OMAHA THE METROPOLIS
Two hundred millions nine hundred
and sixty-eight thousand dollars was
the value of the finished product
turned out by Omaha and South
Omaha factories in 1910, according to
figures carefully collected by the bureau-
of publicity and promotion of
the Commercial Club of Omaha, with
the fullest co-operation of the manu
facturers themselves Individual firm
figures were given by the heads of
these firms with the understanding
that the individual statements would
be destroyed and only the totals used.
Practically every manufacturing firm
in the two cities made a statement of
its business, the result being totals for
the various lines of manufacture as
nearly correct as human effort can
make them. The bureau is now at
work on figures for 1911, and the com
pilation, as far as made, indicates that
the total value of manufactured pro
ducts for the year will be" $210,000,
000 to $220,000,000.
For purposes of comparison to show
growth, however, the 1910 figures can
better be used than those for 1911, for
the last published United States cen
sus report was takeu in 1905 and the
comparison with 1910 figures will
show the growth for five years An
other federal census was taken in 1910,
but the results have not been pub
lished as yet.
In 1905, according to census figures,
the value of Omaha's manufactured
product was $54,003,704 and that of
South Omaha's. $67,415,177, the total
for the two being $121,413,S81. The
Commercial club's figures for 1910 show
an increase over these figures of $79,
549.119, or over 65 per cent. This is
not phenomenal ; it is merely a sane,
steady growth. It is no boom that
will be demolished by the slightest
financial depression; it is conservative
development that will continue indefi
nitely. What does $200,968,000 in manufac
tured products meant A better idea
than the one derived from the bare
figures $200,968,000 may be derived
from a comparison of these figures
with those representing the total pro
duction of well-known crude products
for the entire country. Take, for ex
ample, the total annual production of
the gold mines of the United States
and Alaska. It was $99,232,000 in
1909. The manufactured product of
the two Omahas beat this by over a
hundred million dollars. Or take the
total production of the copper mines
of the United States and Alaska for
1909, the last figures obtainable. It
was $145,451,207. Omaha's manufac
tured product in 1910 went ahead of
this by considerably more than $54,
000,000. Nor does John D. Rockefel
ler own everything in the United
States, by any means. The total value
f all the crude petroleum produced
in the United States in 1909 was
114,390,000. or about $86,000,000 less
than the value of the annual output
of Omaha's factories. Xor yet does
the steel trust own everything. The
production of iron in the United
States in 1909 was valued at $95,556,
364, or less than half of Omaha's an
nual manufactured product. Omaha's
production of finished articles is also
nearly four times the value of the
annual output of sugar for the entire
United States; more than twice the
value of the country's tobacco crop;
more than seven times the annual sil
ver production of the country; more
than three times the value of the
country s annual production of lead
and sine; as much as the annual pro
duction of bituminous coal of Penn
sylvania, Colorado and Wyoming cont
ained and more than the annual pro-
8
duction of Pennsylvania's anthracite
mines.
Omaha is the big manufacturing city
of Nebraska, and Nebraska, be it
known, manufactures more goods each
year than any state which touches her,
except Missouri, more goods than any
state west of the Missouri river, exeept
California, more goods than any south
ern state, except Missouri and Mary
land, and more goods than Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont or Delaware, in
the manufacturing section of the east.
According to the government census
of 1905, the production of Omaha and
South Omaha manufactured products
amounted to nearly SO per cent of that
of the entire state, the total value for
the state being $154,918,220 and the
value for the Omahas being $121,418,
881. It is probable that the ratio
of increase sinee 1905 has been as
great, if not greater, in Omaha than
in the rest of the state, and that the
value of 1910 manufactures, which
ran to over $200,000,000 in Omaha,
were about $250,000,000 for the state.
The latest report of the Nebraska
state bureau of statistics gives the
1910 production of "the companies
reporting" as only $150,108,620. Note
the phrase, "the companies reporting.'
The state bureau, with limited finances
has nothing like the facilities of the
federal government for getting at the
manufacturing statistics of the state,
nor has it facilities to compare with
those of the Commercial Club of
Omaha for getting at the manufaetur-
A SECTION
ing statistics of Omaha and South
Omaha, which eontain the bulk of the
state!s manufactures. Only 950 es
tablishments reported to the state bu
reau for 1910, while the government
census for 1905, five years previous,
showed 1,819 manufacturing concerns
in the state.
A trifle less than one-fifth of the
total number of factories in the state
in 1905 were in the Omahas. but they
were the big ones, the capital invested
in them amounting to $55,122,000, as
compared with $25,113,000 for the
rest of the state. In 1909 and 1910,
factories were added to Omaha's list
at the rate of fifty a year, though this
year there were not so many. Some
of the new additions were large, most
of them small, but taken all together,
it is probable that there are in Omaha
and South Omaha alone about 500
1 1
Msg
10
E. V. PARRISH
Manager Department of Publicity ax d Promotsoa
Omaha Commercial Club.
factories. They employ between 15,
000 and 20,000 persons. This wide
range of estimate is given because sta
tistics on the number of men employed
have not been gathered in the same
manner as the figures on the annual
output, so the best that can be done
is to make an estimate. In 1905, by
government census, there were 13,325
wage earners and salaried clerks em
ployed in the manufacturing plants
of the two cities, and $8,443,493 was
paid out in wages and salaries.
Omaha manufacturers have, at the
IN THE WHOLESALE DISTRICT
REPRESENTATIVE CMAEA BUSINESS
MEN
1 C. H. Picktr.s. Gen'i Mgr. of
Paxton & Gallagher Co.
2 W. H. Bucholz, Vice Pres.
Omaha National Bank
3 C. N. Wilhelm, Treas.
Orchard & Wilhelm Co.
4--G. E. Haverstick, Chairman Exec
utive Committee, Commercial Club
5 A. C. Smith, Pres. of
SI. E. Smith & Co.
6 J no. M. Guild, Commissioner of
Commercial Club
7 T. C. Byrne. Pres. of Byrne &
Hammer Dry Goods Co.
8 C. B. Dugdale, Ass't Cashier
Merchants National Bank
9 W. H. Rhoades, Cashier
United States Nat'l Bank
10 L. S. Ambler, Vice Pres.
F. H. Orcutt & Son
11 David Cole, President of
: Commercial Club
- iv ' "
i v
OF NEBRASKA
11
present writing, approximately $5,
000,000 invested in lands and $10,
000,000 in buildings ; South Omaha man
ufacturers have approximately $1,000,
000 invested in lands and $5,000,000
in buildings. The total for the two
cities is just about the amount that
all the manufacturers of the state had
invested in buildings and lands in
1905.
A detailed list of Omaha's manufac
tures would fill two or three pages of
printed matter, running from alfalfa
feed down to whips, alphabetically,
and from a motor car down to a but
ton, in size. By far the biggest fac
tory among them is the packing
house industry, its value in manufac
tured output for 1910 being $126,500,
000, almost equal to the combined
value of the corn and wheat crops of
the state for that year, and just $12,
000.000 more than the value of crude
petroleum produced in the United
States in 1909.
" Twenty-seven years ago the Union
Stock Yards company was organized
and started the task of building a
great livestock market among the hills
and hollows away out on the prairie,
south of Omaha. The market met ex
pectations and more, and today the
city is built up to and all around the
stock yards and packing houses. Many
years ago Omaha became the third pri
mary stock market and the third larg
est packing center in the world. She
jumped to the front as the world's
second sheep market in 1908, when
OF OMAHA
2,105.949 head of sheep were received
and half of that number were turned
into mutton. Still enjoying the dis
tinction of second sheep market of the
world in all respects, and being the
greatest market in the world for feed
ers and range sheep, the market gained
new honors this year by the estab
lishment of a new high record for a
year's business. Total receipts of all
livestock for 1910 were 6,132,451 head,
of which 3,746,454 head were packed.
This year it is estimated that Decem
ber 31 will see very close to 6,500,000
head of live received and sold on the
South Omaha market for the year. In
all probability this will erowd the
market very dose to second place
among the world's live stock marts.
The local sheep market has been a
sruree of marvel to competitors and a
source of satisfaction to those who
many years ago made flattering predic
tions for the development of that de
partment In 1910 the number of sheep
received was 2,954,870, an increase of
817,856 head over any previous year,
which was looked upon as a phenome
nal showing. This record, however,
has been equalled again this year.
By reason of its accessibility and its
position as the natural gateway be
tween the stoek producing west and
the consuming east, the pioneers of
the market looked upon Omaha as the
logical location for one of the big live
stock markets Their hope and judg
ment have been justified and the de
velopment of the west and enormous
increase in the live stoek industry of
the west have emphasized the import
ance of the location as the years have
passed. The railroads from Omaha to
the west reach out into the great Eve
stoek district like the ramifications of
a spider web; from Omaha to the east
they run in direct line to all the big
centers of distribution Omaha is the
natural point for turning the live ani
mal into the finished product. As to
the facilities of the market, a represen
tative of the South Omaha Live Stoek
exchange put it aptly in an article
for the official program of the Na
tional Wool Growers association in
Omaha in December, in whieh he said:
"With stoek yards facilities of the
best that modern construction affords,
the equal of which cannot be found
elsewhere, furnishing ample accommo
dations for 5,000 horses, 20,000 cattle,
30,000 hogs "and 100,000 sheep; with
mammoth plants of the Armours, Cud
ahys, Omaha and Swifts, whieh are
among the largest in the world, aug
mented by six smaller packing con
cerns, creating a demand for more
than five million head of cattle, hogs
and sheep annually; with an outlet for
the feeder kinds of cattle and sheep,
and grades whieh do not come up to
requirements of the packer buyers,
whieh has no equal in the entire coun
try ; and with a territory tributary to
it which is unlimited in its possibili
ties; the South Omaha market has all
the advantages and qualifications nec
essary to insure continuous growth"
- - Next - greatest industry in point of
- the value of produet is that of the
American Smelting Refining com
pany, said to be the biggest refinery
for precious metals in the world, in
which the annual output runs from
$28,000,000 to $40,000,000 In this
plant about 1,200 persons are em
ployed .
Omaha, with four giant creameries,
whieh draw their raw material from
all over Nebraska and Western Iowa,
is the largest butter producing eity in
the world The value of the 1910 pro
duct was $4,790,000 and that of the
1911 output will prove greater. Oma
ha butter has a reputation for quality
amonf the big markets of the east and
is much in demand at a high price
The city turns out soap to the value
of about $3,500,000 a year, beer and
brewery products to the value of con
siderably over $4,000,000, elothing to
the value of over $200,000, flonr and
mDl products to the value of about
$2,500,000, liquors to the value of
$3,500,000, bags and bag factory pro
ducts to the value of nearly $2,000,000,
cars and locomotive repairs to the
value of over $200,000, railway mo
tor ears to the value of about $1,25V
000. Art glass, incubators, cans,
breakfast foods, automobiles, artifi
cial limbs, bread, tile, ehemieals, cigars,
crackers, live stock dip, candy, gloves,
ice eream, jewelry, mattresses, monu
ments, pasteurizers, road graders,
stoves, boots and shoes, syrups, um
brellas, vuleanizers, washing machines.
A