Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-19
BUSY NEW ENGLAND
Every Village Has Its Manu-
featuring Establishment.
PAY ROLLS ARE ENORMOUS
Leads the World in Many Lines Of
Manufacturing.
EACH YEAR SEES GROWTH
Skilled Workers Are Yankees;
Others Mainly Foreigners-Few
American Women Employed.
PAY ROLLS ARE ENORMOUS
EACH YEAR SEES GROWTH
BY WILLIAM L. CURTIS.

BY L. u
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
WORCESTER. July Il. 1911.
Excepting Boston and Providence. Wor-
cester is the greatest manufacturing CEN
ter In New England. and that means
sreat deal Almost everything in the
ray Of engines and machinery is produced
here but the chief products. which amount
in value to nearly s100,OOO.OoO year. are
wire, carpets, corsets. envelopes, eleva-
tors, looms, organs, pianos ana an IN
finite variety OF small things.
But Worcester Is only a larger as
semblage Of what may be seen in every
town. People who go about the country
IN automobiles find a factory large or
small by every brookside, and In some OF
the smallest villages YOU will see the
largest mills. At Hyde Park, for example,
il the largest establishment in the world
for making apparatus for water power
plants Westfield makes 90 per cent OF all
the whips that are used in the United
states. South birmingham makes nearly
all the express tags that are used by
shippers and express companies. Holyoke
makes 60 per cent of the writing paper;
Dalton turns out the parchment and fiber
paper which the United States uses for
bonds and notes: Athol makes four-hfths
Of all the fine mechanics tools IN the
world; Lomnster makes nearly all the
she'll goods: Plymouth makes more rope
and cordage than any other town; st
Johnsburg furnishes the scales: Mitti-
neague is unknown to all but a few OF the
s0.oOooD OF our population. and yet
everybody In business uses the ledSerS
and bookkeeping paper that are made
there: Brockton has passed Lynn, | am
told. and now makes more shoes than any
town in the universe: Attleboro leads the
Until kn n
Providence and has the largest establish
ment for the manufacture of silverware
Make Pins and Buttons.
I might go on indefinitely enumerating
the great things that are produced in the
small villages of Massachusetts that are
unknown to everybody except those who
are directly interested. Who knows where
the pins he uses come from or the source
Of tn buttons on his shirt? But you may
warrant that they originated in some little
New England village.
The skilled iaborerS in these factories
are Americans. but most of the ordinary
workmen are foreigners. A native Yam
lee woman will not work in factory any
more. Formerly all of the factory hands
We're farmers daughters, natives OF the
towns In which they were employed, but
YOU scarcely And one woman of Ameri-
can birth in the mills these days. They
were gradually displaced by the Irish and
French Canadians, and the latter are still
very numerous, but have not increased for
several years. They simply hold their
own. and as the mills enlarge the vacant
places are filed with Italians. Greeks.
Armenians, Russians, Bohemians and
Poles. The Yankees teach school. keep
books, do typewriting and stenography.
and are clerks in the offices and the
stores.
Ninety per cent Of the factory hands in
I'm ole nd t0do no
total population Of Worcester in 1905. for
example, was S.179. and of these II, 4S4
we're Of foreign birth. The nativity Stats
tics for the census 1910 have not been
published. but no doubt the proportion OF
foreign born is the same. We have noticed
that the people by the roadside of whom
We have asked our way all answer with
foreign accent, and a considerable part OF
the population OF the famring villages,
particularly those which have factories,
are immigrants, chiefly from southern
Europe
During the last ten years there has been
q general consolidation OF manufacturing
interests In Worcester, which is also true
OF other cities In the state, while at the
same time, the city has practically
doubled in wealth and in the value Of its
output. In 1eOO the combined wealth of
the people Of Worcester was 1881 900:
in 1910 the total was SAL .22S 6O2. In 1890
the value OF all the manufactured prod
ncts was less than S30.OOOOOO; In 1900, it
IL
$lOo. 1000. The output of the wire mills
alone Is worth a million dollars a month.
Big Increase in Values.
The same development has been going
on throughout the state The census bu-
Teau within the last few days has issued
. bulletin giving a summary of the manu-
featuring industries of Massachusetts,
prepared by William NJ. Stuart. chief
stat.stician. showing that the total value
Of the products for 1909 was $l,491, 81, 100
m increase of $685.. $4,000 or 33 per cent,
during the last five years. In 1904 the
average output for the 1923 establish
ments was $105,OOO: in 1909 this average
was increased to $4,000. The value add
ed to the wealth Of the state during the
year 1909 by manufacturing was $780, =
600. This represents the difference be-
tween the cost OF the raw material and
the value of the finished products when
they passed out of the factory into the
market to be sold. and was Al per cent of
the total value OF the output.
There were 1i6S4 manufacturing es-
Establishments in Massachusetts in 1909.
an increase Of I'll, per cent, dur
ing the last five years Notwithstanding
the tendency TO conso idation. During the
previous five years the number of estab-
I..z.- g