INDUSTRIAL INTRODUCTORY. BY DR. W. R. PATTERSON. The following introductory should have been placed at the head of the statistical tables of the manufacturing industries of the state, but it was not received in time for insertion in the proper place, hence its appearance at the close of the report. Preceding this introductory I deem it of interest to call attention to the remarkable growth of the urban population of the state in the decade 18901900. The total population was 1,911,896 in 1890, and 2,231,853 in 1900, an increase of 319,957, and a gain of 16.7 per cent. During the same period the urban population increased from 694,029 to 975,641, an increase of 281,612, and a gain of 40.5 per cent., while the rural population increased from 1,219,867 to 1,256,212, an increase of 38,345, and a gain of only 3.14 per cent. It is also shown that in 1890, the urban population constituted 36.3 per cent. and the rural the remainder, or 63.7 per cent., while in 1900 the urban population is 43.25 per cent. and the rural 56.75 per cent, a change of 6.95 per cent. in favor of hamlets, villages, towns and cities, thus clearly demonstrating that our manufacturing industries, which build the towns, are great factors in the development of our state. The first table proves conclusively that the manufacturing interests are fast becoming dominant. The addition of 14,297 establishments in a period of fifty years represents an increase of 2,738.8 per cent. The capital invested has, however, outstripped this. the increase being 7,853.8 per cent. In the meantime the amount of wages paid advanced 4,959.3 per cent; the value of materials used, 4, 192.5 per cent; the value of the product produced 4,534.7 per cent, while the population increased but 1,061.1 per cent. This favorable showing is due largely to the fact that Iowa attracted little attention prior to 1850. In 1840 its total population was 43,112, and invested capital $199,645, some 83 per cent of which represented grist and saw mills. From this date to 1854 the progress, while rapid, was quite normal; but in this year the Chicago-Rock Island Railway was completed to the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite Davenport. * The next two years were fruitful of great things for the state; not only was the Rock Island completed to Iowa City, but two other roads reached the Mississippi opposite Burlington and Dubuque, and it was conceded that the Pacific Railway would pass through its territory. These activities gave a decided stimulus to trade and industry. In 1855 an era of speculation began, which continued for two years. The principal cities sent out prospectuses descriptive of their present industries, and urging capitalists to take advantage of the rare business opportunities they had to offer.† These agencies were quite successful; immigrants and capital came, and towns sprung up, and boom features were present. In many instances the cities bonded themselves to such an extent, in order to offer bonuses to *History of Polk County, 1880, p. 172. desired industries, that they were obliged to repudiate their obligations. The hard times of 1858 to 1860 followed, which, while beneficial in checking the speculative spirit of the period, caused some capital to migrate westward, yet not in sufficient quantities to overcome the progress caused by the boom of 1855-1857. For these reasons, coupled with the stimulus of war demand and war prices, we have the notable rates of increase shown for the decades from 1850 to 1870. The percentages for the period 1860 to 1870 are misleading, in that the values given for 1870 are stated in a currency which was at a great discount in gold. If the plan adopted by the census of 1880 be followed, and the amounts given for 1870 be discounted one-fifth, we have the following results as to the principal items. Per cent of increase: From these revised figures it appears that the per cent of increase has diminished, as is customary for all comparisons with a cumulative base, and that the great decline in the rate of increase from 1870 to 1880, followed by a marked rise from 1880 to 1890, is due more to a depreciated currency than economic conditions. The single exception to this statement is the noticeable and significant increase of invested capital-128.1 per cent, and the slight advance in the number of establishments-7.5 per cent. This was in part a step toward the later forms of capitalistic production, the average capital per establishment in 1880 being $4,910, and in 1890, $10,418 and partially due to the political evils of the period. Good transportation facilities, an abundance of coal well distributed, and a fertility of soil which has given it rank as one of the leading agricultural states of the Union, has rendered possible the present gratifying status of manufactures in Iowa. The same reasons account in part for the even distribution of these interests and their diversified character. No certain portion of the state or particular city can lay claim to a dominant interest in manufactures as a whole, or a comparative monopoly of any one of its leading industries. The southern and eastern portions were settled first, and still have the denser population, yet the northern and western have produced the banner manufacturing city, if value of product be considered. Sioux City, however, only produced 9.4 per cent. of the product of the State. Still further no leading industry is particularly prominent. Slaughtering, which ranks first in value of product, represents but 15.6 per cent. of the total product of the state, while the industry next in order, cheese, butter and condensed milk, furnishes 9.6 per cent. During this period of development a marked change in the character of the industries has taken place. In the early period of settlement the principal products manufactured were lumber, flour, leather and woolen goods, all of which have since declined with the exception of flour, while those industries necessary to the full realization of the agricultural possibilities of the state, slaughtering, and butter and cheese, have taken their place. Historical Reminiscenses of the City of Des Moines, Turrell, 1857. A Brief Description of Fort Dodge, 1858. As early as 1840 the woolen products of Muscatine county were valued at $800, and Cedar county produced hat and caps valued at $19,900. It was evident that the people expected the woolen industry to take the rank in Iowa it lead in the east. The prospective circulars were careful to state the exact status of the business and seldom failed to point out the waste to be incurred in the shipping of the raw wool to the eastern manufacturies. Under this constant stimulus the industry reached its maximum proportions in 1870, when sixty-eight establishments report a product valued at $1,561,341, or $1,249,073 if allowance be made for the appreciated currency. From this date forward its product has gradually reduced in value until the present figure, $296,500 has been reached. It is clear that the rearing of cattle and production of dairy products has been more attractive to the farmers of the state, for every decline of the sheep industry has been marked by a corresponding rise in the value of slaughtered and dairy products. As a The decline in the lumber and timber industry has been less marked than in the woolen, but no less certain and significant if quality and quantity of product be considered. In the earlier decades, and perhaps to 1800, the lumber companies operated along the banks of the rivers, cutting only the larger trees, and culling from a more extended area the finer woods. result the present lumber supply is gained largely from trees of so small diameter as to have been formerly refused; the walnut and oak is almost entirely wanting, while logs of all kinds must be conveyed considerable distances to ship or raft. In short, while a decline in the value of the product from $23,425,576 in 1890 to $8,677,058 has been almost phenomenal, the real decline has been far greater due to the increased cost of production, as well as to the advance in price resulting from an increased demand. An industry of recent origin and peculiar to Iowa is the manufacture of pearl buttons from the shells of native fresh water mussel. The leading center of the industry is Muscatine, which, in 1898, had five completely organized plants and twenty-eight saw works, yet almost every town on the Mississippi from Sabula to Fort Madison, a distance of 167 miles, is provided with plants, Davenport, Clinton and Keithsburg being sort of secondary centers. The industry has also been pursued at Cedar Rapids, Vinton and Charles City on the Cedar river; Coralville on the Iowa river, and West Liberty, What Cheer and Oskaloosa, which latter place secured their raw material from other sources. * Mr. B. T. Boepple, a native of Hamburg, Germany, where he learned the trade, is given the credit for introducing the businuss in 1891. Stimulated by the high tariff placed on imported buttons by the tariff bill of 1890, and assured of the excellence of the mussels in the Mississippi and rivers of lowa, he located his factory at Muscatine. The success of the industry was at once assured. By 1898 no less than 1,000 persons were engaged in mussel fishery between Fort Madison and Sabula, while the number of persons employed in the manufacture of buttons is placed at 1,434, of which 1,042 were males and 392 females. This rapid growth seems to have been abnormal, as several firms were obliged to give up the business, and a general lowering of the price was noted in 1899. The fear that the mussel beds will soon be exhausted seems well founded. The removal of 4,602 tons of shells in 1897, *Report of the U. S. Fish Commission, 1898. Report of Labor Commissioner, Iowa, 1897-98. and 3,641 in the year following shows the extent of the exploitation. The beds opposite Muscatine and New Boston are already worked out. No attention is paid to the spawning season of the principal species; multitudes of small mussels that cannot be utilized are left upon the banks or ice to die, while even if proper care were taken it requires from ten to eighten years to grow a serviceable shell. To date, however, the industry is in a fairly prosperous condition, and Mississippi river buttons are sold in every state in the Union, as also Canada and England. Only a portion of the product sold, however, is finished in Iowa or the adjoining section of Illinois. Several of the larger button factories of the east have ''saw works" located here which cut out the rough blanks and ship them east for final manufacture. In a few cases the rough shells have been shipped. A buyer at Leclaire in the winter of 1898-99 had a contract of 1,000 tons to be shipped to New York, this form of the business is however exceptional. TABLE NO. 4. Based on value of product the order of importance of the cities of the state is as follows: Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Davenport, Ottumwa and Clinton. If invested capital is made the criterion, the order is Davenport, Dubuque, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown and Sioux City. One of the striking facts in the development of the state is the rapid progress of the latter city. In 1880, it was a place of minor importance, unknown as a manufacturing center, a decade later, the value of its manufactured products was $14,119,843, which on this base easily gave it first rank, exceeding its nearest competitor, Davenport, by almost three millions of dollars. Two facts are largely responsible for the position it has obtained. Its rapid increase in population has given carpentry an undue prominence, and the slaughtering industry is one in which a small investment of capital produces a product of higher value than possible in most other lines. Yet its position as the principal city of the rapidly developing northwest is sufficiently advantageous to keep it in the front rank among the cities of the state. The influence of a dominant industry is further seen in Davenport, which ranks first in the amount of capital invested. Here with $1,914,483 invested in its dominant industry, lumber, the value of its product was but $1,729,607 in 1890; while Sioux City in the same year with an investment of $647,150, in the slaughtering industry, produced a product valued at $7,589,228. Considerations, such as these, show the folly of attributing to any city first rank as a manufacturing center. The same reason accounts for the comparatively small output of several of the important cities of the state. The location of the state is such that it is a highway for the transfer of commodities between the east and the west, while extensive transportation facilities are necessary to place its own products on the market. Due to these conditions, we find extensive car construction and repair shops in Burlington, Davenport, Belle Plaine, Boone, Waterloo, Oelwein and other cities, an industry so prominent that it employs an average of 5,497 wage earners throughout the year, or 2,104 more than any other industry, and paid in the year 1900, $2,948,948 in wages, $1,525,816 more than any other manufacturing enterprise, yet a comparatively small product is produced, |