OCR Text |
Show apparent that if this outward flow is to be stemmed, the economy of the basin needs to be diversified. Recent trends in manufacturing.-Since before World War II, there have been some signs of added diversification through expanded manufacturing employment. Since 1939 manufacturing employ- ment has increased more rapidly in 8 of the 10 basin States than the national rate. Only North Dakota and Wyoming, (with 33 percent increases) lagged behind the national rate of 53 percent. However, the other two northernmost States of the basin, Montana and South Dakota, had abso- lute gains of only 5,000 and 1,000 manufacturing employees respectively. Even after the gains from 1939 to 1947, the 10 basin States as a group had only some 700,000 man- ufacturing employees. Less than half of these were in the basin itself. Only 30,000 are in the four upper basin States (contrasted with 106,000 in Kansas City, Denver, and Omaha alone). Plant sizes remain smaller than for the United States generally, as the average establishment in the basin States has 35 production workers com- pared to 50 for the Nation as a whole. The "food and kindred products" industry is easily the most important type of industry in the basin and is approximately three times as impor- tant in the total basin States pattern as it is in the national pattern. It is especially dominant in Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, where it employs from half to three-fifths of all manufacturing workers in those States. The pe- troleum industry is dominant in Wyoming, while lumber and lumber products is Montana's chief manufacturing industry. Only Missouri is not dominated by any one industry. Prospects The lines for future industrialization in the Mis- souri Basin are reasonably clear. With a total basin population ** less than that of California, the ma- jor handicap of the huge area is the size of its local markets. This also emphasizes the significance of the cost of transporting goods to other areas. Com- parison of freight rates applicable to manufactured products in this area with rates in the "Official" territory-the northeastern United States-reveals that rates in the eastern Missouri Basin States are 46 percent higher, and in the western basin States 71 percent higher than in the northeastern United States. Chambers of Commerce have complained *¦ 8,263,000 in 1950. that some established factories have moved out of the area because of the noncoanpetitive freight rate situation, and others have expanded in other areas for this reason. Further depressant factors include relatively high prices for power, limited experience in manufacturing, and a lack in some parts of the basin of special climatic appeals offered by some other areas. In the light of these conditions, industrial ex- pansion will require the full use of the basin's avail- able resources. They include natural resources, available labor, and relative isolation during time of war. The region's major hope lies in its resources, especially in the processing of farm and range products and the use of the chemurgic wastes therefrom, the use of the timber on the western fringes of the basin, and the processing of its min- erals. These latter include the extensive low-grade phosphate rock deposits of Wyoming (fertilizer and other chemical uses), the submarginal reserves of manganese (Chamberlin, S. D>ak.), chromium, the oil shales for synthetic liquid fuels, and vast lignite and sub-bituminous coal deposits in the northern basin. All these are beset by technical difficulties and processing requirements such as water and low-cost energy. Research is the key to developing the possibili- ties, perhaps combining hydroelectric development with the use of sub-bituminous coal and lignites for steam power generation, to provide a basis for processing other resources. Beyond these possibilities are those many and varied products which require primarily ingenuity for development and marketing, and in which loca- tion of plant is a minor factor. Relation of water program to industrial develop- ment.-The water program will be of value in en- hancing the possibilities of industrial expansion in the basin. Presumably, the navigation facilities will be of direct benefit in providing additional means of transport and may indirectly influence the rates of other transport mediums. However, these effects will be confined to the lower basin, while the principal need for industrial expansion is in the upper basin. Furthermore, inasmuch as naviga- tion is most favorable to bulk transport, there is an opportunity to ship raw materials to points nearer the major markets for processing. Hydroelectric power will be increased in quan- tity but indications are that power rates will not be low enough to be a factor in industrial location. 264 |