USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 55
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It was not until 1811 that Jamestown, now the area's largest city, was founded and its first dam and sawmill were built. Olean, in Cattaraugus County, became important early because of its location at the navigable headwaters of the Allegheny River, down which thousands of immi- grants journeyed on their way to the Ohio Valley and points farther west. Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, was founded in 1805. Although the area was active in agriculture and trade, it did not become industrially sig- nificant until it was opened up by the building of the Erie Railroad. Another helpful influence in the industrial growth of the area were the supplies of natural gas and petroleum found within its boundaries. After 1865 a number of industries grew in size. Among these were furniture, machinery, fabricated metals, and processed food. The manufacture of durable goods has long preponderated and in the 1950's employs three- quarters of the manufacturing workers. With two of the principal pro-
515
A CENTURY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
duction centers of the area, Jamestown and Dunkirk, Chautauqua County has nearly two-thirds of all the manufacturing employees of the South- west Gateway.
Almost from its founding, Jamestown began to produce wooden cab- inets and other household articles of high quality. The fame of its work- manship brought this industry nation-wide markets, and Jamestown became the furniture-making capital of the East. As timber became more scarce, the manufacturers shifted largely to metal. Falconer, Mayville, Brocton, and Frewsburg-all in Chautauqua County-have furniture- manufacturing establishments.
Machinery, the second-ranking industry in the area, is, like furniture, concentrated in Chautauqua County, and the major center is Dunkirk. From 1851 to 1930 the building of locomotives was the top industry. Since the latter date there has been a shift from locomotives to industrial equipment. Jamestown, Olean, and Wellsville also turn out some ma- chinery. Almost all of the prefabricated metal manufacture is to be found in Chautauqua County, as also are the primary metal products.
Inasmuch as Chautauqua County is one of the nation's leading grape- producing areas, it is not surprising that grape juice, preserves, and jelly should rate high in the food-processing industry. Fruit and vegetable canning is also important. The area also manufactures some textiles, and the oil refineries at Olean and Wellsville produce some of the finest lubricating oils. The first New York oil well of importance was com- pleted at Wellsville in 1879. This led to the rapid development of the Allegany field, and by 1882 the annual production was almost 6,500,000 barrels. Thereafter production declined until shortly after World War I, when water flooding, a new technique of extracting petroleum, was introduced. In 1950 there were more than 20,000 producing wells in the state from which over 4,000,000 barrels of oil were produced. About three-quarters of this production comes from Allegany County; most of the rest from Cattaraugus County, and minor amounts from Chau- tauqua and Steuben counties. A miscellany of other products are manu- factured in the area.
VIII. The Binghamton Area: Counties-Broome, Chenango, Delaware, and Otsego
Although rich in fertile farmlands, the Binghamton area is one of the most industrialized regions of the state. Thirty-seven out of every one hundred persons in the labor force are employed in manufacture. The center of industrial activity, from the time the area was settled, has been located in its southwestern corner, in and around the "triple" cities of Broome County-Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City. Four-fifths of the area's manufacturing employees are in Broome County.
516
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
Binghamton, the oldest of the "triple" cities, was, during its first half century, an agricultural-trading center. Although prosperous from the beginning, it gained momentum economically when the Chenango Canal, connecting Binghamton with the Erie Canal at Utica, was completed in 1837. An even greater lift was given to the area when, in 1848, Binghamton was first linked to New York City by the Erie Railroad. Later, rail service was extended to Buffalo, Albany, Pennsylvania, and other in- dustrial sections. Not only did Binghamton flourish as a trading center, but it became the processing center for regional produce.
An important factor in Binghamton's development was its nearness to Pennsylvania's coal deposits. The coal supply led to the establish- ment in the mid-nineteenth century of the city's first iron foundry. At about the same time, the first shoe factory came into being, using leather made of hides from the local dairy herds. The lumber resources of the locality were the basis for a wood-working industry. Thereafter, not only Binghamton but the entire four-county area developed rapidly. In the 1950's approximately fifty thousand workers are employed by manu- facturing enterprises.
No less than 30 per cent of these are employed by leather firms, either tanners or the manufacturers of shoes. Although Binghamton is still the leading producer of leather footwear, the industry has overflowed to ad- joining communities-Johnson City (since 1890) and Endicott (since 1901). Norwich in Chenango County also has a shoe factory. Tanneries are operated locally by the shoe industry, and at Endicott there is a leather-welting plant.
Largely because the main plant of International Business Machines is located at Endicott, the machine industry is the area's second-ranking manufacture. Beginning at Endicott as a small tabulating machine enter- prise, IBM was consolidated in 1911 with several concerns in related fields and, under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, became one of the nation's giant corporations.
The manufacture of photographic equipment, books (Binghamton), and electrical equipment (Sidney), and the production of processed milk products such as cheese, ice cream mix, butter, and condensed milk are other important industries. Rubber firms, closely associated with shoe manufacturing, make rubbers, shower caps, baby pants, and rubber bags. Lumber plants turn out wooden heels for women's shoes.
IX. The Syracuse Area: Counties-Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onon- daga, Oswego
Geographically in the center of the state, this area has been bolstered by the constant improvements in transportation. The leading manufac- turing centers of the area today-Syracuse, Oswego, Fulton, Auburn, and
517
A CENTURY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
Cortland-had their beginnings during the last two decades of the eight- eenth century.
The production of salt was the region's first important industry, but it did not reach full stature until after the building of the Erie Canal. Before that time the marketing of salt-a bulky, weighty commodity- was costly, almost prohibitive for long distances. Other early manufac- tures suffered somewhat from the same handicap. With the building of the Erie Canal and the railroads, manufacturing strode rapidly forward. By 1865 it was evident that the area would center its attention primarily on the production of durable goods-machinery of various kinds, agri- cultural implements, office equipment, chemicals, and the like.
Today more than a third of the area's labor force are employed in manufacturing establishments. Onondaga County, in which Syracuse is located, accounts for two out of every three manufacturing workers in the area. The five leading industries of the area-machinery, electrical equipment, primary metals, food, and transportation equipment-are con- centrated in this county. Papermaking machinery and paper products, especially food containers, are centered in Oswego County, principally at Fulton and Oswego where raw material and waterpower are available.
The Syracuse area leads all upstate regions in the production of non- electrical machinery. Numerous products from Syracuse are known the world over, such as typewriters, household washing machines and ironers, and air-conditioning equipment. Other Syracuse manufactures include industrial heating and vacuum-cleaning equipment, can-making machin- ery, package conveyors and pneumatic tubes, industrial furnaces, and commercial laundry and dry-cleaning equipment.
Other cities of the Syracuse area also turn out machinery products. Auburn makes stationary marine and locomotive Deisel engines; Fayette- ville, dies and jigs; and Cortland, typewriters and adding and duplicating machines.
The electrical-goods industry ranks second in the Syracuse area. Here is located a huge General Electric plant which specializes in radio and electronics, producing transmitters, radio and television sets, and indus- trial electronics apparatus.
The largest plant in the primary metals group-third-ranking industry in the area-is at the Syracuse suburb of Geddes. It is famous for its pro- duction of stainless, tool, and speciality steels. Another notable factory in this locality makes its own steel, rolling and drawing it to turn out wire, wire cloth, wire netting, nails, and related products. Forgings are pro- duced at Syracuse and Cortland.
The food-processing industry obtains its materials from the area's farm- lands. Fulton is famous for its chocolate bars and chocolate candy coat- ings, and frozen foods. Syracuse produces cheese, ice cream, carbonated
518
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
beverages, and beer. Cortland has a long-established reputation for its meat products.
The transportation equipment industry produces aircraft engines and gears as well as a number of automotive items, buses, trucks, truck cabs, and accessories. Chlorine, manufactured by the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation, pharmaceuticals, textiles, chinaware, and cutlery are among the other important manufacturing enterprises of the area.
X. The Mid-Hudson Area: Counties-Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Or- ange, Putnam, Sullivan, Ulster
Prior to 1850 the products of the mid-Hudson area found a ready market in New York City, but as the metropolis expanded in population and economic activity, the industrial products of the area, especially its textiles, were less in demand. During the twentieth century the area has not kept pace industrially; it is today the least industrialized area of the state. Farming and the resort business, on the other hand, have in- creasingly flourished. Apparel production is the area's leading industry. Orange, Ulster, and Dutchess counties, in that order, are the principal producers. Within each there is considerable specialization of product. Newburgh, Middletown, Port Jervis, Walden, Kingston, Hudson, and Catskill are the chief manufacturing centers.
The area's machinery plants constitute its second-largest industry. With the recent opening of new branches of the International Business Ma- chines Corporation in Kingston and Poughkeepsie, this area has become increasingly important in the production of machinery. For a long time the city of Poughkeepsie has manufactured typewriters, dairy equipment, commercial refrigerators, and elevators. It was also for many years the home of Adriance Platt farm equipment until that concern was swallowed up by the International Harvester Company.
Other industries, some of them long established, are: textiles, which employ 16 per cent of the area's workers engaged in manufacturing; leather, concentrated for the most part in Newburgh; stone-clay-glass, with the major cement plants (Lehigh and Atlas ) in Columbia and Greene counties, brick firms in Columbia and Ulster, and a large glass company in Orange; printing, chiefly in Dutchess; food processors found prin- cipally in Orange, Dutchess, Ulster, and Columbia counties, are noted for their wines, canned fruits and vegetables, prepared meats, canned mush- rooms, and fruit flavors. Paper production, which includes paperboard products, tissues, towels, and other items, is also important.
XI. The New York Metropolitan Area: Counties-Those comprising New York City plus the four suburban counties, Nassau, Rockland, Suf- folk, and Westchester
519
A CENTURY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
New York City, with its four suburban counties, is the nation's foremost manufacturing center, and it leads the rest of the state in well over half of the manufactures listed in Table 13. For more than a century manu- facturers have been attracted to this area by its huge, concentrated mar- kets, its ample pool of labor, its superb location for the export trade, its fine wholesaling facilities, and the variety of its business services.
The New York area manufacturing is characterized by its diversity and its emphasis on nondurables. No other area in the state has such an array of manufactures. The manufacture of apparel is the area's leading indus- try. Printing and publishing, one of the area's oldest industries, ranks second. Nowhere in the nation are there to be found so many great printing houses, so many daily newspapers, so many business, trade, and professional journals and periodicals. A seemingly unending stream of books and technical materials are turned out annually by the city's presses. In 1900 no less than 81.5 per cent of the newspaper and periodical manu- facturing business and 77.9 per cent of the book and job products of the state were located in New York City.
A wide range of industries labeled "miscellaneous" employed almost 8 per cent of the area's manufacturing employees in 1950. The variety of products is only suggested by the following list: artificial flowers, but- tons, musical instruments, athletic equipment, smoking pipes, hairpins, buckles, brushes, life preservers, mannikins, dolls, and fire extinguishers. Of every five persons employed in the miscellaneous category, three work in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. The manufacture of precious jewelry and silverware, of toys and sporting goods, and of pencils and other office supplies is also large.
Food processing was the earliest of New York City's major industries. Sugar refining is largely concentrated here. Bakery products, beverages, confectionary, meat products, and canned goods are also important food- processing industries. A wide array of fabricated metals are produced, chiefly in Brooklyn. Leather, textiles, chemicals, and machinery also rank high on the list of New York City's manufactures. In the manufacture of all of these products the borough of Brooklyn has especially been prom- inent. In 1880, for example, it was the nation's second-ranking city in the production of chemicals. Even today it remains the location of E. R. Squibb and Sons, Mckesson and Robbins, Charles Pfizer and Company, the New York Quinine and Chemical Works, and other important phar- maceutical concerns. Paints and varnishes and other chemicals are pro- duced in this borough on a large scale.
Of the area's suburban counties, Nassau and Suffolk have witnessed during the last half century the coming of a giant aircraft industry, the world's largest book-publishing plant, and large electrical-machinery and scientific-instrument manufacturing concerns.
Table 15. Manufacturing establishments in New York State by county and size, March 1950.
Employees
County
No. of estab- lishments
No. of employees
0-3
4-7
8-19
20-49
50-99
100-249
250-499
500 or more
Albany
347
20,426
82
54
75
52
37
27
14
6
Alleghany
61
2,954
23
14
4
10
5
1
2
2
Broome
214
35,962
54
33
42
22
22
16
11
14
Cattaraugus
132
8,697
30
20
29
22
13
11
4
3
Cayuga
105
9,320
28
15
26
12
8
6
3
7
Chautauqua
273
20,507
59
46
49
39
26
36
8
10
Chemung
95
13,400
22
12
20
15
8
7
4
7
Chenango
71
3,079
18
18
12
4
10
7
1
I
Clinton
46
2,858
11
7
10
9
2
3
2
2
Columbia
76
4,258
13
9
16
17
8
8
5
0
Cortland
84
4,804
25
12
10
14
10
8
4
1
Delaware
58
3,421
16
12
11
11
3
3
0
2
0
Dutchess
194
14,303
54
24
27
36
24
16
5
Erie
1,436
127,185
374
223
309
214
117
107
40
52
Essex
64
1,822
21
20
6
11
1
4
1
Franklin
67
1,688
26
16
8
9
3
3
2
0
Fulton
277
8,416
75
54
53
41
32
19
3
0
Genesee
75
5,522
18
12
15
9
7
8
3
3
Greene
46
1,473
14
12
3
9
3
4
1
0
Hamilton
10
147
4
2
1
2
1
0
0
0
Herkimer
96
10,811
19
11
14
19
14
12
2
5
Jefferson
114
6,024
37
16
26
7
8
17
1
2
Lewis
48
1,719
16
9
7
4
7
4
1
0
Livingston
47
2,547
8
10
12
7
2
5
2
1
Madison
51
1,491
20
8
6
10
3
4
0
0
Monroe
871
94,936
225
113
205
152
62
49
27
38
Montgomery
106
14,365
23
17
23
14
15
7
3
4
Nassau
605
39,749
206
111
130
93
26
27
5
7
8 0500
Niagara
273
41,884
59
31
48
39
32
31
15
18
Oneida
326
30,457
93
53
59
40
27
27
12
15
Onondaga
513
51,093
122
83
103
90
41
35
19
20
Ontario
93
4,456
26
10
17
21
5
10
3
1
Orange
276
14,685
59
42
36
50
47
34
6
2
Orleans
41
1,778
8
7
10
8
4
2
2
0
Oswego
109
8,735
32
12
21
15
10
12
3
4
Otsego
65
1,473
26
10
11
9
5
4
0
0
Putnam
14
279
4
3
2
4
1
0
0
0
Rensselaer
193
14,997
61
23
33
25
17
20
9
5
Rockland
127
8,916
39
8
22
28
14
8
5
3
St. Lawrence
93
7,929
27
16
20
7
15
9
6
4
Saratoga
105
7,814
33
15
16
7
15
9
6
4
Schenectady
124
37,097
33
18
26
8
3
13
11
12
Schoharie
23
648
10
4
3
3
0
3
0
0
521
Schuyler
20
972
8
2 2
4
2
0
3
1
0
Seneca
39
2,667
13
9
3
6
2
3
1
2
Steuben
100
12,062
25
15
27
10
9
10
2
2
Suffolk
307
7,102
102
63
63
52
15
8
2
2
Sullivan
68
504
38
15
5
9
1
0
0
0
Tioga
41
1,587
4
12
10
7
3
4
1
0
Tompkins
58
4,416
19
8
14
7
4
2
1
3
Ulster
205
7,547
54
26
36
51
21
13
3
1
Warren
88
4,259
24
17
17
14
5
5
5
1
Washington
80
3,825
25
16
12
5
11
6
5
0
Wayne
86
3,554
27
15
17
13
6
6
1
1
Westchester
990
45,145
244
164
222
200
85
50
14
11
Wyoming
44
2,866
7
9
7
4
8
7
1
1
Yates
28
863
8
3
8
5
3
0
1
0
New York City
39,886
993,855
11,147
7,027
10,043
7,574
2,579
1,121
247
148
New York State
50,130
1,788,912
13,916
8,657
12,068
9,184
3,458
1,874
540
433
522
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
The two other suburban counties-Westchester and Rockland-were primarily devoted to agriculture during the greater part of the nineteenth century. With improved transportation these counties became highly resi- dential-an area of wealthy families, suburban estates, and gentlemen farmers. It was not until World War I that industry in either county made any appreciable advance. Even in 1950 the Westchester-Rockland dis- trict was one of the least industrialized of the state's regions, with but one worker in manufacturing out of every five persons employed in the district. One out of every three manufacturing employees of the two counties works in either the needle trades or the textile field. The apparel makers are employed in small shops which sprang up during the closing years of the nineteenth century. Approximately two-thirds of the textile workers were employed in the Alexander Smith carpet factory in Yonkers prior to its removal in the early 1950's.
Rockland County is important for manufacture of chemicals, Pearl River being the home of the largest plant in the world for the production of penicillin, aureomycin, and several hundred other biologicals and pharmaceuticals. Other products of the chemical industry manufactured in the district include cosmetics, paints, pigments, and dyestuffs. Ma- chinery, including electrical equipment, is manufactured in a number of Westchester cities. One of the largest plants of the Otis Elevator Com- pany, world's foremost producer of elevators, is located in Yonkers. Food processing and printing are also growing industries, especially in West- chester.
Irrespective of economic area two developments affecting the state's manufactures during the last three-quarters of a century deserve brief mention: (1) shift in location and (2) concentration. Some industries have moved out of the state entirely. Thus, the Victory Mills Manufac- turing Company, a cotton textile concern, moved to Alabama to benefit from nearness of raw material and lower labor costs. Similarly the Union Bag and Paper Company shifted from New York to the South. Shifts have also occurred as a result of industrial combination and concentration. In the process, small plants have been abandoned or have moved to more favorable locations within the state. For example, seventy years ago each of the half-dozen villages along the banks of the Kayderross, a small river which empties into Saratoga Lake, boasted at least one manufac- turing plant, in addition to gristmills and sawmills. Middle Grove had two papermills, Rock City Falls had two paper and one pulp and paper- mill, Milton Center a tannery, West Milton a papermill, Bloodville an ax and scythe factory, and Ballston Spa a tannery and two papermills. Of all these, only the two papermills at Rock City Falls remain. More- over, shifts are being made from highly congested urban centers to sub-
523
A CENTURY OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISE
urbs or to rural locations. A number of reasons ( including fear of bombing in the event of war) motivate this third type of shift.
Industrial concentration has deeply affected manufacturing enterprise in both state and nation. The rapid expansion of American industry after the Civil War produced a corresponding increase in competition. Price wars resulted, and sometimes industry was compelled to operate at a loss. Consequently, a growing number of business leaders not only con- demned competition as inefficient and wasteful but sought means to control it. There was a steady trend toward combination and concentra- tion until, by 1914, the control of a large segment of American industry was in the hands of a relatively few individuals and corporations. In- deed, by the first decade of the twentieth century there were few branches of American industry that had not been affected by the con- solidation movement.
With the exception of a few manufacturing enterprises, notably the apparel industry, the industries of New York did not escape the con- centration process. Sugar refining and other parts of the food industry, the production of electrical equipment, chemicals, transportation equip- ment, pulp and paper, agricultural machinery, the manufacture of air- craft, as well as many other leading New York industries as they operate today are the product of combination and concentration.
Despite this move toward concentration there are still many hundreds of small independent manufacturing establishments in New York State as Table 15 indicates.
New York is the manufacturing leader of the Union. It can boast rich natural resources, an outstanding production plant, and a highly skilled working population. Since the Civil War a productive mechanism has been developed capable of turning out goods and services in abun- dance. The state as well as the nation has yet to discover how to bridge the gap between our productive capacity and the consumptive ability of our people. In other words, the means of distributing the products of our farms and factories is still ineffective.
Chapter 37
Changing Status of Labor
For after all, economic radicalism arises neither from a merely stupid desire for more material goods, nor from an intellectual adherence to a particular formula of industrial organization. It arises from the desire to be free, to achieve dignity and inde- pendence. Poverty is distressful not so much because of its physical hardships as because of its spiritual bond- age .- GEORGE SOULE, 1921
THE growth of manufacturing and service industries and the expansion of commerce in New York State between 1865 and the mid-twentieth century was accompanied by a fundamental change in the social and eco- nomic status of its labor force. The nature of this change and of the forces responsible for bringing it about are considered in this chapter. Spe- cifically to be covered are: the size and changing composition of the working population; the status of labor prior to the Industrial Revolu- tion; labor's quest for economic security and social well-being through unionization and collective bargaining and protective legislation; govern- ment control and inspection; and machinery for adjusting disputes be- tween management and labor.
Since the close of the Civil War, New York has been blessed with a constantly increasing and competent labor supply. In addition to the native-born element, New York City was the port of entry of those armies of immigrants who poured into America prior to the restriction of immi- gration in the 1920's. A large percentage of these newcomers did not go beyond the boundaries of New York City and its immediate environs. And of those who did, many settled in upstate urban communities. Even as late as 1940 in the economic areas heavily engaged in manufacturing as, for example, the Niagara Frontier, the Rochester and Syracuse areas, and the capital district, the percentage of the foreign born in the labor force varied from 10 to almost 20 per cent. Earlier the percentage would have been much higher. Another increasingly important factor was a shift
524
525
CHANGING STATUS OF LABOR
of many agricultural workers to urban communities. Availability of jobs was also a magnet attracting workers into the state from other parts of the country. Finally, and very important, has been increased employ- ment of women and children (though employment of the latter has been sharply restricted during the last half century). In 1950 women workers represented 31 per cent of all employed persons in the state. Although this percentage is somewhat lower than at the peak produc- tion years of World War II, as the accompanying table indicates, it is much higher than for 1900. The percentage for New York State has usually been a little higher than that for the country as a whole.
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