The recent development of American industries / by the Class of '91, [Publication Committee], Wharton School of Finance and Economy, University of Pennsylvania.

UC-NRLF 755 fifl fl?5 PENNSYLVANIA. WHARTON SCHOOL STUDIES •IN- POLITICS AND ECONOMICS. Vol. I. JUNE, 1891. No. i. THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT -OF- AMERICAN INDUSTRIES — BY THE — CLASS OF 'or, Wharton School of Finance and Economy, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. JAMES M ANDERSON CASTLE, JEfLovi) CARPENTER GRIH<. £IlSAYA IWASAKI, WILLIAM GRAY KNOWL. CHARLES RIDGELY !.= DAVID MANUEL, JR., WILLIAM STEPHEN OT:TKRBRIDGE, JR., HARVEY KLMORR PLATT, WILM::R HERSHICY Ku,. WiL/.i i.-r, HENK GEORGI- ^MITH, cs DE Pui VAIL. CHARLES WILLIAM A. Vi University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. PRICE FIFTY CI-. GIFT OF THE UNIVERSITY; ^fiareiit^ SIMON N. PATTEN, PH. D. (HALLE). Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania. PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. WHARTON SCHOOL STUDIES IN POLITICS AND ECONOMICS. Vol. I. JUNE, 1891. No. i THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES, — BY THE — CLASS OF '91, Wharton School of Finance and Economy, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. JAMES MANDERSON CASTLE, HARVEY ELMORE PLATT, LLOYD CARPENTER GRISCOM, WILMER HERSHEY RIGHTER, HlSAYA IWASAKI, WILLIAM BENI ROSSKAM, WILLIAM GRAY KNOWLES, HENRY HALL SINNAMON, CHARLES RIDGELY LEE, GEORGE HUGHES SMITH, DAVID MANDEL, JR., LOUIS DE Pui VAIL. WILLIAM STEPHEN OUTERBRIDGE, JR., CHARLES WILLIAM A. VEDITZ. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ur 103 V PREFACE. Works on Political Economy, as a general rule, draw their illustrations from an industrial state which has to a large degree passed away at the time of their writing. The stu- dent of them fails therefore to get a true idea of the then existing industrial conditions. It was with the idea of finding out what the industrial state of the United States at present is, that we first con- ceived the plan of writing this book. Dr. Patten suggested to us that each should take some one industry; find out what its development had been in recent years and how it stood to-day, and should write the result of his investiga- tions as a graduation thesis. This book is the result of our labors. We wish to take this opportunity of expressing our regret that the thesis of Mr. C. W. A. Veditz, on " Pottery in the U. S.," was not included with the others in this book, as he was taken sick with typhoid fever before he had completed his essay. In conclusion, we wish to thank all those who have aided us in any way in our search for facts about our respective subjects. THE CLASS OF '91. '^/ PUBLICATION COMMITTEE. WlLMER H. RlGHTER, HARVEY E. PLATT, LLOYD C. GRISCOM, WILLIAM G. KNOWLES, GEORGE H. SMITH. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE STEEL INDUSTRY— WILMER H. RIGHTER 7 CHAPTER II. THE UNITED STATES MERCHANT MARINE — LLOYD C. GRISCOM . 14 CHAPTER III. THE CARPET INDUSTRY — HARVEY E. PLATT 25 CHAPTER IV. THE WORSTED INDUSTRY— Louis DE P. VAIL . . . 33 CHAPTER V. •COTTON MANUFACTURES — WILLIAM B. ROSSKAM 39 CHAPTER VI. ELECTRICITY — WILLIAM S. OUTERBRIDGE, JR - . . 46 CHAPTER VII. THE SUGAR INDUSTRY — GEORGE H. SMITH 56 . CHAPTER VIII. THE FELT INDUSTRY — DAVID MANDEL, JR 63 CHAPTER IX. THE CANNING INDUSTRY — WILLIAM G. KNOWLES 69 CHAPTER X. MEAT PRODUCTS— JAMES M. CASTLE 77 CHAPTER XI. IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVES — HENRY H. SINNAMON .... 84 CHAPTER XII. GOLD AND SILVER MINING — HISAYA IWASAKI 93 CONCLUSION. NEW INDUSTRIAL CENTERS— CHARLES R. LEE 104 THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT — OF — AMERICAN INDUSTRIES CHAPTER I. THE STEEL INDUSTRY. Probably no other industy of the United States has de- veloped as rapidly during the last few years as the steel in- dustry. In 1860 the total steel product of the United States amounted to only 11,838 tons. In 1890 the total product amounted to 4,466,926 tons, or 377 times the product of thirty years ago. In 1860 steel was produced in but three States of the Union, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. In 1890 nineteen States were engaged in its production. There were but thirteen establishments engaged in steel production in 1860, and only thirty in 1870. In 1890 one hundred and fifty-eight completed steel works were in operation. The cause of this great increase in the production and con- sumption of steel was the cheapening of the cost of making steel, brought about by the discovery of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes. So effectual have they been that to-day steel can be made at a less cost than iron. Before 1864 the crucible and cementation processes were chiefly used in making steel, but in 1890 86 per cent, of the steel made was by the Bessemer process. The open-hearth process was first successfully tried at Trenton, N. J., in 1868. In 1890 over n per cent, of the total steel product was made in this way. Steel was first made into rails about 1867, but it was not until 1 872 that iron rails began to give way before steel rails. Since then the latter, on account of their greater durability, 8 The Recent Development of have rapidly driven the former out of use. In 1888, 72.3 per cent, of the railroad mileage of the United States was laid with steel rails. In 1890 the Pennsylvania railroad alone used in construction and repairs in all its lines 83,130 tons of new steel rails. The rail trade consumes a very large por- tion of the steel produced, especially of the Bessemer steel. In the census year of 1890, of the 3,877,039 tons of Bessemer steel ingots produced 2,036,654 tons were made into steel rails, and during the calendar year 1889, of the 3,281,829 tons of Bessemer steel ingots produced, 1,691,264 were made into steel rails. At present the steel rail production is controlled by six companies, one in Chicago, 111., which makes about one-third of all the steel rails, and five in Pennsylvania, located as follows : one in Pittsburg, one in Johnstown, one in Steelton, one in Scranton, and one in Bethlehem. Their total annual capacity is 2,600,000 tons. Iron gave way to steel in the construction of vessels in 1878. Since then steel has become the favorite material for large ships, so that, to-day, next to rails, this is one of the most important uses of steel. The advantages of steel vessels are many. Much larger vessels can be built of steel than it would be safe to build of wood. They are also much lighter, and therefore will carry more cargo with the same draught of water. Steel ships are not subject to decay, but with proper attention will last fifty years or more, and finally the expense for insurance is less in a steel than in a wooden ship. The advantage of ships of steel over iron lies in the fact that an equal strength with less weight can be had. The importance of steel as a factor in ship-building can be seen from the following table of the vessels built in the world in 1888 : MATERIAL. NUMBER. TONNAGE. Steel, - 451 780,496 tons. Iron, 106 75>382 " Wood, - - 203 68,300 " Composition, - 5 2,345 " 765 926,523 " American Industries. 9 In the fiscal year 1889, twenty-six steel vessels were launched in the United States with a tonnage of 31,783.87 tons. Fourteen were for ocean trade and twelve for the lake trade. Steel was first used in the construction of vessels for trade on the great lakes in 1884, and since then this industry has developed so rapidly that at the opening of navigation this spring there will be about eighty steel ves- sels in commission on the lakes, nearly all of them steamers of large capacity. There are now eight ship yards, located at Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo, etc., engaged in making these ships. The United States Government has of late years been using a great deal of steel for its navy. The new vessels have been built of steel, have been protected with steel armor, have been armed with steel guns and have been given steel projectiles to fire from the guns. Since 1885 the follow- ing steel vessels have been started or contracted for : Armored cruisers and battle ships, 14* Unarmored cruisers, - 14 Gun boats, - 9 Torpedo boats, 2 Dynamite gun vessel, - i Of these eleven are now in commission and seven more are nearly completed. Until recently all the steel armor made in the United States was produced at the Bethlehem Iron Works at South Bethlehem, Pa., but now the Government has also a contract with Carnegie, Phipps & Co., of Pittsburg, Pa., to supply it with either armor of the kind now used or with armor made of steel alloyed with a small per cent, of nickel, which recent experiments seem to show will make much better and stronger armor than has yet been used. Besides the steel used in its ships the Government uses a large amount of steel for ordnance. Four Pennsylvania steel works are now fitted to make gun forgings. Two of them can make forgings for guns as large as thirteen inches in caliber. These forgings are sent to the United States gun *Five are old iron-clad monitors, which have been rebuilt. io The Recent Development of factories at Watervliet, R. I., and Washington, D. C. (chiefly to the latter), and are there turned into cannon. The fol- lowing table may be of interest in this connection : Caliber, Guns completed. Guns under construction F'orgings ordered, inches. at Washington. 4 4 12 35 5 2 4 6 .77 25 128 8 15 2 35 . I0 4 3 25 12. 2 6 13 12 Open hearth steel is used for these, as it is best adapted for making large ingots with least cost. Steel guns are better than iron, as they weigh less and impart more energy to the projectile. Projectiles too are now made either entirely or partly of steel, as nothing but the hardest steel can do any damage to the armor now used. Another very recent use of steel is the employment of pressed steel in car construction. "About 12,000 tons of pressed steel have gone into car construction during the last two and a half years, consisting of spring-plates, side-bear- ings, drawbar attachments, corner bands, journal box lids, center-plates, stake-pockets, etc."* The advantages of mak- ing these of steel in place of cast iron are, that steel articles will withstand greater shocks without inj ury and will weigh less than cast-iron articles. Before long entire railroad cars will be made of pressed steel. The cost will be about the same as that of wooden cars. They can carry twice as much and will weigh much less. The Harvey Steel Company of Chicago is now engaged in making twenty-five steel cars and the Schoen Manufacturing Co. is preparing to make steel gondolas of 60,000 Ibs. capacity. The manufacture of wire is to-day one of the most im- portant branches of the steel industry. Steel wire is now used in great quantities for telegraph and telephone service. It is also used for barbed wire fences, for door mats, for mat- *€has. P. .Schoen in an address to the New York Railroad Club. American Industries. n ting, for belts and for stage scenery. Among the other im- portant uses of steel are the following: in buildings, for machinery of every description,- for locomotives and engines, for nails and tools, for pens and needles, for cutlery, for bridges, etc., etc. There is no other recent method of making steel that can equal the basic process in point of importance. The old or acid process requires pig iron to be used which con- tains a very small per cent, of phosphorus — hardly a few hundredths of one per cent. This pig iron must therefore be made from ores which have an equally small per cent, of phosphorus. Such ores are becoming exhausted, and it is therefore now becoming necessary to. use ores which contain a per cent, of phorphorous too large to be available for the acid process. The objection to phosphorus in steel lies in the fact that it makes the metal non-homogeneous, and by being unequally distributed, makes it brittle when worked cold. It also weakens the steel when reheated. All this is obviated by using the basic process. The difference between it and the acid process is in the lining of the converter or hearth. Instead of ganister (a kind of lime rock) being used for this lining, lime, magnesite or some other basic material is used. This basic lining cleanses the pig iron of its phosphorus and other impurities, in place of leaving them all in the steel, as the acid lining does. As a result, steel made by this process is much softer than metal made by the other plan. Basic steel was first made in this country, as a commercial product, on March 28th, 1888, at the Homestead Steel Works, in Pennsylvania, and since then it has rapidly grown in favor, . •62,173 tons of it being made in the census year 1890. The Hadfield method is another recent process. It pro- duces a very hard steel which has a high tensile strength and is very tough. The open hearth or the crucible process is used, and about loper cent, of manganese added in process of manufacture. One sample of this steel showed an elonga- tion no greater after a pull of 115,000 Ibs. on it than ordinary steel showed after a pull of 75,000 Ibs. Another interest- ing mode of making steel is what is called the Adams 12 The Recent Development of direct process. It is now used by four Pennsylvania steel works. The advantage of this process lies in the lessening of the cost. The reason of this is because, as it is claimed, an open hearth furnace using the Adams process can turn out three heats in the same time that another furnace can turn out two. The essential difference between this process and the one usually used is that ore is used as the prin- cipal and pig iron as the subordinate ingredient, hence it is sometimes called the " ore and pig" process. Among other recent and important advances in steel manufacture are, the Bolton process for compressing steel ingots, the latest process for rolling cold steel, the Mannesman process for rolling steel tubes from solid bars, and the Symonds pro- cess for rolling articles of almost any shape, round or cylin- drical. The steel industry, which twenty years ago was located only in New England and the Middle Atlantic States, has now spread into the West and South. Pennsylvania, how- ever, still maintains her position as leading steel producer. Exactly one-half of the steel works of the United States are located in her borders; 61.97 Per cent, of all the steel made in 1890 was produced by her works. Illinois is now second on the list with fourteen steel works and 19.44 Per cent, of total production to her credit, and Ohio third with eighteen works and 10 per cent, of total production. The other six- teen steel producing States have forty-seven works and in 1890 produced altogether 8.59 per cent, of all the steel that was made in the United States. In the South the steel industry is as yet in its infancy. The two leading steel plants in that section are the Southern Iron Co.'s, at Chattanooga, Tenn., and the Henderson Steel and Manufacturing Co.'s, at Birmingham, Ala. This latter company produced on February 2yth, 1888, the first steel ever made in the South. In 1890 there were all told but ten steel works in the South. Their total product for that year was 184,625 tons, 183,225 tons of which were made by the two West Virginia works. Two others of the ten were not in operation in that year. The basic process is the one best American Industries. 13 suited for use in the South, and their works are being fitted to use that process. In the far West the steel industry is even less developed than in the South, there being on June 3oth, 1890, but one steel works in California and one in Colorado. Their total product for that year (census year) was 24,856 tons. The prospects for the future of the American steel industry are most encouraging. The United States is now foremost in the world in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and with the development of our ship building interests the day is not far off when we shall also surpass Great Britain in the manufacture of open hearth steel. WILMER HERSHEY RIGHTER. 14 The Recent Development of CHAPTER II. THE UNITED STATES MERCHANT MARINE. No one industry is of more importance in determining the condition of a country than is its national commerce. As a possible source of national wealth and power to a country this branch of trade is of vital importance. Its prosperity directly affects the national prosperity and its decay may be said to reflect national decay. We will give a somewhat detailed account of the events and changes since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States which either favorably or adversely influenced the growth of the United States merchant marine, and the manner in which it was fostered and then allowed to decline. One of the first acts of the first Congress of the United States was to pass a discriminating tonnage duty and a navi- gation act, favoring the merchants of the United States. In addition to these acts the war between France and Great Britain worked great good to our marine. In 1 789 our total ton- nage in the foreign trade was 123,893 tons, and the following year, owing to the above-mentioned favorable circumstances, it increased three-fold, the largest growth it has had since the adoption of the Constitution. But during the succeeding three or four years, owing to the Algerine piracies and war, our com- merce remained nearly stationary until an act providing for a discriminating duty of 10 per cent, on goods in foreign ship gave it a decided impetus, raising our total to 575,000 tons. The navigation laws, passed soon after the adoption of the Constitution, were for the most part in retaliation against Great Britain and her navigation laws. * By them we con- fined the benefits of registry for the foreign trade and enroll- ment for the coast trade of the United States to vessels of American origin. These laws provided, among other things, that no " vessel of the United States " could be held by an American citizen residing abroad, with the exception of a Consul or partner in a business house in the United States. American Industries. 15 The right of American citizens to own foreign built vessels is recognized by the law, but the position of these ships is an anomalous one. They are entitled to carry the American flag and are recognized as American property for the pur- pose of neutrality, but they are excluded from importing goods into thejUnited States, although they have the right to export, and are under such serious disabilities in the coast- ing trade as to practically exclude them. But our commerce was not to be allowed to peaceably thrive, for in 1796 the French began the spoliation of our marine and a war followed, which continued until nearly 1800, During this time the prospect was too discouraging and the hazards too great for any merchant to invest in ships. Peace with France brought on a slight reaction, but the war with the Barbary States, in 1802, reduced our fleet to where it had been in 1795. In 1804 the tariff was raised to 2^ per cent., but this slight advantage was offset by the impressment of our seamen by the British, which now began. However, despite these difficulties our commerce increased until in 1808 our tonnage was 810,090 tons, but the embargo and non- intercourse acts in the following years reduced it 100,000 tons. The years 1809 an(i l8l° brought a large and steady in- crease, and our fleet in the foreign trade reached a point which it was not again to attain until 1847. The war with England in 1812 brought evil and disastrous results. Our commerce became restricted, our harbors block- aded and our banks forced to suspend specie payments. The result was plainly shown by a reduction in our commerce from 980,000 to 670,000 tons in the period of two years. England, even though not successful from a military point of view, yet in the injury done our commerce, and the im- petus given her own, reaped untold advantages. The first years following this war saw a steady increase for the United States, but an act for "free-shipping," suspending differential duties, in 1817, reduced our fleet to what it had been in 1795. From that time till 1840 the amount of our tonnage kept nearly stationary, never exceeding 700,000 or getting below 500,000. Three acts for, free-shipping were 1 6 The Recent Development of passed during this period, and each was followed by a falling off of our tonnage to the extent of two or three hundred thousand tons. In 1847 our tonnage reached a little over a million, de- spite a slight set-back given by our war with Mexico. It was during this year that our first American trans-Atlantic steamers were built and afterwards subsidized. From 1847 to 1855 our tonnage increased on an average of 200,000 tons a year, which makes them the most prosperous years our commerce has experienced. The change from wood to iron, which began in the latter part of this period, completely revolutionized the shipping of the world, and resulted in spoiling the usefulness of fine clippers and sailing vessels. Such a favorable impetus was given to our shipping by the emigration to California after the gold discovery that in 1855 it had reached 2,348,358 tons, at which figure it remained about stationary until the civil war. In 1858 the steamship subsidies were withdrawn, which resulted very disastrously to our lines of trans-Atlantic steamers. The period just be- fore the civil war marks the zenith of our shipping industry. 2,494,000 tons is the highest point which our shipping in the foreign trade has ever reached, and from that period (1861) until the present day the history is of a disgraceful decline. With the Southern ports closed, specie payment suspended and the Confederate cruisers destroying our merchantmen, little inducement could be offered to venture in any shipping enterprise. The famous Confederate privateer, "The Ala- bama," and others, were scouring the seas and committing depredations on our merchant marine, which were afterwards estimated at $15,000,000 by the Geneva conference, so that the five years from 1861 to 1866 saw our commerce reduced by a million tons. It is from this blow that the merchant marine of the United States has never recovered, and it will require some bold and active measures on the part of our National Government to make it do so. What measures the United States should adopt for this purpose will be consid- ered elsewhere. Our tonnage in the year 1890 was 928,062 in the foreign trade, or one-quarter of what it was in the year American Industries. 17 preceding the civil war. This shameful position has been reached by a steady decline in the last few years. The enormous increase in the passenger traffic in this century has led to the establishment of many steamship lines under foreign flags. This great branch of industry began to assume large proportions when the era of iron steamships began. It was back in the neighborhood of r854 that the character of ocean shipping underwent a most radical and all-important change. Iron steamships appeared on the Atlantic at that time, and the wooden ship owners met a competition which has since nearly driven them from off the seas. Iron now took the place of wood, and steam that of sail, so that the mariner was no longer dependent on the variable elements for the safety and speed of his trip; and the "stormy winds," which had for so many centuries ter- rorized the venturesome sailor, were now triumphed over by human agency. The first steamship entered New York Harbor from Europe on April 23, 1838, but it was not till some years later that the feasibility of abandoning the fine sailing packets and clippers for steamers was demonstrated. There were several successful sailing lines in operation between America and Europe at that time, among the most important of which were William & Guion' s Old Black Star Line (afterwards merged into the Guion Line of Steamships); Guion & Co.'s Black Star Line; C. H. Marshall & Co.'s Black Ball Line; Cope's Philadelphia Line; and Tapscott's Line. For ten years after the first steam line a prejudice against steam ex- isted, especially among the ignorant classes, and the first steamers transported only cabin passengers. The rates were £$o for first cabin and £8 for second, while the appoint- ments of the cabins and state-rooms were very meagre com- pared with the great steamships of to-day. No regular lines of steamers were successfully established until 1840, when the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company was organized. Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, was the chief promoter in the concern and his name was soon popularly used to designate the line. £60,000 1 8 The Recent Development of annually was given the company by the British Government. for carrying the mails. In this act England again showed her policy of government assistance, without which no line can now exist and successfully compete with the ship-owners of other nations. The Cunarders had a monopoly until 1847 when the Ocean Steam Navigation Company was established; which undertook to carry the mails between New York and Bremen with a Government bounty of $200,000 a year. Then came the New York and Havre Steam Navigation Company to which the Government agreed to pay $150,000 annually. The Collins Line was established in 1849, receiving $858,000- yearly for carrying the mails. This was an American enter- prise but at the end of six years it was bankrupt upon the Government withdrawing its subsidy. It was at this time that a new candidate for ocean traffic appeared, bringing with it two innovations of the greatest importance to all travelers. This was the Liverpool, New York and Philadelphia Steamship Company, better known, even in its own offices, as the Inman Line. It wras the original plan of this company to establish a line between Liverpool and Philadelphia and for several years, beginning in 1850, no calls were made at New York. The Inman Company was successful in securing a contract from the British and Canadian Governments for carrying the mails via Halifax and was the successor to the Cunard Line on that route. The company then settled down to carrying passengers, freight and mail between Liverpool and New- York, and the vessels calling at Queenstown on every trip. The two innovations introduced by the Inman Line soon be- came prominent features of ocean business; one was the use of the screw-propeller, and the other was the carrying of steerage, or third-class passengers. Previous to 1850 all steamships built for trans- Atlantic voyages had been side- wheelers; the City of Glasgow, built on the Clyde for the Inman Line, was the first trans-Atlantic screw steamship. The .effect of this invention was the extermination of the clipper ship as a passenger carrier. American Industries. 19 The steady increase of the passenger traffic between the two- Continents led to the organization of many other companies that tried to find a share in the carrying business and from 1850 to 1860 many lines were established which are in exist- ence to-day. This increase has been largely due to great mechanical inventions, and the better facilities which have been introduced. Although the innovations of the Inman Line were generally adopted it was not until after 1870 that the side- wheeler disappeared from the ocean. The life of an> iron steamship is said to be unlimited, but time enough has not elapsed since the first iron ships were floated to determine how long they will naturally last under good usage. In 1870- the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, or the White Star Line, as it is universally known, entered upon its career. The inauguration of this company marked the beginning of what may be called the second epoch in Trans- Atlantic travel. With the first voyage of the Inman Liner, the City of New York, a third epoch began. This last period, into which we have hardly entered, is distinguished by the twin screw steam- ship. In addition to having two complete sets of engines,, these vessels are so sub-divided as to be unsinkable, and are fitted up throughout in a most luxurious manner. There are now seven great vessels of the twin screw class in the passen- ger service between European ports and New York. The great increase in the passenger trade in recent years is clearly shown by the increase in the number of cabin passengers arriving in New York from 51,229 in 1881 to 99,189 in 1890. These various steamship lines belong to companies of several nationalities, but they all exist under the aid of their home government, either in the form of an admiralty sub- vention, or a postal subsidy. In recent years, we have begun to realize that trie number of steamships under the American flag is shamefully small and many measures have been pro- posed in Congress with the object of reviving our marine. The remedies suggested are, first, to pay the lines on mail routes a liberal compensation for carrying the mails and,, second, a bounty per ton for every mile sailed by vessels car- rying cargoes to and from the United States. 20 The Recent Development of These measures have been steadily proposed in Congress for several years, but it remained for the last Congress to pass the first of them. This act empowers the Postmaster General to contract with steamship lines for carrying the mails, and although it is expected that it will have a beneficial effect in establishing several steamship mail routes, yet it is too soon to predict whether this desirable end will be attained. This great increase in the passenger traffic, which we have endeavored to describe, is a large source of revenue to nearly all the countries on the Atlantic, except the United States, and it is of the utmost importance that some effort should be made to have it carried by American owned and built ships carrying the American flag. To secure this, the policy of the United States Government must be broadened and liberal subsidies bestowed. The most important question in this direction is, "What do other nations do to assist or encourage their shipping?" Sixty-five per cent, of the carrying trade of the whole world may be said to be in the hands of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America. Great Britain ranks in shipping as we do in railroads, having a carrying power nearly equal to all the rest of the world. At the beginning of the present century the carrying power of the merchant marine of the United Kingdom of Great Britain was 2,211,000 tons, and to-day it exceeds 18,000,000 tons, having grown eight-fold since 1810. Nearly 200,000 seamen are employed in this great fleet, and the Brit ish flag may be found in the ports of every country throughout the world. Her carrying power is 42 per cent, of the aggre- gate carrying power of the world. What an unpleasant con- trast this is to the condition of affairs in the United States which possesses such an immense number of the safest and most beautiful harbors in the world. With all the natural advantages which she possesses the United States has but a little more than one-fifth of the world's carrying power, in- cluding coastwise tonnage, which is less than one-half as great as that of Great Britain, while of foreign shipping the United States has less than 10 per cent, of the total. American Industries. 21 The position of the United States as a maritime power is clearly indicated by the following table which shows the shipping of all flags, the nominal tonnage and the carrying power of all the nations of the world: Flag. Nominal tonnage. Carrying power. Sailing. Steam. Total. Tons. Ratio. United Kingdom . France 3,688,000- 642,000 966,000 481,000 248,000 922,000 3,066,000 2,856,000 1,233,000 201,000 427,000 151,000 240,000 3,004,000 278,000 216,000 73,000 62,000 77,000 523,000 1,211,000 78,000 77,000 28,000 41,000 58,000 6,692,000 920,000 1,182,000 554,000 310,000 999,000 3,590,000 4,067,000 1,311,000 278,000 455,000 192,000 298,000 18,110,000 2,032.000 2,046,000 846,000 1558,000 1,307,000 5,680,000 8,910,000 1,623,000 586,000 567,000 356,000 530,000 42.1 4-7 4-7 2.O !-3 3-o 13-2 206 3-8 i-3 i-3 0.8 1.2 Germany Russia Austria Italy Other European Countries .... United States . . . Canada Australia India, Cape, &c. . Japan Brazil, Chili, &c. . Total 15,121,000 5,726,000 20,847,000 43,151,000 100.0 In addition to this another contrast must be noted. At the present day, Great Britain in the amount of ship build- ing which she does, is even more in advance of us than in her carrying power and earnings of shipping; yet in 1850 the tonnage built in the United States was more than twice that of England, and even as late as 1860 the average annual output of the United States was greater than in* England, but in 1882, the British exceeded ours four fold. It is in the contrast with another country that our position is best seen, and when we find ourselves being left far in the rear by a particular country, it may be granted that the policy of that country is a successful one and one to be imitated. The situation to-day shows British shipping triumphant on every sea, and ours successful nowhere ex- cept along the coast where, owing to a wise protection, it is impossible to compete with us. What is it then, that has put England in this enviable position? To this question there can be but one answer, her success is directly trace- 22 The Recent Development of able to the liberal policy of her government. To her foster- ing care of this industry England now owes, to a large degree, her present position as an all-powerful nation. It is worthy of mention, that since the year 1837 England has paid $222,500,000 in mail compensation and bounties. If we turn to France for investigation we find that for years has she aided her ship-owners in many ways and only recently finding it impossible to obtain a great merchant marine by purchasing it from England she passed a law, offering a bounty for every steamship built in France, an encouragement said to be equal to $7,000,000 a year, paid out of her national treasury. A three-thousand ton steamer running between New York and Havre is estimated to get $54,000 the first year of running and $52,000 the second. Even Italy spends $3,000,000 a year to subsidies and postal fees, while a perfect howl was raised in the United States over the Shipping Bill recently defeated in Congress, which was to spend only on an average of $4,718,000 a year for ten years in establishing our merchant marine. The position of the United States in this matter is clearly seen in the following table of the amounts paid as subsidies by the various nations: France $ 6,477,000 Great Britain 3,750,000 Italy 3,228,000 Brazil 1,704,000 The Australasian Colonies 1,500,000 Austria " 1,030,000 Russia . . : 1,650,000 Sweden and Norway , 175,000 Mexico 806,000 Canada 200,000 Central America 100,000 Japan 500,000 Germany 69,000 Spain 1,000,000 Belgium . .' 250,000 Holland 363,000 Hungary 75>°°° Total $22,877,000 The United States to American ships (postage*) 43>°°° Total with United States postage . . $22,920,000 *The United States to foreign ships $230,000. American Industries* 23 Plain as is the fallacy of the policy of the United States, yet the most powerful argument showing the error of her present short-sighted method is to be found in the condition of affairs at home and not abroad. In 1882, our coastwise trade was over twice as great as our foreign trade, while the former was increasing and the latter declining. At various places the trade lines of commerce must come together, as for instance, the Sault Saint Marie Canal, and here some estimates of the amount have been obtained. The tonnage which went through that canal in 1890 was 1,500,000 tons greater than that which passed through the Suez Canal in the same year. The whole of our internal commerce is said upon the best of authority to amount to $25,000,000,000 a year. Of the city of Chicago, it is said that last year, the ton- nage which entered and cleared there was considerably greater than the tonnage at either New York, London or Liverpool. Our tonnage on Western rivers is 294,446 tons, while the shipping on the Pacific coast is about twice as great. In our coastwise shipping our increase has been steady and strong, showing plainly what could be done with our foreign shipping. But this trade is prosperous owing to the fact that all foreign competition is excluded. Only vessels of American build can trade between two ports of the United States, and if it were not for this protection the American ship-owners would be unable to successfully com- pete with foreigners when the latter can build and man their vessels so much more cheaply. The average difference in the wages of sailors, firemen, etc., between Liverpool and Phila- delphia, is nearly 33 per cent. This difference was clearly shown by Senator William P. Frye, in his speech on the Shipping Bill before the Senate on July 3d, 1890, where he compared a Spanish and an American ship with regard to the wages paid their employees or crew and found that the total difference per month was $10,698.95 in favor of the Spanish ship. With our foreign commerce under this disad- vantage how could it be expected that they could compete • other nations of the world ? 24 The Recent Development of What more powerful and self-evident argument for govern- ment assistance to our foreign trade could possibly be had than the fact that our domestic shipping thrives solely through the protection of the government ? Our coastwise trade we see thrifty and prosperous under national care, while our foreign trade we see ruined and sinking under national neglect. Shall the United States take the position in the commercial world, as it has done in the mining, the manufacturing and the railroad worlds ; or shall this great country, to avoid a comparatively small temporary expense, sink back to a posi- tion inferior to that which she held when our forefathers ab- solved their connection with the mother country, and declared the United States to be a free and independent nation ? LLOYD CARPENTER GRISCOM. American Industries. 25 CHAPTER III. THE CARPET INDUSTRY. Carpet, as is well known, originated in the East, but not "by any means carpets as we use the term. The Oriental •carpet is now, and always has been, merely a rug, to be •spread upon the floor or taken up as necessity requires. From the East the manufacture was at an early date intro- •duced into Europe and from thence came to America about the time of the Revolution; but it was not till the middle of the present century that any great advance was made in the industry. Before the invention and perfection of the im- proved looms, about 1850-60, carpet patterns were very -simple, or if manufactured with any complication of figure, were very expensive. At the ancient royal establishment of the Gobelins in Paris, most beautiful fabrics were pro- duced, some of which required from five to ten years to make and were valued at from 100,000 to 2,000,000 francs. In the United States " home-made " rag carpets were used to some extent at a very early period and in 1760, the New York papers were advertising Scotch carpets for sale, but before the present century the sanded floor was in most gen- eral use. The first carpet establishment of which we have any record was owned by William Peter Sprague and was making Axminster carpets in Philadelphia in 1791. In this year also we first hear of a protective tariff for carpets, in the report of Alexander Hamilton who proposed an increase in the duty from 5 to 7}^ per cent. " for the further protec- tion of this branch of home industry." Several years later John Dorsey started another factory at Philadelphia, but the growth of the industry was slow in the •extreme. The census of 1810 returned as the total output of the country 9,984 yards, nearly all of which was made at Philadelphia. This early planting of the industry in the 'Quaker City was in a large degree due to the character of 26 The Recent Development of the immigration. They brought with them the idea of weaving, and their primitive hand-looms could easily be adapted to the production of various kinds of fabrics, and finding a considerable demand for carpets, they altered their clumsy machines to carpet looms. Several mills which have since become among the largest in the country were started from 1825 to 1835. The Tariffville mills at Tariifville, Con- necticut, now the Hartford Carpet Co., the Lowell Manu- facturing Co., of Lowell, Mass., now one of the largest producers of Wilton and Body Brussels; McCallum's factory at Philadelphia, now McCallum & Sloan, producing Wilton, Body Brussels, Ingrains, and Alexander Smith, at Yonkers, N. Y., now Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Co., the largest manufacturers of Moquette and Tapestries. By 1835 the manufacture of carpets had become one of our important industries, and our productions compared favor- ably with the foreign article. Nearly every description of carpeting made in Europe was at this time produced in the United States, but compared with modern figures the output was small, being only about 1,147,500 yards, over 85 per cent, of which was ingrain. The industry had not as yet received that impetus which was destined to be given to it by the great inventions of the next and succeeding decades. The old-fashioned hand- looms were used, producing from seven to eight yards per day of inferior carpet, and such a thing as a modern factory was unknown. The weavers worked in their shops back of the houses, received good wages, and were a very respectable class of men. In 1834 there were reported about twenty factories, with a little over 500 looms, 425 of them being ingrains. The average impor- tation of all kinds from the year 1828 to 1832 was 536,296 yards, about one-half the domestic product. The larger consumption of ingrains was doubtless due to their greater cheapness. They are so woven that the color of the design appears on the wrong side of the carpet as the ground, making it reversible, which renders it a very serviceable, as well as a cheap carpet. Its great rival at present is tapestry brussels, manufactured in England as early as 1842 ; E. American Industries. 27 S. Higgins & Co., of New York, making the first successful attempt in this country. The invention and introduction of the power loom makes from 1845 to 1855 one of the most eventful decades in the history of the carpet industry. The problem of making a power loom which should automatically perform so difficult a task as the weaving of a two-ply web so as to produce any required pattern had in England been abandoned as insolv- able. Such an intricate machine as a Brussels and Wilton power loom was not thought of even in their wildest dreams, and the solution of these problems was mainly if not entirely the product of American genius. The first power loom, one for the manufacture of ingrain, made in 1834, was unsuc- cessful and sold as useless to Mr. Bigelow, to whom the carpet industry in America is greatly indebted. From this apparently useless machine he brought out in 1839 an in- grain loom which was so improved by 1845 that it produced from 25 to 27 yards per day. These looms were used mainly in New England as automatic power was not introduced to any great extent in Philadelphia till 1865-1870. In 1864 John Braun, a German, invented a very successful loom in this city, but the phenomenal growth of the industry here was not till after the introduction of the costly Murkland loom, about 1870, producing about thirty yards of the better quality in- grains. Many of these looms, costing at first about $i ,000, are still in use in Philadelphia, but the newer esthblishments have taken up the more speedy and less expensive Crompton and Knowles looms, both of which were brought out in 1886. These cost only about $450 and produce on the average about fifty yards per day. The invention of the Murkland loom, which introduced shading into the patterns, enabled the weaving of designs having a more pleasing effect than those formerly made, though it is not till within the past ten years that we have obtained any remarkable results in our weaves and designs. During this time a new branch of the ingrain manufacture, borrowed from England, has grown up in Philadelphia, namely, the weaving of ''art squares;" they are simply "ingrain druggets," frequently three yards 28 The Recent Development of in width, and embodying striking conceits in weaving, color and design. The looms will produce 100 yards per week. The invention of the Brussels power loom we also owe to Mr. Bigelow. Two years previous to his ingrain loom in 1837 he had invented a coach-lace loom, which he so modi- fied as to adopt it for weaving wider goods, and in 1840 brought out his perfected Brussels power loom. The main difficulties to be overcome in the invention of this loom were the bringing to the surface of the proper colors for the pattern by means of the Jaquard cards, and the automatic withdrawal and replacing of the wires over which the warp must be woven in order to produce the ribbed appearance of the carpet. The old hand loom, aside from being a very slow machine, (producing ^mly about ten yards per day) could not, even with the most skillful workman, give that even and smooth surface and symmetry of figure so necessary to a good body Brussels carpet. The power loom with its recent improve- ments produces a more perfect article and does it much more rapidly, weaving from 50 to 60 yards per day. Body-Brussels was first made in the United States as early as 1815, but the manufacture was of little importance till after the introduction of the power loom, about 1847, when it grew very rapidly , and now the total output is over 17,000,000 yards, of which Massa- chusetts produces 7^ millions and Philadelphia over 6^. In Philadelphia this branch of the manufacture is of recent growth, as will be seen when it is remembered that in 1870 there was not a body Brussels loom in successful operation within the State of Pennsylvania. New England long re- tained the monopoly, but at present the 1122 body Brussels and Wilton power looms now operating in the United States are distributed mainly as follows : Massachusetts, 454, Philadelphia, 352, and Connecticut 107. The Bigelow loom is most popular in New England, but an English loom, the Crossley, with a capacity of fifty-three yards per day, is used in nearly all the large mills in Philadelphia. Brussels weavers are among our most industrious and thrifty carpet laborers, many of them possessing a superior intelligence and a definite knowledge of what is requisite in the technique American Industries. 29 and color treatment of a fine floor fabric. Their wages average from sixteen to eighteen dollars per week. Wilton carpet is similar to Brussels, except that it is much heavier, and the loops are cut, giving it a plush surface. It is the most desirable of American carpets, and is very popular among the richer classes, being the chief competitor of Axminster. In 1882 its production was about 600,000 yards, but this output has of late years been considerably increased. A cheaper pile carpet of American origin is the Moquette, first manufactured by the Alexander Smith & Sons Carpet Co., of Yonkers, N. Y. It is not so durable as the Wilton, but is capable of wonderful color treatment, and having a longer nap, is much softer. The long nap, however, permits matting down more than the short nap of the Wilton, but it is never- theless a very popular carpet, and is rapidly taking the place of the old imported Axminster which has long been beyond the reach of the average housekeeper. There is no mention made of it in the census of 1880, but at present there are from 425 to 450 looms operating on its production. Tapestry Brussels, mentioned above as the rival of ingrains, is a very durable fabric considering its cost, and being woven over wires has the same ribbed appearance as body- Brussels but is much lighter, carrying only about 200 warp threads while the latter has 1200. The body-Brussels re- quires a separate set of warp threads for each color and is thus limited to five or six, while in the tapestry the design is printed on the threads before they are put into the loom. Great skill is required both in the printing and in the weav- ing, but the manufacturer is enabled to use an unlimited number of colors and produce a beautiful carpet. An ingrain carpet of medium grade retails at about fifty cents, and a three-ply ingrain and a tapestry Brussels will bring about seventy-five and sixty cents respectively ; but a tapestry gives a much better finish to a room and is almost universally preferred to a fine ingrain. As a consequence, a very small quantity of the latter is now made while the former is largely consumed. New York takes the lead in its manufarture, having (Feb. i, 1890) 962 looms of the 1527 in operation in 30 The Recent Development of the United States. Philadelphia comes next with 320, while New England has less than 200. In 1880 the total output of the United States was about 9,500,000 yards, but in 1890 it was over 20,500,000, valued at nearly $12,000,000. The already large consumption of tapestries is destined to be enormously increased if the recent invention of Dunlap & Co. proves a success. The carpet is first woven without color and then printed by means of a revolving roller at the rate of forty yards per minute. This machine will cheapen tapestries one-half as, owing to its marvelous rapidity, one printer can keep 200 looms running and at the same time many of the difficulties of making the figures match by the present method of weaving are removed. The great difficulty is to print firm enough to give a lasting color and not press the nap down too much. This is overcome by means of steaming, which brings the nap up perfectly, and in the experiments which have been tried, all attempts to make the colors fade have only rendered them brighter. In 1876 a new branch of the carpet industry was started in the manufacture of the ' ' Smyrna " rugs, a heavy, revers- ible, tufted fabric, with the two sides identical in figure and color. It is now made in all sizes, from two and a half feet long