Rensselaer Journal, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 June 1902 — AN EXPANSION ERA [ARTICLE]

AN EXPANSION ERA

Marvelous Development of Indiana’s Industrial Interests as Shown By Census Figures. STRIKING STORY OF GROWTH How the Hoosier State Has Shared In the Benefits of the American Economic Policy—lndiana’s ( Manufactured Products Reach Every Quarter of the Globe. A quarter of a century ago Indiana was noted for its agricultural products. The state has not lost its preeminence in this particular. There has been no decadence of farm interests —the past four or five years have been a period of steadily rising land values, and from the standpoint of prosperity the Indiana farmer today occupies an enviable position. Indiana is not in the abandoned farm belt. A quarter of a century ago the argument that the people of Indiana had no special interest in legislation for the fostering of manufacturing interests seemed plausible'. The statement that protection was a device for the upbuilding of Eastern manufacturing centers at the expense of agricultural sections carried some weight. But changed conditions —conditions changed as the result of protective legislation, render such a position untenable. Indiana has become a great manufacturing state. In the words of the late Governor Mount: “The factory and the farm are in Indiana side by side. From the field one can hear the whir of the machinery in the shop and mill.” The local advantages of such a condition, in the creation of a near-at-hand market for all that the farmer produces are apparent. The output of the Indiana farm need not be shipped a thousand miles to find a consumer. It is a short haul from the farmyard to the millyard. Near the borders of the state are a half-dozen great cities, which have shared liberally in the marvelous industrial growth beginning with the adoption of the policy of protection by this government more than a third of a century ago, and finding its culmination at this hour in the greatest “good times” era this or anv other country has ever known.

The Growth of a Decade. The ten years ending with 1900 will not go down to history as an era of uninterrupted industrial progress. Out of this must be taken a full four-year period in which the industries of Indiana and of every other state came either to a full stop or moved backward. From an industrial standpoint the decade closing with the century was but six years long. Yet the sum total of progress is marvelous. The figures are eloquent beyond the power of human speech—and they are eloquent in no cause of reaction or retrogression. From 1890 to 1900 the population of Indiana increased 14.8 per cent. The number of manufacturing establishments within the borders, of the state grew from 12,354 to 18,015, or 45.8 per cent; the of wage-earners from 110,590 to 155,956, or 41 per cent; the amount of wages paid from $42,577,258 to $66,847,317; the cost of materials used from $130,119,106 to $214,961,610, or 65.2 per cent; the value of products from $226,825,082 to $378,120,140, or 66.7 per cent; the value of land and buildings Invested in manufactures, from $31,579,846 to $58,046,838, or 83 8 jter cent. The great prosperity of the state in 1900, as compared with the four-year term which should be sub-' traded from the decade as a period of growth, is shown by the fact that in 1900 the greatest number of wageearners employed at any time during the year was 216,925, or 50,000 more than the average number for the full decade. During the 50 years ending with 190 ' the population of Indiana increasedWom 988,416 to 2,516,462, or. 154.6 per cent, while the average number of wage-earners increased from 14,440 to 155,956, or 980 per cent. More significant still, the average annual wage paid to an Indiana operative increased from $265 in the decade ending with 1860 to nearly SSOO in the decade ending with 1900. Subtracting the four-year period of decreased wages, the average for the decade would be Increased considerably. It is safe to say that the average annual wage at this time is in the neighborborhood of S6OO. The Indiana workingman is more than twice as good a customer as he was 40 years ago. It Is not surprising that the Indiana farmer is realizing better prices for everything he has to sell than during any former period in the history of the state.

An Achievement of Protection. It is of course true that the more recent industrial development of Indiana is in no small part due to the discovery and utilization of natural resources. But these resources, if discovered while this country was industrially dependent, would have been comparatively useless. The manufacture of glass and metal are distinctively creations of the protective policy. Until the favoring tariff laws were enacted, not a square foot of plate glass, not a pound of tin-plate, not a yard of hosiery or knit goods was made in Indiana. It has not been a decade ago since a leader of the free trade propaganda declared, almost within the shadow of the rising walls r *f the tin-plate mills at Elwood, that Qts economical manufacture of tiri-

plate in the United States was a delusion. Yet these mills, dedicated by William McKinley himself, and placed in operation as the result of the law to which he gave his name, are now the largest of their kind in the world. The glass industry, in which nearly $13,000,000 is invested in 110 Indiana establishments, employing 13,000 men to whom $7,250,000 in wages is paid annually, had its beginning in this country with Mr. DePauw at New Albany, and is a creation of the policy of Morrill, Blaine, Dingley and McKinley. The same may be said of the iron and steel industry, in which there is invested in Indiana nearly $15,000,000, and in which 7,500 men receive in wages annually nearly $4,250,000 in wages; of the manufacture of hosiery and knit goods,, in which 1,421 men are employed in Indiana at an annual compensation of $1,565,752, and of many other Industries. Indiana’s Leading Industries. During the decade covered by the last census almost every Indiana industry showed a marked advance over the conditions of 1890. In the meatpacking industry the number of estal>lishments increased in number from 21 to 36, in wage-earners employed from 2,107 to 3,597, in value of products from $27,913,840 to $43,862,273, or 57.1 per cent. In the manufacture of foundry and machine shop products 337 establishments, with 10,339 wage-earners and products valued at $17,228,096, were in existence in 1900, as against 206 establishments, employing 5,904 wageearners, and a production valued at $9,542,499 in 1890. The increase in value of products amounted to 80.5 per cent. In the iron and steel industry there was an increase during the decade from 15 establishments, 2,648 wageearners and products valued at $4,742,760 to 27 establishments, employing 7,579 wage-earners and products valued at $19,338,481. The increase in value of products was 307.7 per cent. Comparative figures with reference to the tin-plate industry are not at hand, because in 1890 it did not exist in this state.

In the manufacture of lumber and timber products the increase during the decade was from 1,633 establishments, 15,021 wage-earners and products valued at $20,278,023, to 1,849 establishments, employing 9,503 wageearners and turning out products valued at $20,613,724. The glass industry shows a growth in Indiana for the period from 21 establishments, 3.010 wage-earners, and products valued at $2,995,409, to 110 establishments, employing 13,015 wage-earners, with products valued at $14,757,883. Indiana glass is shipped to foreign parts scattered from Norway to New Zealand. In 1890 there were 394 establishments engaged in the manufacture of carriages and wagons in Indiana, with 4,508 wage-earners, and products valued at $8,248,873; in 1900 the number of establishments had decreased to 275, but the number of wage-earners had increased to 6,490, and the value of products to $12,742,243. In car construction and general shop work the number of Indiana establishments increased during the decade from 48 to 54, the number of wageearners from 6,613 to 8,081 and the value of products from $7,829,382 to $10,242,422. The expansion of other Indiana industries has been almost uniformly in the proportion Indicated by these figures. Growth of Five Cities.

The growth of manufacturing and mechanical industries in the five Indiana cites of greatest population is illustrative of the recent commercial expansion of the Hoosier state. Tn! Evansville between 1890 and 1900 . there was an increase in the number ■ of establishments from 482 to 705, tn | number of wage-earners from 6,815 to 7,279; in Fort Wayne the number of j manufacturing establishments increased during the decade from 235 to 397, the number of wage-earners from 5,644 to 7,255; Indianapolis in 1890 had 1,189 establishments, in 1900, 1,910, in 1890, 16,025 wage-earners, in 1900, 25,511; South Bend had in 1890 208 manufacturing establishments, in 1900 302, in 1890, 5,750 wage-earners, in 1900, 8,257; there were 367 establishments in Terre Haute in 1890, in 1900 there were 429, employing 5,427 wageearners, as against 4,720 in 1890. In more than one of these cities the increase in number of establishments and wage-earners has been much more rapid in the two years which have succeeded the taking of the last census, than during any portion of the former decade. Of the six leading cities of the state New Albany was the only one to suffer diminution of industrial interests —this on account of the removal of some of her factories to the gas belt. Figures That Are Eloquent. These figures speak so eloquently of the growth of a great state that comment Is superfluous. Indiana stands in the front rank of American commonwealths. From an industrial viewpoint her geographical position is strategic, from an agricultural standpoint she is among the most favored of nature. Within her borders beats the heart of American civilization, and the center of population is assured* to Indiana for many years to come. Under such conditions every step in the movement for the world-wide expansion of American commerce, the conquest of foreign markets which has been so signal a feature of our recent industrial development, and the maintenance of our flag at the gateway to the vast commerce of the Orient, is of vital interest to every citizen of the Hoosier state.