Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-02-16
OUR FIGURING MILLS.
THE REVOLUTION THAT HAS TAKEN
PLACE SINCE 1880.

Remarkable Results Attributable to
Changes in the Methods of Flour Max
ing-Abandonment of the Old Fashioned
Neighborhood Milestone Statistics.
While by no means so unapproachable in
its priority as it once was, flour making is
still the greatest of our Aalerican industries
as regards the value of the product. Flour
and meat for food, iron and lumber for build
ing, cotton and woolen fabrics for clothing
these six are our largest Industrial products,
having aggregate yearly value in the order
named. But although first In the value of its
product, the Touring and grist mill industry
is greatly surpassed in the number Of men it
employs by ten or twelve other lines of manu-
facture. Our domestic use of flour remains
about the same per capita from year to year;
and aside from the increasing amount manu-
factured for export, the total output grows
only as our population grows New methods
of milling have, moreover, led to the rapid
concentration of the industry and to actual
decrease in the number of men employed in it.
These changes, amounting almost to rev.
olution, have been most effectual since 1880,
and the condition of the industry today cam
not be shown by complete statistics, but it is
certain that the census of 1890, when COM
pared with that of its immediate predecessor,
will reveal some very remarkable results at
tributable to changes in the methods of flour
making. Three-fourths of the manual labor
once necessary to the manufacture of bar
rel of -four is dispensed with by the use Of
new processes. Thus Col. Wright, in his re-
port for 1856 Of the United States bureau OF
labor statistics, shows that in a large Min
neapols mill labor is only 3 2S per cent. of
the unit cost of making barrel of flour,
while the materials cost "a II per cent, and
all other elements of expense amount to but
2.60 per cent
Merchant milling on very large scale is
the result of the economy all advantages of
the new processes; and the competition of the
great mills is causing the al andonment and
decay of hundreds of the picturesque, old
fashioned neighborhood mills In 1870. ac-
cording to the census of that year, there were
in the entire country 22, ,573 grist mills, en-
ploying 5S,44S hands, repres 'nting Sl5l ,5OO,-
600 of capital, and making product worth
$444, 600, ,0O0 In 1900 the number of estab-
lshments was "a ,33S, the number of hands
5S,407, the capital invested l77.300,OOO, and
the value of the product was S505, lOO, 600 the
price of -four had declined 1G-per cent in the
decade) The increase shown in the number
of Establishments. 765 for the ten years
is more apparent than real, the great bulk of
-four having been made in decidedly smaller
number of mills in 1880 than in 1870. Since
1880 the blighting effect of the great mer-
chant mills upon the small establishments has
become visible to every one.
AN ASTONISHING DECLINE
According to the millers' directory for 1854,
compiled by Col E. Harrison Cawker, Of
Milwaukee, there were at that time 2,94O
mills in the country-a decline of ! ,39S from
the census figures Of $780, But this is slight
loss as compared with that of the two years
from 1884 to 1856, if we may rely upon Col.
Cawker's biennial directory. He finds that
the number of milling establishments has de-
clined to 1856, loss in two years Of 6,OS4,
or more than 26 per cent. This seems almost
Incredible, yet it is probably not far from the
truth. When one investigates the facts for
his own vicinity, and then stops to consider
that the small mills have in like manner been
disappearing in all parts of the country, the
figures are more readily accepted. Mr..
Charles A. Pillsbury, at the head Of the
largest milling firm in the world, says that
more than half of the merchant mills of Min
nesota, outside of Minneapolis, have been
shut down within the past few years.
The decline is nowhere so noticeable as in
the south. For example, North Carolina was
credited with 1913 mills in 1880. Their size
may be inferred from the fact that they re-
quired, all told, the services of only 1,S44
men, not one in three having any hands be-
side the miller himself, and the average
capital employed was only s2,450. Accord
ing to Cawker's directory, there We're only
S4S mills in North Carolina in 1884, and only
632 in 1856. More than half have been
abandoned since 1880. Virginia had 1885
mills, employing 2,220 men, In $780, In 1884
the number had decreased to Isl, and nearly
q third of these disappeared in the next two
years, leaving only 500. Mississippi had 525
mills in the census year, 3S6 i'll 1884 and 1873 in
1856. Tennessee's milling directories for the
same years show 800. 7S1 and $50. Alabama's
decline is shown by the figures S07, 453 and
295. Corresponding figures for Georgia are
1882, 631 and 364.
Pennsylvania, which has always been first
in the number of mills, is credited with 1896
in 1885, loss of TAG in two years. New York
has 1885, which is 366 less than in 1854.
Massachusetts, had in 1856 only 223 grist mills,
as against $50 in the census year. Illinois
was shown By the census to have 1O24 mills
in 1880. and Col. Cawker finds SOC in 1856,
the decline not having begun until 1884, in
which year a maximum of l, ,123 was reached.
Michigan had 7O6 in 1850, and the number
had increased to a maximum of SAG in 1884;
but loss of 206 brought it down to $40 in
1856. The number of mills in the country is
destined to become very much smaller still,
because of the superior advantages of large
milling and the constant improvement in
transportation facilities.-Albert Shaw in
The Chautauquan.