TH

CHAPTER XXXVII.

MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.

HE manufacture and trade of the State will be inore particularly noticed in the descriptions of the towns and places where they are carried on. Madison and some of the other towns on the Ohio, above the falls, have good natural advantages for manufactures. These are being employed to a good advantage, and every year carries the prosperous State of Indiana further along the highway of commercial prosperity. In the whole southwestern part of the State, and for three hundred miles up the celebrated Wabash, coal exists in good quality and abundance; and in the central portion of the State, as well as in the north, there is every facility for water power, and in the latter inexhaustible beds of bog-ore, so that whenever labor for agriculture ceases to be in demand, it can be turned to manufacturing with good results. And, indeed, it is true that much labor is being profitably employed in the latter, while yet the pursuit of agriculture is on the advance. This is one of the many evidences of the steady growth in all the great industries of civilization applicable to the resources of the State. The wheat raised within the State is almost entirely manufactured into flour within its limits, though large quantities in the southeastern part are sent to Cincinnati, and some is transported north by the Wabash and Erie canal, and by the lakes to Canada and western New York.

There is no commanding position in the State at which even a fifth of the whole business will ever be concentrated. Madison, Indianapolis, Richmond, Fort Wayne, Logansport, Lafay ette, Terre Haute, South Bend, Michigan City, Evansville, and many places on the Ohio, are all fast becoming great commer

cial centers, and the railroads and other improvements now in progress, and the facilities that shall hereafter be afforded to the enterprising business men of the State, point to no particular city with any assurance of its precedence. All parts and sections are progressing. It has truthfully been said that "the public convenience and the general good, not State pride, is building our cities."

The principal articles of export from the State, at the present time are pork and flour. The former is mostly produced in the southern, and the latter in the northern part of the State. To these great staples may be added horses, mules, fat cattle. corn, poultry, butter, most of the agricultural products of the West, and a wide range of articles of manufacture. The numerous canals and railroads which intersect each other at many points in the State, afford great facilities for transportation, so that our producers can reach any market desired at a nominal expense.

The disposition to monopolize in the trade of the State does not exist to a greater degree than is desirable or necessary in a healthy commercial State. During the civil war many attempts of this kind were made, which resulted either in making very large profits or in the utter failure of the speculator who engaged in them. The prospect of securing a large profit in a vast amount of produce which was made reasonably certain by the increasing demand for this merchandise became very exciting, and the flour and pork trader found it quite impossible to practice moderation in their calculations. The result was always damaging on the general trade. When the trader failed the farmer generally suffered in pocket, and when he made heavy profits their feelings were outraged. This state of things led to a better regulated commerce. Farmers united in maintaining prices and protecting each other, and so great has been their strength and influence in the making and administration of the laws touching matters of trade that they have been enabled to regulate the cost of transportation, and to prevent, in a great measure, damaging fluctuations in the markets.

Commerce in the productions of the soil, for many years.

absorbed the attention of traders and speculators; but no sooner had the prosperity of trade created a demand for a general development of the agricultural resources of the State, than a special interest was directed to manufacturing. This was manifested as early as 1840, and, from that year down to the present, a general prosperity has attended almost every manufacturing establishment in the State. It is said that the largest carriage factory in the whole world, to-day, is located in the State of Indiana, at the flourishing city of South Bend. This is the greater evidence of the enterprise of Indiana manufactures, when taken in consideration with the celebrated carriage factories of Connecticut, many of which have supplied, to a great extent, the markets of the old world. Following are some statistical observations.

The above statistics of manufacturing in Indiana, for the years 1850, 1860, and 1870, were compiled from the reports of the Bureau of Statistics; those for the year 1875 have been gathered by the compilers of this work, while traveling through the State, and are, in nearly all cases, as correct as those taken from the reports. The column representing 1875 will show the unparalleled increase in manufactures in Indiana during the last five years. As a manufacturing State, Indiana is now considerably in advance of Illinois and Michigan, in proportion to her population, and she is rapidly leaving them in the rear in this great branch of industry,

which must, in some future day, become the great source of wealth in the States, instead of agriculture.

From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it is shown that there is over $100,000,000 now invested in manufacturing in this State. Five years ago Illinois had less than

$90,000,000 invested in this branch of business, while at the same time Michigan had but $70,000,000. Indiana, in the same year had but little over $50,000,000 invested in her factories. How has this comparison been affected by a growth

of five years! It was estimated, in 1874, by one of the leading journals of Illinois, that the manufacturing capital of that State had increased thirty per cent. in five years. This would give Illinois $117,000 000 in manufacturing, in 1875, against $100,000,000 in Indiana. From this basis it will be safe to predict that in 1880 Indiana, in proportion to her population, will greatly exceed the State of Illinois in manufacturing enterprise. The comparison with Michigan, during the same period, is still more flattering to Indiana, than that with Illinois.

The same increase of prosperity is noticeable in the products of Indiana factories. In 1870 they were estimated at $103,617,278. From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it appears that the products of the various factories in the State, for the year ending September thirtieth, 1874, will exceed $300,000,000, showing an increase in five years of nearly $200,000,000. These estimates have been made with the greatest of care, and although they seem to overstate the prosperity of the State during the last five years, yet they may be regarded as reliable.

It is true that the inquiries as to the amount of capital invested, and the amount of products, were not always suc cessful, but means have been employed to correct errors, into which the answers of over-ambitious persons were calculated to lead us.

But the manufacturing industry of Indiana has not prospered in the last five years more than it will in the next. There is a brilliant prospect for a great future advancement in this branch of business. Indeed, this department of enterprise cannot be regarded as more than fully begun; and from the present indications, its future growth is guaranteed.