Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/138

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UNITED STATES

Manufactures There are no facts relating to mannfactures for the whole country except for census years, but in a few cases, like the production of iron, data are available for other years. Use has been made only of those sources which are considered fairly trustworthy. In the following table, which gives the great items for 1870, 1880, and 1890, the figures are taken from the Eeports on Manufactures of the Eleventh Census (1890), on a comparative basis ; as, for instance, the total value of products, including receipts from custom work and repair- ing, at the census of 1890 was ^9,372,437,283. This figure could not be brought into comparison with the value of prod- ucts at previous censuses because of the inclusion of things in 1890 not accounted for in 1870 or 1880. Such extra items have been eliminated, therefore, that the figures may be more thor- oughly comparative. The table shows the number of persons employed, while the census figures, as usually quoted, include oflB.cers, firm members, and clerks. This explanation will account for any difference between the figures of the table and those popularly used from the census reports :

Year Establish- ments Ke- porting Capital Persons Employed Total Wages Paid Value of Products 1870 . 1880 . 1890 . 252,148 258,502 322,638 $1,694,567,015 2,780,766,895 6,139,397,785 2,053,996 2,700,732 4,476,884 $620,467,474 939,462,252 2,171, 750,;S3 $3,385,860,354 5,349,191,458 9,056,764,996

The value of products, as given, is somewhat misleading. The values are those at the works where the goods are pro- duced, and while for a series of census years they indicate the growth of manufacturing industries, they in no way indicate the real value added by labor and skill to raw material. The value of materials used in 1890 was $5,021,453,326. The value of products, as stated, was nearly twice the value of materials. The difficulty lies in the fact that in the materials there are very many completed products used as raw materials for further production, and those materials are counted in the value of products to the extent to which completed products are used as materials for a further product. No analysis, therefore, should be attempted relative to per capita production, or the relation of products to capital, or to wages paid.