New-York tribune., 1921-06-16
Manufacturers Set
Production Record
Before Depression
Value of American Output
in 1920 at Highest Fig
ure Vet; Big Gain Over
Pre- War Level Is Shown


The height to which American manu-
tfacturers climbed in supplying world
wide dem2ad in the post-armistice
/ boom is interestingly compared TO the
1914 figures by o. P. Austin, stats.
tician OK the National City Bank in
the June issue of The Americas. The
| compilation of trade figures reveals
that IN 1919 American manufactures
/ comprised 40 per cent of the worlds
total and probably explains the over
Iroductlon in the following year, when
/ foreign demand fell away so rapidly
a new worlds record was estab-
hshed in tho value Of manufactures
turned out by American producers in
1919. Mr.. Austin says:
preliminary figures of the 1920 cen
sus covering the value of all manufac-
| tures produced by the factories of
/ the United States in the calendar wear
I 0O0,000 as the gross value of the 1919
output, against $24,250, 100000 in 1914:
I S2o,500,o00 900 in 1909; S14,750,0 900 900
IN 1904, and $l1,50o,000, 900 in 1899
! The value of the 1919 output is two
/ and one-half times as much as that of
1914, over three times that of 1909,
four times that of 1906 and more than
| five times that cf 1899, only twenty
years earlier. The increase in the five
year census period, 1914-1919, was 1913
per cent, against an everage quinquen-
NAL increase of % per cent in the
preceding five year periods repre-
sented by the census reports from 1899
to 1914. The highest percentage of
gain in value of manufactures turned
out In any of the preceding qun-
| quennial periods was that of 1904-1909,
in which the increase was S9.6 per
cent. as against 1851 per cent in the
quinquennium 1914-1919.
Not only is the value Of our out
put of manufactures in this latest CEN
sus record by far the biggest ever,'
but 1t means that We are now produc-
ing much larger share of world
manufactures than ever before, and at
least twice as much as that of any
other country of the world.
THE best estimates obtainable for
I the outturn OF other countries suggest
that our share of world output of
manufactures in 1919, the year follow
ing the close of the war, was rather
more than 40 per cent, as against 80
/ per cent IN the period Immediately
+ preceding the war
J Attention is especially called TO the
/ fact that the census figures for 1919.
IN which this increase of 158 per cent
/ occurs, are those of value only and do
not profess to represent or even in
| dleate the percentage of increase in
I quantity of manufactures turned out
In 1919 as compared with that of the
carrier census years. In passenger
automobiles, the number of machines
turned out in 1919 shows an increase
of 1856 per cent over 1914, and the
value an increase Of 214 per cent; IN
commercial automobiles there is an
I increase of 400 per cent in number
ana APT per cent in value; in boots and
shoes the increase in number is but
| 13 per cent and the increase in value
l36 per cent.
Summed Up, it may at least be said
from the official figures of the 1920
census already in hand that the total
was s62, 500, 100000, against s24,25o. :.
GOO, ,000 in 1914, and that the sums paid
for wages may total about $40 900 ,0OO-
coo, against $4,000, 100000 in 1914; cost
OF materials approximately $40,OU0,-
10000, against slightly less than SIS
0OG,O00,000 in 1914; value added bv
manufacture about 500 600 900 5000. as
against about $4,000, 600 900 in 1914
and capital invested fully $4,000, ,O0o-
0oG, as against less than $23 000,0OO-
600 IN 1914; also that the outturn of
our factories in 1919 was probably
more than 40 per cent of the worlds
factory output in that year, AS against
about 30 per cent in the period inn
mediately preceding the war.
at is proper to call attention to the
fact that the year which the figures
represent was probably the high water
mark of cur manufacturing and doubt
less much in excess of the value of
output at the present time The value
Of imports of raw material for manu-
featuring in 1919 was 81 per cent
higher than in 1918 and 80 per cent
higher than in 1917, while that of the
ilscai year, 1921, will be but about G6
that the outturn of manufacturers at
the present time is materially below
4l,n+ - o. q