USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 34
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"But is the manufacture of cotton to be confined chiefly to the rugged hills of New England? To the minds of some of us, the day is coming when the valley of the Ohio will, so far as this great interest is concerned, bear the same relation to New England that New England now does to Great Britain. It is now settled incontestibly that steam power, where coal is cheap, is cheaper than the cheapest water power for propelling machinery. This, then, is our position in the West. The great Illinois coal field touches and crosses the Ohio river, say 100 miles helow Louisville. There, on either the Kentucky or Indiana side, for one hundred miles, may be found large quantities of the finest coal for steam purposes, which may be had at the river banks for four to five cents per bushel. In New England, where steam power Is used-and that is the case in many of the most extensive and recently erected factories-the cost of coal is, on an average, full 20 cents per bushel; making a difference in our favor, in this single important item, of full three hundred per cent. Here, on the Ohlo river, we are within ear shot of the cotton fields of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas-on a river navi- gable at all seasons of the year-where provisions are, and always will be, cheaper than in any other part of the United States- in a perfectly healthy position, and as far south as is compatible with this important consideration. It is certain that, at no distant day, a railroad communication will be established between the Southern Atlantic cities and the navigable waters of the West. This noble scheme of internal communication will connect the whole great Valley of the Mississippi with the Southern Atlantic seaboard; and when this is accomplished it requires no prophet to foresee that the commanding ascendency of the Northern cities lu the business of foreign importations and internal commerce must be greatly impaired. It is impossible to estimate the effect which the opening of such a direct communication will have upon all the relations of the South and West." pp. 88 and 89.
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THE CHANGE
68 miners employed in 1859 produced $86,598 worth of coal. The Civil war nipped this boom before it ripened.
St. Joseph county was the leader in 1860 in the carriage building industry with a modest output of $81,300, the product of three shops employing 47 hands. The Studebaker Brothers was then an unin- corporated blacksmith shop, eight years old. The re- doubtable Scotchman, James Oliver, had been oper- ating a small foundry in South Bend for five years, but this had been destroyed by fire in 1859. There was little in the St. Joseph valley in 1860 to predict the present manufacturing center.
The census of 1870 showed 133,221 persons en- gaged in manufacturing and mining as against 266,- 777 in agriculture, .80,048 in professional and per- sonal services and 36,517 in trade and transporta- tion. The figures do not show the full significance of the change. The merchant milling and the lumber business had been supplanted to a considerable ex- tent by larger manufacturing plants. Marion county with 740 establishments, 6,167 laborers, $8,303,185 invested and $16,642,105 output, had far surpassed the other counties, due largely to the concentration of Civil war activities there and to its excellent railroad connections. Allen county was its nearest competi- tor with an output of $6,457,895 worth. Vanderburg, St. Joseph, Vigo, Floyd and Tippecanoe followed in the order named. Of these St. Joseph and Floyd also profited directly by the Civil war trade. The Stude- bakers were unable to supply the government de- mand on their shops.6 At this time Indiana had 120 iron foundries and mills, 356 furniture factories, 1,946 saw mills, 17 paper mills, 190 textile mills, and 1,275 clothing factories. There were made in 1870 in the state 39,324 grain cradles but no harvesters.
6 United States Census, of 1870.
1026
HISTORY OF INDIANA
The census of 1880 showed 11,198 manufacturing establishments in Indiana with an invested capital of $65,742,962, employing 69,508 hands and producing goods worth $148,006,411. This decade marks the turn to large manufacturing plants. The state had lost 649 in the number of shops but had gained over $12,000,000 in investment and $40,000,000 in output. The number of shops had decreased five and a half per cent. while the investment had increased 26 per cent. and the output over 36 per cent. In a list of 100 cities of the United States, Indianapolis, with $27,- 453,089 worth, ranked twenty-first in the gross out- put of its factories ; Terre Haute, fifty-fifth with $9,- 185,246 worth; Evansville, sixty-first with $8,091,- 914 worth; and Fort Wayne, seventy-third, with $5,816,924 worth. Terre Haute ranked fifth in the United States in the product of its flour mills and fifth in the product of its distilleries ; Evansville took sixth place in the product of its saw mills; and Indi- anapolis, fifth in the product of its slaughter houses. The six leading industries of Indianapolis in order were: slaughtering, foundry, flour, cooperage, fer- tilizer, and furniture. These are almost typical of the state.
The Indiana census of 1880 showed a falling off in the number of laborers in manufacturing plants, there being only 110,127.7 It is interesting to note that of these laborers, 11,646 were native Germans, 2,419 Irish and 3,299 English. Indianapolis had 10,- 268 laborers, of whom 1,436 were Germans and 485 Irish.
The leading centers were Wayne county for agri- cultural implements, Vigo for flour and iron, Vander- burg for flour, St. Joseph for agricultural imple- ments, carriages and wagons and sewing machine · cases, Posey for flour, Marion for slaughter-house
7 The list for 1870 Included laborers in all fields.
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products, Laporte for railroad cars, Lake for slaugh- ter-house products, Dearborn for whisky, Clark for railroad cars, and Allen for foundry and machine- shop products.
Flour led the list of products with a total value of $29,591,397, or about 20 per cent .; slaughter-house products were second with $15,209,294 ; lumber, third, at $14,260,830; then there was a drop to foundry and machine-shop products valued at $6,833,648. Marion led the counties in value of manufactured goods, be- ing almost three times that of Vigo. Then came Vigo, Vanderburg, Allen, Wayne, St. Joseph, and Floyd, all close together, and each above $5,000,000. The business of the state was well distributed.8
The decade from 1880 to 1890 was one of average growth for Indiana industries, but the gain of that decade was practically lost in the next when the state passed through one of its most serious industrial depressions. The period, however, saw a great change in the industrial activity of the state. There was an average number of 2,002 hands engaged in the canning industry in 1900 as compared with none twenty years before. The average annual earnings of each hand had growth from $316 in 1880 to $428 in 1900. The number of wage earners had increased from 69,508 in 1880 and 110,590 in 1890 to 155,956 in 1900. Of these 133,009 were men, 19,266 women and only 3,681 children under sixteen years of age. The capital invested in manufacturing plants had jumped from $65,742,962 in 1880 to $131,605,366 in 1890, and to $234,481,528 in 1900; while the total output had reached $378,120,140. The gross value of agricul- tural products for 1900 was $204,450,196, showing that the state had almost doubled the value of its raw materials before putting them on the market. Indi-
8 United States Census, of 1880.
1028
HISTORY OF INDIANA
anapolis had 16,027 laborers, Evansville 6,815, Fort Wayne 5,644, South Bend 5,750, and Terre Haute 4,720. New Albany dropped out of the principal manufacturing cities during the nineties, chiefly be- cause its glass works were dismantled and moved to the gas belt. The use of gas in manufacturing had practically ceased by 1900. In that year 89 per cent. of the power was steam, 41/2 per cent. water and gas, and all other 61/2 per cent. Indiana still depended heavily on flour and meal, ranking sixth among the states in output, while in slaughter-house products it ranked fifth. In liquors it ranked fifth; in clay products, sixth ; in glass, second; its lumber industry was rapidly waning and it stood eighth; in the manu- facture of agricultural implements it was fifth; and in railroad cars, fourth.
A comparison of counties shows some sudden changes. Marion held still as easy lead, but Lake county had jumped into second place with more than half as much capital invested as Marion. St. Joseph almost equaled Lake, and Madison, the leading coun- ty of the gas belt, came forth with invested capital at $15,321,852. There was then a long step down to Vanderburg with $10,594,090; Allen, with $9,707,668, and Vigo, with $9,262,259.
There had been a decided change in the direction of the investment of capital. Carriage and wagon factories took the lead with a value of $17,718,489; iron and steel followed with $14,994,210; foundry and machine-shop products, $14,820,001; glass, $12,775,- 389; then came the old staples, saw and planing mills, $10,947,574 ; flour and grist mills, $10,734,544. How- ever, in the output there was little relative change. Slaughter-house products and meat led with $42,- 891,243; flour and meal followed with $30,150,766; lumber with $20,613,724; iron and steel, $19,338,481; foundry and machine-shop products with $17,228,-
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THE CHANGE
096; whisky, $16,961,058; glass, $14,757,883; and car- riages and wagons, $12,742,243. The glass manufac- ture employed the most men, 10,910; with car shops a close second, 10,246. The distilleries employed 1,020, and the slaughter-houses, 3,111. The greatest increase had come in the gas belt and in Lake county.9 However, the per cent. of increase was general throughout the state and the period of congestion had not been reached.
The Census of 1910 showed a development along the lines already started rather than any new depart- ures. The unnatural expansion due to the discovery of natural gas had run its course and a decline in the glass industry was the first and most apparent re- sult. The feature of the decade was the building of the industrial center on the coast of Lake Michigan. The meat-packing industry declined sharply in com- parison, as a result of the moving of the packing houses from Hammond.
The number of agricultural implement factories declined from 45 to 39, but the number of hands em- ployed increased from 3,957 to 6,061. In the auto- mobile industry there were 7,753 hands employed and a product worth $23,764,000 ; the brick and tile works employed 4,361 men; canning and preserving, 3,952 hands in 134 shops; the carriage and wagon busi- ness employed 10,100 hands, a loss of 500; the rail- road shops employed 13,745 hands; cement mills, 2,616 ; electrical machine shops, 3,723 ; flour and grist mills, 3,508; foundry and machine shops, 18,439; fur- niture and refrigerators, 12,352; glass works, 9,936, a decline of 3,612; iron and steel mills, 13,206; saw and planing mills, 12,840; stone mills, 3,811; potter- ies, 2,373; printing and publishing, 9,600; slaughter and packing houses, 4,862; and tobacco manufactor-
9 United States Census, of 1900.
1030
HISTORY OF INDIANA
ies, 3,416. These are by no means all the lines of manufacture carried on in the state, but only the ones employing most labor. The list shows the wide range of the state's industries and also that no one product can be said to characterize the state. The raw ma- terials for the factories, excepting the rolling mills, are the products of the state.
A similar list will show that the laboring class is well distributed over the state; of the 218,263 per- sons employed in factories in the state, Indianapolis has 37,929; South Bend, 13,609; Evansville, 10,162; Fort Wayne, 12,184, and Terre Haute, 5,159, leaving over half the laborers distributed pretty equally in the other cities and towns except Gary.
The total manufactured products of the state were valued at $579,075,046, or a per capita value of over $200 for its 2,700,876 people. Slaughter-house prod- ucts held the lead in value at $47,289,469; flour and meal products were valued at $40,541,422; foundry and machine-shop products at $39,883,774; and iron and steel from the rolling mills at $38,651,848. This high rating for slaughter-house products is account- ed for not by the increased output in the quantity of beef and pork, but by the enormously augmented prices. Forty-six other products each exceeded $1,- 000,000 in value.10
10 United States Census, of 1910. The following table shows the relation between the wage earners and the total population in the 25 largest cities :
Population Laborers
1910
1909
Products 1909
Indianapolis
233,650
31,815
$126,522,133
Evansville
69,647
8,997
22,929,024
Fort Wayne
63,933
10,298
23,686,809
Terre Haute
58,157
4,359
21,793,446
South Bend
53,684
11,789
27,854,527
Muncie
24,005
4,033
9,684,238
Anderson
22,476
4,393
13,764,933
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THE CHANGE
In 1850, broadly speaking, there were no cities in Indiana; there were only three wage earners out of every 200 of the population. In 1910 there were 1,- 145,000 persons living in cities of over 2,500 popula- tion, while seven out of each one hundred were wage earners. The wage earners in Indianapolis alone in 1910 exceeded the combined population of the three largest cities in 1850, while the wage earners of either Gary or South Bend now exceed in number those of the whole state in 1850. The army of wage earners that now goes out to the shops every morning exceeds by ten thousand all the soldiers who enlisted for the Civil war in Indiana. Through these shops and through the hands of these laborers pass practically all the raw materials produced in the state, excepting live stock. There were in 1910, 7,969 shops or factor- ies. The raw materials, as they went in, were worth $334,375,000; the finished products, as they came out, were worth $579,075,000. The wage earners received
Population Laborers
1910
1909
Products 1909
Richmond
22,324
3,621
10,373,837
Hammond
20,925
3,841
15,580,250
New Albany
20,629
1,910
3,492,530
Lafayette
20,081
1,660
5,541,966
Marion
19,359
2,269
4,442,116
Elkhart
19,282
3,010
6,932,065
East Chicago.
19,098
2,370
5,483,500
Logansport
19,050
2,169
4,201,369
Michigan City
19,027
2,887
8,289,579
Kokomo
17,010
2,051
5,451,441
Gary
16,802
....
Vincennes
14,895
1,233
4,233,574
Mishawaka
11,886
3,415
10,882,846
Elwood
11,028
2,073
8,407,550
Peru
10,910
619
1,097,156
Laporte
10,525
1,674
3,971,624
Jeffersonville
10,412
766
1,915,682
Huntington
10,272
1,376
2,227,558
.
1032
HISTORY OF INDIANA
$121,846,000. There were burned in the furnaces of these factories 16,800 tons of anthracite coal, 6,356, 825 tons of bituminous coal, 930,397 tons of coke, 65,780 cords of wood, 743,195 barrels of oil, and 1,- 247,053,000 feet of gas for fuel. There was invested in the business $508,717,000, an amount almost equal to the total product. Of the wage earners, 188,103 were men over sixteen years of age, 2,581 were boys under sixteen ; 26,548 were women over sixteen, and 1,031 were girls under sixteen. There were engaged in farming at this time, 344,454 men and women; in manufacturing and other mechanical pursuits, in- cluding such craftsmen as painters, paper hangers, plasterers, and plumbers, 310,402; in transportation, 75,711 ; in trade (merchandise), 99,676; in public ser- vice, 10,368; in professional service, 38,777; in do- mestic service, 84,452; and in clerical work, 38,570. These last statistics are given to complete the in- dustrial picture.
It is not necessary to point out the fact that the state has changed from a purely agricultural society in 1850 to a remarkably complex society in which the industrial elements are well-balanced in 1910. Such a state was in the mind of Alexander Hamilton when he argued for a protective tariff, and in the mind of Henry Clay when he outlined his American system. Whether it has been, or is now best for Indiana to devote part of its labor to the manufacture of its raw products into finished form or whether it would have been better to confine all efforts to the production of raw agricultural and mineral products is a question for politicians. The fact is, Indiana is a state with remarkably well diversified industry. The transition has produced great difficulties for the General As- sembly. The agricultural constitution of 1850 has been heavily burdened by the industrialism of the last three decades and no doubt but for legislative
1033
THE CHANGE
help from the federal government would have broken down before now.
From a more distant viewpoint the era is one of vast significance. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were an era of church legislation. Wars, politics, legislation and law courts were dominated by questions of church polity. The eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries were similarly occupied by questions of government and law, usual- ly called politics. Democracy was striving for po- litical and juridical expression. The political rights of classes, representation, political organization, elections, legal procedure, terms and powers of offi- cers were the popular topics in the forum. Liberty and equality were the watchwords.
Since the Civil war, in Indiana and the nation, questions of an industrial nature have occupied more and more of the thought of legislatures. The two traditional parties of the United States have differed on this subject from the beginning. The followers of Hamilton, Clay and Mckinley have favored aiding, controlling, restraining or regulating industry by governmental agencies. The followers of Jefferson and Jackson have regularly resolved in political con- ventions against all sumptuary laws. This party assumed that industry would spring up and be regu- lated according to natural or economic laws with which it was not necessary for statute law to inter- fere. This latter theory, since the Civil war, has gradually weakened until under the present national administration a program of industrial legislation more drastic than ever advocated by any party has been enacted. It is significant of the times that both parties, in apparently equal measure, have supported this program.
1034
HISTORY OF INDIANA
§ 190 INDUSTRIAL PARTIES
The work of the General Assembly in this field is of two kinds, statutes for the encouragement of in- dustry and statutes regulating industry. In the for- mer field the federal government has done more than the state. Most commerce in this country is inter- state and hence falls within the field of federal juris- diction.
The General Assembly of 1851, following the provisions of the new constitution, passed general incorporation laws under which, as variously amend- ed, almost all the corporations of this state act. This law provided that corporations be financed by the sale of stock, governed by a board of directors, from three to eleven in number, selected annually from the American stockholders. The directors were required to publish an annual statement of the financial condi- tion of the corporation and pay dividends only when the outstanding debts were less than three-fourths of the capital stock. Otherwise stockholders were liable individually to laborers for services rendered and to other debtors in an amount by each equal to the capi- tal stock owned.11 No legislation has been enacted by the General Assembly which can be said to encourage manufacture in the sense that a protective tariff is intended to do.
On the other hand a vast amount of legislation has had for its purpose the definition of rights and duties of employees and employers, of the conduct, condition and care of machines and shops, concern- ing the character and condition of the products, of the manner of its sale, the limitation and regulation of hours of service, the settlement of disputes over wages, regulation of prices and quality, prevention of accident and disease, the prevention of child labor,
11 Revised Statutes of Indiana, 1852, ch. LXVI.
1035
LABOR LEGISLATION
looking toward sanitation both in places of labor and in condition of output.
There have come to be recognized four parties in this great controversy, the capitalists, the laborers, the public, and the women and children. No definite line of division can be drawn separating these classes. In fact one person may belong to all four parties. The third party includes the other three and loses when either loses. However, legislation has taken its name usually from its intention to aid one of these parties more than another. It has often, perhaps usually, been wrongly assumed that an aid to one party must of necessity be an injury to some other. These parties variously represented have been the aggressive influences in the politics of the state since 1875. Just as the fight in the era of church legisla- tion was against the Catholic church for freedom of worship, and against royalty in the political era for political freedom and control, so it is said to be in this industrial era against capitalism for the eco- nomic freedom of the masses of laborers.
§ 191 LABOR LEGISLATION
One of the oldest trade unions in the United States is the Typographical. Local organizations of typesetters existed in Indiana many years before the Civil war. Delegates from local unions in many parts of the United States met at New York, December 2-5, 1850, and organized the national convention of jour- neymen printers. A well-known Indiana printer, George E. Greene, then of Louisville, helped found the organization.12 The railway employees organized during and soon after the Civil war; the engineers in 1863, the conductors in 1868, the firemen in 1873, the trainmen in 1883 and the American Railway union
12 George A. Tracy, History of the Typographical Union, 117.
1036
HISTORY OF INDIANA
under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs, of Terre Haute, was formed in 1893. This is but an example of the progress of organization in all fields of indus- try. From the army of miners down to the squads of chimney sweeps the laborers have organized. Nor are they peculiar in this, nor were they pioneers. The employers almost invariably led the way. Every industry from railroads down to barber shops is so organized under working agreements that competi- tion is in practice abandoned.
In September, 1885, representatives of some local trade unions met together in Indianapolis and or- ganized the Indiana Federation of Trade and Labor Unions, later known as the State Federation of Labor. This is claimed to be the oldest state federa- tion of labor in the United States. In a substantial way this organization corresponds to the State Agri- cultural society, the State Medical society, the State Bar association or the State Teachers' association. This organization through its legislative council has exerted a steady pressure on the General Assembly and the political parties for the betterment of labor conditions generally.13
In 1881 a law was passed limiting a day's work in cotton and woolen factories to ten hours for all per- sons under eighteen.14 In 1879 and 1881 the General Assembly provided for a mine inspector to examine
18 R. W. VanValer, The Indiana State Federation of Labor. The purpose of the organization is shown in the president's ad- dress :
"We have met here, then, to exert our efforts towards the amelioration of the conditions of all who labor; to bring about something like an equitable distribution of the wealth produced by labor; to shorten the hours of labor; to protect not only our rights as citizens, but to protect ourselves in life and limb in the various occupations which we are allotted to pursue." p. 4.
14 Laws of Indiana, 1881, ch. XXXVII, Sec. 215.
1037
LABOR LEGISLATION
scales, and see that all the provisions of a searching law governing mining, passed in 1879, were carried out.15 In 1897, this statute was broadened to include all manufacturing establishments. The same statute forbade the employment in such places of children under fourteen. The provisions of this law were to be enforced by a state factory inspector appointed by the governor.16
The question of the liability of employers for in- jury received by employees in the prosecution of their work has been before the legislature and the courts for many years. The courts had worked out an elaborate theory that all accidents were due to the negligence of some one. If the workman had con- tributed in any way the employer was not considered liable. Two laws were enacted by the General As- sembly of 1911 on this subject. The first made the employer liable for all accidents unless the latter could prove himself innocent of any negligence. The second statute of this same year specified the duties
15 Laws of Indiana, 1879, ch. X; 1881, ch. V.
16 Laws of Indiana, 1897, ch. LXV. This law is specific and rather drastic in the sense that most of its provisions should have been complied with by all manufacturers without legal compulsion. For a discussion of factory inspection in Indiana see manuscript by Charles E. Reed, ch. III ; see, also, S. W. Shaefer, Protective Labor Legislation in Indiana, ch. III.
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