XX. MANUFACTURES S. N. D. NORTH degree of success attending the enterprise; upon stocks of materials on hand; manufactured goods on hand, and stock in process of manufacture, together with book accounts, these items being subject to liabilities outstanding. It is impossible to procure from manufacturers an accurate balance of these items, upon which a uniform determination of capital investment can be based; and it is therefore the judgment of experts that the amount of capital invested in manufactures, as reported by the United States Census, is of no great value, and that these statistics should be abandoned as misleading. It is a problem somewhat similar to that which arises in connection with the physical and commercial valuation of railroads. The British "Census of Production" does not attempt to state the amount of capital invested in British manufactures. It is in Statistics of Manufactures.-It is impossible to make even an approximate estimate of the value of the manufactured products of the great nations; few of them undertake a census of manufactures and these are partial and defective. The United States was the first country to attempt such a census, and attains results more definite than are secured elsewhere. Statistics of manufactures are found to be the most complicated of any branch of statistics, not excepting vital statistics, and some of the difficulties are apparently insurmountable. They are due to the enormous variety in products and the impossibility of making accurate classifications; to the extensive existence of so-called industrial combinations controlling many establishments in different states, many of which produce semifinished products sold to others; to the duplication of product which thus results, swelling the nom-teresting to compare the amount of inal volume of production far beyond its actual quantity and value; to the different methods of wage payments prevailing, either by the day, the week, or the piece; and so many standards of piece payment prevail that an accurate determination of an average wage is impossible. Capital Invested.-Another difficulty is the impossibility of determining with accuracy the amount of capital invested in manufacturing enterprises. Many of these enterprises are not corporations, and have no capital stock. The amount of bonds and stocks issued by manufacturing corporations does not indicate the actual investment of capital, being in many instances far in excess of that investment, or a capitalization based upon potential earnings rather than investment. This investment may consist of mill property, of a value dependent largely upon the capital invested in American manufactures, as reported by the census of 1905, $12,686,265,673, with the par value of outstanding railroad bonds and stocks, reported by the Interstate Commerce Commission as $17,487,868,935 in 1909. Industrial Combinations.-The difficulty of ascertaining actual capitalization has been further complicated by the tendency of American manufacturers to organize industrial combinations by the consolidation, in the most important industries, of many individual plants under single organizations, and under conditions which vary greatly. In the development of this form of business, many plants have been acquired only to be closed or dismantled, in order to withdraw their competition. This tendency to consolidation is not peculiar to the manufacturing enterprise of the United States. It has progressed oring, carpentering, rural grist and saw mills, and the hand trades. The value of the total products from these omitted industries is comparatively small. chased semimanufactured materials. | borhood and household industries, This method of obtaining net value such as dressmaking, millinery, tailis unsatisfactory and uncertain. The gross value of United States manufactured products of 1905 was returned as $14,802,147,807, which, after deducting the cost of materials used, and of fuel, freights, etc., leaves The United States Census divides a net value of $9,821,205,387. The the great industries of the country value added to that of materials into fourteen groups, and the followused in manufacturing processes was ing table shows the principal figures thus $6,743,399,718. This net value for each of these groups, as returned is exclusive of all so-called neigh-in 1900 and 1905: 1900 5,313 (1905 30,787 United States. 1. Food and kindred products... 2 Textiles.... 3 Iron and steel and their products. 4. Lumber and its remanufactures.. 5. Leather and its fin ished products.... 1905 216,262 12,686,265,673 5,470,321 8,503,949,756 14,802,147,087 1900 207,562 8,978,825,200 4,715,023 6,577,614,074 11,411,121,122 1905 45,790 1,173,151,276 354,054 2,304,416,564 2,845,234,900 6. Paper and printing.. 1900 26,605 7. Liquors and bever-1905 705,747,470 569,619,254 798,758,312 350,205 308,269,655 857,112,256 213,701,954 605,114,S47 659,547,620 515,160,244 9. Clay, glass, and stone products.. 10. Metals and metal products, other than iron and steel 11. Tobacco.. 9,680 1,504,728,510 210,165 609,351,160 1,031,965,263 182,227 437,637,550 735,432,542 285,365 123,124,392 391,230,422 85,168,409 270,726,065 922,262,456 710,525,157 126,088,608 331,117,681 92,866,542 263,713,173 12. Vehicles for land (1905 7,285 transportation.... | 1900| 447,697,020 384,577 334,244,377 643,924,442 8,739 394,235,576 314,340 (1905) 13. Shipbuilding.. 1,097 37,463,179 82,769,239 11900 33,474,896 74,532,277 14. Miscellaneous indus- 1905 12,377 974,316,571 390,831 tries. 1900 11,394 655,010,866 competitive manufactures importe from abroad. Undoubtedly this fi titious value appears in the stati tics; but whether it is thirty-thre per cent, or less or more, it is im possible to say. The value of manu factured products in France, Ger many, and other European countrie is artificially increased to some de gree in the same manner, but fa less than in this country, while th value of English manufactures i upon a strictly free-trade basis. Mulhall estimated the relative valu of output per employee as £107, o about $500 for Great Britain in 1904 and as £270, or about $1,300, for th United States, the latter estimate be ing nearly three times the English average. The census of 1900 shows an average product per wage-earner in the United States of $2,450, nearly five times Mulhall's estimate for Great Britain in 1894. The census of 1900 showed 29,073,233 persons engaged in gainful occupations, of whom 7,085,309 were assigned to manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. (See II, Statistical Tables.) Employees and Wages.-The 1905 census presents this interesting table, showing by months the fluctuations in the number of employees: Children under 16 153,361 154,639 156,565 158,136 158,260 1,034,866 160,255 156,043 161,914 169,164 167,259 1,098,068 162,259 1,074,631 160,933 differentiation as for rapid growth. Practically everything that is manufactured elsewhere in the world is made in this country. The single staple industry in which we have thus far made no considerable progress is the linen manufacture. Cotton Manufacture.-In all other branches of the textile industry, our recent growth has exceeded that of |