MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES. 



513 



and shoemaking industries has cheapened the products of the 

 latter, one has only to compare the price of any kind of goods for 

 a series of years. For illustration, take women's Polish grain 

 shoes, men's boots and brogans. These are all cheap goods, and 

 as the prices in the first place would have to be as low as possible 

 great reductions would not be expected. Yet note : 



Ladies Polish shoes per pair: 1865, $2.25; 1868, $1.62; 1870, 

 61.37* ; 1875,$1.12|; 1880, $0.95. Brogans: 1865, $1.75; 1870, $1.50; 

 1880, $1.30 ; 1885, $1.20 ; 1890, $1.05. Men's heavy boots, per dozen 

 pairs, kip and double half soles in order : 1872, $38 and $25 ; 1880 

 $2G and $21.50; 1885, $26 and $20; 1890, $21 and $17. 



In spite of all competition Massachusetts has retained its early 

 grip upon the shoe industry, and within its factories are to be seen 

 the art at its highest and its results at their best. In 1845, in that 

 State, 45,877 hands made 20,896,312 pairs of boots and shoes, and 

 in 1875 49,608 made 59,762,866 pairs that is, an increase of less 

 than one tenth in the manual force resulted in an output nearly 

 three times as great. New Hampshire and Maine, however, have 

 considerable interests in the shoe business, and factories are be- 

 ginning to spring up in the West and the South. Unfortunately, 

 the census figures for the last decade have not been completed ; 

 but the following table will tell the story for the thirty years be- 

 tween 1850 and 1880: 



Whole number of estab- ) 

 lishments [ 



Persons employed 



Capital 



Wages 



Materials used 



Value of product 



Wages per employe , 



1850. 



1860. 



1870.* 



U 3,151 



} 23,428 



j 91,702 



I 135,889 



$37,519,019 



$48,994,366 



$42,504,444 



$51,972,712 



$80,502,718 



$93,582,528 



$146,704,055 



$181,644,090 



j $463 50 



I $382 46 



1880. 



j f 1,959 



I 17,972 



j 111,152 



I 133,819 



j $42,994,028 



{ $50,995,144 



j $43,001,438 



I $54,358,301 



$102,442,442 



$114,966,575 



$166,050,354 



$196,920,481 



j $387 21 



I $381 07 



The increase in the number of establishments between 1860 

 and 1870 and the decrease between 1870 and 1880 mean no decline 

 in the industry. This change results from the tendency toward 

 consolidation and concentration. Improved machinery has en- 

 abled large producers to crowd their smaller competitors out of 

 the business or to force them into combination. The same move- 



* Currency. 



f The first figures in these columns are special factory statistics, 

 only in 1870 and 1880. 



vol. xli. 38 



These were collected 



