AMERICAN INDUSTRIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13294, 24 May 1907, Page 3

AMERICAN INDUSTRIES.

The bulletin on ths manufacturing Industrie':! of the United (States for tue year anded December 31it, 1905, has ju?.t been issued by' the- Department of Commerce and Labour. The statistics foi-m a part of the census of manufactures of .1906, and the compilation has been made in a form convenient for ready reference: Among the striking figures are The average number of wage-earnei'y employed during the year reported for the census of 1905 exceeds the number reported for 1900 by 16 per cent., thi amount of wages by 29.9 per cent., and the value of the products by 29.7' per cent. The motive power employed in manufactures increased from 10,409,625 horse-power in 1900 to 14,464,,940 horse-power in 1905, a gain of 39 per cent. The total product for the year ended December 31st, 1904, was 14,802,147,08/ dollars.

In 1905, measured by the value of products, slaughtering and meat-packing wivs the most important industry in the United States, although this industry gave employment to only 74,134 wage-earners, as compared with 404,626 for lumber and timber products. . The average manufacturing establishment, as computed from the total of ait industries in the entire country, employed in the year 1904 twenty-five wage earners, and had an annual profit of a nwt value of 68,445 dollars. • There were 24,180 establishments, for which the value of products was 100,000 dollars and over. The eitenfc to which manufacture were controlled by these large establishments is shown by the fact that, although they formed only 11.2 per cent, of the total number,, they controlled 81.5 per cent, of the capital invested, gavo employment to 71.6 per cent, of the mvmber of wage-earners, and manufactured 79.3 per cent, of the total value of products. New York, Pensylvania, Illinois, and Massachusetts, in the order named, are the four leading manufacturing States. They contained 86,333, or 3.99 per cent, of the establishments for the entire, country; gave employment to 2,488,064, or 45.5 per cent, of the average number of wage-earn-ers, and reported 6,789,331,091 dollars, or 47.1 per cent, of the wastes naid. The manufacturers of lumber and timber products gave employment to the largest average number of wage-earners, "and whalebone cutting to the least. The great, est number of wage-earners employed at any one time during the year was 7,017,138 and the' least 4,599,091. The four leading States, in' the order of. their importance as to the greatest number of wage-earners emplaved at any one time, were: New York.' 1,075,577; Pennsylvania, 924,685; Massachusetts, 578,208; and Illinois, 478,488. .