New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-05-02
4 CENTURY or INDUSTRIAL GROWTH.


The industrial parade. marvellous as 1t has
seemed to the men of this generation, needs
for full appreciation different point OF view.
How would it have appeared to George wash
ington and his Revolutionary associates What
incomprehensible and incredible marvels would
they have seen in its machines and inventions,
its arts and tools, its princely expenditure by
voluntary societies of wOrkingmen, its mighty
array of well-clad, wel-paid and comfortable
workers? If it were possible to contrast the
industries of 1889, when the world had lived
and learned at least fifty eight centuries, with
| those of 1889, when only one century mora
has been added, what startling contrast
1t is not possible. new world has been
created The methods tools, products and
artisans of a century ago in many departments
have vanished as completely as II they belonged
to another planet: What has become of the
spinning-wheel or the wooden clock? The
suit of woolen cloth worn by President WASH
ington at his address to Congress in 1883 was
presented by woollen factory only established
in the preceding year, and cloth then cost %
a yard; the people were clothed in the home
spun made in every family. The power loom
for knit goods was not invented until 1880;
in 1889 two citizens of Norwich asked exemp-
ton from pOll-tax for themselves and their
apprentices because they had set up eight
stocking frames which required two men for
each century ago wool-carding had been
done BY hand but WhittemOrc invented ma
chinery to make cards. The first carpet fac
tory in the country was established little
| later. century ago the cotton-gin had not
been invented the spinning jenny was yet an
~. .I.l,,~ ~ oft 70
England, only eight bags, was made in 1874.
Now the country has raised more than ''ooo'-
| 900 bales of cotton in year, and worked up
more than one thousand million pounds OF cot
| ton and four hundred million pounds Of wool.
A century ago only charcoal iron was pro-
| duced, and not as much Of that, probably, As
80, 900 tons yearly; for twenty years later the
product vas but $4,000 tons. Even Great
| Britain in 1888 produced only 8S.3OO tons
| not as much as either one OF several furnaces
! in this country now turns out yearly. Tho
manufacture Of steel was just beginning here
twenty years later only OH tons were produced
In the country. The coarsest pig-iron then
cost about as much as steel rails do now. \
single railroad now buys yearly more iron than
both Great Britain and this country then made.
but there were neither railroads then, nor iron
bridges nor buildings; no petroleum pipes, for
there was no petroleum; no gas-pipes, for
there was no gas-lightng even In Europe until
| later Washington lived in an age OF dark
ness instead of the electric light the millions
had candles costing about 2 cents apiece In
all the departments and applications OF chem
istry the century has simply created new
world. American pressed glass, which has
completely revolutionized the supply Of table
| and house ware is an invention OF the last
sixty years. The silk manufacture has not ex-
listed in this country half century the paper
| made hundred years ago would hardly be-
thought fit for use since modern methods have
been invented; the only use discovered for
india rubber then was to erase pencil marks
and while the town of Lynn made 90, 900 pairs
of boots and shoes in 1888, they werc not the
shoes of to-day, and the manufacture by ma
chnery is wholly duo to inventions since 1900.
Sewing machines for any purpose Were I'M
known, and salt was made by boiling sea-
water, though in 1887 it was first made from
the springs near Syracuse at the rate OF about
10 bushels per day, and the cost soon fell to
so cents per b,Hhel.
Farming in Washington's day knew nothing
Of machinery; even the first iron plough, pat
ented in 1891, was failure for New-Jersey
farmers thought 1t poisoned the soil. Mowers,
, reapers and harvesters began TO be invented
about the same time, and even the ordinary
, implements were such as 1t would not now be
thought possible to Use. The steamboat was
, practically unknown and the railroad entirely
until forty years later, and the cost Of trans
portation by wagon confined the area Of pos
sible production with profit, as to most crops. to
the margin of navigable waters. The whole
Nation could not produce in Washington's day
as much wheat a. single Territories not yet
States now export each year and when the
accounts Of century ago tell Of "vast guam
tities'' exported, they really mean less in
wear than the country has since moved in
single week.
Volumes could be filed, and yet but smal
part Of the change in industry within the cen
tury could be mentioned. But the revolution
in the condition of the laboring population hu
been the crowning result OF all this progress
| OF wages. il is enough to say that masons
century ago earned 81 cents per day In Nassa
ohusetts, carpenters 81 cents. blacksmiths u
cents. and ordinary labor 30 cents. Food nea
the farms was cheap, but pork Is quoted II
Massachusetts, at 10 cents per pound, hour q
IS 10 per barrel, corn at 70 cents per bushei
, and ham at 90 cents per pound Calico cos
|. SO cents per yard. broadcloth 81 70, buckran
, 22 cents, cotton cloth SO cents. and tow-clOtl
!. 80 cents hose cost 81 IS pen pair, and corded
; Nsnkeen breeches'' % so; buttons from to
, shilings Der dozen, shoes Of lasting "a cent
DER pair, and sugar from 10 TO % cents pc
pound One does not need to study such fg
ures o. these very long to discover that tn
;. world and thA living of to-day were simpt,
y impossible for the working people Of centur.
v sgo. The whole world has changed. but no
ID where has the marvellous advance been create