Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-12
The Industrial Titan of America
Pennsylvania Wonderful
Magazine Special Permisio

people produces one-sixth of the
worlds pig iron and the same pro-
portion of it's coal!
Where Many Industries Thrive
Yet, with all of this concentra-
ton, Pennsylvania has d greater di-
versity of industries than any other
State, leading both New York and
Illinois in that particular. This ver-
satile geographic Titan forges the
heaviest castings civilization has
ever undertaken to make and the
most delicate micrometers that
science demands for traversing the
realms beyond the millionth of an
inch.
With equal success it fabricates
tremendous testing machines that
squeeze metals to the tune of mil
lions of pounds, and makes watches
whose balance wheels measure time
down to the hundred -thousandth
part of second, and chronometers
that do, mayhap, even ten times bet
ter than that.
Wide-ranged, yet concentrated,
famous for it sheavy manufactures,
distinguished for its light ones, de-
manding the most powerful forges
in the world, requiring the most
delicate turning machines, produc-
ing raw iron which formerly could
be bought for less than a cent a
pound, and finished steel worth, in
some cases, hundreds of dollars an
ounce, Pennsylvania commands ad-
miration for her manufacturing in
dustrtes and compels attention for
her position in the commercial
world.
Some one has observed that Penn
sylvania bridges span most of the
rivers of the earth, and that Penn
sylvania locomotives run over Penn
sylvania rails in the Occident and
Orient alike, across Arctic wastes
and through tropical jungles,
through the heart of civilization and
on the border of savage-land. The
clatter of the iron pig of Pennsyl-
vania is heard throughout the world,
along with the squeal of the edible
porker of Illinois
The State makes nearly half of
the country's cotton lace, more than
a third of it's carpets and rugs, more
than a third of it's chocolates and
cocoa, nearly half of its felt hats,
and more than a third of it's silk. 1t
produces more asbestos manufac-
lures than all the rest of the coun-
try, and more bluing. ice cream,
hammocks and leather than any
other State represented on our
starry flag.
A Veritable Treasure House
AS might well be imagined, such
versatility in it's manufacturing in
dustries, coupled with seemingly
endless natural resources, has
created great wealth. Therefore,
when it is stated that the estimated
true value of all the property in the
Commonwealth amounts to more
than fifteen billion dollars. on a pre-
war basis of values, the mind fails
to grasp its full meaning. But when
one stops to consider that this is
four billion dollars greater than the
aggregate wealth of all New Eng
land and only five billion less than
the national wealth of all Italy. the
significance of the figure begins to
appear.
With this epitome of the States
role as component part of a pow
erful nation, ones interest turns to
the elements of it's greatness. Poll
tics gave it the familiar sobriquet-
keystone State. Yet even politics is
matter of geography. Six colonies
lay to the east and north of Pennsyl-
vania and six to the south. so it was
the geographical keystone of the en-
bryo nation. The early develop
ment of it's iron deposits. and opening
up of it's coal mines made 1T pre-
eminently an industrial keystone.
BY the time it's limited supplies of
iron ore were exhausted the indus
tries based thereon had become so
well established that even the dis
covery of unprecedented deposits of
ore in Michigan and Minnesota could
not break the States position of
leadership in those fields. The Noun
tain of Manufacture refused to go to
the Mahomet of Ore, so the Maho-
met of Ore came down the Great
Lakes to the Mountain of Manufac-
ture.
Coal and limestone are as essen
tial in the production of iron and
steel as is the ore itself. and Penn
sylvahia has both in as great abund-
ance as Minnesota has iron. Fur
thermore, heavy manufacturing
seeks the neighborhoods of rich coal
deposits as unerringiy as the needle
seeks the magnetic north.
The Value of a Favored Location
BY favor of location as we'll as by
richness of resource. Nature made
Pennsylvania a great State. Call the
roll of the forty-eight common
wealths of the American Union and
another will not be found that
shares with the land of Penn the
honor of being in navigable connec-
ton with three of the nations water