Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1914 — MEAT PACKING LEADS [ARTICLE]

MEAT PACKING LEADS

Predominant Industry of Chicago Is Slaughtering Business. According to Statistics of the Department of Commerce at Washington, the Windy City’s Products in This Line Exceeds All Others. Washington.—The predominant Industry of city of Chicago remains slaughtering and meat packing, according to statistics made public here by the department of commerce. "The metropolitan district of Chicago embraces 409,087 acres of territory, of which 118,433 acres constitute the area of Chicago and 290,654 acres the area of the outside territory,’’ reads the report The population of the city of Chicago proper in 1910 was 2,185,283, and that of the outside territory 261,638, the total for the district being 2,446,921.

“As defined at the census of 1910, the metropolitan district Includes the central city,; together with Berwyn, Bloom, Calumet, Cicero, Evanston, Lyden, Lyons, Maine, New Trier, Niles, Norwood Park, Oak Park, Proviso, Ridgeville, Riverside, Stickney, Thornton and Worth townships, all in Cook county, 111., and Calumet and North townships in Lake county, Ind. Within these townships, or coextensive with them, there are seven incorporated places of 10,000 or more Inhabitants. “In 1909 the Chicago district had 40,202 manufacturing establishments, which gave employment to an average of 393,839 persons during the year, and paid out $266,626,915 in salaries and wages. Of the persons employed, 325,924 were wage earners. These establishments turned out products/to the value of $1,408,779,818, to produce which materials costing $870,586,561 were utilized. The value added by manufacture was thus 536,193,257. “The Chicago district ranked second in 1909 among all the metropolitan districts of the United States in the value of its manufactured products. It far exceeded any of them in value of products of the slaughtering and meat packing industry. “In the Chicago district, as in all but two of the districts, the greater part of the value of the manufactured products was reported by factories within the central city. Chicago contained nearly nine-tenths (89.3 per cent of the population of the district, of which it is the manufacturing, commercial and financial center,-and contributed over nine-tenths (90.9) per cent.) of the value of products. Its manufacturing establishments constituted 94.6 per cent, of all in the district, and gave employment to 90.2 per cent, of the average number of wage earners for that area. “Of the places outside Chicago, Hammond reported the largest value of products, but this value represented only one per cent, of the total for the metropolitan district. The population of this city formed only nine-tenths of one per cent, of the total in the district, ' ’ The leading Industries in Chicago Heights in 1909 were foundries and machine shops, steel works and rolling mills, and steam railroad car construction shops. The production of illuminating gas occupied first place in Oak Park. In Gary, Ind., three establishments, a steel plant, a blast furnace and a cement factory, named in the order of their importance, together contributed nearly the total value of the manufactured products of the city. The principal industries of Hammond were distilleries, steam railroad repair shops, and foundries and machine shops. The manufacture of iron and steel was the leading industry in East Chicago. .An important Industrial place, the statistics for which are not shown separately, is Indiana Harbor, Ind., with large steel works and rolling mills. The figures shown for slaughtering and meat packing are for Chicago exclusively, one small establishment in 1909 engaged in the manufacture of sausage in the territory outside Chicago being excluded to avoid disclosing the operations of Individual conperps. The 67 establishments in Chicago in 1909 reported products valued at $326,061,657, or 23.1 per cent of the value of products of all Indus-

tries in the district. Other important industries were foundries and machine shops, with a value of products amounting to $104,319,563, the making of men’s clothing, including shirts, with products valued at $85,296,407; printing and publishing, with products valued at $76,070,564; and steel works and rolling mills, with products valued at $71,531,874. The greatest absolute Increase during the decade in value of products shown for and individual industry included in the table was for slaughtering and meat packing —$67,791,506, or 26.4 per cent.; the greatest relative increase for any single industry (178.2 per cent) was reported for the lumber industry.