re: What led to a decline in manufacturing jobs initially?

I was reading an old news article from the 1920s about Itta Bena, Ms and what businesses they had and what they wanted. It was unreal how many small factories it had for a small town. It was necessary to produce goods for local commerce as shipping was difficult then.

So as far as small town manufacturing, a lot of it was due to urbanization and the ability to ship from one large central location that made consistent products. This killed the small town factories.