500 



MANUFACTUKES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



number of establishments from 4,961 to 3,898 

 (22 per cent nearly), the hands employed in- 

 creased 11 per cent. But this increase in the 

 average number of hands does not alone explain 

 the decrease in the number of establishments. 

 "We have also to take into account the intro- 

 duction of machinery into the furniture and 

 cabinet-making industry, replacing much of the 

 former work of the local carpenter in rural dis- 

 tricts and small towns. We have then to con- 

 sider the immense extension of the contract 

 system of erecting buildings, the effect of which 

 is to disconnect an increasing proportion of 

 the working carpenters of every city or large 

 town from actual shops and constitute them a 



movable, readily disposable force, to be hired 

 now by this contractor and now by that, ac- 

 cording as jobs arise. We have, last, to con- 

 sider the rapid substitution of brick and stone 

 for wood in building, evidenced by the fact 

 that the number of persons employed in the 

 manufacture of brick in the United States has 

 increased more than 50 per cent in ten years." 

 The following table gives the statistics of 

 the leading manufacturing and mechanical in- 

 dustries in the United States. Eeturns of 

 fishery products, gas-manufacture, petroleum - 

 refining, mining, quarrying, and manufactures 

 of establishments operated by steam-railroad 

 companies are omitted. 





