ABSTRACT
American industry at the beginning of the century was centered in the Northeast, with New England and the Middle Atlantic states accounting for more than half the nation's manufacturing. An acceleration of migration to California was the basis for a rapid development of the manufacturing of consumer goods and of railroad repair shops. The most important migration ever experienced by a major branch of American industry took place during these years—the shift of the cotton goods industry from the cities of New England to the mill towns of the southern Piedmont. The percentage for the eastern district would have declined more but for the fact that the American Iron and Steel Institute includes Buffalo here rather than in the Great Lakes district, where economically and geographically it should be. The location of the industry was influenced mainly by raw material and power.
