POWER EMPLOYED IN MANUFACTURES 213 



to the more thorough canvass and the consequent inchision 

 of a larger number of small plants. In 1900 the proportion 

 of establishments using power increased again to 33.1 per 

 cent, or 169,409 out of a total of 512,254. 



This indicates that while the substitution of power- 

 driven machinery for hand labor has unquestionably taken 

 place to a very great extent — which can be demonstrated 

 by a study of many branches of manufacture — at the same 

 time the increase of hand labor shops and small factories 

 using some macliinery but no mechanical power has also been 

 continuous, with the result that at the present time the 

 numerical proportion of manufacturing establishments oper- 

 ating without any mechanical power is as large as it was 

 twenty years ago. 



How small a proportion the products of this class of es- 

 tablishments are of the total value of manufactured products 

 for all industries is shown by the fact that the group of indus- 

 tries classed as '4iand trades" in 1900, contributed only 

 $1,183,615,478 to the total of $13,004,400,143, the value of 

 the products of all manufacturing industries. Although there 

 were 215,814 estabhshments classified as "hand trades" out 

 of a total of 512,254, or 42.1 per cent, the value of the prod- 

 ucts of such establishments was only 9.1 per cent of the total 

 for all estabhshments. The classification of "hand trades," 

 however, does not embrace all establishments operating 

 without mechanical power, nor do all estabhshments other- 

 wise classified use power, but this illustration suffices to show 

 the minor importance of the industries which do not use 

 power, as compared with those that use power in some form. 



The following table shows the average horsepower per 

 establishment for 11 of the principal industries for 1880, 

 1890, and 1900. 



The increasing importance of the larger plants is manifest 

 in the continuous increase in the average of power per estab- 

 lishment. In 1880 the average power of the establishments 

 which reported its use was 39.7 horsepower; in 1890 it was 

 59.1 horsepower; and in 1900 it was 66.7 horsepower. There 

 was, therefore, in the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 an in- 



