The Alaska daily empire., 1923-05-31
THE UNITED STATES AS A MANU-
 FACTURING NATION.

The Unit ed States is the foremost manufaoturinl nation today according to E. M Miller, Statisticiai of the National Bank of Commerce in New York Supporting this statement in the May issue of 1t publication Commerce Monthly it is stated that tn international economic position of the United State has not heretofore been paraleled in the history the world. This country is the foremost producer o fcod products and of most materials essentia to human living The leading place produce of materials would not of itself suffice to giv the United States the unique international position which it occupies, however It has won tha place by of the fact that it is not only th foremost producer of materials but has been for some decades the foremost manufacturing nation It continues:
 The United States took first place in the iron and steel industry about 1890; it's annual product is in excess of the combined output of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium. It became the fore most consumer of cotton in the closing of the nineteenth century taking the leadership from the United Kingdom. which had heretofore been the largest
 Until the World War. the United King dom was definitely the leader in the woolen and worsted industries of the world. During the period American wool con sumption and production of fabrics expanded rapidly, and it is probable that there is not now any material difference in the capacity of the industries of the two countries from the standpoint of wool consumption The United States now one-third of the ; worlds cotton, one-fourth of the commercial supply or wool, about three-ifths of all copper mined and iron ore produced two thirds of the annual silk crop enter ing into commerce and from two-thirds to four-tNhs of the rubber grown Outwardly the conditions surrounding the development of industry in the United States do not appear to differ greatly from uhe influences which have conditioned the development of manufactures in Europe Fundamental differences nevertheless exist
 Evidence of them Is found in the fact that Tn the main American manufacturers produce Tor domestic demand while European in- dustres are heavily dependent on export : business.
 This difference in the relative import ahce of export trade to the manufacturing industries o{ the United States and of Europe has existed almost from the beginning of the development of the factory system in ,ts present sense In Europe modern industry Was superimposed upon countries already lMriy mature. Fields had long been tiled ooal was new as of power but metal mines had been expolfted for hum dreds of years. In England and in many s parts of the Continent, supplies of timber were becoming insufficient for the needs of the people
 Alter the introduction of power spin nihs anu weaving machinery, the use of coal as iuei' With ihe consequent growth of modern smelling methods, and the deyelon- ment of numberless mechanical devices to do the work which had heretofore been done by human hands. it was possible for a lima Tor the European countries to depend nri mirlly upon their own natural resources and their own markets but this condition did not iohe prevail. Another circumstance of usonSiuoteoie importance in its effect both on the consuming power of the European market and on methods of production is that bofo-o the coming of modern industry centuries mad already stabilized social customs strait the people " me VI
 It IS thus clear that the United States nss %tainoa to it's dominant position as a rA~ sf-'f& -As7s--a -