clusive product. The diversity of the product has led to the
organization of great corporations, each of which controls half-a-dozen
or more plants, the transportation lines necessary to carry the product,
the ore quarries, and the fuel-mines.

The wonderful development of the steel industry in the United States is
due to the use of labor-saving machinery, and to the superb
organization. The wages paid for labor are higher than those paid in
European steel-making centres; the cost of living is not materially
greater. The price of steel rails, which in 1880 was forty-eight dollars
per ton, in 1900 was about twenty dollars per ton.

_Pittsburg_, together with _Homestead_, _Carnegie_, _McKeesport_,
_Duquesne_, and _Braddock_, is the chief steel-making centre of the Ohio
River Valley. There are also large plants at _New Castle_, _Sharon_,
_Scranton_, _Johnstown_, _Bellaire_, _Youngstown_, _Mingo Junction_, and
_Wheeling_. The steel-plant and rolling-mills at _South Bethlehem_ are
designed especially for the manufacture of the heavy ordnance used in
the army and navy. Nearly all the cities and towns of Pennsylvania, West
Virginia, and eastern Ohio carry on manufacturing enterprises that
depend on coal mining and steel manufacture. The great and diversified
manufactures of Philadelphia are due to its fortunate situation at
tide-water, near the coal-mines. Cheap fuel and water transportation
have made it one of the great industrial centres of the world.

The anthracite coal of this region is used wholly for fuel and
steam-making; it is shipped partly by water from Philadelphia, but
mainly in specially constructed cars to the various points of
consumption. The soft coal is used also for fuel and steam-making, but a
large part of the product is converted into coke and used in the
steel-plants.

The petroleum of this region is a leading export of the country, the
states of western Europe being the chief purchasers. Of agricultural
products, hay, dairy products, and tobacco are the only ones of
importance. Natural gas is used both as a fuel and in manufactures.

The lake-shore centre of steel manufacture depends largely on the low
cost of transporting the iron ore, which in part is offset by the
increased cost of coal. The low cost of shipping the manufactured
product over nearly level trunk lines is a very substantial gain. _South
Chicago_, _Toledo_, _Sandusky_, _Lorain_, _Cleveland_, _Ashtabula_,
_Conneaut_, _Erie_, and _Bu