We are all familiar with the census of the population, the documents of which are only released 72 years after the completion of the census. But other censuses are performed and one reported in the Pantagraph on this date 100 years ago was very exciting to the boosters of Bloomington.
The census of manufactures allowed the city to glory in the growth of business in Bloomington and of course added incentive for other businesses to locate here. The report was a comparison of the census of 1909 to the census of 1914. It showed a decrease in the number of manufactures from 109 to 100. Only businesses that produced more than $500 in products were analyzed in the census. While the number of businesses had decreased, the amount of products had not decreased. The cost of materials used in creating products in 1909 was $2,527,000 and the value of the manufactured products was $4,868,000 for an "added value" of $2,341,000.
In 1914 the cost of materials was less ($2,084,000) and value added was much greater: $2,876,000.
Employment increased in 1914 by 11.6% among salaried workers and 14.9% among wage workers. Salaried workers took home an average of $1,042 per year and wage workers took home and average of $645 a year. (You'll recall the blind pension was $150 a year, not exactly a lordly sum).
The capital invested in these businesses was $5,483,000 in 1914, truly a large sum of money in 1915, especially when considering that this is the investment in 100 concerns and that just 88 proprietors and firm members controlled those concerns. The population in Bloomington in 1910 was 25,768 so these "titans of industry" were well below 1% of the city's population.