Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/436

 little business; no capital invested from the outside; none of the present-day commercial enterprise. Every small manufacturer was a workman, and furnished his own capital. Such statistics as we have of the decade before the war show that all combined the little furnaces and factories used somewhat more than three hundred thousand tons of coal per annum. In 1906 forty-six million tons were mined in the Pittsburgh district. Farming and matters relating to river traffic were the greater industries, and Pittsburgh was the market and outfitting emporium west of the Alleghenies.

When at length a little charcoal iron began to be produced, the sturdy artisans of Pittsburgh worked some of it up into articles such as plows, axes, saws, scythes and other farm implements; locks, scales and malleable iron castings. But the Pittsburgher did not reach out after business; he scarcely even asked for it; all of which is in conformity with the Scotch-Irish principle of stubbornness. He did not advertise, nor send out salesmen. It has been said that not a traveling salesman was sent out of Pittsburgh before the war. Whereas the Yankee business man of other western towns went after trade, the Pittsburgher's attitude was that of confident indifferentism. "This is the head of navigation," he would say—"everything has got to come here, sooner or later." And he was right. Whether he builded better than he knew, we can not say; but events have proved that his industrial fortress was impregnable.

It was during the years of the war, and the period immediately subsequent, that Pittsburgh "found herself." The first oil discovery was made just prior to the actual breach between the north and south; and the production of oil, added to the other resources of the region, gave a new impulse to the industrial situation. The terrible years from 1860 to 1865 stimulated rather than depressed business conditions in Pittsburgh; since the needs of the War Department, of outfitting, furnishing of arms and armament, building of river craft and gunboats, and the point of vantage that was offered for the transfer and transportation of troops and supplies, were tremendous factors.

The things that have made for the development of Pittsburgh in the last generation have been set forth and printed and distributed the country over, and translated into all the languages of the globe. To try to enumerate them would involve a burdensome task, unnecessary to the present article; and only a few leading figures may be given, merely to suggest what is now being done.

The coal production of 1906 has been stated at 46,000,000 tons; the figures for 1907 being not yet accessible. The traffic tonnage, by rail and river for the same period was 122,000,000 tons; 12,000,000 tons having descended the Ohio River from Pittsburgh. The traction cars carried during the year 200,000,000 people. The total bank deposits at the close of the year were over $340,000,000. The real