factory operations. The number of wage-earners employed increased, it will be seen, a little more than fivefold while the capital employed increased twenty-fivefold. The tendency to bring the manufacturing industries into large establishments is also shown in some degree in the fact that while the number of establishments increased but about threefold the number of employes increased fivefold and the value of the manufactures turned out increased twelvefold.
Even these figures do not, however, give a complete view of the relative growth in the number of large manufacturing establishments, the capital invested and the product turned out, because of the fact that the census enumeration of “manufacturing establishments” includes hand and household industries, such as blacksmith shops, wheelwright and wagon repair shops, boot and shoe repairers, harness makers, tailor shops, dress making, millinery, carpenter shops, custom, saw and gristmills, etc., etc., in all of which the capital invested or the product per establishment at this time averages probably little more than formerly. It is in the greater establishments, the factories, that the increase in investment and in producing power per factory has occurred. The Census of 1905, which was by law confined to manufacturing establishments conducted under the factory system, and that exclusive of neighborhood and mechanical industries, found that the number of establishments manufacturing for the general market and not merely for local orders or neighborhood consumption, and which could thus be considered as manufacturing establishments conducted under the factory system, was but 216,262, while under the former method of including hand and neighborhood industries the number of establishments would, it is estimated by the census, have been in 1905, 533,769. The 216,262 establishments enumerated as “conducted under the factory system” employed $12,686,000,000 capital and 5,470,321 wage-earners,
or an average of 25 each, and turned out $14,802,000,000 worth of manufactures; while the 317,506 smaller establishments, the “hand and neighborhood industries” formerly included in the general census returns, are estimated as having employed $1,186,000,000 of capital and 687,430 wage-earners, or an average of about 2 employes each, and turned out $2,066,000,000 worth of manufactures.
It will thus be seen that the larger manufacturing establishments, those “conducted under the factory system producing articles for the general market as distinguished from the product made upon order for a customer,” are those proper to be included in a study of the development, capital invested, persons employed, wages paid, material used and value of the product turned out. Unfortunately a study in this form cannot be extended over any considerable term of years, because of the fact that the United States census only began in 1905 to make this distinction or separation of the true “factory” from the great mass of establishments turning out manufactured products. It did, however, present in 1905 an estimate for the year 1900 of the number of establishments properly comparable with those enumerated in the factory census of 1905. This estimate puts the total number of “establishments conducted under the factory system” in 1900 at 207,562, and in 1905 at 216,262, an increase of but 4.2 per cent in the number, while the capital employed in 1900 was $8,979,000,000, and in 1905, $12,686,000,000, an increase of 41.3 per cent; the wage-earners in 1900, 4,715,023, and in 1905, 5,470,321, an increase of 16 per cent; wages paid in 1900, $1,736,000,000, and in 1905, $2,266,000,000, an increase of 30.5 per cent; materials used in 1900, $6,578,000,000, and in 1905, $8,504,000,000, an increase of 29.3 per cent; value of product in 1900, $11,411,000,000, and in 1905, $14,802,000,000, an increase of 29.7 per cent.
It will thus be seen that even in the recent period, 1900 to 1905, the percentage of growth in “capital invested”
was greater than in any other important branches of the industry, the increases being: in capital 41.3 per cent, in wages paid 30.5 per cent, in value of product 29.7 per cent, and in number of wage-earners 16 per cent, while the number of establishments increased meantime but 4.2 per cent. It is thus apparent that although the tendency of the past thirty years has been distinctly toward an enlargement of the factory through the increase in capitalization rather than an increase in the number of establishments, that tendency still continues as the most distinctly marked characteristic of the development of the period 1900 to 1905.
Unfortunately the facilities for comparing the capitalization, product, etc., in 1905 with that of earlier years only extends, in its relation to all the factory industries, to the Census of 1900. In a few of the important industries, however, it is possible to compare conditions in 1900 with those of earlier censuses. The Census of 1900 shows that the number of boot and shoe factories in the United States fell from 1,959 in 1880 to 1,600 in the year 1900, while the capitalization increased from an average of $21,957 per factory to $63,622 per factory, the number of wage-earners from 57 to 89 per factory, the wages paid from $21,951 to $36,985 per factory, and the value of the year’s product turned out from $84,763 per factory to $163,142 per factory. In cotton goods the number of establishments in 1880 was 1,005, and in 1900, 1,055, the capital per establishment in 1880, $218,412, and in 1900, $442,882, the number of wage-earners in 1880, 185 per establishment, and in 1900, 287, the wages paid in 1880, $45,387 per establishment, and in 1900, $80,180, the value of product in 1880, $209,901 per establishment, and in 1900, $362,349. In iron and steel the number of establishments was in 1880, 699, and in 1900, 668, average capital per establishment in 1880, $294,652, and in 1900, $858,371, wage-earners per establishment in 1880, 197, and in 1900, 333, wages paid per
establishment in 1880, $78,020, and in 1900, $180,869, value of product turned out per establishment in 1880, $418,583, and in 1900, $1,203,545. In woolen goods the number of factories fell from 1,990 in 1880 to 1,035 in 1900, the capital per establishment increased from $48,289 in 1880 to $120,180 in 1900, and the value of the product increased from $53,755 per establishment in 1880 to $114,425 in 1900.
It will be seen from the figures above presented that in these four great industries the tendency from 1880 to 1900 was distinctly in the direction of reduction of the number of factories, and a greater increase in capitalization than in that of persons employed, wages paid or in value of product turned out; while the figures covering the operations of the entire factory system for the period 1900 to 1905 also show a continuation of this same tendency toward a greater growth in capital than in persons employed, wages paid or value of product turned out.