The evening times., 1899-10-20

/
| The manufacturers, in the opinion of
! the Chief of the Treasury Bureau of Sta
tistics. are about the busiest people in the
United States at the present time. Mr..
Austin. Chief of the Bureau. has just re-
| turned from a visit to the manufacturing
! centres of New England and the Middle
! States, and if the condition there is an
! example of that Of the manufacturers oi
| the country generally. as 1t presumably
| is. there can be no occasion for complaint
| that mills and men are lacking employ
ment. Mr.. Austin visited the cotton, wool
en-. worsted, silk, fibre, carpet, print goods,
| rubber. boot and shoe, hat, pottery, and
watch and clock establishments, and In no
: case did he find lack OF orders for the
manufacturers or Of employment for men
and women desiring employment. .''-~ -
On the contrary. the great cotton, WOODEN,
silk, and other textile mills are running on
full time and overtime, while the manu-
facturers of rubber goods. boots and shoes,
clothing. and pottery reported their orders
far in excess of their capacity to I'LL with
promptness.
Our chief difficulty." said the manager
of great mandatory of rubber cloth
ing, is to get sufficient number of en-
ployes and sufficient machinery to meet
our orders. The crude rubber we can get.
| though the importations of that are in
creasing rapidly. and the price advancing
because Of the increased demand; but the
costly machinery and the skilled labor
which are to do the work are not so
easily had. -+- .,-..,-.,
I'VE maintain constantly a school for
the instruction of young men and women
in the lines OF work required in our factory
and yet with the constant reduction OF our
force by the demands upon it from other
mills of this character. we are short of
hands and unable to keep up with our
orders"
Similar statements were made by the
managers Of other manufacturing estab-
lishments. The cotton mills, wooden mills,
and silk manufacturing establishments
were running at their full capacity, and in
some cases over hours, while the great
boot and shoe manufacturing establish
ments were reported weeks behind with
their orders, which come from all parts
of the United States and OF the world.
During the last eight months, between
81, GOO. 900 and 600 worth OF boots
and shoes, the product of American facto-
ries, have been sent out Of the country.
the total for the eight months being dou-
bic that of the corresponding months OF
1898. OF this large expectation Of this
single product of Americas factories, the
exports to the United Kingdom alone were
In ha
ing months of last year; to the West In
dies, s467.51 against $1s7. .420 in the cor
responding months Of last year; to British
Australasia, 2.439. against s20S, 7s3 in
the corresponding months OF last year: to
Mexico. S2C6, $50 against S66, SIG in the
corresponding months of last year; to AZ
rica, s94. sos, against s54.653 in the corre-
spending months OF last year, while ship
ments were also made to Asia, 0ceanica
Central, and South America, as well as
to the great industrial and manufacturing
countries Of France, Germany, and the
United Kingdom
An illustration OF the activity of the
manufacturers in other lines is found in
statement made by DR.. Wilson, the head
of the Philadelphia Commercial Museums,
and also the director of the export exposi-
tion:
Our chief difficulty in the preliminary
work OF the exposition said he, was in
the fact that the manufacturers Of the
country were SO busy that many OF them
could not find time and the necessary force
OF employees with which to prepare eXhib-
its satisfactory to themselves, while in
many other cases our requests for exhio-
its were met with the statement that since
they are now months behind with their
orders the display of their products would
merely add to their temporary embarrass-
ment by bringing them still greater ex-
cess of orders over their capacity for pro-
duction. -
IN the great iron and steel manufac-
turing industries we found that MANY of
the establishments had from six months.
TO eighteen months orders ahead and that
they were working to their fullest. capacity
and unable to increase their product with
cut an increase in machinery which. of
course, cannot be made in a moment"
In the iron and steel Industry the
figures Of Americas exports show that the
extreme activity Of manufacturers extends
not alone 10 the home market, but to that
supplied by other parts of the world
The expectation of manufactures of iron
and steel in the eight months ending with
August. 1899, amount to s6S. .0eS,071 against
s5e,925,0 ,0S2 in the corresponding months of
1888, S9U, i0i,5ZU IN the corresponding
months of 1897, and s29, 957 090 in the corre
spending months of 1886. A still further
evidence which our foreign commerce fig
ures show of the activity of-our manufac-
turers is found IN the rapid increase in the
importation of materials used by the manu-
facturers.
The Importance of fibres for use In the
manufacturing industries in the eight
months ending with August, 1899, amounted
to $H,3T.15S. against s11, ,989, ,146 in the
corresponding months of 1898, and $751;
SIG in the corresponding months of 1897;
hides and skins. s32, $685. against ST.
4S.0s4 in the corresponding months of 1898.
and So, ,637 ,2S6 in the corresponding months
of 1897. India rubber, S22, $50, ,31S against
sl7 AIS, ,404 in the eight months of 1898 and
S13 100,646 in the corresponding months of
1897, and raw silk for use in manufactur-
ing. S23, ASP, ,903, against SIG, ,e3s ,211 in the
corresponding months of 1898 and s13, ,41S,-
loo in the corresponding months of 1897.