Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-22
MANUFACTURING FIGURES.
CENSUS SUPERINTENDENT PORTER
TALKS ABOUT COTTON.

The Commercial Wealth of the Nation
Centered on It's Inland waters-An Ad-
dress to q st. Louis Club on an Inter-
esting Subject.
ST. LOUIS, Nov. 21.-Mr Robert B.
Porter, Superintendent of the Eleventh
Census, delivered an address tonight be-
fore the Commercial Ciub, of this city, in
which he gave an extensive array of figures
and facts concerning the marvellous growth
of the country generally during the
past decade. in respect to its agri-
cultural, commercial, manufacturing, min
ing and other interests, and especially
showing the increase in the manufactures,
commerce and railroad mileage and business
of st. Louis. Mr.. Porter's audience was
composed of large number of the leading
business men of the city, who were highly
gratifed with both the general and specific
showing presented.
During the course of his remarks he said:
The municipal. industrial and CONNER
cial life OF civilized nations has invariably
centered on its great river or inland water
Rhone, the Garonne and Seine have for CEN
turies controlled the destiny and added to the
splendor of France. The rich and powerful
fertile valleys of the Aller, the Elbe the
Rhine and on the Baltic, or Russia, on the
Volga, the Danube and on the Black Sea,
commercial supremacy of Great Britain lies
on the banks of the Clyde. the Tyne, the
Severn, the Mersey and the Thames.
On the Hudson, the great lakes. the Della
ware, the Mississippi. the Missouri. the
Ohio, the Monongahela, the st. Lawrence,
the Arkansas. the Tennessee, the Cumber
land, the Sacramento and dozen other
rivers, have sprung into existence cities that
give glorious promise before the Gen.
tury closes; cities that can claim tribute
from areas as vast in extent as some
European nations and which are destined to
become as populous and as opulent rs the
greatest centers of European population.
At the rate of growth of the last de-
cade the metropolitan districts OF New York
will in . years exceed in population the
metropolitan district of London, the area of
the two stricts being about the same, and
the decade will bring the population Of
Chicago up to that of Berlin. of Philadelphia
up to thato Vienna and st. Louis UP to that
of the worlds great emporium of commerce
on the Mersey, Liverpool.
Mr.. Porter read from the division of man.
ufactures an interesting statement in regard
to the wooden and cotton manufactures,
which is made publ for the first time. The
following preliminary figures, subject to
future correction, are for 1890:
The increase is over 1880. The figures show
the advance of the wooden industries in the
United States during the past decade: Num-
number Of sets OF cards. 9,1l0; increase, 1,5ls
combing machines, 1856: increase. 34s
spindles, 3,357,5s7: increase, l109 5a2;
knitting machines, 80, 13O: increase, 26 092:
value or rolls and yarns, s35, sos Ss7; shoddy
and waste 50 3l4, ,6S6: hosiery and knit goods,
s66 POT s24: increase, s37 037.9l5 total valne of
all wooden manufactures, 1880 $s44, ,299, $50: in
crease, $77, ,046, 1853.
The year 1889 co. a comparatively dull
year in the wooen manufacture, is now
undergoing comparison with the year ls79-s0,
which is recognized as the most prosperous
year this industry has ever known in the
United States.