Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1906-08-16
of Labor, that more than 100000
workingmen were without work.
Some Gigantic Figures OF PROGRESS.

VI lLdUOIt ludL ojuVu,UUU
workingmen were without work.
Some Gigantic Figures Of Progress.
According to the census of 1890,
there were $6,525, ,O0O,759 capital in
vested in manufacturing industries in
the United States, whereas, accord
ing to the official figures, there were
in 1905 $13,122 100000 so invested.
The average number Of wage-earners
in 1890 as given by the census, was
4,251,535, (and Mr. Gompers said g..
100000 were without work in 1894
and 1880. In 1905 the number was
5,492,17S. not including those in the
hand trades.
The total wages paid in 1890
amounted to $780,, ,2O9,696, and in
1905 to $2,661, ,4O9,S5S.
The value of the output of our manu-.
factufers in 1890 was $9,372, ,37S, ,S43,
and in 1905, $14,S73.S1S,425, not in
cluding that from the hand trades.
Taking the testimony of President
Cleveland and Samuel Gompers as
to the deplorable condition in 1894,
! 1895 and 1896, it will be readily seen
that the industrial development of the
country, both as affecting labor and
capital, has been at the rate of 100
per cent in the ten years.
There has been much discussion
and no little confusion over the ef-
fort to compare the relative increase
In wages and cost of living in the
last few years. The Labor Bureau of
the United States in its last bulletin
on this question made very careful
analysis for the fourteen years from
| 1890 to 1904 In that comparison and
analysis 1t was shown that the week
ly earnings of all employees had In
creased 53.4 per cent from 1894 to
1904 and that the retail prices Of food
products had increased in the same
time only IL per cent. This, ! believe
is the only careful and scientific in.
vestigation that has been made of the
subject.
The Republican party has always
followed the maxim, PLANT the fact
ory by the farm" that there may be
the closest possible exchange between
the two great bodies of producer
One Of the old complaints here in the
west was that the manufacturing was
principally in the east; but the con-
tinuation of a settled policy of pro-
lection has gradually extended the in
dustrial development to the west and
the south, bringing agriculture and
manufacture closer together. The new
statistics of manufactures compiled by
the United States Census office last
year show more clearly than any pre-
vious census the general benefit Of the
protective policy. The prosperity that
has come to the country under the
Dingley law has not been spasmodic
or sectional except that II has pro-
duced greater extension of manufact-
uring into the Central, Western and
Southern States This new census
shows first that there has been larg
er per cent of increase in the capital
put into manufacturing plants in the
last five years than there has been
in the product of these industries. The
actual increase in capital was $780,
100000, or Al per cent greater than
the capital invested in 1900. The act
ual increase in output was s3.S64, ,0O0,-
900, or about 30 per cent over that oil
1900. Capital has grown confident OF
its investments and has turned back
into the plant larger share of its
earnings. to increase the demand for
labor and ultimately increase the out
put.
Some Figures on Increase.
This census also shows that in the
five years from 1900 to 1905 the In
crease in the number of wage earn
ers employed was 16 per cent over
the number of 1900, and the total
wages paid 80 per cent greater; IN
other words. the increase in the total
wages paid was almost twice the ratio
of the increase in employment. To my
mind there could be no more complete
answer to the complaint that wages
nave not advanced since 1900.
But the most significant figures in
this new census are those which show
where the greatest increase in indus
trial plants, capital, employment,
wages. and output took place.
Our foreign trade has been along
the same double track lines, OUR I'M
ports increasing from $7S0,OO0,OOO in
1896 to s1,227 100000 in 1906, and ouf
exports from $SSS,OO0,00O in 1895 tc
81 ,744 100000 in 1906. The total vol
ume of our foreign trade in 1895
amounted to s1,662,oOo,o0o, and in
1906 to $2,97O,OOO,00O. Add to tina.
our trade with Porto Rico, Hawaii and
the Philippines, which amounted to
s75 1000, 900 and we have in the last
year a grand total of s3,045,O0O 10000 as
the amount of business done between
the people of the United States ana
the rest of the world. This Is great
er than the foreign commerce OF any
other nation, Great Britain alone ex-
cepted, and that because that natioa
imports her food products, her I'm
ports being almost double her exports,
While our exports exceed our imports
by half a billion dollars.
4 "Steel Trade"
"The widest interest in the steel
corporation report attaches to what
is least discussed-that is, the con1i-
tions in the trade as reflected by the
first.hand facts now available. 1t Is
true that the steel corporation is not
the steel trade. Big as 1t Is 1t IS
neither the.majority interest, nor even
the controlling interest. In fact, It's
proportion of the trade is relatively
! declining, while concurrently 1t is