New-York tribune., 1901-01-06

gressive thought of mankind. they have been
nursed into a healthy and strong existence un-
DER the fostering care of the patent systems of
the world and especially by those of our own
land. Former ages have furnished many
brilliant genius, but his thought has too often
died with him. Will not all agree that IL is the
patent system which has in the nineteenth CEN
tury crystallized this thought into enduring rec
ords, and in furnishing the stimulus of fair and
just reward to the inventor has thus become,
more than any other single factor, responsible
for the great array of invented agencies and the
wonderful industrial growth OF the present
time?
In the year 1900 the manufactures Of the coun-
try were OF such small extent that scarcely any
records remain. Some cotton and woollen mills
were to be found, but the spinning wheel
still part of the domestic furniture. more use
ful than ornamental the hand loom the
main reliance of the farmer. and homespun fab
ric was still in evidence everywhere.
In 1881 the capital Invested o IN cotton manu- 1s
02o.S43, and the value of the product S267.-
9S1. .124 The number of spindles in factories in
later it was ID 1885, 1O3 In 1900 the price Of cot
ton yarns was from 81 03 to 81 SO a pound. In
the last decade of the nineteenth century it
ranges from 1872 cents TO 1872 cents, and the
price of cloth has diminished in like proportion.
while the wages Of the cotton mill operatives
have more than doubled.
If a wanted pair of shoes a hundred
years ago he had his shoemaker to make them.
and he had TO wait for them until they fin
ished. The pay Of this shoemaker I3 1-3
cents a day. If he wanted house the carpen-
ter with the broadaxe Iaboriously hewed the
lumber, and, with hammer and hand plane
slowly dressed and put together what is now
known as the mill work. for which he received
wages at the rate Of something over 40 cents
day. The printer was the skilled mechanic, and
at 81 day ne set the type and worked off on a
creaky handpress the limited edition. whose
crude sheets now form valued curios.
FARM LABOR LIGHTENED.
To-day the shoemaker on the Mckay machine
makes many hundred pairs of shoes day. the
laborious work Of the carpenter is performed
almost entirely by the planning, saving, boring,
mortising and turning machines of the great
woodworking mills, while the operator of
the octuple press prints papers by steam at the
rate Of / GOO a minute ready pasted folded and
counted for distribution.
In the manufacture of agricultural machines
the growth of the reaper has been one of the
notable things as bearing the Industrial evo-
tuition of the century. This industry began about
1910, with the contemporaneous operation of
Hussey and Mccormick in this country, and i'm
that year not more than three machines were
/ made To-day the estimated annual production
of the factories in the United States in this class
| of machines is 100000 self binding harvesters,
250O0O moving machines. is.oOo corn harvesters
and 25,oCO reapers; the output OF one great fac
tory alone, in the year 1888 being $4,000 self
binding harvesters 100000 mowers, 5000 corn
| harvesters and 10000 reapers. This with 10000
| horse rakes, meant for this factory a completed
machine for every forty seconds in the year,
! working ten hours a day. This, however. is only
/ one branch of agricultural machines. There are
| drills threshers, seeders, ploughs, harrows and
hand implements beyond calculation.
FIRST PUBLIC RAILROAD.
The first public railroad built was the Stockton
| and Darlington Line, in England which was
opened for traffic in 1929 In 1929 the Stour-
bridge Lion was imported from England and
put to work the Delaware and Hudson Canal
| fsompany's railroad. In 1S32 Baldwin built the
/ Old Ironsdes, and from this time on the railroad
was an established institution. In the year 1899
~ sfaam railroads of the United States have a
J total track mileage OF 25Os362; there are 3l,2fo
locomotives 26,1S4 passenger cars, Sill baggage
and mail cars and 32S,0 ,0S4 freight cars. There
were s}7 377. .301 passengers carried, 3fo, o,fS39al
IONS OF freight moved and the total traffic earn
| inps were 81 1886 O36,379. Mulhall estimates the
canitaI invested in railroads In the United States
| In 1900 TO be S11, $50 100000 To this must be
added the enormous growth IN street railways,
with their thousands of cars
| A hundred years ago a voyage 70 the orient