Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-04-24
The Wool Issue Statistical1N

The wool manufacturing industry of the
United States, ranking after grist, meat
products and iron, as fourth in Importance
is so diffused that the census of 1880 re-
ported factories in thirty-fve states, Mas
sachusetts leading nearly all branches in
capital and product, PENNSYLVANIA in num-
Der of mills, Rhode Island in proportion
to population and size. Of the 1859 es-
Establishments, 1890 were devoted to wool
lens (some of them making worsteds also),
producing S160,606 ,721; rs exclusively to
worsteds, and these in but eight states,
producing So, $40, 942; rs to felts. in sew
en- states, producing S3,6l9,652; 43 to wool
hats, in five states, producing S8.516, 500;
1876 to carpets, in seven states. Pennsyl-
vania having 172 of these, but producing
less than the 10 mills of New York, Massa-
chusetts, and Connecticut. the entire pro-
duct being S31, 792, S02; 359 to knit goods,
innineteen states, but concentrated chiefly
about Cahoes and Amsterdam, New York,
and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, produc-
ing in all 500, 167 ,226. These several
branches aggregated 1881 SETS of cards.
519 of combs 1884, 1896 spindles. 1908
knitting machines. and 1921 looms, of
which 1852 (more than half hand-looms)
were for carpets. The total capital was
$3.50, 091, 1863; the average number of
hands, 161, 557; their wages, 81. 399, O87:
the value of materials, S164, 81, 551; of
products, 1857, 252,913. Taking all wool
products together, Philadel phia leads our
cities, followed in order by Lawrence,
Providence, Lowell, New York. Manches-
ter, Boston.
American manufacture Is at the disad-
vantage of being confined almost entirely
to the home market. We have never ex-
ported million dollars worth of woolens
in any year, while Great Britain. by the
latest returns at hand, export S112,000,-
600: France, 567 100000; and Germany,
$40, 5000 Our next neighbor. Canada.
imported from US 1885, only S168, 900
worth of woollen goods. while she bought
from Great Britain S0,750,O0O worth But
our own consumption, as the census figures
show, is immense, about fve-sixths being
of home and one-sixth of foreign manu-
facture. OF the home manufacture from
quarter to third of foreign wool is re-
quired, so that the American sheep fur
nishes a little more than half of Uncle
Sam s woollen wear.
1t is most difficult to compare the prices
Of woollens of to-day with those of CEN
fury ago, for the reason that even more
than the changes of fashion. the improve
ment in textile fabrics makes the co,npar-
ison baseless. But the figures show that
the. production per operative has risen in
greater proportion than the wages, and
while operatives can earn more, better
made goods cost less to the mill and to the
wearer. The fact that the Flemish weav-
ers reckoned their product as eightfold the
cost of the wool, while the total product
of American mills is less than thrice the
cost of wool and twice the cost of all
materials, tells wonders in itself. The
modern Moloch of machinery is not SO
dreadful as it is supposed to be. From "a
Suit of Clothes" by R. R. Bowker, in
Harper's Magazine for April.