The Iron Industry as an Example of Simple versus Complex Manu iron industry affords an excellent example of the way in which a simple industry is located where the raw material or fuel is fOund, while the corresponding complex industry follows other rules. Fig. 86 shows the value added by manufacture in the blast furnaces in 1914. In a blast furnace, it will be remembered, iron ore is mixed with coke and limestone, and air heated to about F. is introduced. The heat allows the non-metallic parts of the ore and other impurities to combine with the lime, while the molten iron drains into pits from which it can be run off to make pig iron. Each ton of ore demands ; about two tons of coal and one of lime. Therefore the regular method , is to carry the ore to places where both coal and lime are locally avail able. Hence, Lake Superior ore is shipped in large quantities to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio; some goes to other lake cities, and some is smelted at Duluth with coal. brought in the returning ore ships. The Birmingham region has the advantage of having coal, iron ore, and lime all together. Thus in Fig. 86 the distribution of the simple blast furnace industry can be almost wholly explained by the location of the raw materials and fuel and by the facilities for transportation by water.. , Turn now to Fig. 87, showing the value added by manufacture in steel and rolling mills where steel is prepared in large masses like rails, plates, and girders, but is not put into final form as part of machinery. In proportion to the value of the raw materials the value added by manufacture is much greater than in the blast furnaces. This is because we are now dealing with a complex industry in which expensive machin ery and large amounts of labor are required. This industry centers chiefly in the northern pig-iron area, hut spreads out to the Atlantic coast and Mississippi River. Alabama does not have enough steel and rolling mills to rank high in Fig. 87 although it stands fourth in Fig. 86. On the other hand Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Indiana, all join with Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois in surpassing Alabama in Fig. 87. This illustrates the way in which the more complex industries tend to be concentrated in the northeastern quarter of the country.
In Fig. 88, showing foundries and machine shops, the process of carrying the iron and steel away from where they were produced to the areas of active manufacturing, especially in New England but also in the Middle West and on the Pacific slope, has gone still farther. The early settlement of New England gave it a start in preparing machinery for its own cotton and woolen mills, and thus in supplying the whole country with machinery. On the other hand Alabama practically dis appears when it comes to making highly complex articles like machinery and implements. If a map of agricultural implements were added to the present series we should see that the center of production shifts to Illinois to be near the great farming districts, but it still remains in the same general latitude as in Figs. 86 to 88.
How Complex Industries Differ from Simple Industries in Location. —A study of other industries shows a similar variety of circumstances which combine to determine the distribution of production. For exam ple, although the number of cattle per capita (Table 22, Cols. C and D) varies from 0.05 in Rhode Island to 4.61 in Nevada, there is no state which has not a considerable number. Yet the slaughtering and meat packing industry is largely concentrated in Chicago, Kansas City, and the surrounding regions, with minor centers on the North Atlantic coast and at San Francisco. In other words the raw material, in the shape of live cattle, sheep, and swine, moves toward the manufacturing centers where the demand is greatest. In order to be made into boots
and shoes the leather derived from the cattle is still further concen trated. Far and away the greatest production of shoes in proportion to the population is in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. A large part of the men who raise cattle in New Mexico, for example, or slaughter them in Kansas City or Chicago wear boots made in Brockton or other Massachusetts cities. Other regions, especially St. Louis, make many shoes, but only a negligible number are made south of Virginia and Ken tucky and west of Missouri and Minnesota. The only important exception is California, which is beginning to make a good many. In fact San Francisco and the cities of the Willamette Valley and Puget Sound region show many indications that in time they will develop manufacturing industries much like those of the eastern seaboard.
A comparison of the cotton manufacturing and hosiery industries likewise shows a tendency toward a change in location as the industry becomes more complex. Cotton manufacturing centers largely in New England because that region got an early start, and because it has the greatest skill, but the industry has grown up in the South because of the presence of cotton together with fairly good water power and a supply of labor among the Poor Whites. But only the coarsest grades of cloth are usually made in the South, while relatively high grades are made in a large number of the northern mills. The hosiery industry also is strong in the North and weak in the South. Like the steel industry it is most highly developed in a belt running from New England to the Mississippi River. It developed in Pennsylvania and New York partly because of the chance location of certain people such as the Germans at German town. From there it was carried to the Mohawk Valley so that eastern Pennsylvania and central New York are chief centers.
In the case of industries where the raw material is of small bulk or light weight so that transportation plays only a minor part in the price, a still greater concentration is seen. For example, the silk industry of the United States is overwhelmingly concentrated in New Jersey, eastern ' Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, and is recorded in the 1914 census in only six other states, all on the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Maryland. In other words the industry is practically restricted to the old manufacturing region of the Atlantic seaboard. The bronze and copper industry shows a similar concentration in Connecticut, but is growing in importance in all the states from Maine and Maryland on the east to Missouri and Minnesota on the west, and again in the three states of the Pacific coast. Aside from a few factories in Texas it is not found in any of the southern or Great Plains states, and aside from a small development in Colorado and still less in Utah the industry is not developed even in the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin states from which the country's copper supply is chiefly derived. Cop per, unlike iron, is not often used for massive articles. It is chiefly made up into small and rather highly manufactured products like the wire coils of motors and dynamos, the parts of electric lights, and various fittings of machinery and furniture where it often is used in the form of brass. Hence its weight is a small item in the ultimate cost, and it is manufactured in the regions where manufacturing is already most active and where the brass and copper plants can be near the electrical and automobile factories and other consumers on whom they depend for orders.