A WEEKLY
JOURNAL
OF
CHEERFULNESS
Printed primarily for people
who took upon life cheerfully and
hopefully. Also for people mho
ought to do so. The promoter of
all good things and good people,
of which first Nebraska is chief
and of which second Kebraskans
are mostly.
DOLLAR A YEAR
VOLUME 8
WHAT THE MANUFACTURING
The future of Nebraska as a manu
facturing state is worthy of consider
ation. Within memory of Nebraskans
who have not yet reached middle
age it was deemed utterly impossible
for Nebraska ever to be any other
than an agricultural or cattle raising
state. And time was when he who
prophesied that Nebraska would ever
be an agricultural state was laughed
at. That was when cattle raising ap
peared to be the only industry that
possibly could be made profitable in
Nebraska.
But we have seen the cattlemen
giving way before the homesteader,
until today not only is Nebraska one
of the great beef producing states,
but is one of the greatest producers
of agricultural products. "While we
have been developing the agricultural
without lessening the cattle industry,
though changing its form, we have
also been engaging more and more in
manufacture. But so greatly have we
been engrossed in the agricultural
that, we have taken little note of the
really wonderful strides forward of
our manufacturing industries. These
industrial establishments have now
reached such size and numbers that
they demand our attention. Not only
that, they bid us pause and take
stock of Nebraska's opportunities for
a further development of these indus
tries. The average man, he who has not
given the subject study, will advance
two reasons which, to him, are suf
ficient to explain why Nebraska can
not become a great manufacturing
state the absence of a local fuel sup
ply and distance from what he deems
the market. The best answer to this
is that we have already builded man
ufacturing institutions that turn out
products worth upwards of $300,000,
000 a year, and that they have found
their ready market.
The power question is easily solved
not so quickly, of course, as in a
section where coal is to be mined,
but yet solved. Any Nebraska city
that boasts of an electric lighting sys-
" tern has the solution of the power
question close at hand. The same ma
chinery that lights the city at night
may be used to turn the city's indus-
' trial wheels during the day. Thus
we have the strange spectacle af
forded us iu Omaha and Lincoln of
electric power being furnished as
- cheap or cheaper as in Chicago, Pitts
burg or Boston. This power will be
even cheaper when we have harnessed
the waters of the riatte. the Niobrara,
' the Blue and the Loup rivers, togeth-
er with numerous smaller streams.
The raw material question is al
ready solved for in Nebraska and
contiguous states we produce the raw
material from which to manufacture
practically everything we need, save
only cotton goods. The bulk of the
wool produced in the United States
is produced west of the Mississippi
river. The bulk of the hides from
which leather is made is produced
west of the Mississippi river. Today
u-e are shipping all that wool and
all those hides, in bulk, to the At
lantic coast to be converted into the
finished product, and then we are
transporting it back to where the raw
material originated. This is an eco
nomic waste. Again, w ship our
cereals east in bulk, then bring back
the finished product in the shape of
breakfast foods, starches, etc. Thus
is the economic waste intensified.
Until Nebraska tanneries tan every
hide produced in Nebraska; until
Nebraska workers convert every
tanned hide into shoes and harness and
other leather goods; until Nebraska
wheat is all milled in Nebraska mills;
until Nebraska cereal factories convert
our cereals into breakfast foods and
starches and kindred products until
Nebraska factories, manned by Ne
braska wage earners, are converting
Nebraska raw material into the fin
ished product until then we have
A SECTION OF THE UNION STOCK YARDS AT SOUTH OMAHA, NEBRASKA
The Third Largest Live Stock Market in the World. Here is gathered the "raw material"
for the largest and most important of Nebraska's Industrial establishments.
not grasped the manufacturing oppor
tunities that nature has placed ready
to our hands. .
Few put their fingers upon the
weak spot in the manufacturing sit
uation today. We have the raw ma
terial, we have the market facilities,
we have comparatively cheap power.
What. then, is the reason we are not
making even greater strides in manu
facturing? The answer is labor.
Heretofore the labor market has been
insufficient. We have been develop
ing farms, building houses doing a
hundred and one things that fur
nished employment outside of the
four grim walls of a factory. But
we have progressed to the point
where there is a quicker response
to the demand for factory labor. We
have filled up the other avenues of
employment, and now labor must, per
force, turn to the factory. It is true
that labor is not so plentiful, nor so
cheap, as in the congested districts
of the east, nor will it be for many
years to come. But it will be more
profitable because under western con
ditions the workers will turn out
more work because they will be
healthier, work in better surroundings
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 15,
FUTURE OF
and live better in every way. It is
not the cheapest labor that is always
the most profitable to the employer.
Indeed, it seldom is. Employers are
finding this out every day.
Jlere, then, is the situation:
Nebraska has an abundance of the
raw material and can raise more and
more as the demand increases.
Nebraska has comparatively cheap
power now, and there is close at hand
cheaper power and plenty of it the
streams of the state.
Nebraska is located in the center of
the country, with unusually good
shipping facilities.
Cold statistics prove that a dollar
invested in manufacturing in Ne
braska pays a better return than
a doller invested in any other state
west of the Allegheney mountains.
Nebraska raises the raw material
that is made into most of the staple
products that the world must have.
There is no reason why Nebraskans
should not be converting their own
raw material into the finished product,
paying Nebraska homeowners the
wages for the work and thus building
up a prosperous commonwealth.
Will Maupin's Weekly makes this
prediction: In a period of time,
measuring from this day, that saw
this state emerge from the desert
stage into one of the greatest agri
cultural states of the Union, we shall
see Nebraska manufactures achieve
a growth equal to the marvelous agri
cultural growth of whieh we right
fully boast. We shall see such cities
as Omaha, South Omaha. Lincoln, Be
atrice. Hastings. Grand Island. Kear
ney, Fremont, and a score of others,
great manufacturing centers, rich,
prosperous and happy.
It is not an irridescent dream! Al
ready the finished products of Ne
braska manufacturing; establishments
1911
NEBRASKA PROMISES TO BE
are selling on the market for almost
one-half as much as the raw agricul
tural products we produce. This is
a stupendous fact to which we have
given too little attention. During
this good year of 1911 Nebraska will
produce approximately $500,000,000
of agricultural and live stock wealth.
The sum is too big for the human
mind to grasp. But during the same
period of time our manufacturing
establishments will turn out approxi
mately 300,000,000 worth of finished
products.
Nebraska is and always will be, of
course, an agricultural state. But its
population even now is not one-half
agricultural. There are more, people
in Nebraska earning a living apart
from the farms than there are people
earning a living on the farms. Less
than one-half of Nebraska's popula
tion lives outside of cities, towns and
villages. The further development of
agricultural Nebraska hinges largely
upon the development of industrial
Nebraska.
MANUFACTURING FACTS.
There are upwards of 2,500 indus
trial establishments in Nebraska em
ploying two or more people.
Upwards of $125,000,000 is invested
SELLS
THE BEST
1528
A MERRY HEART
DOETH GOOD
LIKE
MEDICINE
But a broken spirit drieth the
bones. That's what the Good
Book says, and we'll bank on it,
sure. Who- Macpin's Weekly
works to make cheerful the hearts
of its readers, and thus do medi
cal duty. Fifty-two consecutive
weekly doses for a dollar.
GUARANTEED
NUMBER 38
Nebraska at the-present time, and th
amount is being added to dally.
Wages paid to Nebraska workers
in Nebraska industrial plants average
more than $100,000 a day the year
'round.
During 1911 the industrial estab
lishments of Nebraska, of all kinds,
will turn out finished products worth
on the market upwards of $275100,
000.
Nebraska's meat paeking industry,
the third largest in the world, employs
upwards of 8,000 people, converts
annually $90,000,000 worth of raw
material into $125,000,000 worth of
finished product, for the making of
whieh $7,000,000 is paid in wages.
Nebraska's butter industry is fam
ous the world over" Nebraska boast
ing tie largest creamery company in
the world, with the largest creamery
plant in the world.
The milling industry in Nebraska,
already of great magnitude, is increas
ing by leaps and bounds. In 1911
Nebraska mills will turn out milled
products worth more than $11,000,000.
One of the largest beet sugar mills
in the world, now in the midst of its
first campaigners SfSeoftsblufF, Ne
braska. The largest railroa-I motor ear
works in the United States is located
at Omaha.
The -second largest rmelting plant
in the United States is at Omaha.
The two largest fraternal insurance
orders in the world the Modern
Woodmen of America and the Wood
men of the World were born in Ne
braska. The Modern Woodmen se
lected a Nebraska man as their ebief.
The Woodmen of the World maintain
headquarters in Omaha, and is build
ing a twenty-story headquarters build
in r that will cost a million dollars.
Practically all the supplies for the
Woodmen of the World are made in"
Omaha.
One of the largest windmill and
pump factories in the world is lo
cated at Beatrice, Nebraska.
The largest independent eraeker
faetory in the United States, the Iten
Biscuit Co., is located in Omaha, with
branches in St. Joseph, Sioux City
and Kansas City.
The Brewing industry in Nebraska
represents $3,400,000 of invested capi
tal, employs upwards of 1.200 people,
paya wages approximating $1,000,000
a year and turns out an annual pro
duct approximating &L50O.00O in
value.
The largest German weekly news
is published at Lincoln the Lincoln
paper published in the United Stales
postage paid. 1
UNCLE SAM SAYS Z
GEO. W. VOSS CO J
COAL
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LINCOLN"
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