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The evidence of this observer as to the manufacturing industries can be of value only cumulatively, reinforcing and perhaps supplementing other accounts. It concerns only the cotton and woollen industries, with incidental reference to others. But the materials for the economic history of the United States yet to be written are in some fields scant, and all that may add to our knowledge is worth preserving. Negative evidence is of slight value, and it is not safe to infer that there were no textile establishments outside of the districts visited by Holbrook, although it is probable that he visited nearly all the regions where cotton and woollen factories existed in any numbers. These were the southwestern corner of Maine, the Merrimac Valley, the Connecticut Valley to Bellows Falls, the northeast corner of Connecticut, the Hudson Valley, the Mohawk Valley, and from Syracuse west to the Falls along the line of the "old road" of the New York Central system, the region just east of Lake Ontario, the vicinity of Philadelphia and of Wilmington, Delaware, and especially the vicinity. of Baltimore. The growth of Manayunk near Philadelphia had been very rapid. "The factories in the neighborhood of Baltimore are scattered in every direction. 'Tis difficult to find two in the same direction." "I have particular surveys of seventeen factories (and one woollen) in the neighborhood of Baltimore, several of which are very extensive in their operations. Those that I have particularly surveyed have in operation 45,032 spindles, 788 looms, and employ 2,500 persons." Of others he took no survey, but from Maryland he writes: "I do not find that neatness of appearance and apparent comfort around the dwellings that I have frequently admired in my northern and eastern tour."

Although the factories were all in the New England and Middle States, there was no such localization as at present. Small factories, often of only

a few thousand dollars capital, were scattered all over this region. Such concentration as did exist was due to the water power. Our textile industries passed through the same stages as the textile industries of England. The first effect of the introduction of machinery driven by water was to build up the factories away from cities where power could be had. Power could not be brought to the people in the towns, but the people could be taken to the waterfall. The introduction of steam has changed this tendency. One or two large factories are mentioned, as one in Ware, Massachusetts, with a capital of $525,000 and a product of 15,000 to 18,000 yards a week, and one at Saco costing $300,000 to $400,000.

As in England, the cotton industry developed the large factory much sooner than did the woollen industry. The woollen factories mentioned by Mr. Holbrook employed 40 to 70 hands. The cotton factories were generally larger. One is mentioned which employed 700 people, and those at Ware and Saco must, judging from the number of spindles running, have employed 500 and over 800 respectively. Improvements in cotton machinery were being made continually, and the cost of a suit of machinery from the picker to the loom was from $14 to $25 per spindle. The output was very different in different factories. In one case about 54 yards per loom per week for "fine goods No. 32 to 40"; in another 130 per loom per week of No. 25; and in another case, fineness not given, 107 yards per loom weekly. The cotton factories ran about 35 to 38 spindles to the loom.

"Silk manufacture is carried on in [Mansfield, Connecticut] more extensively than in any other town in the states. The last season has been unfavorable, and the quantity made is only 2,629 pounds. The manufacture is wholly domestic, and one person can make about twenty pounds with sufficient worms and trees. Two hun

dred and sixty families are engaged in this business in a greater or less degree; the most made by any one family was seventy-five pounds, the least eight ounces. It is reeled and spun in families and sold in quantities to merchants and others, who have it colored and prepared for market. The price of the raw silk is about $4 per pound, but when finished it is not sold by weight. When well spun it is said to be superior to any other silk for strength. The culture of silk appears confined to the town of Mansfield." Although Holbrook visited other factories, he says little about them and little about industrial processes. Mention is made of "an extensive nail factory" in Ramapo, New Jersey, "consuming about 900 tons of iron annually"; and he describes a "method of bleaching or rather a finish of their white flannels by brimstone smoke. A room in the rear addition is appropriated to this. A small quantity of brimstone is put into an iron vessel of coals, which is then put into this room and the door closed to retain the smoke." There is naturally a great deal of information about mill construction and protection from fire. It is interesting to notice that this agent was then emphasizing the importance of certain points in modern mill construction.

The most important information, however, is that upon the condition of the mill operatives. It brings additional testimony, but of a somewhat earlier period than usual, in support of the statement that, in marked contrast with contemporaneous English conditions, there was comparatively little cause for criticism of the treatment of factory hands in America. In Newmarket, New Hampshire, were "girls, well dressed, cultivating some flowers, and what was somewhat remarkable, one weaver was also knitting." In a factory near Peterboro, New Hampshire, he notes in his diary: "Some flowers observed in the factory windows, a small library in the counting-room for the use of the per

sons employed," and also in a factory. in Peterboro: "Here I found many flowers cultivated by the girls and some shrubbery round the building. A collection of valuable and interesting books for the use of the hands gratis." gratis." In a letter from Schaghticoke, New York, he notes as an ap-. parent exception that "they employ a large number of children, and they do not appear to be under the best regulation; consequently their rooms are not in that clean order that I have been gratified in observing heretofore."

A letter written his employer at the conclusion of his tour gives a most interesting and valuable account of what he had observed in this connection: "Presuming that a few observations relative to the moral character and condition of the manufacturers taken as a community will be gratifying to you, I herewith furnish you with that which from personal observation and inquiry I obtained while on my late journey for the Manhattan. Fire Insurance Company. I regret that I did not at first make inquiries concerning Sabbath schools, but I have no memorandums of any until I commenced my journey in this state. While in New Hampshire I generally had conversation with the proprietors respecting the characters of the persons employed and of the tendency of their establishments to the advancing or otherwise of moral principles. On this subject I found but one opinion, and that certainly was a favorable one.

"In New Hampshire they do not employ many children, finding it more advantageous to have grown persons. These are mostly females of families from the neighboring towns. In many of the factories they require that the applicant shall produce satisfactory recommendations of a good moral character before employment is given. I have in some instances found very handsome libraries left in the counting-room, and any persons employed by the company have the privilege of

taking any book for perusal gratis. They also discountenance the use of ardent spirits and do not allow its use in the workshops. The attentions of the managers not only extend to the persons while employed, but also to the boarding-houses, in order that no persons of immoral habits should locate themselves on their premises and by bad example or precept lead others astray.

"In the state of Connecticut I found many more children at work in the factories than I did in other states. This is partly owing to the vast number of factories in Massachusetts and Rhode Island which give employment to so many girls as weavers that grown persons cannot be obtained for the various branches of the establishments. There is another reason: poor persons with large families of children resort there for work and are anxious that as soon as a child is able to earn anything it should go into the mill, and as it affords some relief to the parents they are received; but as far as I could learn, it is a kind of labor not desired on the score of economy by the proprietors. At Humphreysville I was told by Dr. Deforest that several of the girls in his employ had the preceding summer been engaged as teachers of schools in the neighboring towns and were also re-engaged for the coming season. In this state [New York] I have memorandums of twenty Sabbath schools where the children of the factories regularly attend; some of them are exclusively for the factory children, others are in the neighborhood. Where the establishments are small and remote from a town or neighborhood, the number of children that could be brought together has been considered insufficient for a school of that kind. There is a disposition manifested among the children to attend school, and in some instances it is a part of the contract that they must do so. At Manlius I was told that twenty of the girls in that mill were attending a school for writing only. In Pennsylvania I

found the same attention paid to the subject, and also at several mills in Delaware. I have memorandums of six schools near Philadelphia, three on the Brandywine and six near Baltimore. At the Savage factory they have lately commenced their school. They have a large proportion of grown help, and a great many of these cannot read or write. They are gratified in having an opportunity to go to school, and a very good effect is anticipated from this school. They have a large room very appropriately fitted up for public worship at this place, and clergymen of various denominations frequently officiate there. Many persons have deprecated the increase of manufacturing establishments in this country, believing it will have a tendency to vice and immorality. My own opinion was different, and from information received from every section of the country which I have visited and my personal observation, I do not hesitate to say that in a moral point of view the manufacturers will not suffer in comparison with any other class in the community, and if we look into our county courts, magistrates' offices, poorhouses, jails and penitentiaries, and say from whence do all these people come? I say they do not come from our manufactories. At the New York mills in Oneida County I was told by a person who had been in their employ for nearly two years that he had not heard a profane expression by any person in their employ during that time.

"That the condition of persons employed in our manufactories is benefited, is obvious to the most casual observer. If reasons were required, enough are at hand to satisfy the most scrupulous. The most prominent is constant employment and good wages. Casual employment leaves the person much leisure time, which requires occasional disbursements from previous earnings, and he soon finds more time for idleness than for labor. Habits are formed which are

pernicious, and ruin and poverty are too often found treading in the footsteps of those who depend on occasional employment. To see the benefit that has arisen to those who removed to our manufactories it would be necessary to have looked into their dwellings and around their premises previously to their removal. But it is sufficient now to look at those in similar situations to what these were in, to see the contrast. We see the manufacturers well fed and genteelly clothed. Often have I been told, when inquiring if all their children. went to Sunday school, that a family had been lately employed whose children had not clothes suitable to appear in, but they would soon have them well clothed, when they would attend. I have frequently been told of persons who entered an establishment when first able to earn anything and who have constantly worked at the same establishment. Some have saved a few hundred, and some a few thousand dollars; their education has not been neglected; habits of industry are formed, and they are becoming and have become valuable members of society. These people are from what we call the laboring classes of the community, and it is with other laboring people that I compare them.

"Much has been said relative to the characters of the females employed in the factories. The information I have obtained on this subject is highly gratifying. I have often been told of mills which have been in operation for many years, and there had never been an instance known of unchaste or improper conduct. There prevails among the females an ambition to sustain a good moral character. There is a watchfulness among them, and they quickly detect an immoral. intruder when sometimes the proprietors have been negligent or deceived. The introduction of the power loom by bringing more imme

diately together so many girls of larger growth and the high wages that have been obtained have contributed more than any other thing to form their character for good conduct. The work is not laborious. From the wages received, being more than could be obtained by the hitherto ordinary occupations of housework, they are enabled to dress with more neatness and taste. The occupation has been daily becoming more respectable and we find among the most deserving of the laboring community. I do not mean to say that these observations will apply universally, but generally as far as my observations have gone and from personal inquiry I believe they are correct. I have been somewhat acquainted with manufactories for eighteen years, and am highly gratified in finding such great improvement in the appearance and condition of the operatives. From all I have seen and heard, I am happy to say, and I say it with sincerity, that our manufactories as now conducted have a tendency to improve the morals of the laboring people, that they will be more industrious and more intelligent-consequently more. happy and better citizens."

Perhaps we cannot better leave this traveller of seventy years ago than by quoting from his diary of January 2, 1828: "Forty-one years bygone, saith my mother, came I-poor I-into this troublesome world. My sun has past its meridian and is fast descending. 'Alas, poor Yorick!' You have much to account for and very little to show on a settlement. Forty-one years gone never to return. Soon, very

soon, it will be said, C. H. is dead! and what does he leave to tell he ever lived? Children he has none! Several persons he esteems as his friends, a wife he loves, parents he reveres, is thankful for favors received, and supplicates heaven for a continuance of its mercies."

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