In value of products, the flour-mill and grist mill industry stands hut little below that of lumber and timber products. The soil and climatic conditions of the State are conducive to the production of wheat and corn; but this in dustry does not depend upon local supplies of raw material; for much wheat and corn are shipped into Tennessee mills from the West and the Northwest, and the milling in transit privilege enjoyed for many years by Nashville, Tennessee's largest milling centre, has tended to stimulate this industry and place it upon a permanent and stable basis.
Other manufacturing industries of Tennes see in the order of their importance are: Foun dry and machine-shop products; printing and publishing; cars and general shop construction and repairs by steam railroad companies ; oil, cottonseed and coke; iron and steel blast fur naces; textiles, and a very large list of other industries aggregating 4,775 establishments in 1914 and covering almost all articles manufac tured to meet the ordinary demands of modern life.
The summary of the manufactures of Ten nessee for 1914, prepared by the Bureau of Census, gives the following statistics: Number of establishments, 4,775; persons engaged in manufactures, 88,514; proprietors and firm mentbers, 5,142; salaried employees, 8,999; wage-earners (average number employed dur in g the year), 74,373; primary horse power, 286,857; capital, $211,423.000; services, $44,910, 000 (including salaries $11,828,000, wages $33, 082,000) •, materials, $123,430,000; value of prod ucts, $212,071,000; value added by manufac ture (value of products less cost of materials), $88,641,000.
This summary shows a consistent increase in the census report of 1914 as compared with that of 1909. In the order of their importance, from a percentage point of view, the increases for the several items named are as follows: Salaries, 28.8 per cent; capital, 25.9 per cent; materials, 18.7 per cent; primary horse power, 18.4 per cent; value of products, 17.7 per cent; wages, 17.1 per cent; value added by manufac ture, 16.3 per cent. It must be borne in mind that the United States census with reference to manufactures excludes hand trades, building trades and neighborhood industries and takes account only of establishments conducted under the factory system. Furthermore, they cover
only establishments having annual products valued at more than $500. The four large cities of the State, Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville, have more than one-fourth of the total establishments of the State. In these cities are most of the very large manufacturing enterprises, such as the following in Nashville: Milling, printing, car-shop construction, stoves and ranges, fertilizer, tobacco and lumber. In Memphis lumber and allied wood-working in dustries, industries connected with cotton, par ticularly cottonseed oil mills, molasses mills. In Chattanooga iron and steel manufactures, hosiery mills, knitting mills, wood-working plants. In Knoxville marble enterprises, wood working establishments, hosiery mills, knitting mills. Speaking generally, the outlook for man ufactures in Tennessee is exceedingly encour aging, and it is likely that in the years to come this State will be a very large manufacturing State. This result will be brought about largely by two causes, cheap hydro-electric power and proximity to great natural resources.
Transportation.— Growing out of the agita tion for internal improvements about the year 1830, the State undertook with enthusiasm the Promotion of railroad development. The South Carolina Railroad, chartered in 1828, the con struction of which began in 1829, doubtless fur nished an impulse to the movement The desire was for an outlet to some Southern port for the products of agriculture and industry. The first railroad chartered in the State was the Memphis Railroad Company, a proposed line from Memphis to Pulaski, on 12 Dec. 1831. The line was never built. In 1836 the Hiwasse Railroad was chartered and ground broken in 1837, probably the first work ever done on a railroad in the State. This line now forms a part of the Southern Railway between Knox ville and Chattanooga and was completed in 1856. In 1845 the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company was chartered and the track between Nashville and Chattanooga was finished in 1853, the first complete line of railroad operated in the State. In 1845 a great com mercial convention was held at Memphis, over which John C. Calhoun presided, out of which grew the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, now a part of the Southern Railway.