Vol. XIV, No. 8 



WASHINGTON 



August, 1903 



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THE UNITED STATES: HER INDUSTRIES 1 



By O. P. Austin, 

 Chief of Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor 



THE progress of the United States 

 in its material industries has 

 been the surprise of the whole 

 world, the pride of her affectionate citi- 

 zens. From a handful of five million 

 people at the beginning of the last cen- 

 tury she has grown to eighty millions, 

 and from the smallest of beginnings she 

 has reached the head of the list in agri- 

 culture, in mining, in manufacturing, 

 in currency, and in wealth. 



The purpose of this series of lectures 

 is to present to you a picture of the 

 growth of our common country, a pict- 

 ure of a century of unparalleled develop- 

 ment — a development before which the 

 world stands in amazement. No such 

 record is known to history; no such de- 

 velopment has occurred within so short 

 a period; no such height has been at- 

 tained in invention, in science, and in 

 their application to the affairs of daily 

 life, the life of the masses. While all 

 nations have shared, in a greater or less 

 degree, in the progress and prosperity 



of the century, the United States has 

 enjoyed an especially large share of 

 both, and made a record of which her 

 citizens may well be proud. 



To the first lecture of this series was 

 assigned the story of the great natural 

 resources and advantages of the coun- 

 try, and to the second the history of the 

 development of our great agricultural 

 resources. Both of these have been 

 presented, f 



To me has been assigned the subject 

 of the industrial wealth of the nation, 

 the development of the conditions which 

 have made this the greatest manufact- 

 uring as well as the greatest producing 

 nation. 



And no subject could be more wel- 

 come, more inspiring to the student of 

 the development of our country and its 

 material resources. To trace the growth 

 of our manufacturing interests from a 

 total of 200 million dollars in 1810 to 

 1 3,000 millions in 1900, and the advance 

 of the United States from the bottom of 



*An address before the National Geographic Society, February 25, 1903. 



f " The United States — Lands and Waters," Cyrus C. Adams, National Geographic 

 Magazine, May, 1903; "The United States — The Soil and Its Products," National Geo- 

 graphic Magazine, July, 1903. 



