The true criterion of prosperity is not so much the amount of capital and the namber of manufacturers, as the proportion of working people who find employment at fair wages and the margin of profits after all expenses are paid.

A comparison of the various factories of our manufiacturing interests with those of some other counties liaving a larger number of manufacturing establishments will show that Westchester County is particularly favored in this respect. The census reports give the number of manufacturing establishments in this county as 502, with an aggregate capital of $5,659,- 424r-an average of $10,841.48 per establishment. The number of hands employed during the year was 10,- 502; to wit: 7,542 men, 2,286 women, and 674 children and youths -- an average of nearly 21 hands per establishment.

Three million two hundred and thirty-one thousand three hundred and sixty-four dollars were distributed as wages among these 10,502-- an average of

$307.69 per hand. As five-sixteenths of the hands are women and children, who earn much less than the men, the wages of the latter arc considerably above the average.

The material consumed was worth $7,762,838. If we add this to the amount paid for wages and we deduct the total from the gross amount of products, $14,217,985, we have a net balance of $3,223,783, representing nearly 57 per cent, profit on the capital invested.

Examining other tables, we find that Erie, the largest manufacturing county, has 5,281 establishments, with an aggregate capital of $62,719,399, an average of $11,688.57 per establishment. Forty-eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight hands find employment, at a cost of $22,867,176 -- an average of $468.62 per hand. But Erie has a large number of industries requiring skilled mechanics, such as the manufacturing of agricultural implements, bridgebuilding, carriage and wagon-building, railroad cars, cooperage, foundry and machine works (which alone employ 2,048 men), ship-building, marble and stove works, tanneries, etc.