New York State History

With the first successes in the Corridor in large-scale production of electricity, new industries stood in line to make use of the new low-cost sources of power. Many prom­ising chemical and metallurgical processes, for example, began to require electric power in wholesale quantities for their full commer­cial development. They found it now in the System's great new hydro and steam projects.

The industries that followed have broadened in kind and increased vastly in size. They have become so diversified that all the basic industrial classifications listed by the United States Department of Commerce are represented along the lines of the Niagara Mohawk System. The value of manufactured products in the counties served by Niagara Mohawk is exceeded by only six other states.

At Niagara Falls, for instance, are plants that make about one-sixth of the nation's total out­put of electrochemical and electrometallurgical products. Nearby is Buffalo, second largest rail­road center in the United States, the largest inland water port in the country, and a great steel producing area. More wheat is milled here than in any other city in the world. Batavia produces farm machinery. In the southwest corner of the State, Olean is the center of New York's oil producing and refining area.

In the center of the State are Syracuse, famed for electronic devices, chemicals, pottery, typewriters, air-conditioning equipment; Rome, making a tenth of the country's copper products; Utica, with extensive mills producing sheets, pil­lowcases, knitted wear and metal products. North­ward is Oswego, a rapidly growing Great Lakes port, manufacturing and trading center. Here are located large industries producing paper products, machinery, matches, heating equipment, arid textiles. Nearby is Fulton, a large producer of chocolate candy, paper products, and textiles.

Watertown industries are producers of railroad equipment, paper-making machinery, and paper. Important wood pulp and paper industries center around Potsdam and Ogdensburg, and to the north­east are large aluminum plants at Massena. Exten­sive deposits of iron ore are worked at Benson Mines and DeGrasse, Gouverneur is noted for its talc industry. Near Oneida is one of the largest sil­verware manufacturing communities in the world. Canajoharie is a canning center, and Gloversville and Johnstown produce more leather gloves than any other similar area in the country. The manu­facture of rugs, carpets, and brooms has a long history at Amsterdam.

Schenectady is the home of vast plants for the production of electric equipment and locomo­tives, and is a center for atomic research. Close by is Troy, noted for its shirt and collar factories. Albany, the State capital, is a rail and waterway junction, a great wholesale and distribution center, an inland seaport. To the south along the Hudson are large cement works; to the north are Glens Falls, noted for textiles, cement, and paper products, and Port Henry, where great deposits of iron and titanium ore are mined.

The flourishing industry throughout the System is a hungry consumer of electric power and a large user of gas. In serving industry, Niagara Mohawk supplies a most essen­tial product to the body of large-scale producers in the State. They are creators of wealth, giving employment to thou­sands of people and indirectly making jobs available to many more thousands. Their collective enterprises and management are largely responsible for making New York one of the leading manufacturing states. From the point of view of power consumption, they are the wholesale users who make possible the mass production of electricity and thus, in the long run, lower the costs of electric energy for other users. Thus the territory served by the Niagara Mohawk System offers an unparalleled opportunity for the location and expansion of business, both large and small. For New York is noted among the states of the nation for the fine stores and shops, the offices and small business establishments that round out its economic life.