The Cotton-Mill Operatives of New England

I

THE earliest employees of the New England cotton mills were secured almost exclusively from the farm and village population immediately adjacent to the early manufacturing centres. These employees consisted in the main of the children of farmers, usually the daughters, who went to work in the mills for the purpose of assisting their families, or to lay aside sums for their own dowries. The young women, as a rule, were attractive, well-educated; and the young men sober, intelligent, and reliable. At the time of the establishment of the mills, — about 1813, — there was a strong prejudice in New England against the so-called factory system because of the conditions which prevailed among cotton-mill operatives in Great Britain. As a consequence, after erecting the cotton mills, the chief endeavor of the promoters of the industry was to establish housing and living facilities under such conditions as would give proper assurance to the parents of New England who might consider sending their sons and daughters to the mills. This policy was successful, and sufficient labor rapidly moved into the new textile-manufacturing centres. In the light of the changed conditions which afterwards became prevalent in the New England textile-manufacturing towns, and the similar situation existing to-day in the South, it will be instructive to consider somewhat in detail this early class of operatives and the conditions under which they lived. A distinguished French traveler, Chevalier, who visited the United States in 1834, gave his impressions of the cotton-mill operatives in Lowell, which at that time was the most representative cottongoods-manufacturing centre in New England, in the following words: —

‘The cotton manufacture alone employs six thousand persons in Lowell; of this number nearly five thousand are young women from seventeen to twenty-four years of age, the daughters of farmers from the different New England States, and particularly from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont; they are here remote from their families, and under their own control. On seeing them pass through the streets in the morning and evening and at their meal-hours, neatly dressed; on finding their scarfs and shawls, and green silk hoods which they wear as a shelter from the sun and dust (for Lowell is not yet paved), hanging up in the factories amidst the flowers and shrubs which they cultivate, I said to myself, this, then, is not like [the English] Manchester; and when I was informed of the rate of their wages, I understood that it was not at all like Manchester.’

The measures which made possible this intelligent and efficient class of operatives is explained by a late historian of Lowell; —

‘Mr. Lowell,’¹ the author states, ‘ had seen the degraded state of the operatives in England, and his chief endeavor, after the fitting of his mill, was to insure such domestic comforts and restrictions as would warrant the parents of New England in letting their daughters enter his employment. He provided boarding-houses conducted by reputable women, furnished opportunities for religious worship, and established rules which were a safeguard against the evils which assail the young who are beyond parental supervision.

‘The corporations were under necessity to provide food and shelter for those they employed. They adopted Mr. Lowell’s plan, so effectively instituted at Waltham, and built boardingand tenement-houses. Over these a rigid supervision was maintained. The food in the former was required to be of a certain standard. The rules governing the conduct of those who lived in the boardingand tenementhouses were rather strict; but they were wholesome.’

One of the New England girls who worked in the Lowell mills during this period has left an interesting account of the situation which existed during her employment. Her description of the methods by which the mill-girls were secured and the conditions under which they lived and worked, affords a pleasing contrast with the Lowell of the present: —

‘Troops of young girls came,’she writes, ‘by stages and baggage-wagons, men often being employed to go to other states and to Canada to collect them at so much per head, and deliver them at the factories.

‘A very curious sight these country girls presented to young eyes accustomed to a more modern style of things. When the large covered baggagewagon arrived in front of a block or corporation, they would descend from it, dressed in various outlandish fashions, and with their arms brimful of bandboxes containing all their worldly goods. On each of them was sewed a card, on which one could read the old-fashioned New England name of the owner. . . .

‘The knowledge of the antecedents of these operatives was the safeguard of their liberties. The majority of them were as well-born as their “ over-lookers,” if not better, and they were also far better educated. . . .

‘Those of the mill-girls who had homes generally worked from eight to ten months in the year; the rest of the time was spent with parents or friends. A few taught school during the summer months. . . .

‘The life in the boarding-house was very agreeable. These houses belonged to the corporation, and were usually kept by widows (mothers of millgirls), who were often the friends and advisers of their boarders. . . .

‘ Each house was a village or community of itself. There fifty or sixty young women from different parts of New England met and lived together. When not at their work, by natural selection they sat in groups in their chambers, or in a corner of the large dining-room, busy at some agreeable employment; or they wrote letters, read, studied, or sewed, for as a rule they were their own seamstresses and dressmakers.’

During his tour of the United States, Charles Dickens visted Lowell, and has recorded his observations in his ‘American Notes.’ Concerning the American girl operatives and the impression they made upon him, he had this to say: —

‘These girls, as I have said, were all well-dressed; and that phrase necessarily includes extreme cleanliness. They had serviceable bonnets, good warm cloaks, and shawls; and were not above clogs and pattens. Moreover, there were places in the mill in which they could deposit these things without injury; and there were conveniences for washing. They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women; not of degraded brutes of burden. . . .

‘The rooms in which they worked were as well ordered as themselves. In the windows of some, there were green plants, which were trained to shade the glass; in all, there was as much fresh air, cleanliness, and comfort, as the nature of the occupation could possibly admit of. Out of so large a number of females, many of whom were only just then verging upon womanhood, it may reasonably be supposed that some were delicate and fragile in appearance; no doubt there were. But I solemnly declare, that from all the crowd I saw in the different factories that day, I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be a matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, I would have removed from those works if I had the power.

‘ I am now going to state three facts, which will startle a large class of readers on this side of the Atlantic very much. Firstly, there is a jointstock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. Secondly, nearly all these young ladies subscribe to circulating libraries. Thirdly, they have got up among themselves a periodical.’

The state of affairs and the operative class described by these different travelers and historians continued until about 1840, when the expansion of the cotton - goods-manufacturing industry exceeded the local labor resources, and it became necessary to secure operatives from localities in this country outside of New England, as well as from Canada, Great Britain, and northern Europe.

II

Immigration to the cotton mills of New England from Great Britain and Canada was characteristic of the period 1840-1880. Members of the English, Irish, and Scotch races had come at an early date to the New England cottongoods-manufacturing centres. Small numbers of skilled English operatives were secured from the British textilemanufacturing towns in the early history of the development of the industry in New England. Considerable numbers of Irish were employed in the unskilled work in connection with the erection of the mills. Members of this race were also employed in certain localities, as in Lowell, in the construction of the locks and canals to furnish the necessary water-power for the mills. Although both of these races gradually continued to come, the heavy immigration of the Irish did not occur until after 1840, and of the English until thirty years later. The Irish were employed in the largest numbers during the forties and fifties, and the English during the seventies. Both races, however, continued to seek work in the cotton mills in gradually diminishing numbers up to the year 1895.

Although the Scotch and Germans were early settlers in the mill-towns, and have always been represented among the cotton-mill operatives, the extent to which these races have been employed in the industry has always been of comparatively small importance. By the year 1895, the immigration from Great Britain and northern Europe to the cotton-goods-manufacturing centres of the North Atlantic States had practically stopped.

As soon as the expansion of the cotton-goods industry in New England made it necessary to go beyond the local labor supply, an attempt was made to secure operatives from Canada also. Considerable numbers of FrenchCanadians entered the mills during the fifties, but the heaviest, immigration of this race followed immediately upon the close of the Civil War. During the next thirty-five years, they continued to arrive in large numbers. During the past decade, however, small additions to the operating forces have been made by the members of this race.

Since the year 1885, and especially during the past fifteen years, the operatives for the cotton mills have been mainly recruited from the races of southern and eastern Europe and the Orient. There were very few representatives of these races before 1890. During the decade 1890-1900, however, the movement of races from the south and east of Europe set in rapidly. Of the new immigrant operatives, the Greeks, Portuguese and Bravas from the Western Islands, Poles, Russians, and Italians, came in the largest numbers. During the past ten years, the immigration of all the above-mentioned races has continued in undiminished proportions. Other races also have sought work in the mills, the most important in point of numbers being the Lithuanians, Hebrews, Syrians, Bulgarians, and Turks. At the present time immigtation from the older sources has ceased or been reduced to unimportant proportions, and the races of recent immigration, so far as numbers are concerned, are rapidly attaining an ascendancy in the mills.

The chief reason for the employment of immigrant operatives, both in the past and at present, has been the impossibility of recruiting, at the rates of pay prevailing in the mills, an adequate labor force from native stock. The manufacturing of cotton goods in New England has had a steady growth for almost one hundred years, a conception of which may be gained from the fact that in the New England states alone only 46,834 persons were employed in 1840, as compared with 155,981 cotton-mill operatives in 1905. Along with this expansion in cotton manufacture there has gone a corresponding development in other branches of industry, which offered more attractive working conditions and more liberal compensation.

As a consequence, the original class of employees gradually made a change to other occupations and pursuits. As the places vacated by them, together with the new positions created by the growth of the industry, were filled by alien operatives the resultant working conditions were rendered still more unsatisfactory, and the exodus of the American employees was made more rapid. Another reason facilitating the more extensive employment of recent immigrants has been the fact that they could be used as a substitute for women and children, especially for night-work. The willingness of the southern and eastern European to accept low wages has made it possible to place him in many occupations formerly occupied by women and children. Furthermore, as a result of the statutes of the different states prohibiting the employment of women and children at night, men of recent immigration, especially Greeks, in times of unusual activity and demand for cotton goods, have been taken into the mills to do night-work.

From the standpoint of the industry as a whole, it may be said, therefore, that the employment of the immigrant has made possible its remarkable expansion. On the other hand, it is equally true that a similar development of the industry at higher wages and under better conditions might have occurred if the supply of cheap labor from southern and eastern Europe had not been available.

As an outgrowth of the extensive employment of recent immigrants a number of significant changes in industrial organization and methods should be considered. The human element in the industry, because of the invention of numerous mechanical devices, has become more and more subordinate, and the entire process of manufacture more and more one in which machinery plays the leading part. The whole method of production is becoming automatic, and human labor necessary only in the case of a momentary break in the process. The introduction of the automatic loom may be cited as an illustration of this tendency. Theoperation of a large number of these automatic looms is more difficult and arduous for a wage-earner, but at the same time more remunerative, than the tending of a small number of the old-fashioned looms. It has resulted in the employment of a much larger proportion of male weavers, usually of recent immigration, who are generally less dependable than the women and girls formerly employed. The same situation is true relative to the spinning departments of the mills, where men are now employed extensively in contrast with the almost exclusive employment of women in the past.

III

The introduction of automatic machinery and improved mechanical devices in the mills is even more significant from the standpoint of the skilled operatives, American, British, and Canadian. The installation of such machinery makes it possible to employ, in occupations which have hitherto been considered skilled, and which required a number of years’ experience in the industry, southern and eastern European immigrants of a very short period of residence in this country, who have passed through a comparatively limited apprenticeship. Perhaps the best example of the tendencies which have been operative in this direction is to be found in the case of mule-spinning. This occupation, which requires skill and experience, was, up to recent years, exclusively controlled by Americans and older immigrant employees. Their strong organization strictly limited the number of apprentices and was very exacting in its demand for higher wages and better working conditions. For many years the mule-spinners’ union was able to enforce its demands because it controlled the highly skilled labor necessary to the industry. But the invention of the ring-spinning frame entirely changed the situation. This made it possible for a woman or girl, or inexperienced immigrant, in a few weeks, to become proficient in spinning yarns even of high counts.

The same causes which have weakened the mule-spinners’ union have also affected the labor organizations based on other occupations in the industry. The introduction of automatic machinery has largely eliminated the bargaining power of operatives arising from special proficiency. Furthermore, it has been impossible, because of a diversity of languages, lower standards, and a pronounced indifference, to organize the incoming immigrant workmen and to educate them to American standards. The southern and eastern European immigrant usually has no permanent interest in the industry and does not wish to make a present sacrifice for a future gain. His main purpose is to earn as much as he can under existing conditions of employment, to live cheaply, and to save as much as possible, so that he may, after a few years, return home with a competence. Strikes and labor dissensions mean loss of earnings to him, and labor organizations are looked upon with disfavor because they deprive the wage-earner of a part of his earnings through the payment of dues. It is true that, once he is aroused, the recent immigrant as a trade unionist will resort to extreme and revolutionary measures. When the strike, or other labor difficulty, is over, however, he usually drops his membership and active interest in the union.

The main reason why the Americans, together with considerable proportions of Irish, English, and French-Canadians, have abandoned the mills has been the greater opportunities in other branches of industry. As the cottongoods centres developed, other industries came into existence or were established in the adjoining territory, and to these employees of the older class were attracted by the higher wages and more favorable working conditions. The natural operation of this tendency was quickened by the conditions which existed within the cotton-goods industry itself. The Americans were skilled employees and urgent in their demands for higher wages. The older immigrants from Great Britain, in considerable proportion, had been skilled operatives abroad, and sought higher wages and better conditions in this country. Where they were not skilled operatives before immigration they became quickly Americanized, and alive to opportunities along other industrial lines.

These classes of employees first attempted to secure better conditions within the cotton mills by organizing the operatives. Their unsuccessful efforts to unionize the industry, however, together with the impossibility of increasing the level of low wages, because of the availability of cheap immigrant labor, and the adoption of mechanical devices which made it possible to employ ignorant, inexperienced immigrants of low standards in larger and larger proportions, gradually led to their discouragement. Many Americans and older immigrants were involuntarily driven out of the industry as the result of strikes and labor controversies at different periods. Others abandoned the cotton mills voluntarily, and the tendency at present is for the Americans and older immigrants and their children not to seek employment as operatives.

The American girls who were once found in such large numbers in the mills have now almost wholly disappeared, or, in other words, the daughters and grand-daughters of native Americans no longer seek employment or are at work as operatives. The Irish, English, and French girls are also leaving the mills and engaging in other occupations, although this tendency is much stronger among the Irish than the French. Girls of the latter race at the present time compose the majority of the female operatives. On the other hand, the proportion of Polish and Portuguese girls in the mills has been rapidly increasing, and it is probable that they, with the Greek females, will be more extensively employed in the future.

IV

The Americans and the older immigrants who are still engaged in cottongoods manufacturing, occupy the more skilled mechanical, supervisory, and technical positions which require training and experience. Practically all of the overseers, assistant-overseers, second and third hands, section hands, and foremen are Americans or English, Scotch, Irish, and Germans of the first and second generation. A very small number of recent immigrants wall be found as second or section hands, their employment in this capacity being usually due to the fact t hat numbers of the same race are working in the same sections or divisions and it is necessary to have some one in charge who understands the language. Of the nativeborn males and females who are operatives the largest proportion are in the spinning and weaving, and a very small percentage in the carding-rooms. On the other hand, the foreign-born employees, and especially those of recent immigration, are in the unskilled occupations, and in the disagreeable work of the picking and carding-rooms, although a considerable proportion are in the skilled and remunerative positions. A large number of Poles, Turks, Portuguese, Syrians, Greeks, and Lithuanians are engaged in spinning, and all, except the Lithuanian women, have a small representation in the weaving department. The races of recent immigration which show the largest numbers of weavers are the Flemish, Lithuanians, Poles, and Portuguese.

With the displacement of the old class of employees, and the substitution of alien operatives from southern and eastern Europe and the Orient, as might be expected, a radical change in working and living conditions has been developed. This change is largely due to the industrial and personal characteristics of the recent immigrant.

The southern and eastern Europeans have been marked by a high degree of illiteracy. Their industrial advancement and efficiency have been further retarded by the lack of ability to read and write and speak English. The recent immigrant has had very little money at the time of his arrival in the United States, and when he reaches his destination he is practically penniless. He must find employment at once, on any terms which are offered. Almost invariably, too, he has been a farmer or farm-laborer in Europe, and without industrial experience it is impossible for him to know what proper conditions of employment are. Furthermore, as has already been pointed out, the alien cotton-mill worker of recent years has no permanent interest in the industry and hopes after a few years of ceaseless work to be able to return to his native land with his savings. In other words, because of their attitude, characteristics, and availability, the southern and eastern European operatives have constituted a passive opposition which has been most effective in checking tendencies toward higher wages and better conditions of employment. With few exceptions every advantage in wages and working conditions has been gained in spite of their presence.

Living conditions too have greatly deteriorated. The old system of boarding houses and tenements under the supervision of the cotton-mill corporations has disappeared. The textilemanufacturing cities and towns now have their immigrant quarters sharply separated from the native-born population. Within these thickly-populated colonies there is further segregation according to race. The households of the southern and eastern European operatives are marked by low standards of living. The preponderance of males, together with low wages and the general desire to live on the basis of minimum cheapness and to save as much as possible, has led to boarding-groups instead of independent family-living arrangements. A normal family life — wife and children dependent entirely upon the husband for support—is unusual. The children of the household enter the mills as soon as they reach the legal working age, or, perhaps, boarders and lodgers are taken into the home, in order to add to the family income.

Owing to the comparatively small number of children among the recent immigrants, they depend mainly upon the payments of boarders or lodgers for family income supplementary to the earnings of the husband. In the case of all races, and especially among the Greeks, single men frequently live together according to what is known as the ‘boarding-boss’ system. Under this method of living a man, or a man and his wife, act as head of the household. Each member of the group buys his own food and has it cooked separately or in conjunction with the others. The rent is paid by the socalled ‘boarding-boss,’ and the lodgers pay him or his wife a fixed sum, usually ranging from $2.50 to $3 per month, for room-rent, washing, and cooking. The ‘boarding-boss’ crowds as many men as possible into his house, in order to increase the profit by decreasing the per capita outlay for rent. In all classes of households all available space is used for sleeping-quarters, and frequently there is no separate room for cooking, eating, and general living purposes. Little attention is paid to housing or health regulations.

Between the inmates of the immigrant households and the native American population there is little contact beyond working relations in the mills. The immigrant children attend the public and parochial schools, but these institutions are often located in the foreign sections and have few American children on their rolls. Within the colonies, mercantile houses and places of amusement and recreation have been established by immigrants to meet the needs of the foreign-born population. As a consequence, the progress being made by the southern and eastern Europeans toward Americanization is very small. There is little interest in political or civic affairs. The entire situation is one which requires an active interest and effort in behalf of the recent immigrant by the native American population of the New England textile cities and towns. It goes further and raises fundamental questions as to the general measures to be adopted in dealing with the industrial effects of recent immigration.