TEXTILE MANUFACTURING.
Those manufactures in the industrial field comprise the production from raw materials of silk, cotton, woo], flax, jute and hemp, as well as knit goods, includ ing hosiery, with laces, embroideries and braids, with their accessories. The in dustry has grown in recent times to enormous dimensions. The Census Re ports of 1910 show an increase of 74.4 per cent in the capital invested in the first decade of the present century, over the last decade of the last century; and 79.2 per cent increase in the annual value of the products manufactured. It is shown moreover that despite the in creased quantitative production by im proved machinery the increase in the number of workers in the textile indus tries in each decade has exceeded the growth in population since 1860. An idea of the growth of the several industries forming parts of the group is also con veyed by the statistics relating to the consumption of raw materials. Except during the decade in the southern states in which the Civil War was fought there has been a steady increase in the amount of cotton used. The amount of wool used during the two decades preceding 1880 showed an increase of 300 per cent. A like increase would probably have had to be recorded in respect to cotton during the same period had the conditions been unsettled. But no sooner had the effects of the Civil War begun to be dissolved than cotton took an upward trend. Dur ing the three decades preceding 1910 the consumption of cotton steadily increased and the figures point to a striking de velopment in the cotton manufacturing industry of the South. The Crop Esti mating Board of the United States De partment of Agriculture on December 11, 1919, estimated the cotton crop of the United States for 1919 at 11,030,000 bales of 500 pounds each. This estimate indi cated a small crop, representing a reduc tion of nearly 15 per cent from the five year average of 1913-1917. The area planted was 32,390,000 acres, a reduction of 2,940,000 acres below the average of 1910-1914. The farm value of the crop and lint was estimated at $2,332,913,000, based on the prices prevailing on Dec. 1, 1919, which is perhaps the most valuable crop produced in the United States. The world's production of cotton exclusive of linters in 1918 was, according to the Bureau of Census, 17,769,000 bales of 500 pounds net, and the consumption for the year ending July 31, 1919, was approx imately 15,970,000 bales. In 1919 the resources of the textile industries were called upon to meet unprecedented de mands owing to the shortage produced by the war. In 1919 about 75 new cot ton mills or large additions were built in the United States, the yarn industry in the division making the greatest gain, 22 new mills being listed under hosiery and five under coarse yarns. In 1919 there were 289 new textile mills erected in the United States.
In cotton manufacturing the mills of Lancashire have long held the yield, though the development of the textile in dustries in the United States is likely before long to carry supremacy to this side of the Atlantic. The United States for a number of years has spun more pounds of raw material, but the spindles have run mostly on the coarse or me dium-sized yarns. Wool is grown and manufactured in various countries, and Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria Hungary, with one or two adja cent countries produce all except about one-sixth of the wool produced in Europe. England, Ireland and Scotland between them have perhaps the most important woolen industries. France produces a finer quality of woolen cloth than the United States, which is gradually assum ing, on the other hand, a leading posi tion in the carpet industry, which con sumes large quantities of wool.
In no line in this group of industries, perhaps, is the United States progressing more rapidly than in the manufacture of silk, in which it now surpasses all other countries. Already in the early years of the present century it surpassed France in the value of the product, in spite of the fact that the industry in this country dates back little further than the year 1870. The only serious competitors of the United States in this field that remain are China and Japan, whose exact status cannot be determined as reliable statis tics are not available in regard to either. Japan in 1919 was reported as acquiring high-power looms and modern equipment for her silk factories, and was estimated to be manufacturing over 100 per cent more silk than she manufactured in pre vious years. Raw silk comes to the United States mainly from China, Japan and Italy, and from these and other coun tries were imported in 1918 an estimated total of 32,865,453 pounds. In the 10 months ending October, 1919, Japan alone provided the United States with $194,000,000 worth of raw silk out of the $251,000,000 worth imported in the 10 months ending with October. China sent $45,000,000 worth; Italy $11,000,000; while the imports from other countries were less than $1,000,000 worth. In 1919 manufacturers of silk in the United States had to pay higher prices for raw silk from other countries than in the previous years. In spite of the fact the value of imports of raw silk was the largest on record, exceeding $300,000,000 as against $180,000,000 in 1918, $156, 000,000 in 1917, and $120,000,000 in 1916. The amount, despite the higher cost, was greater than in all the preceding years. The price of raw silk imported was the highest recorded averaging $8.42 per pound in October, as against an average of $3 per pound in 1915. In the United States in 1920 the demand for silk goods continued as strong as ever, and the vol ume of business recorded was greater than in any previous year.