No complete summary of the operations of TACOMA’S manufacturing establishments can be presented for comparison with the census report of 1900. But from written reports submitted to the Tacoma Daily News by some of the leading manufacturing concerns in TACOMA, it appears that during the calendar year 1903, one hundred and thirty-five representative manufacturers in the city employed an average of 6,796 wage-earners during the year, while the value of the finished product of these establishments alone for the same year was $28,932,295, and the cost of permanent improvements or additions to the plants during the year was $1,129,550. In other words, 135 out of 500 to 600 establishments that would now be classified by the census as manufacturing concerns in this city employed 2,349 more wage-earners in 1903 than were employed by a total of 389 establishments during the census year, while the value of the output of these 135 establishments in 1903 was nearly two and one-half times as great as the total value of the product of 389 establishments in 1900. LUMBER INDUSTRY AT TACOMA. TACOMA is the largest lumber manufacturing point on the Pacific Coast. The manufacture of lumber is the most important industry in the Pacific Northwest. In 1900 there were twelve lumber and shingle mills in operation in TACOMA. In 1903 there were twenty-two in operation, employing an average of 2,682 wage-earners. The increase in the lumber and shingle output since 1900 may be shown by the following figures, based upon reports from the local mills. CUT OF TACOMA LUMBER MILLS. Year. Lumber, feet. Shingles. Total value. 1900 185,414,130 178,386,000 $2,517,967 1901 219,150,000 251,000,000 2,695,700 1902 303,654,557 347,565,000 4,069,000 1903 361,522,766 376,935,500 5,110,398 [Illustration: St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company’s Mill and Wheeler-Osgood Company’s New Sash and Door Factory.] The increase in three years in the number of mills engaged in the lumber and shingle industry at TACOMA is at the rate of 83.3 per cent.; in the lumber cut at the rate of 96.6 per cent.; in the output of shingles at the rate of 94.0 per cent.; and in the value of the product at the rate of 103.0 per cent. LARGEST LUMBER PLANT IN THE WORLD. The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company’s plant on the flats between the City Waterway and the Puyallup River, is the largest saw mill plant in the United States and probably in the world. It was established in 1888. Its original capacity of 300,000 feet per diem has been increased to 500,000 feet by the erection of a second mill since 1900, and during the year 1903 the company cut 122,348,562 feet of fir, spruce, hemlock and cedar and sawed, dried and packed 63,822,000 shingles, its output for the year being valued at $1,761,698. The company operates five logging camps along the Northern Pacific and Tacoma Eastern railways and employs 1,500 men.