the states of greatest yield. In 1890 the famous lode was approach- ing exhaustion. The population of Virginia City, close by, had been around 1 1,000 in 1880; in 1908 it was about 2500. If any- one is disposed to doubt the control exercised by natural resources over national destiny, he may reflect that Nevada's silver added a state to the Union and two senators to Congress. Apart from the metallic wealth Nevada's silver regions are a hopeless desert. Silver a by-product. Taking the world as a whole, at the present time mining for silver by itself is uncommon. It is done in a few special places in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and South America ; but the greater proportion of the world's GOLD AND SILVER i8r annual output of silver is a by-product of mining for the baser metals, in particular copper and lead. Silver coinage. It remains to say a word about the coining of silver. A large part of the world's silver product is minted ; and until towards the close of the last century silver was the princi- pal metal coined in most civilized countries, and was the standard of value in many of them. Owing, however, to the fall in the price of silver due to increased production, there was a wide dis- crepancy between its coinage value and its value in the open market. Silver remains admirably adapted for small circulating coins. It has also been used in the arts from early times, and finds a place in some of the newer ones, like photography. m^\.V.. .: ;'>;■■ . \'^i i4.|m CHAPTER XVI OTHER MINERALS Lesser minerals. There are several other minerals which are of considerable significance in the economic life of the country but which have not been deemed worthy of separate treatment, either because their advent is too recent for them to have had as yet a very profound influence upon the development of our indus- trial life or because their importance is one with narrow rather than wide limits. Such minerals are copper, lead, zinc, aluminum, clay products, building stone, cement, lime, phosphate rock, salt, mineral waters, slate, and others. In this chapter we shall briefly touch upon some of the most significant of these. Copper. This is a metal second only in importance to iron for the industrial development of the country ; but that is due chiefly to the fact that it is indispensable where electricity is employed, for, despite much investigation, no satisfactory substitute has appeared. Consequently, although it is a metal that has long been known, the rise of the copper industry on the large scale is rather modern. The metal is widely distributed over the earth, being encountered at times in a pure state, but ordinarily in the form of ores. It is alloyed very commonly with tin and zinc, these alloys forming bronze and brass respectively. Since it can be hammered out without being softened by heat, it afforded to savage man what was, very likely, his first chance to use metal ; in any case, it is one of the very oldest metals known and has been used in tool-making and in the arts generally since remote antiquity. OTHER MINERALS 1S3 Indian use of copper. Along with other uncivilized peoples the American Indians had discovered the utility of copper ; it was the one metal which they had learned to put to practical use. They had even learned to harden copper so as to be able to make implements from it. It was mined in a rude way in the Lake Superior region, the masses of almost pure cop- per being dug out and raised upon a sort of staging until they could be removed from the shallow shafts. It has been iron and steel that have driven out the copper industry as civilization has advanced ; but the Indian, as we have seen, had not arrived at a knowledge of iron. Not much early copper- mining. Inasmuch as cop- per deposits are scattered widely over this country, even on the eastern slopes of the Appalachians, many discoveries of copper were made in colonial times; in general, however, the comparatively few attempts to work the deposits were abandoned as unremu- nerative. Copper was found in Massachusetts as early as 1648, and was smelted by imported Swedish workmen; and in 1709 a company was organized to work a copper deposit in Connecticut. The so-called Schuyler mine, in New Jersey, discovered in 17 19, was prominent as a producer prior to the Revolution. But our output of the metal long remained small; as late as 1S30 we produced not over 50 tons a year, and by 1S45 tliis IkkI risen INDIAX IMPLEMENTS AND ARTICLES MADE OF COPPER COPPER SMELTER — LAKE SUPERIOR REGION A COPPER-MIXIXG DISTRICT NEAR BUTTK, .MoXTAXA 184 OTHER MINERALS 185 only to about loo tons. If these figures be compared with the present yield of over 500,000 tons, some idea can be had of the newness of the industr\'. The Michigan deposits. For a long time the Upper Michigan deposits were the great source of our copper ; this is a great native copper region, following without a break the axis of MINING COPPER ORE AT P.UTTE, MONTANA the Keweenaw Peninsula for a distance of seventy miles, with a width of from three to six miles. The Lake Superior region came into prominence shortly before the middle of the last century, largely in consequence of the "copper fever" — a sort of popular furor of 1845 or thereabouts. Stories of the great masses of pure copper to be found in this region had unsettled the judgment of many people, and the shores of the copper peninsula soon teemed with prospectors and speculators. Hun- dreds of copper-mining companies were formed; but in 1847 1 86 INDITSTRV AND TRADE I'IGS OF LEAD the bubble burst, and only about a half-dozen of the strongest companies were able to withstand the col- lapse. The yield of copper had risen from something like lOO tons in 1845 to 650 in 1850, largely in con- sequence of the opening of the Lake Superior dis- trict ; but this was only a beginning — the full development of the region came later on. Montana discoveries. Then, toward the close of the last century, came the Montana discoveries, chiefly in the Butte district, and Montana soon came to surpass Michigan ; but in 19 10 Arizona took the lead. Here, by contrast with Michi- gan and Montana conditions, the metal comes from a num- ber of different parts of the state. We now lead the world in copper-production. Lead. Lead is seldom found in a pure state, but usually as galena, or sulphide of lead ; it is often a by-product of silver production. It has been known since early times, and widely, since deposits are com- mon about the earth. They are common in this country, but although the Indians were familiar enough with galena, there is no evidence to show that they had found out how to reduce the ore to metal. Long before the IN A /.l.\( .MINE OTHER MINERALS 187 Revolution the colonists discovered lead and made attempts to work the deposits. In the eastern parts of the country the results were poor. Lead-mining in Missouri (now our leading state in that industry) began as early as 1720; it is estimated that in 18 19 there were forty-five mines in Missouri. At the present time the states following Missouri are Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. The figures for lead produc- tion, in short tons, run from 1 5 00, in 1 8 2 5 , to over 5 00,000 at the present time. Zinc. Zinc occurs along with other metals, such as lead and copper. The crude metal is called spelter. Spelter pro- duction is a new industry in this country ; for although zinc was known to exist in colonial New Hampshire and elsewhere, little was mined, and its systematic and profita- ble production dates back only a few years. It started in an experimental way in 1858, but statistics of production before 1873 are not available. Thus, as compared with the other metal industries of the countiy, the zinc industry is of late development. The 7000 tons of 1873 have risen to 124,000 tons in 1900 and to 460,000 tons at the present time. These figures do not take account of the zinc-white derived directly from the ore. The largest use of zinc is in galva- nizing iron, but, as is the case with lead, much is used in the manu- facture of white paint. The balance is employed in brass making, sheet-zinc making, etc. Many of our states havi- zinc-bearing ores, but Missouri is far in the lead in spelter production. AN ADOI'.E IXniAN HUT ISS INDl SIRV AND TRADE Aluminum. This metal also is a newcomer, having reached prominence only two or three decades ago. It is very widely dis- tributed in nature, forming about one thirteenth of the- earth's crust ; in some rock there is from 20 to 30 per cent of aluminum. The metal has, of course, always been present, but unlike the rest which we have mentioned, it was not discovered until recently and so has no long history. It possesses, however, cer- tain very valuable proper- ties — lightness together with strength, ductility, and electrical conductivity. Were it not for the ex- pense of extraction it would be far more common than it is, but with greater ease in working it, under electrical processes, pro- duction is rapidly increas- ing. In 1883 we produced 83 pounds of aluminum ; in 19 1 4 we produced 79,- 000,000 pounds. When its price, as compared with that of iron and copper, is sufficiently reduced, alumi- num will doubtless be used extensively as a substitute for them, for it has the necessary qualities ; and the price of copper, at least, is now not so far from that of the newer metal. One of the main superiorities of aluminum is its lightness ; the need for a strong, light metal for use in automobiles, and especially in the manufacture of aeroplanes and other flying machines has raised a considerable demand for aluminum. This metal alloys with others rather easily, and it strongly resists the influence of water and vegetable acids ; it is therefore especially adapted to A POTTER S WllKKL OTHER MINERALS 189 the construction of kitchen utensils and surgical goods. It is now used for many seemingly inconsistent purposes, such as machine bearings, fancy articles, jewelry, and (a utility as yet only in its beginnings) the decoration of interiors — it supplants wood, for example, in modern business offices. Clay products. Clay formed an obvious material for the manipu- lation of early man, and he formed it into many sorts of utensils, as well as into bricks for house construction, which were at first merely sun-dried (adobe). Probably by accident he early discovered dish-.making; putting handles on dishes the possibility of baking and so of hardening the clay, and then the way was open to hard brick and pottery. In the course of time the several varieties of clay were discovered, and wares were manufactured that ranged from the coarsest brick to the most delicate porcelain. Value of the clay industries. Clay beds are, of course, well- nigh universal ; they are so, in particular, in this country. They differ much in grade of product, being fit for, say, brick, tile, or pottery. The American Indian was a great pottery-maker, but in a rude way, for he did not know of the potter's wheel. In early colonial days there were small potteries in all the colonies. And the first manufactory of white ware was in Burlington, New Jersey, 190 INDUSTRY AND TRADE but the pottery industry was not firmly established here until after the Revolution. At present the annual value of our clay products is between 5150,000,000 and S 200,000,000 ; for many years the brick and tile products have constituted about four fifths of the value of all clay products, the other fifth being pottery. In- money value the clay products stand, among the nonmctallic minerals, next to coal and petroleum. Bricks and tiles are of the most STEAM SHOVEL LOADING CEiMEXT ROCK OX CARS consistent utility in structural work ; the clay industry goes up and down with building operations. Ohio and Pennsylvania figure most prominently in both general branches of the clay industr)'. Stone. An important natural resource of the United States is the variety and abundance of its stone — stone adapted to building and to other important purposes. The principal stone quarried are limestone, granite, marble, basalt and related rocks, and sand- stone — limestone representing over 40 per cent of the total value of the annual output and granite about 25 per cent. The leading states in production are Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York, Ohio, and Indiana. OTHER MINERALS 191 Development of the stone industry. Despite severe competition with artificial-stone products the stone industry as a whole has advanced as the country has developed. The use of cement has damaged the production of the lower grade of stones — foundation stones, for example — but it has not much affected the higher grades used in building and still less those employed in monumental and ornamental work. In fact, the use of concrete and the USING AX AIR-DRIVEN CHISEL TO CUT A BLOCK OF GRANITE extensive building of roads and railroads has stimulated the crushed-stone industry to such an extent as to more than offset the decline in other kinds. Sandstone production alone shows a consistent decrease. It advanced considerably with the building of numbers of railroad bridges and other structures, from 1S97 to 1903, but since the latter date its use for building purposes has suffered from competition with cement as well as limestone, and it is not well adapted for use in tlie cruslicd form. Cement. There are three principal tyjx's of hydraulic cements — natural, Portland, and puzzolan. The first is sometimes called Roman cement, and is obtained by treating a certain tv[)e of lime- stone. This cement was first used in l^ngland in 1796. In the 19- INDUSTRV AND TRADE LOADING LIMESTONE I'nitcd States " cement rock " was discovered in New York State during the building of the Erie Canal in i8i^^i^ \ ■ ..•^A"..-Af;^A*:v.L CHAPTER XVIII FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS Importance of the food industries. This group of industries embraces the manufacture of all kinds of food products except liquors and beverages. Of the fourteen leading groups of Ameri- can industries distinguished by the Census Bureau this is the most important, judged by the annual value of its product ; for the various industries here included produce a value of close upon $5,000,000,000 a year. The simplest classification of these industries is into (i) the manufacture of animal products and (2) the manufacture of vegetable products. There are numerous special industries under each of the two general heads, for the description of all of which several large volumes would be insufficient ; we shall select outstanding examples from each of the two. Early slaughtering and meat-packing. From the standpoint of value of product the slaughtering and meat-packing industry is now the most important in the first group ; and it finds its greatest development in the killing, curing, and packing of hogs, although the similar treatment of cattle and sheep is no small enterprise. Naturally pork-packing came out of the original do- mestic industry, if it might be so called, of filling the local pork- barrel for the family use. Shortly before 1700 Boston was doing a considerable business in curing pork and packing it in barrels. The westward movement. Then the Middle West began the industry in 18 18, at Cincinnati; it does not seem to have taken FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 211 root in Chicago until several years later. In the winter of 1832- 1833 Cincinnati slaughtered 85,000 hogs. When, now, the agricultural resources of the Middle West started in their develop- ment, there was plenty of food, especially corn, for the domestic animals, and farmers observed the profit to be gained by raising hogs for Eastern and Southern demand. Of this something has already been said. And the fact that shipping required water transportation caused the industry to settle on the rivers ; goods went to market by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, even when the final destination was Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, or Boston. It ap- pears that the river fiatboat was not seldom the real packing house, as the curing was done on board while the meat was on the way to market ; or, more often perhaps, the curing was done on board the boats in winter so that the meat would be ready for marketing when the spring thaws freed the river for navigation. The cured product was often sold to merchants located at strategic shipping points, such as St. Louis and New Orleans, in exchange for merchandise such as rice, sugar, and molasses, which were much in demand in the up-river country. Concentration at Chicago. For the decade 1842-1852 Cincin- nati packed over a quarter of the total pork of the West, reaching a figure of 475,000 hogs slaughtered in 1848- 1849; but soon thereafter the railroads penetrated the West and, since markets now became available independently of waterways, changed the geographical position of the industry. In 1850-1S51 Chicago DOWN THK ftUbSlSSU'l'l HV FLATBOAT 212 INDUSTRY AND TRADE slaughtered 20,000 hogs and afterwards developed the industry very rapidly; Cincinnati held first place till 1861-1862, after which Chicago was not to be overtaken. Thus the center of the industry, having been in the Ohio Valley, moved westward to the great stock-raising centers. It is much cheaper to send packed meat to distant markets than it is to assemble the animals for slaughtering at points nearer the consumers, but which may be a thousand or thousands of miles from the animal-raising dis- tricts. This industry thus adapted its location to considerations of comparative cost of production. The development throughout the country has been strong ; about sixty years ago the capital invested in the business was only $3,500,000, while to-day it is over $500,000,000. The industry has reached such enormous proportions that the annual value of its product is $1,650,000,000, it supports nearly 100,000 wage-earners, and there are over 1200 establishments. Rapidity of the processes. Labor-saving devices have been per- fected to a nicety ; the killing is still done by hand, but there are, as we have already seen, many ingenious devices for handling the carcasses. The animals are prepared for the chill-rooms at the rate of about twenty a minute. The factor which, perhaps more than any other, has stimulated the packing industry in the last few decades is the development of the process of artificial re- frigeration. The carcass has to be properly and thoroughly chilled ; but the packing season is now twelve months long, summer-cured meat differing in no essential respect from winter-cured. The problem of so cutting up the animals as to cater to the peculiar tastes of the numerous sections and nations to which the packing products are sent is a matter demanding considerable study and care. As in pork-packing, so in beef-packing, the refrigerating methods, and especially the refrigerator car, have been of great significance ; meat handled by way of refrigeration is in far better condition than the product which the packers used to provide years ago, when living animals were shipped by rail for two thousand miles or so. FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 213 GRINDING FLOUR IN A HAND MILL Elimination of waste. In the packing industry as a whole waste has been rigorously eliminated, and allied industries have developed in connection with the packing houses. "The fierceness of competition," says an expert, "' may force the packing house of twenty- five years hence to include a tannery, a boot and shoe factory, a cloth mill, and a mammoth tailor shop." Flour manufacture. So much for a typical and rank- ing animal-food industry ; we come now to the manufacture of food from vegetable products. Here we have selected the flour and gristmill production as the most important, measured by value of output, and as a basic form upon which many others, such as baking, rest. At the present time flour and gristmill products reach an an- nual value of nearly $900,000,000 ; there are about 40,000 wage- earners employed in making them. Our enormous cereal crops have given rise to an extensive milling, and each advance of grain production has been followed by a cor- responding increase of machinery and establishments for its manufacture. AN EARLY NEW ENGLAND MILL-WHEEL USED FOR (iRINDINC; (iRAIN 214 IXnrSTRV AND TRADE Development of milling. The first way of milling grain was with tlic teeth, — tiie large back teeth, which we still call grinders, or molars, — but it was not long till men came to use two stones for the puqjose. They have used two stones up to recent times and have not by any means given up this method even yet. The first flour mill in American history was the hand mill — two small stones, one fitted with a handle so that it could conveniently be rubbed on the other. But in early colonial times there were gristmills run by wind power. These were usually subject to toll laws, which established the charge for grinding grain ; thus, though the rates were not uniform, in New England the toll w-'as usually one sixteenth of the wheat and one twelfth of the Indian corn ground. Bolting, the process of sifting the crushed grain, was ordinarily done in the home. In the South very high tolls were exacted ; in Maryland in early times the toll was one sixth of the grain. Later on, the water mill succeeded the earlier devices, and flour became, even as early as the latter part of the seventeenth century, a considerable export. Milling centers. The flour mills of Delaware on the Brandy- wine were very celebrated in the period succeeding the Revolution. Twelve such mills, with twenty-five pairs of stones, ground 400,000 bushels of wheat per annum. The town of Wilmington was ex- porting 20,000 barrels of superfine flour a year. There were 1 30 mills within a radius of forty miles, and contemporary opinion had it that the manufacture of flour was carried to a higher de- gree of perfection on the Brandywine than in any other state in the Union. Baltimore also became prominent in early times as a milling center ; in 1 769 she exported 40,000 tons of flour and OLIVER EVANS FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 215 bread. Baltimore flour was regarded as of superior quality, and that city was the first milling point to adopt the mechanical improvements devised by Oliver Evans, who, about 1785, by the introduction of the elevator, conveyer, and other mechanisms, com- bined the various stages of the process into a continuous system, dispensing with half of the labor formerly required and enabling the miller, by machinery alone, to take the grain through " from wagon to wagon again." Next to Delaware and Baltimore came Richmond, whose flour was in great demand in both home and foreign markets until rela- tively recent times ; in 1845 the mills of Rich- mond included the largest in the country and their flour commanded the high- est prices. The great mar- ket for Richmond flour was in South America. The fame of Rochester. Rochester and the Gene- see Valley sprang into fame for their flour production nearly a century ago and attained and held celebrity on two continents for a half-century. Genesee Valley flour repeatedly took prize medals at European expositions. Rochester was favored for production by the fact that the Genesee River had, within the city limits, successive falls aggregating 268 feet ; also the Erie Canal, the Genesee River, and the railroads brought to the Rochester mills not only the local wheat of the famous valley but also that of Ohio and Canada. Within twenty-five years after the War of (;kxi:si:e falls — kochkster, xkw york 2l6 IXnrSTRY AND TRADE i8i2 Rochester erected twenty -one Hour mills, with a daily capacity of 5000 barrels. In i860 there were nineteen mills, with a yearly product valued at $2,500,000. Rochester continued to be the Flour City of the continent until the growth of its nursery busi- ness caused it to be denominated the Flower City. Westward movement of milling. With the Western movement of the grain production there went a corresponding migration of the milling industr}-. As early as 1840 Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, ^, - •■5«. EARLY SHIPPING SCENE ALONG THE ERIE CANAL Illinois, and Michigan together produced 2,000,000 barrels of flour, which constituted about 30 per cent of the total output of the country. Twenty years later the Western states, so called, were producing more flour and other milling products than the New England and Middle States combined. New York was still the leader in value of flour produced, but Ohio stood second, and half or more of the flour manufactured in the United States was produced west of the Alleghenies. Routes of shipment. Long before the flour-milling industry developed in the Northwest, cities like Cincinnati and St. Louis were active, for the first trend of flour production toward the West was down the Ohio River ; a steam flour mill was in operation FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 217 in Cincinnati as early as 18 15. Barges took the flour down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans before the time when the canals and railroads began to stimulate industrial development in the upper Mississippi region. But after 1856 Cincinnati was shipping wheat north and east, and New Orleans was declining in its function as a shipping port for flour. The navigation of the rivers was uncertain and hazardous, as we may learn from I'lLUTlXC, UN Till-: MISSISSU'I'I KI\ l-.K Mark Twain's account of piloting on the Mississippi, and the warmth and moisture of the Gulf and lower-river climate were dangerous to the grain and flour. When, therefore, the Lakes, canals, and railroads could be utilized for transportation, the direc- tion of the shipments at once changed. St. Louis continued to manufacture and ship flcAir, however, and before Minneapolis came to the front as a milling center, was the leading flour manufacturing point in the country. The rise of Minneapolis. The opening of the r>ie Canal, in 1825, meant a powerful stimulus to the development of the northwestern 2I8 INIHISTRY AND TRADE part of the country, and wheat and flour were among the chief articles of freight. By 1845 Ohio stood next to New York as a wheat producer and soon thereafter rose to the top ; in 1 860 the four leading wheat-producing states were Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio, all northwest of the Ohio River, Chicago had, we have seen, started to manufacture flour before the middle of the century, and Milwaukee became prominent soon after the STOREROOM IN A FLOUR MILL, MINNEAPOLIS Civil War. But it was Minneapolis, favored by position in rela- tion to the wheat belt and advantaged by reason of its abundance of water power in the shape of the Falls of St. Anthony, that was destined to become the chief milling center of the land. The industry started at Minneapolis with a small government plant, in 1823, but it was twenty years later that the first custom grist- mill was built ; and the first shipment of flour, 100 barrels to Boston, was made in 1859. In 1865 there were running six mills whose daily capacity was 800 barrels, and three years later thir- teen, with a capacity of 220,000 barrels. Then came into action the big mills which have made Minneapolis famous. FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 219 Improvements in milling. Pillsbury, a milling expert, speaks of these improvements as follows : Down to 1870 the milling process in the United States was that invented by Oliver Evans with some minor and gradual improvements. From i 787 the nether and upper millstones, the former stationary and the latter balanced to rotate upon it, ground the flour of America. The stones were set close together to produce as much flour as possible at one grinding. This produced friction and heat and brought about chemical changes which injured the color, taste, and quality of the flour. In the early milling history of Minneapolis, when enterprising manufacturers rushed the speed of stones to secure a large product, the flour came out dark, and so hot the hand could not be held in it. Under these conditions of milling the hard spring wheat, espe- cially, made a dark-colored flour which could command only a low price. The passing of the millstone. Experiments were made to obvi- ate these difficulties and resulted, about 1870, in the introduc- tion of chilled-iron and porcelain rollers in place of the stones. Pillsbury goes on to say : The grain, in place of being ground in a single pair of millstones, was run through six or seven sets of rollers, being sifted and graded after each break- ing by the rollers. The old process aimed to get as much flour as possible at one grinding ; the new seeks to get as little flour as possible at the first two or three breakings. The old millstones were set so close together that the weight of the upper stone rested almost wholly upon the grain. The first rollers in the new process are set so far apart that the kernel is simply split for the liberation of the germ and crease. The old process sought to avoid middlings as far as possible, because they entailed loss of flour. The new process seeks to produce as much middlings as possible, because out of the middlings comes the high-grade patent flour. This new process, in such striking contrast with the old, lent itself to the rapid development of the milling industry. The export of flour. For the first half of the last century flour was one of our leading exports, but during the third quarter of the century the export trade fell off, largely because of the rapid progress in the technic of milling in Europe. There they were developing new processes while we clung to the old ; and so 220 INDUSTRY AND TRADE thev imported our wheat and ground it themselves. But with our adoption of improved processes, after 1870, the export trade in flour took on a new lease of life. Present condition of milling. Mills are in operation at the present day in every state of the Union. Minnesota is the leader in value of product, followed by New York and Kansas. The principal grain ground or milled bv us is wheat, and corn takes second place. Our flour- and grist-mills have constituted one of the most valuable industries of the land ; for a time it led all other manufacturing industries in value of annual product, but shortly before the close of the nineteenth cen- tury the leadership was taken by the slaughter- ing and meat-packing establishments. These mills, it may be added in conclusion, produce great quantities of breakfast foods, such as rolled oats and similar articles. Other food industries. There are, of course, many other branches of the food (and kindred products) industry dependent upon vegetable materials. Let one scan the catalogue of some great mail-order house and see for himself. We shall mention several of the most important and illustrative : the manufacture of bread and bakery products ; the manufacture of confectionery and ice cream ; the canning and preserving of fruits and vege- tables. Of sugar-refining we have made some mention in the foregoing, and the industries connected with the roasting and grinding of coffee and spice are by no means insignificant. A .MODERN KAKPLKV FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS 221 Conservation of food. The consumption of food in this country has always been lavish, and generally wasteful. Where corn was cheap enough to burn — where they had corn to burn, so to speak — nobody was going to make a great effort to save. Too much food was eaten for the health of the eaters ; and then, again, much was half eaten and thrown away. Tons of coal have been rejected along with the ashes, and tons of food along with the garbage, not only by famihes that were comfortably off but even by those of the poor. Tastes have become finical and much stress has been laid upon the form in which food was presented for sale ; this has led to an immense industry in making up food into novel or even weird form and to the prevalent habit of buying cereals and other foods in packages or jars, all of which have to be paid for in the form of higher prices. The development of the art of advertising in connection with food products is both remarkable and even romantic, though it may not be edifying or speak well for the common sense of the buying public. But the Great War precipitated a food shortage, and we were obliged to give some thought to conservation ; a food controller clothed with wide powers was appointed. It may be one of the wholesome results of the calamity that befell the civilized world that we shall learn to value more highly our food supplies at something more nearly approximating their worth, and treat them accordingly. CHAPTER XIX METALLIC PRODUCTS Importance of the metals. The transformation of metals into metallic products is one of the greatest of human achievements. In the most primitive times it was regarded as at least a semi- magical process, and the smith was both respected and feared, as being a magician. There was that about the processes of fusing and alloying that caught the imagination, and all sorts of poetical terms and expressions, such as the " marriage " of the metallic elements, grew up around the medieval alchemy (which was an eager search for some chemical element — the so-called "philoso- pher's stone" — which would transform baser metals into gold). There is no doubt at all that despite the error due to ignorance and all the poetical nonsense connected with the development of metallic processes, the enthusiasm of people about the metals and their manipulation was prophetic of the immense importance which metallic products were destined to take in the development of civilization. '" No single thing," asserts one writer, " better measures the industrial standard of a nation than its use of metals." But a high civilization always has to rest upon a strong industrial structure if it is to persist, and so we might even say that a people's use of metals is a pretty good index of its civilization. Earlier localization of iron manufacture. Strictly speaking, the smelting of metals is a preparatory process to manufacture. We have had not a little to say about the simpler methods of iron- smelting as developed in this country, and have only a few facts METALLIC PRODUCTS 223 to add in this place. It is clear enough that in the early periods of our history local smelting of iron was almost universal, but that there came about an elimination which left this process to those sections of the country which had especial advantages, such as proximity of mineral fuel and mineral. Pennsylvania was singled out for eminence in this industry, and Pittsburgh was its center of activity, for this city had also ready access to the developing Middle West. A MODKKN nUJN AMi STEEL TEANT Improved processes. And then came improvement of processes. The Cort processes for puddling and rolling were the first which made iron plentiful, and for the first three quarters of the last century it was from these that the world derived its supply of the metal in tough form suitable to resist heavy strains. But these processes called for a considerable plant, complex machinery, and strenuous exertion on the part of skilled and powerful laborers — factors which were available in England, with the result that 224 INDUSTRY AND TRADE that countty held the supremacy of the iron trade during the period. A second revolution in the industry occurred between i860 and 1870 with the invention, by an Englishman named Sir Heniy Bessemer, of the Bessemer process of steel-making. By this process much time was saved. The ore was converted without any break in the process and without any cooling, once heat had been applied, directly into the final steel product. This demanded still larger plants and more elaborate machinery, and by it the production of tough iron (also called "mild steel") be- came possible on a vastly greater scale. Bessemer steel has dis- placed puddled iron in most of its uses, and the increasing cheapness and abundance of supply has not only met existing needs but also opened up new regions of demand. The first application of the Bessemer method was to the production of rails, but new and wider uses were all the time found for the cheap steel. It supplanted wood as never before, and from the greatest ships down to the smallest nails every iron instrument became cheaper and better. Bringing coal and iron together. The Bessemer process required a special kind of ore and pig iron. Most of the Eastern ores were, for various reasons, unsuitable for the process, while the Lake Superior iron deposits could furnish an abundance of properly con- stituted ore. It was necessary only that the Western ore and the coal of Pennsylvania should be brought together, in order to make huge quantities of iron and steel ; and the development of Lake transportation, as we have seen, solved that necessity. Then, within the last few decades, resulted that unparalleled growth of our iron and steel industry which has set us in this respect in the lead among the nations, our annual output of iron and steel being nearly half of the world's output. Foundries and rolling-mills. But the manufacture of iron and steel is but begun when the first processes formative of the raw product are done. The foundries and rolling-mills are next in order. Roughly speaking, the foundries make castings by pour- ing the liquefied metal into molds of various sorts. There were METALLIC PRODUCTS 225 foundries in operation in this country before 1750; these early plants did a good deal of custom work and made numerous arti- cles, such as cooking utensils, for domestic use. At the opening of the nineteenth century they could take care of the home demand for hollow ware. In the course of time there has been great specialization in this branch, so that instead of making a variety of articles, a foundry will devote its efforts to the manu- facture of a single specialty, such as stove-plates, plow- iron, or heavy castings for engines. Then there is the rolling-mill for the hot rolling of iron and steel into bars and rods, plates and sheets (many of them for subsequent tinning, to form tin-plate), rails, bands, hooks, or structural shapes. Up to i860 most of the rolled product used in this country was imported, but thereafter American roll- ing-plants were set up. The product of the rolling-mills has steadily and swiftly in- creased, until at the present day their output constitutes a large percentage of the total iron and steel industry. Elaborated iron products. The products of the further working up of iron and steel are so multiform that it is out of the ques- tion to survey them otherwise than in a sort of special encyclo- pedia, but we shall illustrate this further stage of manufacture by several selected cases. Stoves and furnaces. One of the important developments of the foundry industry is the manufacture of stoves. The growth of the market for stoves, especially coal stoves, went along with better facilities for distribution and with the increase of popu- lation ; and the demand rose with the housing of population in buildings put up after the economy and convenience of stove SLAB ENTERING ROLLS TO BE ROLLED INTO PLATE OF STEEL 226 INDUSTRY AND TRADE heating, and at length furnace heating, became recognized. Evi- dently the large modern hotels and apartment houses could never have been rendered habitable in the winter on the old plan of fireplaces or by the first simple stoves. By the middle of the last century our annual output of stoves and ranges was worth upwards of $6,000,000. The industry centered in those cities which had the advantage of cheap transportation to the largest body of consumers ; this was the factor that favored the migra- tion of stove manufacture to the West. The centers of this business have been New York, Providence, Philadelphia, Albany, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. Stoves are, of course, only one product of the foundry ; cast-iron railings and fences, fountains and animals, and especially wheels, are scattered examples of foundry work. Wheel-casting, like stove-making, has come to be a specialized industr)'. Tools and hardware. Tools and other hardware represent an important branch of the same industry. Until the beginning of the nineteenth century, or later, the local blacksmith or cutler made the American mechanic's tools, and there was no great uniformity about them in the matter of size, shape, and general character. Among the first tools made in this country for general use was the ax ; by the close of the eighteenth cen- tury most axes used in this countr)' were of domestic manufacture, and one of the most noted ax factories in the world was estab- lished, in 1828, at Collinsville, Connecticut. Handsaws and mill saws are said to have been manufactured in Philadelphia in 1 790 ; and about the middle of the last century the Disston saw factory was one of the largest in the world. Other tools for the carpen- ter were manufactured here previous to the War of 18 12, but the tool industry did not get firmly on its feet till about 1830; by that time there were cutlery and tool works at Worcester, Paterson, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chambersburg, the last of these towns making chiefly carpenters' tools. Knives of all sorts and table cutlery were manufactured at Worcester, Nor- thampton, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Auburn. Soon after 1830 METALLIC PRODUCTS 227 such industries reached Cincinnati, but in i860 New England still produced about half the edge tools and three quarters of the cutlery made in this country. Prominence of New England. There is no object in trying to trace in detail the histoi-)- of hardware manufacture ; it is, in fact, so varied in character that it is impracticable to render a brief account of it. The localization of this form of metal manufacture in New England and its expansion and successive stages of A GIIEAT FACTORY FOR MAKING SAWS organization show the same determining factors which we have already seen in connection with other such enterprises. Here, too, it was the Yankee inventions which helped to hold in these vicinities the manufacture of clocks, house hardware, and the many mechanical devices connected with what might be called " Yankee notions." Ironworking machinery. Tools were thus, at first, largely made by hand ; but a significant development emerged j)resently, stimulated probably by the high cost of labor here, in the form of ironworking machinery. American ingenuity has devised all sorts of machines for fashioning iron and steel, thus dispensing 228 INDUSTRY AND TRADE with handwork ; this is, indeed, so characteristic of America that we are usually too impatient, as well as too ill-trained for the purpose, to undertake industries where the labor has to be pre- vailingly handwork. The result is that our factories are filled with much and efficient machinery run by a relatively small number of operatives ; a very large proportion of the operations which require the expenditure of tre- mendous effort or of slight effort are now ex- ecuted by machinery, and are performed better and faster than they could be by human labor. This general application of machinery to the work- ing of metal has resulted in the establishment of important factories for the manufacture of iron and steel tools and ma- chinery. There are bor- ers, drills, turning-lathes, planes, hammers, dies, shears, rolls, punches, screw and bolt cutters, riveting and welding machines, cranes, milling machines, polish- ers, and numberless other devices, with many forms of each. There seems to be no limit to the number of machines which can be invented for working iron, some noted for their labor-saving services and others for their apparently superhuman accuracy. Standardization of parts. A most significant development of the American machine and machine-tools industry is the stand- ardization of parts. This is carried to a high degree of success MACHINE FOR TIGHTEXIXG BARREL STAVES AND POUNDING HOOPS IN PLACE METALLIC PRODUCTS 229 wherever a large product is put forth by the use of machine methods, as in the watch industry, where a timepiece can be put together by selecting one each from piles of wheels, main- springs, and other parts. This idea of interchangeable parts seems to be a matter hardly worth mentioning, because so obvious — it is taken for granted ; but there was a time, not so many decades ago, when it was very difficult to have a broken or outworn part ADJUSTIN"(; A Ni:\V IXTEKCHAXGEAISLE PART OX AN OLD MACHIXK of a machine or tool replaced without having it specially made. The first foreign observers of this American method were aston- ished beyond measure ; but now, having been popularized in world's fairs and otherwise, it has been adopted, as possessing self-evident advantages, throughout the civilized world. Engines. We might go on indefinitely with metallic products, confining ourselves to iron and steel alone ; but we have selected only one further example of this order — engines, chiefly for loco- motion. The first steam engines for railroads which were used in the United .States were imported from England ; lliis was at the very (Aitsct of the railway era, about the beginning <>1 tlic second 230 INDrSTRV AM) TRADE quarter of the last century. The practice did not last long, for a number of concerns undertook to build engines here, with the result that within a few years American locomotive shops were able to meet the demand of the railroads of the country ; then, after some experimentation in the East, shops were opened in other parts of the country. From their early and humble beginnings our locomotives have increased in size and power until nowadays they are a marvel of efficiency, commanding the home-market and being found on railroads in practically every country in the world. AN EARLY AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE BESIDE A MODERN GIANT LOCOMOTIVE Early engine manufacture. There were engines built and in operation in this country before the railway locomotives. Soon after the Revolution they were used to propel ferryboats and for other purposes. Before 1810 engine shops were constructed in the vicinity of New York City and at Pittsburgh, and by 1820 engine-builders plied their trade in various parts of the country. Plants were likely to be located where there was river, lake, or ocean navigation ; marine engines were coming into demand. After 1830 there was a demand not only for this sort of engine but also for engines to be used in Eastern factories, in steam- blowing and pumping (in particular in the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania), and for many other lesser purposes. This led to METALLIC PRODUCTS 231 the enlargement of the engine-making plants on the seaboard and to the improvement of their equipment and methods. Locomotive engines. But the building of locomotives, because of patents connected therewith, soon became a distinct branch of manufacturing, in which Philadelphia, with its famous Baldwin Locomotive Works, founded in 1832, took the lead. Many engines were built solely for foreign buyers ; and as the railroad development went on, extensive engine shops and repair works came to be located in districts widely separated from one another. A NIXETKI-:.\Tn-( KN'TIKV DIWKK Si; 1 .\IAI)K FROM SIll'.l'.TS OF MI'TAL Jewelry and silverware. As an example of a metal industry quite different from those based upon iron and steel or copper, we have selected the jewelry and silverware production for brief description. It is known that there were several shops devoted to this industry in colonial times; and about 1800 silver plate and gold-filled jewelry were being manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island. By 1830 various towns in Massaclnisctts were making the same articles. Precious stones had llicir principal market in New York City, which therefore became an impoilant center for jewelry. Very little silverware was used by the early colonists, for they were, for the most part, too poor. It was not until close upon the middle of the nineteenth century that the 232 IXnrSTRV AM) TRADK manufacture of this ware began to develop. At this time there came into being the art of electroplating, which cheapened the cost of tabic silver and stimulated its output. The earlier artisans who had worked here in silver made their articles, such as dinner and tea sets, by hammering out the pieces from flat sheets of solid metal. Silver-manufacturing is an important contemporary indus- try in this country, and a great variety of ornamental and useful articles are on the market. Progress of the metal industries. The following statements will give some further idea of the present-day importance of the metal manufacture of the United States and of its development in recent years. According to a recent Census of Manufactures the capital involved in the manufacture of iron and steel products alone, to say nothing of the numerous other metal manufactures, was nearly double that invested in any other large group of industries, such as the textile and food-producing groups. The wages paid in the iron-and-steel branch of the industry by itself exceeded those paid in any other group of industries. The value of the products of the iron-and-steel branch was surpassed only by that of food and kindred products and of the combined textile industries. The value added by manufacture in the iron-and-steel branch alone was greater than that added by any other of the great groups of industries. CHAPTER XX TEXTILES "What they include. The textile industries are here understood to include (i) the manufacture of various fabrics ; (2) the conver- sion of these fabrics into articles for personal wear ; and (3) the making of textile products other than those for personal wear. The second and third of these evidently depend upon the first for their materials. There are four leading materials from which the textiles manufactured in this country are made, — cotton, wool, flax, and silk, - — and the textile industries based upon these mate- rials occupy second place in value of product among the fourteen large groups of industries distinguished by the Census — second only to those producing food and kindred products. However, on the basis of the average number of wage-earners employed, the textile group takes first place. The colonial industry. Although the cotton industry takes an easy first place as compared with the other members of the textile group, historically it was later of development. Woolen and linen cloth for domestic use was " homespun " in early colonial times ; it was not until the arrival of immigrants skilled in the trade that fulling mills were built. About the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury the Northern colonies were making practically all the cloth they needed and the colonies, as a whole, about three quarters of their requirement. The product was of a very coarse grade, and throughout the colonial period England and Ireland furnished the bulk of the finer (lualitics of linens and other textiles. ^33 234 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Linen. As late as 1810 flax exceeded, in this country, both cotton and wool as a textile fiber. The first factories were estab- lished shortly after the Revolution and, from flax and hemp, produced canvas, cordage, sailcloth, and other articles in domestic demand. These early manufactories were in New England and had, of course, no power-driven machinery. Bounties were offered to encourage the production of the articles just mentioned, but when they were removed the industr\^ languished. Factories were established, as time went on, for making finer goods from flax, but the growing as- cendancy of cotton checked their devel- opment; a mill per- sisted here and there, but the industry did not attain any impor- tant dimensions prior to the Civil War ; in 1 860 we were making only about $800,000 worth of linen goods. In fact, the development of the industry was slow until the opening of the twentieth century, when it had reached a product value of about $4,000,000 ; since then, however, this figure has nearly doubled. Formerly large quantities of our flax were used for making twine and cloth, but now the situation, despite the growth of the linen industry, has shown something of a shift ; there has been a marked decrease in the production of flax for textile pur- poses, almost all the flax crop being now utilized for the seed, from which linseed oil is made. Woolens. The British government discouraged the production of woolen goods in colonial America, wishing to preserve the market for the English product ; the export of woolens and even Till'. (II. I) .MI.IHOIJ OF S1'I.\X1.\(, FLAX TEXTILES 235 the transfer of certain woolen goods from colony to colony were forbidden. Imported woolens were expensive, and so we find the colonists wearing leather garments like the Indians. But the British laws did not forbid household production, and the spinning and weaving of cloths and blankets went on in the home. In 1790 there were a few woolen factories in the country, but they were not prosperous. The industry was stimulated during the Embargo and the wars that culminated in the year 181 5, but it was hampered MODKRX .Sl'lXMM, AIACUINK at the same time by an insufficiency of domestic wool and by taxes on imported wool. It is said that factory-made woolen goods increased in value between 18 10 and 181 5 from $4,000,000 to $19,000,000. Then followed a period of depression, and it was not until 1830 that woolen manufacturing got its first good start. The woolen industry slower in starting. The specialized manufacture of woolens and mixed cloths was a later development in America than that of cottons. Part only of the raw materials needed was produced in this country ; and the transition from household to factory spinning was made harder by an accom- panying change of spinning fibers. The processes in making woolen goods are more complex than those used for cotton, demanding experienced hands in cloth-making and in dyeing and 236 INDL SIRV AND IRADE finishing as well ; and so it took longer to develop automatic macliincrv for wool-working than for cotton-working, and there was a smaller held for the employment of unskilled labor and for the use of power — two conditions of great importance in the competition with Europe. Also the prosperity of this industry was peculiarly affected by the various changes in tariff legislation. Progress of the industry. The start attained in 1830 carried the industry along, and it was enabled to make use of the power loom in manufacturing hosiery, carpets, and other products. This development occurred chiefly in the Middle States, where the wool was grown; half of the woolen mills of 1850 were in Pennsyl- vania, New York, and Ohio, The early woolen manufacture, as in the case of cotton, was strongly intrenched in New England, but lack of domestic raw wool held it back. In i860 there were nearly 1500 woolen-manufacturing plants in the countr}^, employ- ing about 50,000 operatives and turning out an annual value of nearly 575,000,000. Then, between i860 and 1880, appeared a remarkable growth of the business, due in good part to the falling off of cotton production, during the Civil War time and later, and to the extraordinary demand for woolens for the armies. The various branches of woolen manufacture have continued to ex- pand, during the last few decades, along such lines as woolens, worsteds, felt goods, carpets, and rugs, until at the present day there are about $500,000,000 in capital invested and an annual value of product of something like $500,000,000. An interesting feature of our woolen manufacture is the large number of small mills scattered all over the country — a relic of colonial condi- tions ; but the bulk of the factories is where the population is, Massachusetts holding first place for woolens and worsteds and third place for carpets. New York leads in carpet manufacture, in which detail, . both as to quantity and variety, we surpass all other nations. Cotton goods. Cotton manufacture is the typical fiber-working industr)'. We are already introduced to it in part, from what has been said earlier about cotton. In the chapter on cotton we have TEXTILES 237 taken up something about the elementary processes of spinning and weaving. We have seen that the invention of the gin was the turning point in the industry, for the product was so cheapened as to bring it within the reach of the people as a staple for clothing manufacture ; it also led the industry out of the home and into the factory. The period between 18 10 and 1830 was the time when this movement was making itself most strongly felt. But the construction of textile-manufacturing machines and their introduction into American factories was a process fraught with difficulty ; England, wishing to secure and keep the monopoly of the industry for herself, prohibited the exportation of machines and also plans and models of machines. American manufacturers had to smuggle in what machinery and machine drawings they could get. American cotton machinery, not so long after the English THE I-TRST SPINNING JENNY was that But, as a matter of fact, it machines were in operation they were duplicated in this country ; it is said that the first cotton factory in this country was built in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1787; and then factories were established in New York, Penn- sylvania, and Rhode Island. The credit for building the first complete cotton machinery and operating it in a factory goes to Samuel Slater, sometimes called the Eather of American Manu- factures, who set up his business in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1799. But development was slow; in 1804 only four cotton factories were to be found in the country. Eminence of New England. Then New England began to take hold, investing in the new industry the capital previously em- ployed in ship])ing, but later ivndcre.d idle b\- the P'.mbargo. 238 INDUSTRY AND TRADE In 1808 there were in New England 8000 cotton spindles in operation, three years later 80,000, and by the close of the War of 1 81 2 half a million ; and the figures for consumption of cotton by domestic manufacturers confirm this fact of rapid ex- pansion. Up to 18 14 machines did the spinning, while the weaving was done on hand looms and in the home ; but in that year the various processes of spinning and weaving were brought for the first time under one roof. This was at Waltham, Massa- chusetts, in Lowell's fac- tory, which has been called the first complete factory in the world. Nearly all of the early textile mills being very poorly constructed and meagerly equipped, they con- sequently turned out only the coarser grades of prod- ucts. But the factory sys- tem spread rapidly, and the factory towns grew up on the streams of New Eng- land and the Middle States. Such towns were Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke, and Fall River, in Massachusetts. The industry preceding the Civil "War. The general depression following the close of the war period that ended in 1 8 1 5 was felt in the cotton industry ; only the best located, managed, and equipped mills survived after 1820. By 1824, however, the cotton industry was on a sound basis, and from that time on has shown steady growth; by 1830 the United States was surpassed only by Eng- land in the amount of raw cotton consumed annually. At that date over $40,000,000 were invested in cotton manufacturing, over SAMUEL SLATER TEXTILES 239 77,000,000 pounds of raw cotton were used annually, and the value of the manufactured product was about $26,000,000. The industry, as we have seen, came early to be located in New Eng- land, which possessed a number of the advantages named above (p. 201) as favorable to industrial development. As early as 1840 New England mills were turning out about three quarters of our cotton goods. By the time of the Civil War nearly $100,000,000 CARIJl\(i, DKA\V1\(;, ROVING, AND SPINN1N(;, AS INTKOUUCEI) liY SAMUEL SLATER were invested in the business, over 422,000,000 pounds of raw cotton were consumed annually, 120,000 people were employed in the mills, and the value of the manufactured product exceeded $115,000,000. Over 85 per cent of the cotton goods consumed in this country were being made here, only the finer qualities being imported ; and besides controlling the domestic market, we had an important export business. The industry after the war. The Civil War, which resulted in the cutting off of sup[)]ics of raw cotton, rendered two thirds of the spindles in the country idle ; but there was a ra])id recovery 240 INDUSTRY AND TRADE afterwards. Between i860 and 1880 the amount of raw cotton consumed, and the number of spindles in operation as well, doubled. Great improvements were made in processes of manu- facture, steam was more and more replacing water power in factory operation, and conditions were coming into being which were to allow cotton factories to locate in the South. Development in the South. This development in the South represents a striking change in the cotton industry. North and t^mfimMmMmrMn COTTON MILL L\ THE SOUTH South Carolina and Georgia especially showed marked progress ; the value of the cotton products of these three states constituted 6.2 per cent of the total in 1880, as against 29.7 per cent in 19 10. During the same period the capital invested in Southern cotton mills increased from about $22,000,000 to $360,000,000 ; the number of spindles rose from about 600,000 to nearly 4,400,000 ; and the consumption of raw cotton from about 200,000 bales, of 500 pounds each, to 2,500,000. This desirable result was due to the usual combination of advantages : proximity to raw materials, excellent water power, and a supply of cheap labor ; and it was attained largely at the expense of New England mills and, still more, of those of Europe. TEXTILES 241 Advantages of New England. New England, however, has not by any means been driven from the field : Fall River and New Bedford, Massachusetts, are the leading cotton-manufacturing cities of the country, New Bedford being probably the producer of the best cotton cloth made in New England. The labor situation in the New England tex- tile industries is typical of American industry in gen- eral. Although the New Englanders, after a cen- tury's experience as tex- tile workers, are skilled operatives, the industry no longer depends upon native stock. Within re- cent decades large num- bers of French Canadians have come from Quebec to the mill towns of New England. Here they find employment which is lack- ing in their own country, with its large and rapidly increasing population. In recent years larger num- bers of Europeans also have come, with the result that the mill towns show many languages. Thus has New England also been provided with a relatively cheap class of labor, comparable in some respects with that of the South. Present conditions. At present there are about 1300 cotton manufactories in the country ; the capital invested is about $900,- 000,000, and the annual value of the product is over 5^700,000,000. In this matter of value of product Massachusetts is easily the leader, followed by North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Rhode Island. (JATHERIXG MULUF.URV LKAVES FOR SILKWORMS 242 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Silk. Silk manufacture was the latest of its group to extend outside the household. Silk was raised in the eighteenth century in Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, and as early as 1790 bolting cloths were made at Wilmington, Delaware, and small goods at Philadelphia, from American materials. Con- necticut manufactured several hundred pounds of sewing silk annually, in households, and sold it at home and in neighboring states. But there was no manufacturing enterprise of any impor- tance in this earlier period. Development of the silk industry. Sixty years were necessary to teach Americans that they could not raise silk with profit ; in fact, the highest ex- pectations along this line were seen in the late thirties, during which ^ period house- hold manufacture of silk persisted, and mills used domestic materials. In 18 10 reeling and twisting were done by water power in certain Connecticut villages ; and between that time and 1840 plants designed to use American silk were started at a number of scattered places, both within and without New England. Some of these undertakings were successful and worked out valuable improvements in the machinery used ; but most of them failed, either because they lacked raw materials or because they lost in silk-raising more than they earned in silk manufacture. Some of the states, but not the national govern- ment, gave legislative encouragement to this industry. The unwinding of the cocoons and the conversion of their material into a continuous and even thread requires skill and patience, UNWINDING THE SILK FROM A COCOON TEXTILES 243 together with labor that is both skillful and cheap. But these factors could not be found in America, for this sort of labor could not be procured here ; and so certain preliminary but essential processes never came to be performed economically and perfectly on a scale to support mill industries. The industry after 1840. Americans could manufacture silks well enough, even though they could not raise the raw material ; that is, they could do that which did not demand patience so much as originality in devising machines and labor- saving devices generally. They were making ribbons and trim- mings in 1 8 10; and the whole situation was solved about 1840, when China began to send us raw silk in quantities. During this period the mills ceased to depend upon local material. Between 1840 and i860 there was a marked advance in the industry, notably in making sewing silks ; a number of small factories were built up, promi- nent among which was one at South Manchester, Connecticut, now a model manufacturing town containing one of the largest silk plants in America. Yet by the middle of the last century the silk industry was still an infant : in i860 the product of all our silk mills was worth about $6,500,000 annually, of which value sewing silk contributed more than half. The invention of the sewing machine in the middle of the century gave a stimulus to the demand for sewing silk, and A Sn.K LOOM WEAVING DESIGNS IN SII.K 244 INDUSTRY AND TRADE machine twist was beinj:; produced in 1.S52 ; but it was not until after the Civil War that ribbons and dress goods were manufactured in any quantities. Recent development. The Civil War was succeeded, as we have seen, by remarkable growth in the cotton and woolen manufacture ; but a development still more wonderful took place in the case of silk. The value of silk products increased from the $6,500,000 of i860 to $41,000,000 in 1880 and has continued to rise rapidly ever since. There are now about nine hundred establishments, as compared with three hundred and eightv in 1880; these employ over 100,000 operatives, and the annual value of their output is about $250,000,000. Pennsylvania is the most distinctively silk-manufacturing state, though Paterson, New Jersey, is still referred to as " the Lyons of America." Other fibers. The manufacture of fibers other than the ones we have mentioned is relatively unimportant. One illustration may be given. The manufacture of hemp was a rather important industr)' in colonial times and for a quarter of a century there- after ; hemp was used for making cordage and bagging — in fact, the manufacture of these products and of sailcloth, articles much needed in commerce and fishing, was one of the earliest indus- tries of the nation. The manufacture of hemp migrated west- ward ; about 1850 Missouri became a rival of Kentucky, and of the 9,540,000 yards of bagging reported by the Census of i860 the latter state made about 5,750,000 and Missouri about 2,000,000 less. Hemp production has decreased along with that of flax. ^M^/i?.,i»V-^4^;.--.,,v^^,-j^.,^^>^ ■""''' CHAPTER. XXI LUMBER AND PAPER Importance of wood. The really indispensable articles to man's life on earth are few and simple, but one of them is wood. The savage has often gotten along without metal, but he has had to have wood for fuel and shelter. The only notable exception is the Eskimo of the Far North, and it is only by the exercise of the utmost ingenuity that he gets on with the few pieces of drift- wood that fall to him. He has become an expert in the use of bone in making tools and weapons and of snow for winter shelter. The little wood that comes to him is very highly prized ; in fact, small and weak pieces of driftwood are skillfully pieced and glued together to make a block big enough to do anything with. This was in the time, of course, before the white man came to him ; and the whole story but illustrates to what limits men may be driven in the absence of this basic natural resource. Hardly any other part of the natural environment enters more intimately and vitally into the life economy, and certainly into the beginnings of the industrial career, of the human race ; consequently a country with extensive forest areas is at an advantage in the struggle for existence and in the competition with other countries. Our forest resources. We have already described thr forest resources of our country and have seen that originally, in both extent and value, they were unsurpassed by those of any other civilized country ; that we have carelessly spent these resources, so that approximately one half of the value of our forests has 245 246 INDUSTRY AND TRADE been used up ; and that a conservation movement is now on foot whose aim is to have the annual growth at least equal the annual drain. Early processes. The luiropean colonists who began our national history were forced to start the business of lumbering at once ; they had to build themselves shelter and they were obliged to clear land for cultivation. The houses were made of lofrs. and whatever boards or shingles were needed had to be LOG CABIN OF AN EARLY SETTLER hewn out or split by hand. The invention of the sawmill was an important incident in colonial history. It was invented in this country in 1633. Sawmills were located on eligible streams, and settlements were not infrequently determined by the presence of a stream affording water power. Mills were in existence in vari- ous places in New England by the middle of the seventeenth century, and spread to other parts of the country as these were settled ; the sawmill followed the pioneer wherever he went, after as well as before the Revolutionary period. The simple mills of the day cost anywhere from fifty to five hundred dollars, usually formed a combination with grist-milling, — so that the log-owner LUMBER AND PAPER 247 paid the miller for the sawing, — and produced a rather petty product. The census of 1840 reports over 30,000 lumber mills, with a total product value of nearly $13,000,000, or more than $400 per mill. For the first four decades of the nineteenth cen- tury the exports of timber rarely exceeded $5,000,000 a year. Lumbering. This timber business, however, was of importance to the population. For shipbuilding large timber was needed, and there were often cut single pieces that brought two hundred dollars or more. Lumber was carted to town like farm produce. One Saturday in 18 16 there arrived in Belfast between three and four hundred sleighs loaded with lumber, and in 1822, in a single day, 1 36,000 feet were brought there by team. Lumber was in reality a sort of by-product of land development. Localization of the in- dustry. The application of the steam engine to the sawmill changed the character of this industry. Where formerly the mills hugged the streams at some local or general fall line, they now could follow the timber ; and where formerly the logs were floated downstream to their destination (which was another reason why lumbering stuck to the rivers), now the industry came to be closely associated with railroads and railroad-building. A sort of intermediate stage, in s(jme places, was where the timber was transported by canal. The modern development of lumbering has been connected with railroad extension more closely, probably, than that of any other industry. Not seldom "haS'Tlie lumberman been a pioneer in railroad building, and not a few roads of to-day were laid down rather recently as part of a local lumbering enterprise. Large-scale production followed upon the extension of railroad transportation, and this was concen- trated in the soft-wood areas, where a highly developed variety of ICING A SLED ROAD IN A LUMBER CAMP 24S INDUSTRY AND TRADE sawmill, differing materially from the earlier type, accompanied a much more intensive organization of the industry. White-pine lumbering in the states around the Great Lakes produced a num- ber of big organizations with large capitalization, and Southern and Western lumbering largely imitated the methods, which had alreadv gained much prestige, of the great Northern pine region, A STEAM SAWMILL Shifting of the industry. Three causes have combined, since the middle of the nineteenth century, to bring about a shift of the scene of large-scale lumber production in the United States : first, railroad development ; second, concentration of manufacture ; and third, destruction of forest areas by fire. These factors have brought to pass a rapid exhaustion of the forests and a conse- quent necessity for the industry to seek new fields. In 1850 the northeastern states furnished 54.5 per cent of our lumber, the Lake states 6.4 per cent, the Southern states 13.8 per cent, and LUMBER AND PAPER 249 the Pacific states 3.9 per cent. In 1880 these percentages were 24.8, 33.4, 1 1.9, and 3.5 respectively. In 1914 they were 9.0, 10.5, 47.7, and 19.3 respectively. The figures for intervening decades show that this movement was a constant and consistent one. And this shift has meant change in the nature of the output : white pine, which used to constitute about half of the total prod- uct, is now something like a tenth ; and the leading woods now cut are yellow pine, Douglas fir, white pine, hemlock, oak, spruce, and Western pine. Importance of the industry. Lumbering is now, as it always has been, one of the basic industries of the country. There are over eight hundred thousand wage-earners employed in the pro- duction of lumber and in its re-manufacture, and as an agency of employment of labor this industry is surpassed only by farming, railroading, and mining. In value of product lumbering and con- nected enterprises stand fifth in the list of groups of industries — after the food, textile, iron and steel, and chemical groups. The planing mill. We turn now to illustration of the indus- tries consequent upon and allied with lumbering. The planing mill produces a large number of commodities, such as sashes, blinds, doors, interior woodwork, moldings, and a great number of minor products connected with building and other operations. Here are products worked up from the raw timber and approximately ready for use, needing only the fitting in at the hands of the local artisan. ' The furniture industry. Then there is the furniture industry, which has grown to large proportions. This industry deserves particular mention. It was built up in this country from very humble beginnings. At first much of the furniture, and practi- cally all of the finer variety, was imported from T^ngland — cabi- nets, chairs, tables, chests, and beds. These were highly valued, as one can see from reading the wills of colonial times: a man will be found to have carefully enumerated sucii possessions, leav- ing his bed to this person, his favorite chair to another, and so on. Furniture was imported because the colonists lacked line tools and technical knowledge; and then, again, they were all more or 250 INDrslRV AND TRADE less pressed by the necessity of producing food and other articles of an indispensable order. Fine furniture was a luxury on the frontier, and whatever was homemade was of the rudest descrip- tion, as, for example, the schoolroom benches without backs, the discomforts of which have been set forth in novels and stories of colonial and frontier days. Its earlier development. The local furniture business started, of course, in the local carpenter shop. Here were fashioned plain AN EARLY EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCHOOLHOUSE hardwood chairs, benches, and bedsteads " strong as a house." Everything w'as massive and there was no pretense of style ; native W'Ood was used, for the mahogany and other more elegant furni- ture was imported. It was not until after the beginning of the nineteenth century that furniture-making began to be separated from general carpentry work ; and it was ' stimulated during the War of 1812 by an import tax. In 181 5 there were a good many furniture-makers at work in the large centers of population, and American ideas began to appear. The rocking-chair was an American product and also the art of veneering. Furniture soon came to be lighter, handsomer, and cheaper. The demand in- creased ; for while in the earlier period the home was but scantily furnished, now families bought a dozen pieces where they had LUMBER AND PAPER 251 formerly bought one. By the middle of the century the domestic furniture manufacture had complete control of the domestic market, and the only importation was of the most fashionable and costly varieties, in total value not comparing with that of the American product. The use of machinery, the better transportation, the specialization of the cabinet shop which confined itself to furni- ture, the new devices which were always being invented — these factors caused the industry to assume large proportions, so that in 1850 the value of furniture produced was about $ 1 5,000,000 and the employees numbered 37,000. Progress since the Civil War. The in- dustry suffered much by reason of the Civil War, but it revived promptly and has had an almost unbroken prosperity since. The bulk of the manu- facturers engaged in making a product appropriate for the homes of the masses at a price within reach of all. Improvements in woodworking machin- ery have made it progressively advantageous to replace handwork by imitating it to a high degree of nicety. New models and new articles have been evolved : it is said that the bureau, the folding bed, and most of the combination pieces which can be used to economize space in small city apartments arc of Ameri- can origin. Many changes have been made in the varieties of wood used : early in the nineteenth century mahogany, maple, and black walnut were the mode ; then cherry and ash became common ; about 1880 oak came into prominence ; and at present mahogany, curly birch, and maple are used in the better grades FURNITURE OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD 252 lNI)LSrK\ AM) IRADK of furniture. There have been notable changes also in the style of upliolstering, the haircloth, favored years ago, having been supplanted by a variety of more pleasing textures and colors. Present conditions. At the present day the United States is the most important manufacturer of furniture in the world, and, in addition to the control of the domestic market, we also are the greatest exporters of this product, which we send to all parts of the civilized world. The present value of our annual furniture production is about twice the value of the 1899 product/ The greatest increase in business has taken place in states of large population — New, York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The superior character of the wood in certain parts of these last two states is largely responsible for their standing in the industry. Grand Rapids, Michigan, for example, is a very important center for furniture manufacture, although its population is small. The cities which figure most promi- nently in the manufacture of furniture are Chicago, New York, Grand Rapids, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. The states whose products have the greatest value are New York, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Wisconsin. / Paper Early stages of paper-making. Paper-making is an ancient art ; the Egyptians made paper from the papyrus plant (whence the name), though it was not much like what we now call paper. The Moors in Spain, however, eight or nine hundred years ago, manufactured a product more like ours ; paper mills are said to have been in operation there as early as io^ IXDl'STRV AN[) TRAI^E Beginnings in America. In this country tramways operated by animal power, gravity, or stationary engines were employed before railroads, as the term is now understood, were known. Sails were used here also. The pioneer railroad in this country is generally con- ceded to have been the Baltimore and Ohio ; it was, at any rate, the first road in the nature of a public utility. Its first rail was laid on the Fourth of July, 1828, by Charles Carroll, reputed to be the only living signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and in 1830 the first division of the line was open for general transportation purposes. This was at first a horse-car road, LOCOMOTIVE BUILT BY GEORGE STEPHENSON AX OLD-TIME STAGECOACH OX RAILS but locomotives soon took the place of the animals ; the cars were at first small and open, like stagecoaches, but later on were larger and mounted on trucks. Of course the whole apparatus was on a RAILROADS 319 scale that appears to us now as ridiculously minute ; the roadbed was poor, and the rails were hardly more than strips of metal. But it was gradually borne in upon people's minds that it was not the canal but the railroad that was to be the last word in the evolution of transportation. The earlier lines. Numerous railroad lines were begun shortly after the Baltimore and Ohio. The New York Central system originated in the Mohawk and Hudson, which opened, in 1 83 1, seventeen miles of road between Albany and Schenectady. A little later Boston was connected with Providence, Lowell, and Worcester, and in 1841, by way of Worcester, with Albany. The following year saw a Boston-to-Buffalo con- nection. The germ of the Pennsylvania system, from Philadelphia to Columbia, was put into operation in 1834; and by 1837 Phila- delphia was connected with New York Bay and Balti- more. In 1838 the Reading railroad was in operation up the Schuylkill valley. The first railroad in the South was a South Carolina line running from Charleston to Hamburg, a settlement opposite Augusta on the Savannah River ; this road was opened in 1837, was one hundred and thirty-seven miles in length, and enjoyed for a brief time the distinction of being the longest railroad in the world. The first lines were local. The earlier railways were not designed to be arteries connecting West and East ; with few exceptions comprehensive schemes did not underlie the early CHARLES CARROLL 7,20 INl)lsrR\ WD I'RADE railroad enterprises ; most of the lines were local and, being of different gauges, were not available for long shipments. When the idea developed of linking up the short separate lines into systems, it was found that there were many different companies operating the roads, each in its own way; nothing was uniform. In 1850 there were seven different companies operating lines connecting Albany and Buffalo. This matter of a non-uniform gauge was "JOHN hull" locomotive — AN EARLY AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE always a great nuisance ; there was even developed a sort of telescopic axle permitting the adjustment of the wheels to tracks of different gauge. Engineering difficulties. In the laying out of the early rail- roads the engineer had to keep in mind constantly the necessity of low initial cost of construction. Hence the first American rail- roads showed sharp curves, steep grades, and irregular courses. It was easier to follow the old road or trail than to strike out on a new one ; but the early highway was, as we have seen, often based on an Indian trail, or even, as in the Middle West, on a buffalo trail, neither of which was noted for its directness. And where the old dirt roads had been diverted from these more or less hap- hazard lines, it was less for the purpose of straightening the course than of meeting the wishes of some person or community which had foresight enough to want the road and influence enough to get it deflected in that direction. This sort of course RAILROADS 321 introduced engineering difficulties that were elsewhere — for in- stance, in England — unknown. The resources of American mechanics were taxed to the limit, and all sorts of devices were adopted to make the engine stick to the track ; on the other hand, however, many permanent improvements were made, such as the swivel, or bogie, truck, which permits of sharp turns. The early locomotive. The early locomotives were not very strong ; for example, it is said that on the Mohawk and Hudson the engines had to be taken off in winter and horses used in their stead, and in some cases it is recorded that pas- sengers often had to get out and help start the train by pushing. The locomotives were practically all wood- burners, as they were intro- duced prior to the coal age. Stories are told of the stop- ping of a train to allow the fireman to cut wood, the engineer and well-posted passengers getting out their fishing tackle and enjoying themselves the while. The smokestacks had to be high, and at man\- of the overhead bridges they had to be taken down ; and so it became a custom for a watchman to exam- ine bridges after a train had passed, carrying with him a bucket of water in case the engine had set fire to the bridge. And the roadbeds were too flimsy to support a locomotive and train of much size ; it was thought that heavy locomotives would destroy the bed, and their size was kept down. It is not so surprising that the popular mind came but slowly to an appreciation of the nature and possibilities of the railroads. Apparently the railroad impressed the early legislator as a sort of improved common road, to be ranked with the macadamized turnpike ; at any rate, the first railroad charters were patterned dirceth' upon turnpike charters. ii^^^>^^^ ^jmmmmm^.:. AN EARLY AMERICAN ].()((),M()TI\'K SHOW- ING SMOKESTACK ; WHEN WOOD WAS USED FOR FUEL 322 INOrSTRV AND TRADE Retardation of development, rhere was much opposition to the building of the first railroads on the part of rival transportation agencies, such as turnpike and canal companies and owners of stage lines. Tavern keepers were against the innovation because thev thought they would lose business built up in connection with horseback and stage travel. But the growing cities were reaching out for the trade of adjacent country districts, the rapidly develop- ing West was calling, and railroad construction proceeded, all things considered and despite difficulties, at a good speed. To realize this we must remember that there was a day of small things even in the powerful industry which we now accept as a matter of course. During the first decade of railroad-building only 2800 miles had been put into use ; ten years later, in 1850, there were about 9000 miles. And during this time the railroads had to demonstrate their superiority over canals ; people were slow to realize their possibilities ; capital was scarce ; and it was not known for some time whether or not the railroads could compete successfully with the waterways in the carrying of freight. Not until the middle of the century was it apparent that our railways were destined to carry heavy freight as well as passengers and packages. No railway systems. All these facts made for retardation of development, and up to 1850 our railways occupied an unimpor- tant relation to the country's internal commerce. There was as yet no idea of a railway system ; the lines were local and isolated. Philadelphia, as the converging point of a numbe.r of lines, was at first the most important railway center ; New York made connec- tion with the West by the Erie Canal, which had a big traffic both in passengers and freight. From 1840 to 1850 it was in New England that railway mileage increased most rapidly. Outreachings toward the West. Before 1850 the railroads were located almost exclusively in the states along the Atlantic ; the only important line in what was then called the West was one running from Sandusky to Cincinnati. Up to 1850 the internal commerce, at least, was carried almost solely upon natural and Superior ^„vA\' ■ «> -fsjA-X tCoWOi^"' jlKGlN*^;-' Oh^^HlUC^'' '>;, 4-'-'vHR61<*i KANSAS/^- V:^ Vv ewS"'"" nal> 100 200 300 400 1 , Longitude 89° Went from 85 IJi.- 1 6 per ton ; nor oak wood at $g, and hickory at $ 1 3 per cord, as has been the case for two or three weeks past, if railroads were in general use ; but all kinds of business would move on regularly and be more equally divided throughout the year. Produce could come to market as well in January as in July, and the farmer would not be obliged, in order to get his crop to market in the fall, to neglect preparing for the next. The blessings of cheap transportation. At the middle of the nineteenth century people were just beginning to experience the advantages of cheaper transportation, and it is of interest to quote what men then thought of the change. Says one of these writers: It is well known that upon the ordinary highways the economical limit to transportation is confined w-ithin a comparatively few miles, depending, of course, upon the kind of freight and the character of the roads. Upon the average of such ways the cost of transportation is not far from 15 cents per ton per mile, which may be considered a sufficiently correct estimate for the whole country. Estimating at the same time the value of wheat at $1.50 per bushel and corn at 75 cents, and that 33 bushels of each are equivalent to a ton, the value of the former would be equal to its cost of transportation for 330 miles, and the latter 1 65 miles. At these respective distances from market neither of the above articles would have any commercial value, with only a common earth road to market. But we find that we can move property upon railroads at the rate of li cents per ton per mile [the 191 7 rate is between seven and eight mills per ton mile], or for J^ the cost upon the earth road. These works, therefore, extend the economic limit of the cost of transportation of the above articles to 3300 and 1650 miles respectively. Twentieth-century rates. If this was the case more than half a century ago, it can be imagined that the twentieth century would show still more startling figures. A few of these may be cited as typical of the first decade of this century. Eggs were then brought to New York from the West, over two thousand miles, for two and one half cents a dozen ; butter from the Mississippi Valley to New York City for about one cent a pound ; turkeys into New York from Texas, in the winter, for about one dollar and a half per one hundred pounds. A three-pound can of tomatoes coming to New York from Maryland paid the railroad five mills ; and dressed meat was brought from Chicago to New York for about the same figure per pound. A sack of fiour weighing fifty pounds THE INFLUENCE OF TRANSPORTATION 351 was sent from the Indiana mill to almost any Eastern point for about eight or nine cents. Similarly with clothing : the transpor- tation charge on the material used in making a pair of shoes in a St. Louis factory averaged a cent and a quarter, while the charge required to carry a pair of shoes to a buyer in any part of the United States averaged between two and three cents. The freight charge paid on the entire clothing of a fully dressed man or woman almost anywhere in the United States east of the Mississippi was somewhere between six and eighteen cents. Big systems give low rates. On the whole, it may be said that the freight rates on raw material are now so adjusted that it is possible to manufacture almost any staple article at any logical place within the country. Freight rates in the United States have for decades been remarkably low — a condition made possible by the magnitude of the scale upon which our transportation is con- ducted. Soon after the United States was drawn into the Great War, however, there was a marked advance in freight rates as well as passenger rates throughout the whole countr)\ Rates of canal transportation. It would be possible to give figures illustrating the cheapness of transportation brought about by the development of turnpikes and canals. For one instance, in 1807 the cost of transportation between Buffalo and New York was $100 per ton, and the time required was twenty days; this meant that the cost of transportation between these cities was three times the market value of wheat, six times that of corn, and twice that of oats. Thus most articles were entirely shut out of any extended market. The opening of the Erie Canal, eight- een years later, of course did for commerce in a smaller degree what the railroads later accomplished on a grand scale. The cost of freight between Buffalo and New York fell to between ^15 and $25 a ton and the time of transit was reduced to eight days. Rates were steadily lowered by the use of the Canal until they were reduced to about one tenth of the former figures. Communications. Transportation and communication are very closely allied, and the development of the latter allows a speeding-up 352 INDUSTRY AND JRADK of the machinery of business which adds much to industrial efficiency. Under the improvement of communications come the development of such factors as the telegraph, telephone, cable, postal service, postal money service, and wireless telegraphy. The invention of duplex telegraphy greatly reduced the cost of messages; then, by 1880, the telephone was in rather common use, although its invention had taken place only a few years before. The recent development of wireless telegraphy has made it possible for an exporting firm to remain in constant control of its goods while in transport across the ocean, and has otherwise enlarged the possibilities of business organization. Good transportation a condition of national well-being. It would be possible to fill a large volume with facts and figures illustrating the subject of this chapter, but perhaps we have cited enough cases to stimulate reflection. It is true, of course, that transpor- tation is not so fundamental to industrial development as is agri- culture. There must be, first of all, something to transport. But just as soon as industry has developed beyond the first and sim- plest stages, it calls for transportation as a necessity for further growth. Then the transportation system becomes, to a more developed industry, fully as vital as are its supplies of raw material — in fact, as we have seen, the very value of the raw materials is dependent upon the possibility of moving them from one place to another. In its most developed form modern indus- trv could spare the transportation system about as well as it could forego its raw materials. As we conclude this chapter, therefore, we see the truth of the statement which may have seemed to us somewhat exaggerated at the outset of the chapter, that "there is no single influence which has played a more essential part in American industry than transportation." PART VIL THE PROMOTION OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIES CHAPTER XXX INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY Summary of preceding sections. In the preceding parts of this book our attention has been turned to the basic factors of Ameri- can industrial development, namely, our natural productive areas and greatly diversified natural resources, and the qualities of the men who have been present to utilize what nature provided. Then we have followed out the development of the leading indus- tries created by our people and the wide-flung transportation system which has been called into being for the support and ser\'ice of our industries. The stimulation of industrial life. We have said something in the preceding chapter about tlie importance of the transpor- tation system, but as yet we have not made a business of describ- ing the general policy adopted by the nation for the promotion or stimulation of its industrial life. However, it is clear enough to anyone who has kept his eyes open that there is such a thing as promoting, by the use of political, financial, and educational means, the chances of success of any particular industry or of all industries taken as a whole. In this, the last section of our book, we shall attempt to outhne some of the most important 353 354 INDUSTRY AND TRADK \va\s in whicli our industries and commerce have been helped along and stimulated. In so doing we shall be dealing with the present rather than the past, for until recent years no great amount of organized effort, directed along various lines to a com- mon end, has been put forth in the promotion of our industries. In fact, we shall be dealing rather with enterprises whose out- come is not yet thoroughly known than with past events whose history is closed — with that which we can do in the future rather than with that which we have done in the past. Earlier trade rivalries. All development, industrial or other, has always implied a struggle between competitors. If we con- trolled all the markets of the world, and there was nobody stand- ing by ready to take advantage of us, we should have very little incitement to improve our system. As a matter of fact no nation has ever attained superiority, let alone supremacy, in industry and commerce without the hardest kind of a struggle. In their small way the ancient nations struggled just as hard as the modern ones for whatever advantages they aimed at or attained. The first great scene of conflict for western nations was on and about the Mediterranean Sea. This is the period of commerce which is sometimes called the Mediterranean, because the market for the control of which the various competitors struggled depended upon commercial supremacy over the Mediterranean Sea. Until the Discoveries Period of the early sixteenth century that which corresponded to the present world market v.-as relatively small, but after discovery and colonization had begun, there came into being a real world-wide market and a rivalry for the first place in producing goods for that market. Rivalry for the world market. The first rivals in the world market were Portugal and Spain, but their competition was com- mercial rather than industrial ; they did not attempt to produce goods for the world market, but were largely engrossed in exploit- ing their colonies and in the spice trade. In the seventeenth cen- tury the competition was between Holland, France, and England, but even then this competition was mainly along commercial rather INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY 355 than industrial lines. That is, there did not exist in each of the competing countries a body of domestic industries which threw its output into the world market in competition with the products of the other nations, but there was simply trade in commodities irrespective of their origin. However, such a body of industries gradually developed, especially in England, w^hich emerged from the struggle holding first place. Her grip upon this suprem- acy was so strong that during the latter part of the eighteenth centur}', and until well along into the nineteenth, she stood with- out any serious rivals in industr)^, especially manufacturing and mining, and remained in command of the world's markets. The strength of Great Britain. It is instructive to note the causes of this supremacy, for the study of England's case throws considerable light upon our own opportunities and destiny along these lines. Briefly, the great economic strength and commercial development of the British Isles is largely a matter of favorable geographical environment and of a marked capacity for adjust- ment shown by an industrious and intelligent population. Climate and other elements of the environment combined to stimulate a development of industries ; the location of the islands, the fact that they were islands and were thus separated from the rest of Europe, though in proximity to it, and the broken nature of the coast line which formed many and adequate harbors — a multitude of such factors favored the struggle for industrial and commercial supremacy. Then the character of the people, combining as it did much of common sense and practical insight with independence and other solid qualities, of dis])osition, was supplemented by the superiority of certain individual English- men in the matter of mechanical invention. These inventions were such as to revolutionize industry, place it upon a modern basis, and thus give to Great Britain the impetus of an early start along lines of development that were to characterize the modern world. We do not need to go into great detail concern- ing the industrial virtues and successes of the British, for thev are commonly known. 356 INDUSTRY AND IRADK The challenge of Germany and of the United States. In the light of history, however, the country which holds first place in indus- try and commerce is always likely to be challenged ; and the supremacy of Great Britain has been challenged by two other nations. She still remains the "commercial heart" of the world, but she has encountered two new competitors, Germany and the United States, which have been coming rapidly into the fore- ground. At the time preceding the Great War both of these na- tions were going through an industrial and commercial expansion through which Great Britain had earlier passed. The evidence for this statement is to be found in the statistics of German and American industry and commerce during the last few decades. The chief rivals. Of the nearly $40,000,000,000 worth of goods exchanged annually in international commerce, about one half can be credited to five countries : the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France, and Holland. But the real struggle was between the first three of these nations ; and the industrial and commercial strength of the foremost rivals becomes apparent when it is realized that the foreign commerce of any one of them, just before the outbreak of the Great War, was larger than that of the whole world sixty years before. Each of the three had been exerting itself to expand its industries and commerce, and lesser rivals had been putting forth similar efforts. In contrast with the rather disjointed and hit-or-miss methods of former centuries, the most modern times have shown all of the industrial and commercial countries of the world taking deliberate steps toward placing their industries upon a scientific basis and toward so organizing their domestic and foreign trade that they might resist the industrial and commercial attacks of rivals. It is of this topic of scientific organization of industry and commerce, to which nations have been incited by the stress of competition in the world market, that we wish to give a more detailed account. Scientific organization of industry. Science as applied to in- dustry means, for one thing, that industrial plants shall be located where they are best adapted to environmental conditions ; that is, INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY 357 where they can profit by the easiest methods and practice the greatest economies. Agriculture, for example, must be so organ- ized that the various crops are grown where conditions are most favorable. This demands a sort of territorial division of labor by which is attained the most scientific utilization of natural resources. To take a simple illustration : if the cattle rangers, through ignorance or otherwise, stubbornly insisted that their ranges must be in Minnesota or the Dakotas, rather than in those regions which science has demonstrated to be the best adapted for cattle-raising, not only would the cattle industry suf- fer but a serious check would be given to the raising of wheat, for which Minnesota and the Dakotas are especially well adapted. Of course an industry naturally tends to settle in a region favor- able to its development, and this seems to take place without very much conscious study or planning on the part of anybody. But the way in which an industry has become thus located is by repeated trial and failure on the part of persons whose knowl- edge was not very extensive ; there has been failure after failure, which we do not hear about, in finally reaching success. The need of special knowledge. It is clear enough that most of these failures could have been avoided if there had been suffi- cient knowledge available concerning the conditions of an indus- try so that it could have been rightly located the first time. Well, this is what science proposes to do — so thoroughly to investigate the conditions surrounding each industry that there may not be a loss of time and effort in finding out by sad experience. It is a question of using foresight instead of hindsight. The margin of superiority. In the modern world the cost of trial and failure is much higher than it used to be. There are so many competitors in the field that often a small margin of superiority is what determines the question of success or nonsuc- cess. It takes only a slight superiority to win and only a slight inferiority to Uxse. The whole situation is like that of a foot race: if there are only a few competitors the victor is likely to win easily and by a good margin ; but if there are thousands entered 3vS INDUSTRY AND TRADF, in the race, there will bo man\ bunched at the finish and the victor will be likely to win by a very slight margin. Now the application of study and science to industry has been necessary in order to secure that margin over near competitors. All the conditions surrounding a business are carefully figured out — the location, physical situation, nearness to raw material, nearness to markets, availability of labor supply, and so on indefinitely. Expert majiagement. In addition, the matter of management has been reduced to a science, and there are experts who instruct the owners of industries in methods of accounting and other scientific devices whose application has appeared only in the most recent years. Scientific study of the industrial situation leads also to the decision not to carry on certain industries to which the country or locality in question is not well adapted. The estab- lishment of certain industries within a country, if the costs of production in that country are heavier than those in competing countries, is a bad business proposition ; yet, in the days before the study of these matters had become a science, countries at- tempted over and over again to develop industries to which they were thus unfitted. If, on the other hand, the various countries apply themselves to industries to which they are "fitted, and then trade freely with other countries adapted to the production of other articles, the whole group of producers is thereby benefited, for each is securing the highest profit from its efforts. Taking the great industrial countries of the world into consideration, there is in the twentieth century a much better adaptation of industry to conditions than existed a few decades ago, together with a much wider prevalence of scientific management than at any other period of the world's history. Government action — British. In later years it has also become the common mode for the government to oversee all the indus- tries of a country and try to render them encouragement and sup- port by the diffusion of scientific information and advice, and even by direct control. The English business man of a former age was largely unaided by his government, and the English INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY 359 method of trading abroad has been described as " every man for himself." But in more recent times, fearing the organized com- petition of Germany and America, the EngHsh government has come in various ways to the rescue. The consular service, the Board of Trade (notably through its Intelligence Bureau), the wider British Trade Commission, the British Imperial Council of Commerce — all these agencies, whose functions we cannot describe here, are engaged in investigating the industrial and commercial questions and conditions, at home and throughout the world, which must be scientifically solved or met in order to retain the supremacy of the past. Government action — German. The Germans have been almost the opposite of the British, for their system has been typically paternal ; the promotion of foreign commerce has been carried on in a thoroughly practical and systematic manner, but always with close cooperation between the government and the business interests. There has been an Imperial Department of Commerce and an Imperial Consultative Board for the Elaboration of Com- mercial Measures ; the German consulates have generally been occupied by experts of various kinds, including commercial, for- estry, and agricultural experts ; immense amounts of literature, containing carefully collected and sifted information, have been widely distributed to those engaged in foreign commerce ; railroad rates have been manipulated to favor the export trade ; the bank- ing system has been adapted to the same end — in fact, Germany has applied to commercial competition all the science she had. These facts concerning the British and German methods give us some idea of the prow'css of our rivals for the world's 'trade. Growth of American interest in foreign commerce. In this country but little attention was given until recently to the develop- ment of foreign commerce. Our tremendous home market, right before our eyes, shut out the view of the foreign market. But of late our industries have somewhat outgrown the former, and we have been forced to look abroad and to enter the lists as com- petitors for the world's trade. Within the last half century, as 36o INDUSTRY AND TRADE preceding chapters have shown, our industries have exhibited an enormous growth and our foreign trade has increased to large size. Likewise this trade has shown a notable change. Formerly our leading exports, for which there was a ready market in Europe, were agricultural and other raw {products, notably cereals and cotton. Here we had very little competition. But at present our exports of manufactures have come to form about half of our total exports, as against one fifth twenty-five years ago ; and in dis- posing of these abroad the American merchant has met the keen competition of Europeans, who were seasoned traders long before we entered the world's market at all. Government action — American. This new situation has forced us to organize our trade along modern scientific lines. Among other things we have reformed the consular service — a service which is a well-recognized factor in trade extension. There was a time when the consul was not thought of as a commercial helper, but now he devotes much of his effort to smoothing the way for American salesmen by minimizing prejudices and maintaining cordial relations between American and other nationalities. Daily reports are issued by the government which contain all sorts of information valuable to the trader. When our business men real- ized the great advantages derived by other nations from their consular service, and became aware that the American service contained many poor and inefficient consuls and so was not in good standing, they clamored for its reform, and finally got it in 1906. The system, which had been "in politics," was removed from that predicament, and the quality of the consuls was much impro\''ed. Entrance to the service was made through a rigid examination, many of the subjects of which bear directly upon commerce and practical business. The merit system for promo- tion was put into effect, so that we now have a reputable con- sular service capable of rendering powerful aid in securing foreign trade. The Department of Commerce has been separated from the Department of Labor and includes an effective Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUPREMACY 361 Business men's organizations. Within recent years, also, nu- merous business men's organizations, both local and national, have been working on the enlargement of our markets ; it is real- ized that there are many problems of policy that are worthy of united effort. The National Association of Manufacturers, organ- ized in 1895, has built up a foreign department which covers practically all aspects of the export business. A younger bod)', with somewhat the same purposes, is the American Manufacturers' Export Association ; and another important trade-promoter is the Foreign Trade Bureau of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum. The national Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Com- merce of the United States of America came into existence in 191 2. It is not a government organization, but was created to serve as a connecting link between the Federal government and the American business world. Its three important functions are (I) that it acts as a national clearing house for business opinion and business methods ; (2) that it furnishes close relationship between the public and the national government ; (3) that it tests the business sentiment of the country from time to time by a referendum vote. Through this referendum it is able to take the pulse of the American business world when commercial or business legislation is pending, so that Congress may be enlightened as to the appropriateness of the legislation. The need of efficiency. These arc illustrations of what is meant by the scientific promotion of industry and trade. They are, of course, only the most important of many enterprises launched with that end in view. As the world grows older and there are more people who must live from its resources, it is necessary that more and more knowledge shall be gathered and disseminated, so that the most successful methods may be employed. Once producers and exchangers managed to get on with rule-of-thumb methods derived from a process of trial and failure, but now the question of living has become so much more pressing and com- plicated that it will not do to be content with anything less than the most thorough knowledge and efficiency. f CHAPTER XXXI MARKETING The feeling that " industry " means " production." When we speak of American industries we almost always have in mind productive industries such as we have been studying in former chapters of this book. We even feel that transportation is not really an industry until we realize what an enormous amount of capital is invested in transportation systems and to what multi- tudes of human beings these give employment. There is good reason for this feeling that the word " industry" is always to be connected with production. Let us look into this matter first of all. Attention has been centered on production. Throughout most of the earlier history of the race the attention of people has been centered upon the production of goods rather than upon any other activity exerted in connection with them. For before anything else could be done with goods they had to be produced by the labor of man. Therefore the organizing ability of the race con- centrated itself there where its greatest interest and need lay. The problems of production were the ones which seemed most press- ing, and the man who improved methods of agriculture or manu- facture was the one who reaped the great reward. The manager of industry was engaged in producing more goods at lower cost, and, with the constantly widening market, the matter of selling was simple and called for less concentration of effort and attention. No colonial problems of marketing. This was true in the early colonial times, when each family, village, or town was more or 362 MARKETING 363 less sufficient unto itself. Where such self-sufficiency was to be found, there were no great problems of marketing, for the exchange of goods was almost entirely within the several communities. Producers who found themselves with a surplus bartered it for a share of the surplus of other local producers. There was not very A FAIK 1\ I'ALESTINE much specialization, and the several members of the community managed to trade among themselves in an informal way, often by bartering or "swapping," and without the formation of anything well-organized enough to deserve the name of a market. The fair as a market. The first step towards a real market was the fair. A real market is a rather permanent relation between buyers and sellers, whereas the fair was at first an occasional or intermittent relation of the same sort. P^airs were held among less civilized peoples and, in the earlier stages of European history, 3<'H INDISIRV AXI) TRADK once or several limes a year. They were very popular, both because they formed the only approach to a large-scale market for the trader and also because the occasion provided a chance for social intercourse between people who did not ordinarily come into contact, and thus furnished them with a variety of diversions which they could not otherwise enjoy. Some of these A I Al'lCAL Cor.NTV FAIR IN THK UNITED STATKS fairs, even among the savage peoples, have been very large ; the fair at Timbuctoo was attended by a number of thousands of African natives, as well as by traders of other nations. The county fair. The fair was characteristic of the earlier history of a number of regions in this country. It was generally known as the county fair and was usually held at the county seat, the farmers coming in from the adjacent country with products of all kinds. Prizes were offered for the best of these products, and of course this led to the advertisement of the skill and goods of MARKETING 365 those producers whose showing was most successful. At these county fairs, hkewise, there were all sorts of rustic entertainments, such as horse-racing, turkey-shooting, and dancing ; and gradually there drifted to the fair grounds the various varieties of enter- tainers, both respectable and otherwise, who saw in the gathering of population a chance to do business. These county fairs came COURT OF HOXOR AT A WORLD'S FAn< to be not so much genuine markets as exhibitions of extraordinary products, but they formed, nevertheless, a device looking toward the formation of genuine markets. The world's fair. The idea of the fair has been expanded into that of the world's fair. Here there is no great market for products, but rather a great advertising device which aims, as we shall see, toward the development of markets and marketing. The weekly market. Another undeveloped form of market, but one less intermittent than the fair, was the so-called weekly market still common in parts of this country. A certain day in the week was " market day." This day was often Saturday. During the previous night the farmers from the surrounding country would drive into the nearest city, back their wagons up to the curbstones, 366 INDUSTRY AND TRADE set out a table in front, and be ready, almost before dawn, to dis- pose of the produce of their farms. Customers would set out with a large " market basket " and pass along the lines of tables, pur- chasing one article here and another there. The sellers generally remained until they had disposed of all their stock, and then set out for home to assemble another load for the next market day. In a number of the cit- ies there was a regular " market house," which stood vacant for the rest of the week but was filled to overflowing during the market day. Earlier forms become antiquated. These illus- trations show the more simple devices which came into being for gathering the buyers and sellers together at regular inter- vals for purposes of ex- change. For a long time they were adequate, and, as we have said, the need was rather for more effi- cient production than for more efficient distribution. The efforts put in on production have brought about a productive organization which has gradually out- grown the earlier forms of distribution through such simple mar- kets as were available. The more production has increased, and the more specialized it has become, the more inefficient have appeared the simpler means developed in former times for dis- posing of the product. Produce-marketing. It is to be noted that these earlier devices had to do chiefly with the distribution of agricultural products as OXE OF THE PAX-AMERICAX EXPOSITIOX BUILDIXGS ILLUMINATED AT NIGHT MARKETING 367 distinct from the ordinary manufactured products. This distinc- tion is not ver}^ clear in some cases because many staple food commodities, such as butter, flour, and meat products, have under- gone manufacturing processes before becoming available for con- sumption ; but if we allow for cases of this sort we have a clear enough contrast between the products of agriculture and those of MARKET DAY IN AN A.MEKICAX CITY manufacturing. Tn former times the local store often formed a sort of connecting link between agriculture and manufacture in that it supplied manufactured ])roducts in return for those of agri- culture. In the earlier days there was not very much money to change hands, and the exchange was chiefly through barter, or " payment in kind." Rise of the modern market. It has been seen that the simpler devices which wc have described were entirely sufficient for the marketing of the products of undeveloped industries. But, as we 368 INDL STRV AND rRADI", have also seen, the iJrevaiHng interest was in tlic higher and higlier development of production. This meant thai production should become more specialized and that larger amounts of a single product must be disposed of. It was not long before these amounts became too great to be handled by the simpler marketing agencies, and these gradually passed away in favor of the modern market. Here is where the development of transportation allowed of further progress, for the surpluses of production which could not be disposed of within a local area could be transported to some other place where the demand had not been satisfied. Expansion of the market. In this way the market outgrew the fair and the village store, and people began to think of the marketing of goods as something that would not take care of itself in the natural course of things. There arose a need of higher organization in the marketing of products, and this need has summoned into being a more and more developed and compli- cated system of disposal of goods. The market is no longer local or even national ; it is a world market. Producers have looked farther and farther from home for their customers, until an industry located in the central part of this country relies upon a demand for its products which exists halfway around the world. Thus has come about an immense enlargement of the conception of markets and marketing. The earlier and simpler conditions of food-distribution. In this country public interest turned first to the problem of marketing farm products. This was because of the fundamental importance of food, for if we look into the matter we find that the average workman spends half or more of his wages for food. Also there was a feeling among the farmers that they w^ere not getting a high enough price for their goods on the farm, and in spite of the lack of cooperation among farmers in securing their interests, their influence was important because of their great numbers. Roughly speaking, a third of the labor force of the country is still engaged in agriculture ; and it is no wonder that the market- ing of farm products in a country like this should occupy the MARKETING 369 foreground. In the older days the farmer was near enough to the final consumer of his products so that there was no great difference between the price received by him and the one that the consumer paid ; the profits of the middleman were likely to be moderate. Concentration of population. But when a considerable propor- tion of the population became concentrated in large cities, and the development of specialization in agriculture made it necessary for surpluses to be disposed of at greater distances, the farmers became discontented with the wide differences which existed be- tween the prices paid to them at the farm and the prices which, as they learned, were paid for their products in the distant cities. The whole matter of distribution of farm products was made more complex when perishable products, which ripened first in one section of the country, then in another, had to be trans- ported over great distances and sold in competition with products from various other regions. There has arisen, therefore, among the agricultural population a feeling that somehow they are being cheated out of their dues. Very likely they have been, on many occasions ; but the situation was inevitable. There had to be intervening stages and intervening men — middlemen — between the farmer and the consumer, and this meant a widening differ- ence between the farm price and the city price. Growing complexities. In addition to the problem of marketing agricultural products, a very complicated situation is presented in a country as large as ours, with a ]X)pulation of over 100,000,000 people who show wide extremes of purchasing-power. Some are able to buy only the barest necessities of life, while others con- sume an almost unlimited supply of the highest-priced goods. I^etwecn these two extremes lies the great bulk of population, whose purchasing-power is now greater and now less. It is clear that business has grown too big for either agricultural or manu- factured goods to be produced by individual order ; they must be turned out in large quantities far in advance of their final con- sumption. In some instances a few manufacturing plants turn 370 INDUSTRY AND TRADE out millions of articles which are exactly alike, and they must be distributed eventually among our great consuming population. It is plain that there are large problems involved in getting manu- factured products into the hands of the final consumer without incurring an extraordinary amount of expense, time, or waste. Enforced complexity of the distributing system. The result is that the di.stribulion of food and raw products is now accom- plished by an elaborate organization of local dealers, middlemen, cooperative associations, produce exchanges, warehouses, elevators, cold-storage plants, and public markets. Also the tremendous output of our manufacturing plants must be disposed of through a long line of jobbers, wholesale and retail dealers, general stores, direct selling, and advertising. A study of the historic develop- ment of any one of these organizations or parts of them would show that they have passed through various phases of develop- ment as they became better adapted to the general needs of the situation. But it is commonly admitted that in this country the marketing of goods is that part of our business organization which shows the least efficiency at the present time, and in all proba- bility great changes in methods of marketing both raw materials and finished products are due in the near future. Let us look at some of the various methods that have been worked out for the marketing of goods. The three stages of marketing. There are three stages of marketing which may be distinguished : the earlier sales were made in bulk ; later on they were made by sample ; and in most recent times they are made chiefly by description. In the first case, before the purchaser bought anything he always saw the exact goods which he was purchasing. In the second case, when goods came to be better standardized he bought without seeing the articles, but in reliance upon the good faith of the seller as a guarantee that the deliveries would not be inferior to the sample. It was the introduction of machine methods in industry, w'hereby large quantities of a standardized product could be turned out in a short time, that gave the stimulus to the development of sales MARKETING 37 1 by sample. It is plain that more had to be taken on trust in the second form than in the first ; and when goods came to be sold by description, there was assumed an even higher standard of honesty and also a higher level of general intelligence on the part of purchasers. Sale by description is, of course, one of the many developments which have been rendered possible by the printing press. Sale by description. Sale by description is the typical modern method. There are certain products which do not naturally come under this form. For instance, live stock cannot well be sold in that manner, and most perishable fruits and vegetables must be looked over to see what condition they are in before purchase. Some products, potatoes, for example, are apt to vary so greatly in quality and size that they cannot well be bought even by sample, for uniformity in quality and size are essential to suc- cessful sample selling. On the other hand, apples and many other fruits are now sorted and packed in a standard way, so that one barrel is an index of what the whole lot is like. One of the best examples of a commodity which lends itself to selling by sample is grain, because grain runs rather uniform in quality. The selling of goods by description rather than by the other methods lends itself better to manufactured goods than to farm products. Perhaps the typical form of selling by description is shown by the great mail-order houses ; their vast catalogues, issued at a great cost, are really textbooks of sale by description. Combinations of methods. When goods are sold in bulk the intervention of the middleman is not a necessity, but when the sample method is in vogue the sales are actually made by middlemen or salesmen, while in case of the disposal by description the chief resort is advertising, although middlemen and salesmen may be used. All sorts of combinations of methods and agencies for selling occur, and this makes the problems of marketing very complex. What the dealer has to do is to work out such combination of methods and agency as will give him the most efficient system of distribution, or marketing. :>/ ~ INDUS IKV AND TRADK The middleman. lUit, it will be noted, the development of the productive industries has had as a result the development of a new profession, that of middleman. More and more of these specialists have been introduced between the producer and the consumer, and they have secured a position of dominance over both of the original parties. The middleman is in a position to squeeze the producer and to impose upon the consumer, lience there has been a tendency in recent years toward more direct methods of selling ; that is, toward the reduction of the number and power of the middlemen. However, the function of the middleman is a necessary one, and he deserves what he gets so long as he does not abuse his position. He shares a risk on goods, helps to finance the enterprise, and actually sells the products. The middleman was originally a necessary and a good development ; it is thought by some that he has come to be an unnecessary evil ; the hopeful view is that, if competently con- trolled, he may retain or resume his position as a recognized and serviceable factor in economic life. Need of knowledge and efficiency. The foregoing paragraphs should give the student some idea of the complexity of the market- ing situation, as well as of the importance of having a well-knit and efficient agency operating between the producer and the con- sumer. The inevitable extension of the market created a situation never before experienced by human beings, and they were obliged to develop an organization to deal with it. This organization grew up without anyone having given it great study or other attention, and has discharged its purpose with considerable efficiency. But its very faults have combined to serve notice on the world that the matter of the marketing of goods is one important and com- plex enough to demand the best possible brains of the race for its study and solution. The marketing of exports. What we have said above has had reference chiefly to domestic conditions ; but if we consider the matter of export trade, still wider marketing problems arise. These are connected rather more with the disposal of manufactures than MARKETING 373 with the sale of foods and raw materials ; for while the latter presents very important marketing problems, the competition in the markets for manufactured products is somewhat keener than in the markets for foodstuffs and raw- materials. In order that our manufacturers and exporters may gain control of the market for certain lines of manufacture, the most scientific of business methods must be employed ; the foreign department of a busi- ness will not look after itself, but demands the most constant attention and the most efficient organization. Direct and indirect sale. The American manufacturer may sell his product in the foreign field either directly or indirectly. By direct selling we mean that he may, for example, make larger or smaller sales abroad merely by advertising his goods ; or, again, he may sell his goods directly to the foreigner through salesmen of his own. The manufacturer who makes use of the method of direct selling employs no one outside of his own firm. He may rely upon his banker and upon some forwarding agent, but the actual marketing is done by the establishment itself. In some cases the American manufacturer gets better results by indirect selling, that is, by disposing of his goods through a commission house or through some export agency. This method of selling indirectly rather than by establishing his own ex))ort department means that the merchant must exercise a good deal of supervision over the professional exporters. Marketing through branch corporations. The ver\' largest in- dustrial concerns in this country have gone so far as to create branch corporations to take charge of their foreign business. Thus, the United States Steel Corporation has sucii a branch concern, known as the United States Steel Products Company, and the United States Rubber Company has tlic United States Rubber I'^xport Company. Forwarding agencies. Whether the selling is direct or indirect, goods are actually forwarded by forwarding agents, who are spe- cialists. For example, our express companies are able to make out a bill of lading from the point of shipment to a destination 374 1N1)IS1R\- AM) IKADE at almost any other point in the world. They are aceustomed to assemble a number of small consignments from various sources, list them upon a single bill of lading, carry them to some foreign port, where they are entered through the customs by the forward- ing agents, and then sort and dispatch them to their respective destinations. This is a great economy, for it saves freight charges by taking advantage of through rates and minimizes expenses and trouble in both port of clearance and port of discharge. Meeting the tastes of foreign consumers. Of course this is only a part, though an important one, of the organization for securing foreign markets. The successful and continuous selling of goods abroad is a product of many factors. Export merchants and manufacturers must study every detail of the foreign business as a unit by itself. For example, goods must be made differently for different markets ; we cannot impress our own styles and tastes upon the South Americans or the Orientals. We have been too self-sufficient in that matter and have acquainted ourselves too tardily with the racial differences and varying social customs of foreign peoples with whom we wish to trade. We must produce things, and even put them up, in such forms as our customers want them, not as we think they should have them. They have as little sympathy, or as much contempt, for our styles and fashions as we could have for theirs. Dangers of self-sufficiency. It is always the prime function of the trader to please his customer, and particularly to avoid tread- ing upon any of his prejudices, ridiculous though they may seem. This is a very simple and obvious principle, but it has taken every great trading people some time to learn and apply it. It is the conviction of every nation that its own ways are right and expedient and that other peoples who differ with them must, as a matter of course, be wrong. So long as we have no favors to ask of the rest of the world we may not suffer from preserving this narrowness of mind, but if we actually mean to conquer our share of the world market, the sooner we give up our intolerance the better. EC ti^^__ CHAPTER XXXII THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATIONS The importance of capital. In preceding chapters we have seen the importance to industry of an adequate labor supply, especially if it is of high quality, and we shall consider that matter further in the following chapter. But there is another element of the highest significance for the destiny of a country's industrial life, and that is capital. It is perfectly fair to say that the whole struc- ture of material civilization rests upon labor and capital, and no less upon the latter than upon the former. If we were to sketch the growth of the industrial organization from its simplest and most primitive forms up to those of the present day, we should find that every considerable advance that had been made depended upon the presence and utilization of capital. Scarcity of capital in new countries. In every new country capital is scarce. It takes a good while to develop a surplus of capital sufficient for embarkation upon industries much in advance of agriculture. The American colonists brought some capital with them in the form of seeds, goods, domestic animals, and other directly useful possessions, but for a long time wealth accumulated so slowly that industrial development financed with American capi- tal was almost out of the question. As a matter of fact early colonial enterprises were financed very largely with English funds. Colonial capital. It will be recalled that the colonists were substantially equal in the matter of property. There were few 375 376 INDUSTRY AM) IRADE of the very woalthv, as of the very poor. People worked for the most part in occupations that did not demand a heavy capitahstic endowment, and the colonists were so conservative that they were very slow about putting their scanty savings into the development of new and untried industries. In some of the Eastern cities on the seaboard, especially Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, certain successful traders and shippers were able to accumulate a surplus, but they were more interested in commerce than in manufactures, so that their spare funds did not ordinarily go into the building up of the latter. Growth of American capital. In the seventeenth century ac- cumulations became greater, and there are reported to have been in 1680 about thirty IMassachusetts merchants worth between 550,000 and Si 00,000, whereas an earlier generation considered $22,000 to be a great estate. In the eighteenth century the process of accumulation went on rather rapidly, especially in Pennsylvania ; Philadelphia money supported ironworks and other manufactures as far south as Virginia and the Carolinas. Men who had acquired their fortunes by manufacturing became supporters of sound undertakings and critics of unpromising ventures. Forms of colonial investment. However, foreign capital was generally behind the leading colonial manufacturing plants. After the colonists began to invest, it was generally in enterprises where manufacturing and commerce were combined ; in fact, since many manufacturing concerns marketed their own products, these two forms of enterprise, production and marketing, generally went hand in hand and were commonly managed directly by one man or one concern. The corporation was a product of the latter part of the nineteenth century. Post-Revolution conditions. Only a relatively small amount of the total capital engaged in manufacture was sunk in building and machiner)^ ; it was employed largely in operating the plant, being necessary on account of tardy transportation and long cor- respondence, which delayed returns from sales. Not until after THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY 377 the Revolution did conditions begin to shape themselves so as to favor the development of new industrial enterprises. About that time banking and credit facilities were much improved, and the rapid expansion of American commerce caused a speedy accumu- lation of wealth in the hands of Americans engaged in shipping. Commercial capital soon became greater in proportion to popu- lation than e\'er before. The small demand for capital. In the earlier days, when a man put his money into a concern, he had usually been able to inform himself by direct examination concerning the nature and prospects of the industry, and very frequently knew a good deal about run- ning it from having been connected with it. The case was quite different from what it is at present, when people buy stock in a corporation and hope that those who have charge will manage its affairs so as to pay dividends. There were at that time no large private fortunes to be drawn upon ; in fact, there was not yet a great mass of floating capital which could be relied upon for the development of new projects. We find that many early industrial plants were established and expanded by enterprising individuals who had faith in the development of the industry. It took little capital to set up a water-power mill, and if it was successful the earnings of the owner and the savings of the few operatives often furnished all the capital needed for expanding the business. Thus did the small mill develop into a large factory. Tarmers and other neighbors came in with contributions of land and mill- sites, and often with personal labor. From these informal partner- ships or associations arose the early joint-stock companies, out of which grew the small corporations characteristic especially of New England. Government enterprises, l^ut the lack of capital remained a serious drawback to the development of manufacture. It was even suggested that several millions of dollars be set aside by the government to loan to manufacturers at a low rate of interest. The separate states embarked in industrial enterprises, especially in connection with transportation and banking. 'I'he l-'ederal 378 IM'l >l 1<\ \M» I KADI-: government itself built the Cumberland Road. And so it was that during the first three or four decades of the last century our governments, both T^ederal and state, were financially inter- ested in some of the most important industrial enterprises of the country. The call for capital. The introduction of the steamboat on Western waters and the spread of cotton culture into the South- west started a rush of material development, which called for a large amount of capital, particularly in connection with transporta- tion works. Canals and turnpikes represented undertakings of a size scarcely imagined by the preceding generation. The capi- tal required was derived in part from the savings of Americans and in part from abroad. There had been a good deal of accu- mulation, especially in the East and South ; but foreigners, espe- cially Englishmen, had, during the first half of the nineteenth century, large sums of money to lend, and the United States formed an attractive field for investment. Up to the middle of the forties England seems to have had in her own industries no adequate field for the employment of all her capital, and she invested ver}- large sums in this country. The beginnings of the corporation. Corporations were not unknown before 1850; they appeared as soon as industries grew to a point where they demanded more capital than could be supplied by a single individual or by a partnership. But cor- porations were not able to raise millions without the backing of the government ; there were no big banking houses to under- write securities and to insure the successful floating of new corporations. And so the governments of this country, instead of guaranteeing the interest on bonds of corporations, undertook to embark in the industries themselves, and government-owned enterprises developed on a large scale. It was with the failure of many of these that the states withdrew and left the field free for the modern form of development. However, it should not be understood that the states entered much into manufacturing ; for some time that form of development was exceedingly slow as THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY 379 compared with its pace after the Civil War. Manufacturing plants that had been owned chiefly by individuals or partners were unincorporated joint-stock companies ; it wg^ in the cotton manufacture that corporate organization very soon became com- mon, and then the corporations spread into other lines of textile manufacture and into the iron industry. Nature of the corporation. It is characteristic of a corporation that it exhibits (i) an artificial personality; (2) joint association in ownership ; (3) limited liability of stockholders. The first point marks its distinction from ownership by an individual or by several individuals, and the third means that stockholders are responsible for the obligations of the corporation only in pro- portion to the number of shares which they hold, whereas in a partnership with unlimited liability the part owner is responsi- ble for all the obligations of the concern. The idea of limited responsibility in a joint-stock association runs back for four cen- turies or more, but the genuine corporation has come into promi- nence in the economic life of the world only within comparatively recent times. Conditions favoring the growth of the corporation. The busi- ness corporation is really a product of the nineteenth century. It demanded certain industrial and political changes to pave its way. Before there was any great industrial expansion an end had to come to the conferring of special privileges by sovereign power upon individuals, and there had to be a rather general triumph of democracy — changes which came to pass during the latter part of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nine- teenth. The purely industrial changes came about with the so- called Industrial Revolution, which accompanied the utilization of steam power in industry and transportation. This led to the establishment of industries on a scale so large that their financing was beyond the capacity of an individual or even a partnership ; and so a new method of organizing business was necessarily developed, which could be provided either by the state going into business enterprises itself or by delegating its powers to 38o LNDL'STRV AM) I'RADK corporations. Hut we have seen that in this country the state governments, after sad experience, withdrew from business, and in this way was opened a field for the development of genuine corporations. The corporation was inevitable. There has been a great deal of objection, on various grounds, to the corporation. No doubt there ha\e been unfortunate sides to its development and a number of abuses, but it is difficult to see how this leading form of industrial organization could have been evaded. It has been like some new and powerful engine which men have not understood very well and which has, therefore, caused a good deal of suffer- ing and injur}' to certain parties. But in such a case the only recourse is to learn how to manage the new power, not to discard it and try to carr}^ on by outgrown methods the enormous indus- trial organization of the twentieth century. Extension of the corporation. If the corporation had been a bad thing in itself, it is hard to see how it could have made such headway and shown such results. It is to-day the dominant form of business organization ; practically every important line of in- dustry considered in the foregoing chapters is organized in the corporate form, farming being the most notable exception. Four fifths or more of the products of our manufactories are turned out by corporations ; and this is true despite the fact that only about one fourth of the total number of establishments are on the corporate basis. This means that there are numerous small concerns engaged in manufacturing, but the corporations employ three fourths or more of the wage-earners employed in this line. In transportation and finance the corporation occupies a leading place. There were on a recent count about 270,000 corporations in this country whose outstanding stocks and bonds amounted to over S88,ooo,ooo,ooo and whose reported income was about $3,860,000,000. Increase in size of the business unit. In preceding chapters we have seen that many of the industries of this country took on new life after the Civil War. The old small-scale production. THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY 381 with small capital, was supplanted by something more nearly commensurate with the expanding development of our natural resources. There appeared not only the concentrated and central- ized type of management but also the great captains of industry ; the small independent producer disappeared, and laborers were organized into larger and larger units. Of course such com- bination and concentration would have been impossible without the development of standardization of machinery and methods, the development of adequate accounting systems, the invention and improvement of the telegraph, telephone, and typewriter, and the building and organization of railroads. The great expansion of the railroad system came, as we have seen, after the Civil War. This greatly widened the market and called for a pronounced ex- pansion in the size of the business unit. Large combinations of capital — trusts, as they were commonly called — came to dominate many of the leading interests of the country. These consolida- tions were few until the last decade of the nineteenth century, but from 1898 to 1903 there was tremendous activity. The largest combination of all — the United States Steel Corporation — was founded in 1901, with a capital of $1,100,000,000, besides $304,000,000 in bonds. Economies of combination. Combination, like other advances in the organization of industry, was forced by the necessities of the case, for the older devices for managing industry and trade had been outgrown. Combination represented economies of sev- eral sorts and so was a welcome device in an industrial competi- tion where every saving counted. The wastes of competition. By the very fact that it limited competition, combination did away with the wastes of competition and also rendered possible the economies connected with large- scale production. The fact that it aimed at monopoly-power should not blind us to these facts. The main wastes of competition have to do with duplication of expenses in advertising and in paying salesmen and also with the uneconomical use of plants. In re- gard to the last point, plants are most economically run when their 382 INDUSTRY AND IKADE management represents the best knowledge and talent available. Thus managed, each plant will be doing the best it can for itself, and if there are a lot of smaller plants under a common talented management, the work of each plant will be apportioned so that it is doing what it is best fitted to do. Such combined plants will therefore be more prosperous than they could be if they continued to compete with one another under cheaper management. It should be realized, however, that there is a limit to the size of the business unit which can be efficiently handled ; after a certain size is attained the supervising expenses increase entirely out of proportion to the advantages secured. The economies of large-scale production. The economies of large-scale production are almost self-evident ; everyone knows that articles that can be made by the thousands are produced much more cheaply than those which have to be made separately or in small quantities. It may cost a publishing concern, for example, a good many thousands of dollars to turn out the first copy of a book, but if the sale is going to be large enough, copies can be sold for a nominal price. The modern newspaper is a good example of the low price of an article produced on the large scale. Monopoly. The desire for monopoly is an important cause for combination and is the one generally associated with the corpora- tion or trust. There are both advantages and danger in monop- oly. In some lines of industry, such as transportation, gas works, and telephone service, a monopoly is almost inevitable, and the dangers to the public which w^ould arise from the ruthless use of this power have to be minimized by careful supervision of the companies by the state which grants them their charters. Advantages of the corporation. If the corporate form of organi- zation had not had its advantages, it could scarcely have developed so strongly and permeated almost every branch of modern busi- ness organization. It is worth while to point out several facts about corporate organization in addition to what has already been said. THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY 383 Permanence. One of its leading advantages is its permanence : it need not die, but may continue for hundreds of years. In case of a business owned by a single individual, on the contrary, the death of the owner generally means that it has to be wound up or transferred to a successor ; very often it has to be sold to close an estate, and not infrequently at a great sacrifice. Similarly with a partnership : the business is thrown out of adjustment when a partner dies, and, although the surviving partner can buy out the heirs, disputes are likely to occur and there are all sorts of hazards, especially to the heirs of the deceased man. By contrast, the corporation is not necessarily involved in difficulties by the death of even the largest stockholder, for someone else can suc- ceed to the ownership of the stock, and as long as the corporation is well managed it shows no change. Accumulation of small capital. Another advantage of corporate organization is found in the fact that it provides a means for financing, by the collection of small sums from numerous indi- viduals, undertakings completely beyond the ability of one or a few persons to carr}'. The shares of stock may be placed at any denomination from ten cents upwards, and thus millions of dollars may be collected from thousands or even tens of thousands, who are thus enabled to take their small share in a large enterprise. Naturally all such enterprises are not legitimate and profitable, but it must be realized that, after all, the real capitalists of the country are the multitudes of small stockholders rather than the few large ones. There are so many more people in moderate than in affluent circumstances that without the combination of the small savings of the former it would be hardly possible to run many of the largest enterprises. Limited liability. This ability of the corporation to render possible a larger industrial development than could take place without the collection of small sums is favored by the limited liability feature of which we have spoken. A buyer of a share of stock, if it is fully paid and nonassessable, cannot lose more than the price of the stock. Now it is perfectly plain that no poor 3S4 IXDUSTRV AND TRADE man who had saved one hundred dollars would dare put it into any enterprise if he were going to be unlimitedly responsible for the obligations of that enterprise ; he dares to risk the actual sum he puts in where he would not dare stake anything more. He is in no position to pay debts contracted by other people, even if these others are not criminal rascals. But, safe in his limited liability, he is able to contribute his mite to his country's industrial develop- ment and also to derive his proper share of profits from it. Ease of entrance or withdrawal. A further adxantage of the corporate form is that one can withdraw from a corporation quite easily by selling his share on the market. A partner cannot so readily withdraw from a partnership, for many a partnership has been dissolved only after disagreements and even after appeal to the courts. This ease of withdrawal, which is matched b\' a similar ease of entrance, allows a mobility of business move- ment which makes the whole organization more flexible and more adaptable to the needs and crises that may arise. Disadvantages of the corporation. If there w-ere no disadvan- tages in the corporate form, every business, large and small, would be so organized. What are these disadvantages .'* There is the cost of incorporation ; then, again, the officers may be less careful in their management than they would be if they were the sole owners ; again, there is a disadvantage in the fact that a cor- poration is more subject to governmental control than is an indi- vidual or a partnership. Furthermore, it is objected that in large corporations the separation of the employer and employee, and their consequent lack of sympathy with one another, is greater than it could be in smaller concerns. The stockholders who con- trol the policy of the corporation may never have seen certain large portions of its plant, much less have met the persons there employed. This is one of the reasons why a corporation is spoken of not only as impersonal but also as soulless. ^ C ,1111 ■:L..-.-^_jig- g-g "S .^- CHAPTER XXXIII LABOR ADJUSTMENTS Importance of labor. In the preceding chapters we have seen the importance of capital to the development of our industries. We have seen, indeed, that capital is indispensable to the growth of civilization itself. But there is another factor in the develop- ment of both industry and civilization which is fully as important and probably much older than capital, namely, labor. Without labor the resources of a country are of no present use. Perhaps in some of the Pacific islands at the time of their discovery there was such exuberance of the products of nature that the natives lived in a sort of paradise without much work, but it is perfectly plain that the highest civilization has never originated in such favored spots. It is not only a necessity that man should labor but the fact tliat he is obliged to do so is good for him and for the progress of mankind. In general, the highest civiliza- tion is to be found where men have been most industrious, and the most civilized races are those in which the habits of industry have become the most firmly fixed. Need of labor in a new country. We have seen that land is of no avail without men, that is, without the application of human effort, and that this effort is more successful if the men are of high quality, both of body and of intelligence. In any new country the quantity of labor necessary to overcome the difficult pioneer- ing conditions, so as to work on up to easier and more modern systems, is very great. In the American colonies, as always on 3^5 386 INDUSTRY AND TRADE the frontier, there was much work to be done at the same time that labor was scarce. There was so much land, and it was so cheap, that the tendency was for newcomers to take up new land rather than to work for wages. In the North the farms were small, and the owner and his family did the bulk of the work, hiring what little help they could. Farmers cooperated with one another in such enterprises as house-raising or barn-raising, where a number of laborers were needed. This cooperative plan has been natural and inevitable under similar conditions up to the present day. If the reader will recall what has been said in Chapter I\' about the conditions in a temperate colony, what is here said will take its proper place in the perspective. He will also see how in the South, where large plantations and a staple crop were the order of the day, more crude labor was needed than was called for farther North. The colonial labor force. But in all the colonies, especially when other industries were added to agriculture, the crying need was for labor, and various schemes were devised for obtaining workers from Europe. Because of the much land and the few men, and th^ consequent fact that the immigrant naturally became a landowner rather than a wage-earner, the first servants were largely "" redemptioners " or slaves. Of the latter we need to say no more, for we have considered the case of the slave in Chap- ter III. The redemptioners, or indentured servants, were in reality in temporary servitude, for, not having any funds, they contracted debts for their transportation and were sold to work out these debts after they arrived. But even they, when their terms of service were over, tended to become independent proprietors. Immigrant labor. If the colonies felt the lack of labor while agriculture was as yet almost their onl\- industrial interest, they felt it still more painfully when manufacturing began to take a start. A number of writers in the earlier days asserted that the scarcity of labor had checked the introduction of manufactures, and the factory svstem with them, into America. Before the immigrants came in large numbers manufactures could flourish LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 387 only where the work could be performed by women and children or where men could sell their time in dull seasons. This is the way in which the textile and the boot and shoe industries, for example, were built up ; the textile industry was the first to be organized on a modern scale in this country, and it was built up principally by the labor of women. Preference for agriculture. There was still another reason for the backwardness of manufacturing development. The attraction of the independent life of a landowner was always drawing even the skilled newcomer away from his old occupation into agricul- ture, and the sentiment of the community so favored the more independent pursuit that both habit and social prejudice conspired to depreciate manufacture. It came to be associated with poverty, especially since the use of pauper labor in British factories had fixed a lasting stigma upon such employment. And in the South, as well, labor in general came to be thought of as a servile occu- pation — a fact which strengthened the natural tendency of the colonists to seek independent employment. This is one of the main reasons why it was harder in this country to divert men from farming to industrial pursuits than it has been elsewhere. Development of the factory. But this situation was greatly modified by the influx of immigrants, for that made possible the organization of labor in a considerable number of industries and favored the adoption of the factory system in many other branches than the textile. Even before the Civil War the part played by immigration in American industry was very great, for while the number of immigrants was small their contributions were the more needed. At times there was great industrial unrest in Eng- land and on the Continent, which drove many skilled workers to America, where they expected eventually to become proprietors of factories of their own. Many of them realized their hopes and became pioneers in great industries which developed later, intro- ducing into this country the arts which they had learned in Europe. Tt is said that the infant industries of Pittsburgh were conducted largely by Scotch and English workmen, and our textile factories 388 INDUSTRY AND TRADE in New England were kept going by skilled operators from Eng- land and Ireland. The British immigrants in particular were very largely skilled workmen and were exactly what we needed in the beginnings of our industry. Excellent quality of the early immigrants. The impetus given to American manufacture by such advantages enjoyed during its earlier stages is difficult to overestimate. Power spinning and weaving, the use of coal and coke for smelting iron, the use of pud- dling furnaces and rolling mills, were advantages that accrued from deriving skilled laborers from a land where the industries were more highly specialized and more advanced in every way. England had been forced by the scantiness of woodland to the use of coal, and because of large markets and the easy transporta- tion that had been developed she had been enabled to stride for- ward to wholesale production. The use of chemicals for dyeing, as well as other applications of science to industry, were the natural contributions of old communities possessing ancient in- stitutions of learning, ample capital for experimentation, and a market for luxuries. Some of these inventions were so dependent upon conditions not then existing in America that when one of our manufacturers chanced upon one of them it might not come into practical use until it had been re-introduced from abroad. Skilled labor. The fact that when our industries were in their formative stages the ranks of our laboring classes were being recruited from countries industrially far in advance of us, and recruited also from a high-grade class of laborers possessing a good knowledge of machines, was a considerable factor in our earlier and later successes. The truth of this can be seen if one tries to imagine the result, had the bulk of these immigrants come, at that time, from the same regions from which the bulk of them now come. This will recall, again, our repeated conten- tion that America was very fortunate in the quality of the human element which she was able at the outset to draw from Europe. The need of unskilled labor. Between i860 and 1880 immi- gration was proceeding at a rapid rate and our industries were fast LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 389 expanding. Over five million immigrants arrived in this country during this period, but their presence was so much needed that they were successfully absorbed. The building of railroads and the development of the metallic industries called for ever larger supplies of both skilled and unskilled labor. The West was settled very largely by our native stock, whose relinquished places would not have been taken except for the multitude of newcomers who filled the gap in the labor supply and thus prevented a check on growing manufactures. Skilled labor is always in demand, but the improvements in our industries, and especially in automatic machinery, made it possible for us to use unskilled labor in our factories with considerable satisfaction. Up to 1880 nine tenths of our immigrants were from Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Canada, and the three Scandinavian states, and were vigorous, thrifty, quick to learn, and easily molded into the American type. Yet they were, in their day, mostly unskilled, and so took a lower position in the industrial organization, while the natives rose to the higher ones. Those who wish to limit immigration should not let slip from their minds the fact that there was an immensity of hard and rough work, much of which demanded little more than willing hands, but whose performance was indispensable to our industrial and social development ; and that if the immigrants had not been on hand to do this work, either it would not have been done at all or much else that was done would have had to be omitted. Rise of the immigrant. It is a fact, as we have seen in a former chapter, that in later years this country has been the refuge of those who have had very few chances at home, and also of many whose manner of life does not fit into ours very well ; but if the whole course of immigration into this country is consid- ered, it is seen that, although every new set of immigrants was slipped in, as it were, at the bottom of the social pile, yet under the system of freedom and opportunity characteristic of this coun- tr)' it has always been possible for the industrious and enterprising to work themselves up among the older and higher layers. This 390 INDUSTRY AND TRADE has been the Land of Promise for many decades to hordes of the miserable and oppressed ; and there is no doubt but that the opportunities accorded have been happily taken advantage of by thousands. And at the same time this country has profited by the labor supply afforded it at a time when that supply, even though of low quality, was much in demand. This is certainly true, whatever doubts one may now have about the continuance of our free-and-easy methods in the matter of immigration. Colonial wages. The conditions of labor in colonial times, even when such labor was free, seem to us, in the light of present-day conditions, quite bad ; and this is true of the early part of the last century. An unskilled workman would earn some- thing like fifty cents a day, and the working hours were from sunrise to sunset. With the opening of the West the condition of the unskilled laborer somewhat improved and he received a dollar a day. It must be realized that these sums represented at that time a much higher purchasing power than they had later. There was not so much to complain of as one would judge at first sight ; and then, of course, labor was so far from organized that any complaints that did arise were local and isolated. The labor movement. But during the third decade of the last century there arose what might be called a real labor move- ment. It did not start because of bad conditions in our factories, for outside of the textile industry, which employed mostly women and children, factories of any size were few. What movement there was grew up as a protest against a system, developed by merchants and capitalists, which, it was thought, was reducing mechanics of various degrees of skill to a common level of wage- dependency. This movement, as well as a number of others before the middle of the century, had only a brief career. A trade- union movement was developed about 1853 which showed more strength and in which attention was directed toward bettering con- ditions in the trades ; and, after the Civil War had shown that in- dustries were to be run by free labor, most labor movements were in the direction of improving the conditions of the free laborers. LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 391 Labor organization and legislation. All through this book we have noticed that the middle of the nineteenth century and the Civil War have formed a point of departure for industrial develop- ment of a higher order in many fields. The growth of population and its tendency to concentrate in cities, together with the marked development of manufacturing industries, evoked new labor con- ditions of a more modern order. The size of the industrial plant increased and the workman was no longer personall}- known to his employer. But when people who have business relations are thus separated, they naturally fall out of harmony with one another and into a mood of suspicion and opposition. Conflicts arose be- tween labor and capital ; then labor was more firmly organized and began to bring about the large mass of labor legislation that had to do with hours of labor, employment of women and chil- dren, and other such desirable reforms which cannot in all cases be expected from employers. The bulk of such legislation has been passed since 1880, but Massachusetts had led the way as early as 1866 by passing an eight-hour law for children under fourteen. Most of the early labor legislation was in favor of women and children. Improvements in labor conditions have been brought about largely by the creation of organizations so that laborers could act as a unit in looking after their interests. The labor union. Prior to the Civil War there were very few labor unions in this country, but many were formed between i860 and 1870 in connection with the most important trades. The strike was the weapon used by the labor unions to secure their ends ; but it was not until the late seventies that strikes became significant enough to attract public attention ; it was in 1877 that a widespread railroad strike gave the American people their first realization of the problems which the great growth of industr}' and the creation of much wealth were bringing upon the country. Whether or not we credit it to the labor organiza- tions, it is a fact that labor conditions have greatly improved during the last few decades ; working hours have been shortened, wages have risen, and the general condition of the bulk of industrial 39-' INDUSTRY AND TRADE workers is nuich more satisfactory tlian it was before the Civil War. Outside of the body of industrial workers such progress has not been shown ; and this is particularly true of the agricul- tural laborers, who could not very readily organize and whose wages and hours of work have, remained until very recently much as thev were a half-century ago. Capital and labor. It is not our intention in this place to enter into the pros and cons of the many disputes between capital and labor. We shall describe several movements wiiich have resulted in better relations between the two, as examples of what may be won by intelligent study of the conditions. But it siiould be recognized by every intelligent American citizen that capital and labor cannot be independent of one another but must always be interdependent. Industries cannot exist without the laborers or without the capital, nor can the laborers exist without the indus- tries and the capital behind them. The interests of the two parties should be the same, and it is to be hoped that some form of adjustment will be arrived at so that industrial peace will come out of what has so often been industrial war. The capitalist can- not accept dictation from the laborer, nor can the laborer consent to allow the capitalist to dictate conditions of employment. Dis- cussion and cooperation between the two is better than is dicta- tion on the part of either. Increasing responsibility on the part of the capitalist or the organization which he represents, on the one hand, and the laborer or his trade union, on the other, is essential to the carrying out of whatever agreement may be made between the parties. Employers' liability. In recent years we have turned our attention to the safeguarding of the life and limb of the laborer. Under the common law the employer has long been required to afford his employees safe labor conditions. He was not, however, responsible for injuries caused to workmen which were " incident to the business," nor was he liable for the negligence of a fellow servant. Consequently an employer, if he so desired, was until recently able to shift practically all responsibility for industrial LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 393 accidents upon others than himself. But many states have now- modified this common-law doctrine so as to make the employer assume liability in many more cases of accident than formerl}-. In 1 9 14 we had practically no workmen's compensation laws in any of the states, whereas, at the present day, there are few states without such laws. Workmen's compensation. The compensation of workmen who meet with accidents is vitally connected with very grave social issues, especially with that of poverty. As the factory system has grown to larger and larger dimensions the world has experi- enced a tremendous industrial expansion, and along with this there has grown up notoriious disregard for human life. In a single year in the United States a half million or more of laborers are killed outright or injured ; and many of those who are injured are disabled for life, while others are incapacitated for varying periods. And then there are the families which are dependent upon the killed or injured workmen and wliich, because of the loss of in- come and the extra expenditures involved, often fall into a truly pitiable condition. It is plain that industrial accidents should be reduced to the lowest possible number and that proper compensa- tion or indemnification should be provided. All such human misery should be reduced to its low'est limits. But this is a knotty problem, for justice must be done at the same time to both the employer and the employed. Industrial accidents. We have seen that until a few decades ago the whole burden of industrial accidents, excepting those for which the employer could be shown to be solely to blame, had been borne by the workman. The idea which prevailed was that the workman in taking the job would figure on the peril to life and limb, and that as a consequence of his steering clear of danger- ous occupations there would be a scarcity of laborers in them and the wages would be so high as to justify the venture. But this theory, like so many others that neglect the plain facts of life and of human nature, did not work out. Laborers have only the most general idea of the danger of occupations, and they do 394 INDUSTRY AND TRADE not expect to suffer by them. There are usually plenty of candi- dates for positions as switchmen on railroads, although the occupa- tion is a hazardous one and is not highly paid. What the laborer out of work generally has to do is to take the job which he can get ; he is seldom well enough off to wait until he can pick and choose. Thus the plan for making the individual laborer work out his own salvation in taking a job and standing the risk does not succeed. Evasion of compensation. On the other hand, the plan of em- ployers' liability as it existed under the common law did not prove satisfactory. An employer could evade liability by estab- lishing any one of three defenses: (i) contributory negligence, (2) assumption of risk, and (3) the fellow-servant rule. The first of these means that an injury is caused by the negligence of the injured man ; the assumption of risk means that if there is an injury caused by a danger inherent in the occupation, the em- ployee is as well able to protect himself as the employer to pro- tect him ; and the third defense rests on the contention that if an injury is caused by the negligence of a fellow workman, the employer is not liable. According to the common law the estab- lishment of any one of these defenses nullifies the liability of the employer ; but, as can easily be seen, no one of the three would be very difficult for a sharp lawyer to establish. "Workmen's compensation laws. When it was found that this common-law system of employers' liability was full of defects, and that only a small proportion of the injured received com- pensation, the remedy was sought in the adoption, by the various states, of workmen's compensation laws. The general theory back of these laws is that industry should assume the burden of loss of life or the burden of accident, just as industry bears the ex- pense of new machinery or of repairing old machinery. The machine helps to make the product ; so does the workman. If a machine is broken it must be repaired or replaced ; and similarly if a workman is injured or killed there must be a reparation and compensation. And there is also behind these compensation laws LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 395 the general principle that compensation shall be forthcoming with- out regard to the question as to whose fault it was that the acci- dent took place. This enables every person injured in the course of duty to obtain compensation in proportion to the degree of disability incurred. Insurance. This puts a considerable risk upon the employer, and he generally takes recourse, as in the case of other risks, to insurance. The upshot of the laws is, then, that employers must incur an additional steady expenditure in order that the workman may be protected ; it is, of course, possible for the employer to pass this item on to the consumer in the form of a higher price for the product, so that the public pays. But it is a service to society to protect and compensate its members against the risks of life, and society has seemed well content to shoulder the burden. In any case, there is now no uncertainty as to the basis of lia- bility, nor yet concerning the amount of the indemnity, for there are definite schedules covering this matter ; and it is now rea- sonably certain that the injured will be able to collect promptly, whereas under the older system there might be protracted bick- erings and legal procedure leading to a barren result in the end. It looks very much as if we had worked out a system much better adapted to comfortable living than was the one which preceded it. Group life insurance. A new phase of insurance, designed for the benefit of the employees of a concern, is what is known as group life insurance. A number of companies have recently adopted this as a Christmas gift or bonus to their employees. This form of insurance is designed to increase the efficiency and stimulate the loyalty of the workers, so as to strengthen mutual good will and make the business relations between employer and employee closer and more permanent. The amount of insurance has for its basis generally a year's wages or salary, with about $3000 as the limit; or each employee is given $500 or $1000 worth of insurance which is to be increased, up to a certain point, by $100 annually for each additional year of service. Group life insurance is ordinarily carried, for the concern in question, by one 396 INDUSTRY AND TRADE or more insurance companies ; but in some cases it is assumed by the emploving corporations themselves, just as some large shipping concerns insure their own vessels rather than have them insured by companies. A case of insurance. In illustration of this device we might mention the case of the Union Pacific Railroad, which, on Janu- ary 1, 191 7, had 35,000 to 40,000 of its employees insured with- out any cost to themselves, the company carrying the premium. They were also insured in a large casualty company against loss by accident and sickness. The total insurance amounted to about 830,000,000, and the annual premium charges to about $750,000. How " having a heart " pays. It is entirely likely that proj- ects of this sort really pay in the end. It is impossible to ignore the fact that human beings have emotions, and that their effi- ciency varies with their state of mind. If a laborer is always worried about the future, and thinks that his employer has no interest in his welfare, he cannot w^ork with the zest or the suc- cess which he might attain if he had more peace of mind. There are types of laborers upon whose stupidity or bad disposition no amount of consideration will make any impression. If they are given an inch they will take an ell. Such persons do not deserve consideration. But the ordinary normal human being is the one for whose benefit these schemes are devised, and the preliminary returns seem to prove that real results are obtained. The labor question. The question of labor, like that of capital, is one upon which many volumes have been written. It is out of the question to make any complete survey of the various plans to promote its efficiency which have been tried. But the above para- graphs describe some of the most important conditions and devices for securing adjustment that are connected with this subject, and exhibit the historic trend of events which has accompanied the development of our industries since colonial times. LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 397 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Retrospect. And now, in the course of this book, we have set before the reader a series of fundamental facts out of the history of American industries and trade. The first essentials were the land and the people, and we briefly described the productive areas, with their natural resources, and then the human element and its social development. The rest of the book has been a presentation of the various efforts put forth by man to utilize the land and its products, and the results attained by such efforts. Thus have been developed the agricultural industries, the animal industries, the mineral, manufacturing, and transportation indus- tries. And, finally, we have considered the various methods adopted or proposed whereby each and all of our industries have been or may be raised to a higher grade. Industrial life is only one part of social life. We have under- taken to make a survey of a certain section of the nation's life ; that is, of its industrial and commercial development. Hut it must not be forgotten that this section of the national life cannot be separated from other sections except for purposes of study, for if we wish to see our industrial life in operation, we can never see it thus by itself. There are other sets of national institutions — such as the domestic, the political, and the religious — which exist side by side with the industrial institutions, and w'hich deeply influence them and are deeply influenced by them. In fact, these several sets of institutions do not really exist side by side, but completely interpenetrate one into another, so that they have no independent life of their own, but form one living body and one life, which is the life of the nation. The need of understanding our national life as a whole. A true industrial education is, therefore, not complete unless its recipient has arrived at some conception of the relationship between the national industrial life and other aspects of the national life. This means that that man has the best industrial education who has not limited himself strictly to the study of industry, but who has Courtesy of The Nation's Business THESE ARE THE LIGHTS OF INDUSTRY ; THEY MUST BE KEPT BURNING 398 LABOR ADJUSTMENTS 399 also read and reflected upon the other aspects of national life and their relations one with another. It is necessary for the pur- pose of study to take up one section of our national life at a time, and so we have a histor)' of American politics, for example, as well as a history of American industries and commerce. In the present book we have confined ourselves to the latter topic, but we cannot conclude our work without warning the reader once again that industrial life is but part of the national life and cannot be thoroughly understood without a comprehension of that life as a whole. When one has derived a conception of our American industrial and commercial organization from some such series of facts and conclusions as the one we have here presented, he must realize that his conception is still incomplete until it is expanded to take in a vision of the industrial organization in its mutual relations with the rest of the national structure. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW CHAPTER 1 PRODUCTIVE AREAS AND PHYSICAL FACTORS AFFECTING PRODUCTION How is land the basis of all life on earth? What is meant by land-wealth? What is the United States Proper? How large is it? What advantages has the United States in location? Why is the quality of land important? Why can our land support many industries ? What is of more importance than excellent quality of land ? Why ? What physical factors affect production ? What is climate ? What factors determine climate ? Men living in the temperate zones have what advantages ? Why is high altitude equivalent to high latitude ? Why are winds factors in man's life? What causes the difference in the temperature of England and Labrador? What is meant by "aspect"' of land? How much annual rainfall is desirable for human life? for agriculture? What is irrigation ? How is the cultivation of the soil the basis of civiliza- tion ? Name the essential plant foods. What three soils arc most productive ? What are the two basic factors in plant life? W^hat is the general difference between the eastern and the western parts of the United States? Give the general division of physical areas in the United States for the study of industries. What is the "fall line"? Where is it? What are the industries of the Appalachian Mountains ? What is raised in the Central Lowlands ? Why is this an agricultural section ? Where are the best grazing lands of the United States ? Name four mining sections. CHAPTER H NATURAL RESOURCES What are commonly thought of as free gifts of nature? Are these free everywhere? What do you mean by " natural resources "? Why is it necessary to conserve natural resources ? What is meant by conservation ? The three needs of man are what? How does he supply them? Name some substitutes for wood as fuel. What is needed to utilize resources ? What are the main causes of our success in industry? What did the report of the National Conservation Commission reveal in 1908? What is the po.sition 401 402 INDUSTRY AND TRADE of the I'nited States in regard to minerals? Where are the coal areas of the United States? How are their locations an advantage to manufacturers? What is the most important nonmetal ? the most important metal ? Where is iron found? Why is iron important? How large are our petroleum fields? Where are they located ? What is the difference between natural gas and "producer" gas? How does the United States rank in extent of natural-gas fields? Name six other important minerals. What is the classification of the forests of the United States ? Which contain hard woods ? soft woods ? Why is water so necessary? What effect has water power had on settle- ments? Why is water power resuming much of its former importance? Where is the greatest proportion of our potential water power ? What five groups of states are using power other than water power? What is the reason for this? Why are native plant and animal life more important to the savage than to the civilized man? How important to us are the native products of North America ? CHAPTER III THE HUMAN ELEMENT What is the unit of production? W^hat two races have developed a high civilization ? What two backward races form a part of our population ? What w-ere the labors of the Indian ? Why did he not become a part of the white man's civilization ? What influence has he had ? W'hy were negroes brought here ? What climate is best for the white man ? Why ? What was the great need of the South? How was this met? W'hy was the Indian a poor slave? Where is the negro needed in industry? Why? From what countries did the early immigrants come ? What was their char- acter generally ? What were some of the causes of immigration ? From where did the later immigrants come? What is meant by the " melting pot " ? Give two unfavorable features of recent immigration. Why is it so important to educate our immigrants? In what ways is the immigration question an important one? CHAPTER IV SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Why is the "American type" not a permanent thing? What is frontier society ? Why does the society of the North and the South differ so radically ? Why are there so few white people in the tropics? What is the reason for classes in tropical society? Why are the tropics important industrially? Why are they economically dependent? politically dependent? What causes the homogeneous population of the temperate zone? Why could the North QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 403 have free labor rather than slaves ? Are tropical or temperate colonies more independent of the -mother-countr)' ? Why? Why has Yankee cleverness become proverbial ? What are the three features of democracy ? What kind of men were first attracted to North America? How did the life here make for equality? What leads to the political independence of a community ? ^\'hy have Americans developed such national prosperity ? What are the characteristics of the Ameri- can man ? What has helped to form these ? What is becoming of our frontier ? What effect does social life have on industry ? CHAPTER V CEREALS In what way is farming the foundation of all industry? What is agriculture dependent upon for success? What is the principal source of our wealth? Why ? Why are we superior to other nations in agriculture ? What cereals do we raise ? What part has corn played in our agricultural development ? Where is the cereal belt of the United States ? the " corn belt " ? What proportion of the world's corn crop do we raise? For what is corn used? In what form is much of it exported ? What is the difference between " white wheat "" and " whole wheat "? Where was wheat grown in the colonies? Explain its decline in Virginia and New England. Where is the " wheat belt " ? What factors led to wheat-raising in the West? What proportion of the world's wheat do we produce? What is the average yield per acre in the United States ? What industries are connected with corn and wheat ? How much of our wheat crop do we need for home consumption ? Where are oats most used as a human food ? Where arc most of our oats raised? What country yields the most oats? What one ranks second ? Where is most of the barley grown ? What has supplanted this as a human food ? Where is barley raised in the United States? For what is rye used? How important is the crop in the United States? In what section is it found? Where is rice grown in the United States? Why is it in more common use in the East than here? For what is sorghum used? What use has buckwheat? CHAPTER VI VEGETABLES AND FRUITS What is meant by "payment in kind"? How does this illustrate the im- portance of vegetables and fruits ? When were fruits and vegetables first raised for commerce in this country? How arc markets supplied with them out of season? How has such food transportation affected our way of living? How 404 IXDISTRV AND TRADE do potatoes rank as a staple food ? What can be used as a substitute for pota- toes? Where are most of the potatoes raised? What is the average yield per acre? Is this large or small compared with wheat and with area? What are some of the dangers to the crop? How much is it possible to increase the yield in our fields? What are legumes ? nodules ? What value have they for the soil ? Why is our production of peas and beans small compared with that of other countries ? Why are we less careful of sugar beets than the people of Europe ? How does the standard of living affect fruit production? How long has the apple been cultivated ? Why were apples used almost exclusively for cider in this country at first? Where were our apple orchards first found? Where now ? What is the value of the apple crop compared with other fruits ? Where w-ere peaches first cultivated? Where are they found in the United States? In what forms are peaches marketed? What two crops only surpass the grape in value? Where are grapes grown in this country? From where were oranges introduced into America? In what climate do they grow? Why can you buy oranges at all times of the year? Name some other important fruit crops. What four fruits are now raised here that were formerly imported entirely ? What industry is based upon fruits and vegetables ? How important is it? CHAPTER VII . SUGAR What are the sources from which sugar is obtained ? Why has commercial industry not been.^wifined to the merely useful products? How did sugar change from a luxury to a necessity? When is it now a luxury? What are common sources of commercial sugar? How does sugar cane grow ? Where? Where does it grow in the United States? W^hat territories of the United States produce sugar cane ? Where is its production most successful ? Why ? W^hen did beet sugar become an important industry ? W^here is its most successful cultivation ? How did war stimulate the beginning of this industry? When was the industry firmly established in this country ? What states produce the most beet sugar ? What proportion of the world's production do we raise ? What processes does the cane pass through to become white sugar ? What is the vacuum pan? How are beets treated to produce sugar? CHAPTER VIII COTTON What factors are necessary to successful cotton-growing? What hindered the demand for cotton in the eighteenth century? Show how our production of cotton has been increasing. What part of the world's crop do we raise? W'hat QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 405 part has cotton played in our history? What was cotton first used for? Who was Eli Whitney? How did he aid the cotton industry? What states lie in the " cotton belt " ? Which one produces the most cotton ? How long did it take for the cotton industry to recover from the effects of the Civil War? Name the varieties of cotton. Which is the best? Why? Where is it grown? Describe the cotton plant. Why is the harvesting done by hand ? Why is it the costliest part of the production ? How is cotton prepared for market ? Where is cotton manufactured? Why is New England the chief factory re- gion? Describe the advance made in spinning. How was weaving first done? What is meant by a factory system ? Describe mercerizing. What is its value ? What are the last processes in cotton manufacture ? What are the sources of modern dyes ? What are some of the uses for cottonseed? How is it treated? What are by-products ? What cities are called the cotton cities ? Why ? CHAPTER IX CATTLE Why were wild animals of little value to man? How did the domestication of animals advance the civilization of man ? Why did man care for the breeding of animals? Explain how a country's wealth lies largely in domesticated ani- mals. What is necessary to keep up a good breed ? Why did the savage fail in this? Why are there few American breeds? What different kinds of cattle were brought to America? For what were they used? Why were the early cattle poor grade? What influence did the East exert on Western cattle-raising? What were the cattle slates of 1850? What are they to-day ? Why do cowboys and farmers dislike each other ? Why are there few milch cows on the Plains ? What effect has the refrigerator car had on the cattle industry ? How was fresh beef sent across the Atlantic? Why is more live stock shipped to Europe than fresh beef? Which is more expensive? Where are the meat-packing centers? What started this industry? How is milk brought to large cities ? Why are sanitary methods emphasized for dairies? Describe a modern dairy. Explain the growth of the cheese and butter industry. Where are the centers of the dairy industry ? CHAPTER X SWINE AND SHEEP Where were hogs found in colonial days? How did their quality compare with that of to-day? Where is pork eaten? Name some of the best breeds of swine. How were they developed? Why was swine production closely related 406 INDUSTRY AND TRADE to slavery ? What is meant by " corn t)n the hoof '" ? Why is it valuable ? What cities are associated with pork-packing ? Why is the corn belt identical with the swine belt? Where is it? What is the difference between a lard hog and a bacon hog? Where is each found ? Where are the most hogs raised ? How much of the hog is used in the packing plant? What are some of the uses? the by-products? In what forms is the meat prepared for market ? What three uses had sheep in ancient times? Who brought the first domestic sheep to America? Where was colonial sheep-raising most profit- able ? Why ? What sheep give the best wool ? What was the Ancon breed ? What' are the superior points of the merino? Why are there not more merinos in this country ? For what is the karakul sheep valued ? Explain the gradual rise in importance of the mutton breeds. What value had a "fat-tailed sheep"? Where are the greatest numbers of mutton breeds? In how many states are sheep found ? Where are the greatest numbers now ? What two countries surpass ours in numbers of sheep? How important is rainfall to sheep-raising? How many classes of wool are there? How often are sheep sheared ? What success has the breeder had in increasing the weight of a fleece? How much wool do we import? CHAPTER XI HORSES AND MULES By what different nations were horses first introduced into the United States? What is the origin of the typical American horse? When was the stock greatly improved ? What is the best breed of farm horse ? of draft horse ? What was one of the reasons for road improvements ? How did the horse-car system raise and then lower the demand for cheap horses ? What kept up the demand for horses in the country? Where are the horse-raising districts? What other value has the horse than for transportation ? What is a mule ? Where is the mule used mostly ? How does it compare with a horse ? Where is the mule particularly adapted for labor ? How many mules are in this country? What is their value? CHAPTER XII FISHERIES What influence has fishing had on our history? Why did Massachusetts become a center of this industry ? What town in particular was and still is devoted to it ? Where are the two great fishing grounds of the world ? Why QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 407 did New England hold a monopoly of the fishing trade for so long? What other industries grew out of this supremacy? How does fishing aid in devel- oping other maritime interests, merchant marine, etc. ? What two well-known books were written about this fishing life ? What are fishing rights ? What besides food is derived from the fisheries ? How important are our fisheries ? Trace the beginnings of the whaling indus- try. What places are associated with this industry? What factors led to a decline in whaling? What states have led in the cod-fishing industry? Why is cod-fishing yielding to inshore fishing? What was the first use for mackerel? When were mackerel first salted? What effect did this have on the industry? What state is the center of the industry? Name six other important fisheries of New England. How has the use of ice changed the character of fishing? How long did New England remain supreme in the fishing industry? What other sections are now in the market ? What kinds of fish do these supply ? What are the products of the Gulf fisheries? What state leads? What fish are found on the Pacific coast? What kind is most prominent commercially? Where is the great fur-seal breeding ground ? What interest has the govern- ment in it ? Where are oysters found ? What per cent of the world's supply do we "furnish ? What are some of the duties of the United States Bureau of Fisheries ? How important are our fisheries ? CHAPTER XIII COAL AND PETROLEUM What are some of the differences between minerals and the plant and ani- mal products? What conditions are necessary to the successful operation of a mine? How are minerals classified? Name some belonging to each class. Which has the greatest value in our annual output? Why is mining a primary rather than a secondary industry ? What is coal ? Describe the different kinds. Where is each mined ? When did coal come into common use in this country? What was the first extensive use of coal in industry? How did the railways develop the bituminous-coal industry? How is coke prepared? Where is its greatest use? What propor- tion of our supply remains to be mined? How much coal is consumed per capita ? What are some of the ways in which coal is wasted ? Why is coal indispensable now? Why is economy in the use of coal necessary? How long has petroleum been known? In what places was it in early use? For what purpose was Seneca oil used ? By whom was petroleum regarded as a nuisance, and why? What was the first oil company? Where did it operate? When did the rc:\\ oil era begin? 40S INDUSTRY AND TRADE CHAPTER XIV IRON About how long has iron been known? What mineral alone surpasses it in abundance? When was it used in America first? Describe smelting. What is the difference between wrought iron and cast iron ? What were the first iron beds to be worked in this country ? Why was the industry small up to I See? Describe the growth in production to i860. What factors made Pennsylvania a great iron-producing state? How did the use of bituminous coal change this? Where are the great iron-mining regions of the United States ? What cor- poration owns a large proportion of them ? Why is this a great iron age ? W^hat is our present production of pig iron? its value? its relation to the world's production? What factors have enabled the United States to surpass all countries in the iron industry? How did the Great War show the value of iron ? CHAPTER XV GOLD AND SILVER Where is gold found? In what forms? What two qualities does it possess that have made it a favorite metal? Why is gold not used more freely for coins? W^hat metals take its place for these? What was the " Silver Fleet'"? What would a great increase in the production of gold lead to ? Why ? Describe the processes of obtaining gold. How has our gold industry developed? What states lead in production? Why did silver have such a high value ? Where was it known in America ? What was the state of early colonial silver-mining? When was the largest deposit in the world found? Where? What is the story of the Comstock Lode? What states lead in the production of silver? How may silver illus- trate the power of national resources over national affairs? How is silver a by-product ? For what is silver largely used ? CHAPTER XVI OTHER MINERALS Name ten of the lesser minerals. What metal is second only to iron? Where is it used mostly ? What forms bronze ? brass ? How did the Indians mine and use copper? In what Eastern states was copper found ? What three states enable us to lead the world in copper production ? In what forms is lead found ? In what states is it extensively mined ? Why is the zinc industry comparatively new? What state produces the most zinc? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 409 What are the valuable properties of aluminum ? What is aiding its greater production ? What are some of its important uses ? How was clay first used ? How important is the industry now ? With what industry is it closely connected? What are the principal stones quarried? What are the three types of cement? For what are they used? In what minerals are we deficient? CHAPTER XVII ADVANTAGES OF THE UNITED STATES FOR MANIJFACTURING, AND THE LOCALIZATION OF INDUSTRIES What is meant by manufacture? Give examples. When did the great manufacturing period of our country begin ? What are some of the causes for increased manufacture? Name the five leading manufacturing states. What are our four great classes of manufactured goods ? How large a value do they represent? In what resources are we rich? What part has water transporta- tion played in our development? What is the greatest internal waterway in the world ? What is meant by freedom of trade in the United States ? W^hat developed the tendency to seek out the best and quickest ways in commercial industry ? What is meant by mobility of labor ? How has this influenced American pro- duction ? Why can American labor be independent ? What influence has our form of government had on our industrial success ? What seven factors determine where an industry shall locate? What five states produce a large proportion of our manufactures ? What is one reason for this? What advantages did New England have for manufacturing? How does climate influence labor efficiency ? Why must manufacturing plants be located in thickly settled regions? Why do we have specialization of indus- tries in different sections of the United States? How does New Bedford illustrate the change in source of capital for our industries ? What cities owe their success to an early start in their particular industries? Name the respective industry in several of our states. CHAPTER XVIII FOOD AND KINDRED PRODUCTS What is the most important group in the American industries? Into what two divisions is it separated? What is the most important product in the animal-products group? How were pork products marketed from the West? What city leads in this industry? What effect has competition had on this industrv ? 410 INDUSTRY AND TRADE Why is flour manufacture the most important of the vegetable-products group? Describe the process of milHng. Where were the milling centers before the Revolution ? in the early nineteenth century ? Why has the center moved westward? What caused the decline of St. Louis as a shipping port for flour? Describe the growth of Minneapolis as a flour city. Describe the improved process of milling. How important is flour as an export? How valuable is the industry of our flour and grist mills? What are some of the other industries dependent upon vegetable materials ? In what ways ha,ve we wasted food? CHAPTER XIX METALLIC PRODUCTS Why can the use of metals be taken as an index of a people's civilization ? What state and city lead in iron manufacture? What factors gave England the supremacy for a long time? What did Sir Henry Bessemer do for this industry ? What is the work of a foundry ? a rolling-mill ? Name some of the special products of the foundry. In what cities are tools made? cutlery? For what is New England prominent in this industry? How have mechanical devices affected this industry? What is meant by standardization of parts? Where were our first railroad engines made? What kind of engines were built in this country ? Where were the plants usually located ? When were locomotives first built in the United States? W'here? In what states were silverware and jewelry manufactured at first? How important is the metal manufacture of the United States? CHAPTER XX TEXTILES What three things are included under textile industries ? What are the four leading materials manufactured in this country ? What cloth was made in colonial days? How much? Trace the development of the linen industry in the United States. Why was there so little early woolen manufacturing? What factors hindered its development later? How great an industry do we have to-day ? Where is the greatest amount of woolen manufacturing ? What hindered the construction of textile manufacturing machinery in the United States? Where were the first cotton factories? In what section of the country did the factory system develop ? Describe the growth of cotton manu- facturing up to the Civil War. How has this industry recently developed in QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 411 the South? What advantages tor this industry does the South have? New England ? What are the five leading states for cotton manufacture ? Where were the first attempts at silk-raising in this country ? Why was it generally unsuccessful ? Why were Americans more successful in silk manu- facturing? What branch of silk manufacture was most in demand? How much has this industry grown since the Civil War ? What other fiber is manufactured here? For what is it used? CHAPTER XXI LUMBER AXn PAPER Why are great forest areas an advantage to a country? How do we rank in forest resources? Why was the invention of the sawmill so important to the colonist? What business grew out of land development? How did the steam sawmill change the character of lumbering? In what sections has large-scale production been developed? What caused a shifting of the loca- tion of this industry? What are our leading woods? How important is the industry? What is a planing mill ? Describe the development of the furniture in- dustry. What woods have been popular for furniture? What are some arti- cles of American origin? What cities are the largest manufacturers of furniture ? What states lead in value of production ? About how long has paper-making been known? Why was its use so restricted ? From what materials has paper been made ? Where were the early paper factories in the colonies? What effect has machinery had upon paper-making? Describe the process of preparing wood pulp. Where are the greatest paper-manufacturing districts in the United States? What factors led to this? What city is the center for paper-making from textiles? Where does this country rank as a producer of paper? Trace the development of the wall-paper industry. What are some of the modern uses of paper? CHAPTER XXII LEATHER AND RUBBER How did the Indian women tan leather? In what ways did Massachusetts regulate the tanning industry in colonial days? Describe tanning. For what are heavy hides used ? calfskins? sheepskins? goatskins? dogskins? pigskins? horsehides ? What are some of the other skins used ? What is the greatest use of leather? Describe the method of colonial slinr- making. Why do wc import so many hides? What is the history dI Lynn 412 INDUSTRY AND TRADE shoemaking ? What has influenced the improvements in American shoes? What are some of the machines used? What Massachusetts cities manufacture shoes? Name five other centers of this industry. Where is the main market? How vaUiablc is the saddle- and harness-making industry? Where are most of our gloves manufactured ? What is the present condition of the leather trade ? Where is rubber found? What was its first use? How is rubber vulcan- ized? What is the process called? What effect did the discovery of this process have on the industry? Where are our rubber factories? What have been some of the factors in raising the demand for rubber? What is vulcanite? For what is it used? Wliat is the leading branch of the rubber industry? Which state leads in the manufacture of rubber footwear? Name some of the important articles made from rubber. What is artificial rubber called? What use is made of old rubber? CHAPTER XXIII CHEMICALS AND DYESTUFFS What part does chemistry play in the commercial world? Where did the manufacturing of chemicals start in this country ? What was the first product ? What reason is assigned for the slow development of the industry? What effect has the Great War had on this? For what is sodium bicarbonate used ? How is much of it obtained ? W' hat are the three essential plant foods? Where is phosphorus obtained? What was the earliest form of fertilizing? W^hy has the manufacture of fertilizers become so important ? Where has potash been found in our country ? When was the manufacture of potash salts started in the United States ? What is its importance ? From what is nitrogen obtained ? What are the future prospects of chemi- cally produced fertilizers? Of what value is electricity in chemical industries? How are soaps and oils made? What is obtained from coal tar? What was the source of the earliest dye known? What is a natural dye- stuff? When were aniline dyes discovered? What stimulated the coal-tar industry in America? With what result? Where is the bulk of our artificial dyes obtained at present? CHAPTER XXIV ELECTRICAL MACHINERY AND APPARATUS When was the electrical industry first reported as a separate industry? What has been its growth since that time? What is the use of dynamos? What two types are there? When did the electric motor begin to play an important part in industry? What are some of the uses of the motor? Where are storage batteries extensively used? How have they increased in value? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 413 What is the difference between an arc lamp and an incandescent lamp? Which is increasing in use for general lighting purposes? How much has the manufacture of telephone apparatus increased since 1 900 ? What was one of the causes of this increase ? What are some of the electric heating devices ? What relation is there between water power and electric power? What six states supply most of our electrical apparatus? CHAPTER XXV BEGINNINGS OF THE AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM WJhy does distribution become so important in our industrial development ? What were the beginnings of trade? i\,]hat effect has rapid transportation had on our national resources? How was most of the Indian transportation carried on ? What was the reason for this ? What types of canoes did the Indians have? What have many of the Indian trails developed into? Why have important railroads followed Indian trails? What was the Indian " travois "? Why were the early settlements in this country on waterways ? What effect did the Appalachian Mountains have on settlement? What factors retarded the building of intercolonial roads? What was the condition of roads at the time of the Revolution? How was most traveling done? Describe the early postal service. What led to the establishment of ferries? of bridges? Who generally owned them? What states owned most of the colo nial tonnage? What types of boats were used on the seacoast? on inland waters? What was the common history of a river flatboat? When did the steamboat become the general carrier on all waters? CHAPTER XXVI TURNPIKES AND CANALS Why were private citizens interested in ways of transportation? Where was the first turnpike? Who were the stockholders in such turnpikes? What authority had the state over them? In what section of the country were most of the turnpikes built? Were they profitable investments ? Why? \\'hat part did roads and bridges play in the high cost of transportation ? What did (iallatin's report show about the cost and number of roads in this country? What were some of the projects he advocated? Which of these projects have since been carried out? Where was the Cumberland Road? Of what importance was it? Why was the Wilderness Road important? What effect has the automobile had on roads ? Whenj^as the great period of canal-building? What class of pcoi)k' were especially interested in easier communication with the West? When was the 414 INDrS'lRV AND I'RADE Kiie Canal completed? W hat gave New \ ork such an advantage over Tenn svlvania in the matter ot a route tu the West? What did the states hope to get from canals? What causes led to their failure? Why has the Erie Canal proved successful? How is it now used? What is the history of the Panama Canal ? Why is the use of canals being urged again? How will their use aid in conser\-ation ? When did the states begin to withdraw from actively aiding transportation projects ? Wh}' ? CHAPTER XXVI 1 RAILROADS Where were the first attempts at railroad construction ? Who built the first successful locomotive engine? What was the first railroad in the United States? Describe its cars. Name some of the other early lines. What stood in the way of railroad systems? Why were engineering difficulties so much greater here than in England ? Describe the early locomotives. What retarded the growth of railroads ? What city was the first railroad center? What were the first lines reaching toward the W'est? What are trunk lines? Upon what were they constructed ? What two roads joined to make the first transcontinental line? What part did the railroads have in the panic of 1873? In what sections of the country was the greatest amount of construction after 1873? W^hat is the present relation between mileage and traffic? What proportion of the world's mileage is in our country ? How do the present railroad rates compare with the early rates? Upon what does a railroad depend for its revenue? What are the advantages of electric railways? How has the railroad aided American industry? CHAPTER XXVHI NATURAL WATERWAYS AND THE MERCHANT MARINE In what ways are natural waterways important in the development of indus- try? Why do we lack statistics on the traffic on natural waterways? What are the two great natural systems in America? To whom have they been of great use ? W'hat hindered traffic on the Mississippi ? W'hat two events greatly influenced river navigation ? W^hat were the requirements of a success- ful river steamboat? W^hat has been the relation between steamboat traffic and the railroads ? What effect did the Civil War have on this competition ? Give two important features of traffic on the lower Mississippi. What does the Great Lakes System include? What is its one great drawback? What QUESTIONS FOR RE\'IE\V 415 have the Canadian and American governments done to improve this system ? Of what does most of the Lake traffic consist ? Name two important Lake cities. Why is the freight rate so much less than on the railroads? How extensive are our inland waterways? What is the ideal system? What is the merchant marine? Why were the colonists so interested in shipping? \\'hat trade did they have with the West Indies? What training did the early merchant seamen need? What type of ship did they evolve? In what three branches was our merchant fleet engaged in the eighteenth century ? What led to our becoming the carrying nation of the world ? What caused the development of the clipper ship? Why were our sailing vessels in such demand? What were some of the causes of the decline in ships? What is the present state of our shipping? Why hasn't the steamer entirely superseded the sailing ship ? Why were we slower than England in changing to steel ships ? How do terminals limit the size of our ships? In what way docs coastwise shipping differ from foreign shipping ? What has figured largely in its development ? What are the probabilities of a large merchant marine? CHAPTER XXIX THE INFLUENCE OF TRANSPORTATION UPON AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT _How are trade and transportation each dependent upon the other? In what way has the trader spread ci\ ilization ? How has transportation been the key- note of our industrial success? How has our territorial division of labor been made possible by transportation ? Why have railroads increased property values in this country so much more than in England? How do city land values depend upon transportation? What political value have good transportation facilities? Show how good transportation means a lowering of prices. What did contemporary men think of cheaper transporta- tion? How do twentieth-century rates and nineteenth-century rates compare? What has made low rates possible ? What effect did the Erie Canal have on transportation rates? What factors have aided in the improvement of communication ? CHAPTER XXX INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR INDUSTRIAL AND i COMMERCIAL SUPREMAC^■ By what means may industry be stimulated? When' was tiie first great struggle for trade supremacy? In what field was the rivalry of Portugal and Spain? Where did England .stand in the struggle for the world's markets? 4i6 INDl SIRV AM) TRADE What advantages has England had for supremacy ? What two nations are her competitors? Name the tive leading commercial countries. What changes has this century brought about in commercial and industrial methods? vHow will science applied to industry help to eliminate failure? What is the method that science uses? What is meant by "margin of superiority"? How is it figured out? How will scientific management benefit industry? By what means does the English government aid the English business man? How does the German method differ from the English? Why were we so late in developing interest in foreign commerce ? How has our consular service been reformed ? Of what aid are business men's organizations ? What is the National Chamber of Commerce ? its duties ? Why is efficiency so necessary ? CHAPTER XXXI MARKETING Why has production always been the first step in industry ? Why were there no problems of marketing in colonial days? What is the distinction between a fair and a market? How was the county fair a forerunner of the market? What is the weekly market? What was the position of the local store in commerce? _Why has the modern market become necessary ? \yhy is the marketing of farm products of prime importance? Why are middlemen necessary? How does purchasing power vary in our country and affect marketing? Name several distributing agencies. Explain the three stages of marketing. What products cannot be sold by description ? • What is the function of a middleman ? Why does export trade demand greater attention than domestic trade? Explain the difference between direct/ and indirect trade. W'hat is the duty of a branch corporation ? What are the duties of a forwarding agent? the advantages? Why is it so necessary to know the tastes of foreign consumers? CHAPTER XXXII THE FINANCING OF INDUSTRY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATIONS \Vhy is capital so important to industry? What capital did the American colonists have? Why was litde money invested in manufacturing by the colonists? How did this situation change in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries? In what type of enterprise did the colonists usually invest? QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 417 What was the beginning of the small corporations of New England? How did the government aid in developing manufactures? Where did the capital come from that aided our industrial development ? How did corporations develop ? What are their characteristics ? What fac- tors have aided their growth? What part is the corporation taking in our business life? How has the character of industry changed since the Civil War? W^hy was combination necessary? How was competition wasteful? Why is large-scale production more economical ? What are four advantages of corporation ? Why are these not found in the individual system ? \\'hat are some disadvantages ? CHAPTER XXXIII LABOR ADJUSTMENTS How has labor influenced the progress of civilization ? How was scarcity of labor first overcome in the American colonies? What was the character of the first servants? How has immigration developed manufacture? Why did most laborers prefer agriculture ? W^hat hope did American industry hold out to skilled labor ? From what countries did many of these men come ? What were some of the improvements brought into use by skilled work- men ? Where was unskilled labor in demand? What opportunity has the immigrant in this country? What has he done for the country? What wages did the unskilled workman receive in the last century ? What caused the first labor movement? When did the trade-union move- ment develop? What has tended to separate labor and capital? What did the early labor legislation have in view? What brought the labor unions to public attention? When did this occur? In what ways have labor conditions improved in late years? Why are capital and labor interdependent? What is meant by employers' liability ? WHiy should accidents to workmen be classed as a social problem ? W' hat three defenses enabled an employer to escape liability for accidents? What principle is behind the workmen's compensation laws? What protection does the employer have against the expenses of accident claims? What is group life insurance? What effect has it had on the relation between employer and employee? What effect has it had on production? INDEX Accidents, industrial, 393 Acids, 275 Adaptability, American, 199 Agriculture, attractions of, 387 ; de- pendent on environment, 55; foun- dation of industry, 55 ; and rainfall, 1 1 ; in the United States, 56 Alpaca, 107 Altitude, factor in temperature, 9 Aluminum, 26, j88 American industries, promotion of. 353-399 American shipping, golden era (jf. 341 American type, 44 Aniline dyes, 282 Animal industries, 105-152 Animal and plant life. 31 Animals, breeding of. 106; domestica- tion of, 105; killing of, 105 Appalachian Mountains, 16 Apples, 77 ; cultivation of, 78 Arc lamp, 287 Asphalt, 165 Atlantic-coast fisheries, 148 Atlantic Coastal Plain, 15 Automobile tires, 271 Bacon hog, 122 Bakery. 220 FJarley, 65 ; production of, 66 Carriers to communication, 298 Heans, 74; production of, 75 Beef, export of fresh, 1 13 iieet sugar, 87 ; production of, 88 IJenzene. 165 Bessemer, .Sir Henry, 224 Bessemer process, 224 Hison, 107 Blackberries, 82 Boot and shoe industry, improvements in, 264 ; machines for, 264 ; in Mas- sachusetts, 263, 265 ; rapid develop- ment of, 265 ; in the West, 265 Hoots and shoes, 205, 261 Branch corporations, 373 Breeds, lack of American, 107 ; origin of best, 107 Bridge companies. 306 liridges and ferries, 301 Buckwheat, 69 Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 283 Business men's organizations, 361 Business unit, increase in size of. 380 Butter, 117 By-products of cottonseed. 104 (anal era. 312; and the railroad era. 317 Canals, 310-31G; craze for building. 310; link between East and West. 310; popularity of, 312; transpor- tation rates on, 351 Candles, 165 Canning industry, 82 Canoe journeys, 293 Canoes, types of, 294 Capital, call for, 378; colonial. 375; early demand small. 377; growth of American. 376 ; importance of. 375;<1L- and labor, 392 ; post-Revolution con- ditions of. 377 ; scarcity' in new coun- tries, 375; supply of. 204 Carbon, 1 1 Carroll, Charles. 318, 319 Catgut, 128 Cattle, 105-117; neglect of, 108 Cattle states. 109 Cattle-raising, beginnings of American. 107 ; progress of industry, 1 1 1 ; west- ward movement of, 108 Causes of our manufacturing success. 196-200 Cement, 26. 191 ; value in the United .States, 192 Centers of dairy industry. 117 Central Forest, 28 Central Lowlands. 17 ('ereals, (,$-(«) 419 430 INDUS I'RV AM) TRADK Cheese, 1 17 Chemical industries, 2S0 ; expansion of, 275 Chemicals, 273-jSo; manulacture of, 274 Chemistry, practical value of, 273 Cherries, S2 Chicago, meat-packing center, 211 Chili, source of nitrate, 280 Civil liberty, 200 Civil War, effect on cotton industry, 95; effect on railways, 324, 325 Civilization and trade. 345 Clarifying of sugar, 90. 91 Clay, 26 Clay industry, products, 1S9; value of, 1 89 Climate, factor in manufacturing, 203 ; factor in production. 8 ; influence on immigration, 36; and soil, 12 Clipper ships, American, 340 Clydesdale, 134 Coal, 23, 155-160, 197; consumption of, 158; development of production, 158; early uses of. 155; hard, 155; indispensable, 159; nature of, 155; need to use economically, 160; and the railroads. 157; soft, 155; used to smelt iron, i 56 ; waste and conser\' a- tion of, I 58 Coal-tar dyes, 282 Coastwise fleet, 343 Cod-fishing, 146 Coinage, 174, 181 Coke, 158 Collars and cuffs, 205 Colonial roads, 299 Colonial shipbuilding, 339 Colonists as seafarers, 338 Coloring, popularity of. 281 Colt, Samuel, 207 Combination, economies of, 38 1 Communication, barriers to, 298 ; and transportation, 351 ^ Compensation, evasion of, 394 Competition, wastes of, 381 Comstock Lode, 180 Conestoga, 135 Confectionery, manufacture of, 220 Connecticut, firearms manufactured in, 206 Conservation of natural resources, 21 Consular service, American, 360 Copper, 26, 182; early mining of, 183; Michigan deposits, 185; Montana discoveries, 1S6; used by Indians, Corn. 57-59; export of, 59; food for hogs, 120; industries connected with, 63; production of, 59; in the West, 58 Corporations, 378-384 ; advantages of, 3S2-384; beginnings of, 378; condi- tions favoring growth of, 379 ; disad- vantages of, 384 ; extension of, 380 ; inevitable, 380 ; nature of, 379 Cotton, 92-104 ; American upland. 96; conditions of raising, 92 ; harvesting, 97 ; nature of plant, 96 ; preparation for market, 98 ; production of, 93 ; varieties of, 95 Cotton belt, 95 Cotton cities, 104 Cotton gin, 94 Cotton industry, 236-241 ; after the Civil War, 239; development in the South, 240 ; importance of, 93 ; in New England, 237. 241; preceding the Civil War, 238; present condi- tions in. 241 Cotton machinery, American, 237 Cotton manufacture, localities of, 98 Cotton market, captured by America, 347 Cotton rags used in paper-making. 253 Cottonseed, by-products of, 104 ; prod- ucts and uses of, 102, 103 ; treatment of, 102 County fair, 364 Cowboys and farmers, no Cumberland Road, 308, 378 Dairy industry, centers of, 117; devel- opment of, 114; products, 114-117; sanitary methods in, 116 Dates, 82 Democracy, 49 Distributing system, 370 Dyeing and finishing, 102 Dyes, home production of, 2S3 Dyestuffs, 281-283; affected by the Great War, 282 ; beginning of manu- facture, 282 ; natural, 281 Dynamos, 285 Efficiency, need of. 361, 372 Electric heating, 288 Electric industry, location of. 289; rapid development of, 284, 2S5 Electric lighting, 287 INDEX 421 Electric power, development of, 288 Electrical machinery and apparatus, 284-289 Electrification of railways, 328 Employers' liability, 392 Engineering difficulties, 320 Engines, 229-231 English draft horse, 134 Erie Canal, 310 ; ser\'ices and improve- ment of, 313 Evans, Oliver, 214, 215 Expert management, 358 Exports, marketing of, 372 F'actors, affecting production. 5-19; determining localization, 201 Factory, development of, 387 Factory system, 100 Fair, an advertising device, 365 ; be- ginning of markets, 363 Fall line, 12, 16, 30, 202 Farmers and cowboys, iio Fat-tailed sheep, 128 Ferries and bridges, 301 Fertilizers, 275; future of, 280; uses of, 277 Figs, 82 Financing of industry, 375-378 Finishing and dyeing, 102 Firearms, 206 Fisheries, 140-152; Atlantic-coast, 148; government support of, 152 ; Gulf, 149; importance of, 144; influence on shipping, 143 ; lake and river, 151; New England, 142, 148; Pacific- coast, 149; products of, 144; promo- tion of our, 151 Fishing grounds, 142 Fishing rights, 144 Flax, 234 Flour, export of, 219; manufacture of, 213; shipment of, 216 Food, conservation of, 221; distribu- tion of, 368 Food industries, importance of. 210 Foreign commerce, American interest in. 359 Foreign consumers, 374 Forestsof theUnited States. 27,29; pres- ent condition of, 28 ; resources of, 245 Forwarding agencies, 373 F"oundries and rolling mills, 224 FVeight rates in the United States, 35 1 Frontier, passing of, 52 ; persistence of, 51 ; society of, 45, 47 Fruit, raising of, in the United States, 76; transportation of, 71 ; and vege- tables, 70-82 Furnaces and stoves. 225 Furniture, imported from England. 249 Furniture industry, 249; early develop- ment of, 250; present conditions of, 252; progress of, 251 Galena, 186 Gallatin's report, 307 Gardening, conditions of. 70. 71 Gas, 26 Gasoline, 165 Geological Survey, the United States, 30 Germany, commercial rival of Great Britain, 356; government oversight of industry in, 359 Gloves, 266 Gold, 26, 1 73-1 78 ; cause of high prices, 175; coinage, 174; development of industry, 178; increase of, 175; na- ture of, 173; possessed by Indians, 174; processes of mining, 176, 177 Goodyear invention, 269 Government enterprises, 377 Government oversight of industry in Germany, 359; in Great liritain, 358 Government support of fisheries, 152 Grapefruit, 81 Grapes, 79, 80 Great Britain, economic strength of, 355 ; government oversight of indus- try in, 358 ; industrial rivals of, 356 Great Lakes system, 334 ; improvement of, 334 Great War, effects on dyestuffs, 282 ; effect on shipbuilding, 341 Group life insurance, 395 Gulf fisheries, 149 Gulf Stream, 10 Hard coal, 155; used for smelting, 169 Hardware and tools, 226 Harness, 266 Hemlock, used in tanning, 260 Hemp, 244 Hides, 117; importation of, 262 Hogs, 1 1 8-1 24 ; fattened on corn, 1 20 ; introduced into this country, irS; slaughtering of, 123 Homespun, 233 Horse car, 135 Horse-brccding, 133 INDUSTRY AM) IKADK Horseflesh. 1 38 Horsehide. uses of, 138 Horse-racing, 135 Horses. 1 33- 1 38; demand for. 136; introduced into America, 133; re- gions for raising. 137 Human element, factor in production, 33-43 Human races, ^j Hydrogen, 1 1 Immigrants, character of recent, 41; excellent quality of early, 388 ; labor of, 386, 389; problem of, 42 ; white, 39 Immigration, importance of, 43 ; mid- century, 40; since 1882, 41 Importance of distributing products, 291 Incandescent lamp, 287 Independence, cause of, 50 Indians, 34 ; influence on white race, 35; unfitted for slavery, 37 Indigo, 281 Industrial development and trade, 345 Industrial life, part of social life, 397; stimulation of, 353 Industrial motors, 286 Industrial Revolution, 379 Industrial supremacy of Great Britain challenged, 356 Industries, agricultural, 55-104; con- nected with corn and wheat, 63 ; localization of, 201-209 Industry, American, 346 ; financing of. 375-378; and production, 362; sci- entific organization of, 356, 357 Inland water transportation, 301 Insurance, 395 ; by Union Pacific Rail- road, 396 Interchangeable parts, 229 International competition, 353-361 Inventory of resources, 22 Investment, colonial, 376 Iron, 24, 166-172, 197; demand for, 170; demand for, in war, 172; pro- duction of, 171 ; smelting of, 167, 169, 170 Iron industry, colonial, 167; prior to i860, 169 Iron manufacture, early localization of, 222 ; improved processes of, 223 Ironworking machinery, 227 Irrigation, 1 1 Jewelry and silverware, 231 Karakul shjeep, 127 Kelp, source of potassium sulphate, 279 Kerosene, 165 Knowledge, need of. 372 Labor adjustments, 3S5-399 Labor, and capital, 392 ; in colonies, 386; immigrant, 386 ; importance of, 385; independence of American, 200; mobility of American, 199; need of unskilled, 3SS ; needed in new country, 385 ; needed in South, 37; skilled, 3S8 Labor legislation, 391 Labor movement, 390 Labor organization, 391 Labor question, 396 Labor supply, 203 Labor union, 391 Labor-saving in meat-packing, 212 Labrador current, 10 Lake traffic, 335 Land, basis of life, 5 ; general location of our, 6 ; quality of our, 7 Land-wealth of the United .States, 5 Lard hog, 122 Large-scale production, economies of, 382 Latitude, factor in production, 8 Lead, 26, 186 Lead paint, 274 Leather, 259-267; varieties of, 261 Leather industry, in the colonies, 259; present conditions in, 267 Lemons, 82 Liability, limited, 3S3 Lime, 11 Lincoln, Abraham, 302 Linen, 234 ; used in paper-making, 253 Linseed oil, 234 Live stock, export of, 1 13 Llama, 107 Localization of industries. 201-209; factors in determining, 201 Locomotive engines, 231, 321 Lubricating oils, 165 Lumber, 245-252 Lumbering, 247 ; early processes, 246 ; importance of industn,^ 249; localiza- tion of industry, 247 ; shifting of industry, 24S Lynn. 205 Lyons of America, 244 INDEX 423 Machinery, for paper-making. 254; in boot and shoe industry, 264 Mackerel fishing, 147 Magnesia, 1 1 Maize, see Corn Manufactures, antiquity of, 193; demand for our, 19S; development of our, 194; value of our, 194-196 Manufacturing industries, 193-290 Marine engines, 230 Market, as a fair, 363 ; expansion of, 368 ; rise of modern, 367 Marketing, 362-374 ; combination of methods for, 37 1 ; complexities of, 369; problems of, unknown to colo- nials, 362 ; three stages of, 370 Meat, demand for, 108; packing of, 113, 210, 211 Men, demand for American, 52; quality of, 7 Mercerizing, 10 1 Merchant marine, 336-344 ; decline of, 341 ; expansion of, 339; meaning of, 336 Merino sheep, 125 Metal industries, progress of, 232 Metallic minerals, 154 Metallic products, 222-232 Metals, importance of, 222 Michigan deposits of copper, J85 Middleman, 372 Mileage of United States railroads, 326 Milling, development of, 214; improve- ments in, 219; present conditions of, 220; westward movement of, 216 Milling centers, 214 Millstone, 219 Mineral fertilizers, 26 Mineral industries, 153-192 Mineral resources of the United States, 22, 26 Minerals, metallic and nonmetallic, 154 Mining industry, importance of, 154 Mining regions, iron, 170 Minneapolis, milling center, 217 Mississippi flatboats, 302 Mittens, 266 Model manufacturing town, 243 Monopoly, 3S2 ; of cotton market, 347 Motors, 286 Mules, 138-139; nature of, 138; value of, 139; virtues of, 138 Naphtha, 165 National Chamber of Commerce, 361 National Conser\'ation Commission, 22, 30 National Forest Service, 27 Natural materials for manufacture, 193 Natural productive areas of the United States, 15-19 Natural resources, 20-32 Natural waterways, 330-336 ; improve- ments of, 314; traffic of, 330; two great systems of, 331 Nearness to markets, factor in manu- facturing, 202 Nearness to materials, factor in manu facturing, 201 Negroes, 34, 36 ; education of, 39 ; position of, in the United States, 38 New England, fisheries of, 142 ; prom- inent in iron manufacture, 227 New York City, sources of milk supply, i'5 Nitric acid, 274 Nitrogen, 11, 275, 279; sources of, 280 Nonmetallic minerals, 154 North America, plant and animal life of, 31 Northern Forest, 27 Oak bark, used in tanning, 260 Oats, 64, 65 Ocean, factor in climate, 9 Ocean currents, 10 Oil, grades of, 163; production of, 164 Oil era, 162 Oil industry, development of, 163 Oiled paper, used for glass, 2:;^ Olives, 82 Oranges, 81 Origin of best breeds, 107 Oxygen, 1 1 Oysters, i 50 Pacific-coast fisheries, 149 Pacific Forest, 28 Pacific Slope, 19 Panama Canal, 313 Paper, 252-258; made from cotton. 253; made from linen, 253; made from wood pulp, 255 ; some uses of. 258 Paper-making, in colonies, 253; early stages of. 252 ; rapidity of develop- ment, 256; recent developments, 255; use of machinery in, 254 Papyrus plant, 252, 253 Paraffin. 165 424 IXDISTRV AND 'I'RADK Teaches, 7S Tears, Sj Teas, 74, 75 Tercheron, 134, 135 Tetroleum, 25, 160-165; commercial products of, 165; early industry, 161 ; early uses of, 160; a medicine and a nuisance, 161 Philosopher's stone, 222 Phosphate rock, 276 Phosphates, 26 Thosphorus, 11, 275, 276 Thysical factors influencing production, S-13 Pipe lines, 165 Placer-mining, 176 Planing mill, 249 Plant and animal life, 31 Plant foods, 11, 275 Plums, 82 Population, centers of, 37 ; concentra- tion of, 369 ; of temperate zones, 47 Pork, demand by slave states, 1 20 ; wide use of, 119 Pork-packing, 123 Portland cement, 191, 192, 279 Post roads, 300 Potash, 1 1, 278 Potassium, 275, 278 Potassium sulphate, 279 Potatoes, 72, 73 Produce-marketing, 366 Production, center of attention, 362 Products, chemical treatment of, 273 Progress, basis of, 22 Progressiveness, American, 199 Prosperity in America, 51 Public works, 308 Puzzolan, 191, 192 Railroad era, 317 Railroads, 317-329; beginnings of, 317, 318; and coal, 157; competition with water routes, 333 ; earlier lines, 319 ; effect on prices, 349 ; electrification of, 328; local at first, 319; mileage of, 326; previous to Civil War, 324; progress after Civil War, 325; rates on, 326; recent construction, 326; retardation of development, 322 ; revolution wrought by, 328 ; systems of, lacking, 322 ; transcontinental lines, 325; trunk lines, 324; to the West, 322 Rainfall, and agriculture, 1 1 ; factor in production, 10 Raspberries, 82 Refrigeration, 1 1 2 Resources, rich in the United States, '97 Revolution wrought by raihoads, 328 Rice, 68, 69 Killeaux, Norbert, 90 Rivalry, in early trade, 354; for world market, 354 River navigation, factors favoring, 332 River traffic, early, 331 ; present-day, 334 Road-building, growth of interest in, 304; modern, 310; unprofitable, 305 Road companies and state enterprises, 305 Roads, colonial, 299 ; insufficiency of early, 299 Rochester, flour production in, 215 Rocky Mountain Forest, 28 Rocky Mountains, 18 Rolling mills and foundries, 224 Roman cement, 191 Rubber, 268-272; demand for, 270; early uses of, 268 ; growth of indus- try, 269 ; uses of old, 272 Rubber footwear, 271 Rubber products, 271 Rye, 67, 68 Saddles, 266 Sale by description, 371; direct and indirect, 373 Salt-water fleet, 336 Sawmills, 246 Sea traffic, 301 Sea-island cotton, 16, 96 Sealing, 150 Self-sufficiency, dangers of, 374 Seneca oil, 161 Sheep, 124-132 ; breeding for meat, 128; fat-tailed, 128; merino, 125; mutton breeds of, 127; utility of, 124; west- ward movement of industry, 129 Sheep-raising, early, 125; countries of, 130 Shipbuilding, colonial, 339 Shipment of flour, 216 Shipping, as an investment, 344 Shoes and boots, 261 Silk industry, 242-244; after 1840, 243; development of, 242 ; recent develop- ment of, 244 INDEX 42. S Silver, 26, 178-1S1; a by-product, 180; coinage of, 181; discoveries of, 179; high value of, 178 Silver-mining, colonial, 179 Silverware and jewelry, 231 Skins as clothing, 259 Slate, 26 Slater, Samuel, 237, 238 Slaughtering and meat-packing, 210 Slave trade, 38 Slavery. 36 Smelting, 167 Social development, 44-53 Social life, American, 52 Sodium products, 275 Soft coal, 155 ; used for smelting, 170 Soil, and climate, 12; definition of, 11 ; productivity of, 12 Solvay, 275 Soo Canal, 334 Sorghum, 69 Southern Forest, 28 Specialization by cities, 208 ; cases of, 207 Spelter, 187 Spinning, 99 Standard Oil Corporation, 165 Standardization of parts, 228 State enterprises and road companies, 305 State works, given up by states, 316 Steamboat, 302 ; river, 332 Steel ships, 342 Stone, 190; development of industry, 191 Storage batteries, 286 Stoves and furnaces, 225 Strawberries, 82 Suez Canal, 313 Sugar, 83-91 ; manufacture of, 89-91 ; production of, 83 ; source of, 83. 85 Sugar beet, 76, 85 Sugar cane, 85 ; introduced in America, 86 ; production of, 86 Sulphide of lead, 186 Sulphur, 1 1 Sulphuric acid, 274 Superphosphate, 276 Swine, 118-124; breeds of, 119; loca- tion of industry, 121 Tanning, 260 'J'elephone, 288 Temperate zone, labor in, 48 ; popula- tion of, 47 ; resourcefulness in, 48 Terminals for ships, 343 Textile industries, 233-244 : colonial, Thomas slag, 277 Tools and hardware. 226 Topography, influence ori production. 10 Trade, between specializing groups, 291 ; and civilization, 345; freedom of, 1 98 ; and industrial development, 345 Traffic, early river, 331 Trails, Indian, 295; routes of railroads, 296 Transcontinental lines, 325 Transportation, 291-352; and Ameri- can industry, 346; blessings of cheap, 350 ; center of American history, 346 ; colonial, 297 ; and communication, 351 ; cost of, 305 ; development of, 292 ; early American. 293 ; effect on city growth, 348 ; effect on property values, 347; on Great Lakes, 197. 198,335; Indian, 293, 296; influence on American industrial development, 345-352; inland water, 301; and lower rates, 349 ; and national well- being, 352 ; need of, 292 ; and politi- cal unification, 348; on sea, 301; and the settlement of the West, 298; twentieth-century rates, 350; vital factor in industry, 347 " Travois," Indian, 297 Tropical climate, effect on man, 45 Tropics, economic dependence of, 46; political dependence of, 46 Troy, 205 Trunk lines, 324 Tungsten lamp, 287 Turnpikes, 304-3 ro; success of, 304 United States, commercial rival of Oreat Britain, 356; land-wealth of. 5; natural productive areas of, 15-19; water power of, 30 United .States Proper, 6 Utilization of natural resources, 21 Vacuum pan, for sugar manufacture. 89 Vaseline, 165 Vegetables, and fruits, 70-82 ; trans- portation of, 7 1 Vulcanite, 269, 271 Wages, colonial, 390 Wall paper, 256; styles in, 257 4^6 IXDrSTRV AND IKADK N\ .11 dcinaiul toi iron, 17 J Waste, elimination in packing houses, J 13; of natural resources, ^o Water power, 2S, 30 ; factor in manu- facturing. 202 ; limits to use of, 31 Water routes, competition with rail- roads, 333 Waterways, extent of inland, 336; im- portance of minor, 330; natural. 314; value for slow freight, 315 Wealth in domesticated animals, 106 Weaving. 99 Weekly market, 365 Welland I'anal, 334 Western High Plains, 17 Western Plateaus. 18 Whaling, 144; decline of. 145 Wheat. 60; in the colonies, 61 ; indus- tries connected with, 63 ; production of, 63 ; in the West, 62 \\ ildcrness Road, 309 Whitney. Kli, 94 Winds, factor in climate, 9 Wood, importance of, 245 Wood pulp, used in paper-making, -55 \\ ool, imports. 132 : and shearing, 131 ; weight of. 132 Woolen industry, 2^4-236; progress of, 236 Workmen's compensation, 393 ; laws providing for, 394 World market, rivalry for, 354 World's Fair, 365 Yankee, 4.S Zinc, 26, 187 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. *«?l AUG 1 6 19R7 •Mfi^ 8^' """Or,,, 0EC22 »r mz «'orm L9-Series 444 3 1158 00810 5073 ,UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 157 653 5 I ' ~ M