months. So great was the demand to move freight that there was much delay a considerable part of the year because of the lack of rolling stock. Fortunately the grain movement, especially corn, was much below the usual tonnage, and as grain is carried at very low rates earnings were favorably affected by the movement of better paying freights. Comparison is given below of earnings of United States roads reporting for each year as compiled in Dun's Review; also the tonnage movement for each year except last for all railroads in the United States: Comparison by months shows a gain each month over both years. There is some trifling iregularity due to conditions affecting the different roads; for example, lighter earnings in July this year compared with last was in part due to the steel strike, and relatively lighter earnings in December can be traced to the fact that in December, 1900, the heavy movement which set in after the Presidential election now comes in comparison. Earnings on mány Western roads were considerably reduced in the third week of December this year by a severe storm blockade. The figures follow: The people are doing business on business principles, and should be let alone-encouraged rather than hindered in their efforts to increase the trade of the country and find new and profitable markets for their products.-President McKinley, at Richmond, Va., October 31, 1899. GROWTH OF THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY-A EXAMPLE OF PROTECTION. STRIKING The growth of textile manufactures in the United States supplies a striking example of the value of protection to labor especially, and to the producer and consumer generally. The accompanying table shows the number of establishments, number of employees, wages paid, material used, value of product and capital employed in the great textile industries-wool, cotton, silk, and dyeing and finishing industries in the United States, as shown by each Census report from 1850 to 1900, and a statement of the imports of wool, cotton, and silk manufactures at decennial periods from 1868 down to date. The combined statement of the four great industries, wool, cotton, silk, and dyeing and finishing industry, shows an increase in the number of employees from 1850 to 1860, the low-tariff period, of only 47,000 persons employed, while the next decade, under protection, shows an increase, of 80,000 persons, the next decade an additional increase of 110,000, the decade ending with 1890 an increase of 127,000, and for the decade ending in 1900 an increase of 171,000. Capital employed in the low tariff decade, 18501860, only increased from $112,000,000 to $150,000,000, while the next decade showed an increase from $150,000,000 to $297,000,000; the decade 1870-1880 from $297,000,000 to $412,000,000; the decade 18801890 from $412,000,000 to $740,000,000, and the last decade from $740,000,000 to $1,066,032,937. Wages paid are not shown by the 1850 Census, but those of 1860, at the end of the low-tariff period, amounted to $40,000,000; by 1870 they had more than doubled, being $86,000,000; by 1880 they were $105,000,000; in 1890, $175,000,000, and in 1901, $219,229,265. The value of the product of these four great industries was in 1850 but $128,000,000, and during that decade only increased $86,000,000, while the average decennial increase under protection from 1860 to 1890 was over $250,000,000, making the total value of the product of these four industries in 1890, $722,000,000, and in 1900, $966,924,835. Meantime prices of the manufactured products have very greatly decreased, so that the figures of value. quoted represent a much larger decennial increase in quantity of articles produced than the mere statement of values would indicate. The importations of raw silk are an accurate measure of the prosperity of the silk manufacturing industry, since all of the material of this character comes from abroad, and the following statement of the importations of raw silk from 1892, the last year of President Harrison's administration, to date, indicates the effect of the recent low-tariff period upon this industry. The textile industries of the United States at decennial periods, 1850 to 1900, 112,513,947 146,897 76,715,959 128,769,971 412,721,496 384,251 105,050,656 302,709,894 552,674,488 4,114 739,973,661 511,897 175,497,343 421,398,196 721,949,262 a Includes hosiery and knit goods. b In the Census of 1870 value of fabric was included; in all subsequent Cen- WOOL -- PRODUCTION, IMPORTATION, CONSUMPTION, PRICES, ETC., IN THE UNITED STATES UNDER FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION. The table which follows presents the record of wool production, importation, and consumption, the importation of woolen manufactures in each year from 1875 to 1901, and the effect of free trade in wool upon the farmer and those engaged in manufacturing. The figures of importation are for fiscal years ending June 30, and therefore the Wilson low tariff, which became a law August 28, 1894, does not apply to the fiscal year ending June 30, 1894, except as to its effect in causing importers of wool and woolen goods to hold back their importations in order to bring them in under the new act, which promised free wool and a low tariff on woolen manufactures. Under that act, which became operative in the second month of the fiscal year 1895, importations of foreign wool were greater than in any preceding year, and those of 1896 exceeded those of 1895, while those of the fiscal year 1897, all of which elapsed before the enactment of the Dingley law, July 24, 1897, were 350,852,026 pounds, or twice as much as in any year prior to the enactment of the Wilson law and three times as much as the average for the decade preceding that act. Prior to the enactment of the Wilson law the percentage of foreign wool used in the woolen manufactures of the United States ranged from 40 to more than 57 per cent, according to the figures of the Statistical Abstract, but since the enactment of the Dingley law has steadily fallen and was in 1899 only 19 per cent. of the consumption. The value of foreign wool imported, which in the fiscal year 1897, the last year under the free-trade Wilson law, was $53,243,191, was in the fiscal year 1899, under the protective Dingley law, but $8,322,345, while the importation of woolen goods, which in 1896 under the Wilson act was $53,493,400, was in 1899 $13,832,621. This enormous importation of foreign wool and woolens so affected prices of wool that Ohio fine washed clothing wool, which had ranged for years at from 31 to 41 cents per pound, dropped in 1895 and 1896 to 18 cents per pound, but has since the enactment of the Dingley law again risen to 31 cents per pound. The effect upon farmers of the reduction in price of wool cannot be statistically stated so far as relates to the actual amount of money received for the wool grown, though it is probable that the sum received by them for their wool during the existence of the Wilson law was much less than one-half that of former years, as the production shows a marked decrease, and the price per pound, as already indicated, showed a fall of nearly one-half. Under this tremendous shrinkage in value of the wool product, the farmers in many cases disposed of their sheep, the exportation of sheep and mutton showing a large increase during the Democratic period, while the number of sheep on farms, as shown by the reports of the Department of Agriculture, fell from 47,273,553 to 36,818,643 and their value fell from $125.909,264 to $65,167,735, a loss of $60,000,000 in value of sheep alone, to say nothing of the much greater loss in value of wool. Wool production, imports, consumption, and manufacture in the United States; also price of wool and value of sheep on farms, 1875 to 1901. [From the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1899.] Pounds. 1875. 181,000,000 48 00 15 33,783,600 $94,320,652 93,666,318 80.892,683 80,603,062 79,023,984 46 54,901,760 221 $11,071,259 $44,609,704 1876. 192,000,000 44,642,836 18.3 8,147,617 33,209,800 45 35,935,300 1877. 200,000,000 42,171,192 16.3 7,156,944 25,701,022 48 35,804,200 1878. 208,250,000 48,449,079 16.9 8,463,015 25,230,154 85 35,740,500 1879. 211,000,000 39,005,155 14.2 5,034,545 24,355,821 41 38,123,800 1880. 232,500,000 128,131,747 34.9 23,727,650 33,911,093 40,765,900 90,230,537 1881. 240,000,000 55,964,236 17.3 9,703,968 31,156,426 43 43,569,899 104,070,759 1882. 272,000,000 67,861,744 19.0 11,096,050 37,361,520 42 45,016,224 106,595,954 1883. 290,000,000 70,575,478 18.7 10.949,331 | 44,274,952 39 1884. 300,000,000 78,350,651 20.6 12,384,709 41,151,583 1885. 308,000,000 70,596,170 18.0 8,879,923 35,776,559 1886. 302,000,000 129,084,958 28.9 16,746,081 41,421,319 1887. 285,000,000 114,038,030 27.4 16,424,479 44,902,718 1888. 269,000,000 118,558,753 28.9 15,887,217 47,719,393 1889. 265,000,000 126,487,729 31.8 17,974,515 52,564,942 1890. 276,000,000 105,431,285 27.0 15,264,083 56,582,432 1891. 285,000,000 129,303,648 30.8 18,231,372 41,060,080 1892. 294,000,000 148,670,652 33.1 19,688,108 35,565,879 1803. 303,158,000 172,433,838 35.7 21,064,180 38,048,515 18943 298,057,384 55,152,585 14.2 6,107,438 19,439,372 1895 309,748,000 206,033,906 40.0 18963 272,474,708 230,911,473 45.9 32,451,242 53,494,400 18972 259,153,251 350,852,026 57.8 53,243,191 49,162,992 1898. 266,720,684 132,795,202 32.8 16,783,692 14,823,771 1899. 272,191,330 76,786,209 19.2 8,322,345 13,832,621 1900. 288,686,621 155,928,455 34.4 20,260,936 16,164,446 1901. 302,502,328 103,583,505 24.9 12,529,881 14,585,306 25,556,42138,539,890 49,237,291 124,366,335 35 50,626,626 119,902,706 33 50,360,243 107,960,650 *Except in number and value of sheep on farms and prices of wool. On October 1 of each year. On January 1 of year named. Democratic and low-tariff years. NOTE. The importations of wool and woolen goods in the fiscal year 1894 were held back to obtain the reduction in duties by the Wilson act, then pending, and which went into effect August 28, 1894. |