MANUFACTUKES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



503 



During the course of the year, a prominent 

 journal questioned the accuracy of the above 

 statistics, and, in support of its criticisms, 

 pointed out that the average annual product 

 (gross) per hand employed was only $1,752 in 

 Philadelphia, while it was $2,054 in New York, 

 $3,106 in Chicago, $3,751 in Brooklyn, and 

 $5,574 in Jersey City. In a letter to the Su- 

 perintendent of the Census, dated December 

 3, 1882, and published as census bulletin No. 

 305, ex-Superintendent Francis A. Walker ex- 

 plains that there are industries of gigantic di- 

 mensions in which the value of the materials 

 used reaches 80, 90, and even 94 per cent of 

 the value of the product, and that it is the 

 prosecution of these industries in three of the 

 cities above named which accounts for the 

 seemingly disproportionate returns thence 

 made of the value of manufactured products. 

 Thus, in Jersey City, nearly 70 per cent of the 

 entire value of products reported consists of 

 the value of packed meats and of refined sugar 

 and molasses, the cost of the raw materials 

 being 92 per cent. Deducting the value of 

 raw materials, the result is an average annual 

 product per hand employed, of but $960. Of 

 the total reported product of Brooklyn, more 

 than a third is furnished by a single industry 

 sugar - refining of which Brooklyn is the 

 chief seat in this country. Of the $59,711,168 

 worth of refined sugar and molasses returned, 

 the cost of the raw sugar and molasses was 

 $56,423,868. Deduct the value of materials 

 used in the manufactures of Brooklyn, and the 

 average annual product per hand employed 

 sinks to $991. Of the productions of Chicago, 

 over one third in value $85,324,371 is fur- 

 nished by the meat-packing industry, the stock- 

 yards and slaughter-houses of that city being 

 without a parallel in the world. Of this enor- 

 mous aggregate, seven eighths is made up of the 

 value of cattle and hogs slaughtered. Deduct 

 the value of materials consumed in the manu- 

 factures of Chicago, and the result is an annual 

 average product per hand of but $861. By a 

 like deduction of the value of materials in the 



case of New York, an average annual product 

 per hand of only $794 is obtained. The same 

 bulletin contains the following instructive table, 

 prepared by General Walker. The first column 

 shows the rank of the city named, upon the 

 list of twenty cities, in the respect of the ag- 

 gregate number of persons employed in manu- 

 facturing establishments ; the second, in the 

 respect of the aggregate amount of wages paid 

 in manufactures ; the third, in the respect of 

 the aggregate gross product of all branches of 

 manufactures; the fourth, in the respect of the 

 average annual product per hand employed, 

 after deduction of the value of materials: 



" A most striking feature of this table," says 

 Mr. Walker, " is the tendency on the part of 

 the greatest manufacturing cities, as a class, to 

 show a smaller average annual product per 

 hand employed (column 4) than the less im- 

 portant manufacturing cities as a class. The 

 reason is perfectly evident. Where manufac- 

 turing capital is accumulated in vast amounts ; 

 where production is carried on upon the largest 

 scale, with the most approved appliances, and 

 with most direct access to the greatest markets, 



