FRESH-WATER MUSSEIvS AND MUSSEI^ INDUSTRIES. 69 



When the imports are added to the domestic production we observe the enormous 

 increase (in consumption) from about $9,000,000 to about $23,000,000, during the 

 course of 20 years, an increase entirely disproportionate to the growth in population 

 during the same period. The per capita consumption of buttons grew from about 37 

 in 1 891 to about 106 in 1910.'* 



This magnified consumption can not be attributed simply to increased prosperity 

 or to growing extravagance. It is a matter of common experience that where relatively 

 expensive buttons were formerly hoarded and used again and again, the modern cheap- 

 ness of good material has lead to the general abandonment of this laborious practice. 

 The real significance of the fresh- water pearl industry is that it has, by its direct and 

 indirect effects, made good buttons low in price and more generally used; as, indeed, 

 would be the result in any industry that found a new and abundant resource to yield a 

 quality of product formerly obtainable only from less available and more expensive 

 materials. 



During the last few years there has been increasing activity in various branches 

 of the button industry, notably in vegetable ivory and celluloid, but fresh-water pearl 

 still ranks as the paramount material used by button manufacturers. 



SUMMARY O-^ ECONOMIC Ei^FECTS. 



We may thus summarize the broader effects attributable in large part, though we 

 would not say exclusively, to the development of the fresh-water mussel industry. 

 Although affording employment to many wage earners and giving occasion for an im- 

 portant fishery, it has not caused a material diminution, if any, in the output of any other 

 branch of the button industry. The fresh-water pearl product alone is now greater 

 than the entire output of the button industry in 1890; but at the same time the product 

 of other branches of the industry is greater than in 1890. The fresh-water product is 

 simply an addition by so much to the available wealth of the coimtry. It has made a 

 good button almost universally available, so that the total consumption has been greatly 

 augmented. The economic rating of this industry will always depend in considerable 

 measure upon its supplying a good product at a relatively low price; and this con- 

 dition will be maintained only by preventing the depletion of the native resources and 

 by promoting economy in manufacture. 



DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN METHODS. 



In the early stages of the industry the making of buttons was accomplished largely 

 by hand machinery, so-called. The shells were held against the revolving saws by 

 hand while the blanks were being cut out. Each blank was held with the finger against 

 a revolving emery wheel, first to be backed, or ground to a smooth surface, and next 

 to be turned or faced to a proper form with the central depression worked out. Then 

 the blanks individually were placed in chucks for the drilling of two or four holes. Only 

 the final polish was administered to the buttons in bulk. Sorting and carding was, of 

 course, done by hand. 



o These figures are based on the computation that the $4,216,000 worth of buttons of 1890 represented, at 30 cents per gross, 

 14,000,000 gross, or 2,000,000,000 buttons, while the output in 1910 is computed in the same way as 9,500,000,000. Importations 

 are added and exportations deducted. 



