O, if thy spirit still beholds this scene of guilt and strife, Wilt thou not sometimes hover near, when trials shall assail, New-York, 10th mo., 25, 1847. I will! FACTORY LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. BY T. THROSTLE, GENT. THE history of Cotton-Spinning in New-England is yet to be written. Some facts relative to the introduction of this branch of industry among us, and to the improvements in the machinery by which it is carried on, have indeed been published under that title; but nothing that can be called a complete history of our manufacturing system, including a full account of its origin, its progress, and above all, the influence which it is exerting upon the character and social condition of the New-England people. It is working a great change in the condition of society in those States where it flourishes most, and a change perhaps as great, though not so obvious, in the character of their citizens, of every class; whether for the better or worse, experience will certainly show in time, and a careful observation probably point out to us beforehand. These changes are in a great degree owing to the increased demand it has made for female labor, and the new channels which it has opened for that labor to flow in. It has raised the rate of women's wages in its own department to something near a just proportion, when compared with those of men. And the effects of this are felt directly, not only by those who work for their living, but also by those who are in easy and independent circumstances. It has made labor more honorable in common estimation. A girl whose education does not qualify her for 'keeping school,' thrown upon her own exertions for support, will not go out to service in a family for one or two dollars a week, with board, while she may make three, four, or five dollars, and sometimes more, beside what she will pay for her board in the same time, by going into the mill. The consequence is, that household-servants are difficult to be obtained, and more difficult to be kept, and are often foreigners, unacquainted with the work they are expected to do; so that the mistress of the house, perhaps wealthy, and educated in ease and luxury, is ofttimes obliged to take an active part in the house-work, even to the making of bread and cooking of dinner for her husband and children. Beside this, it encourages a strong spirit of independence. The household servant is often troubled with a consciousness of inferiority in submitting to the control of a mistress. She must come and go at her bidding, and have all her duties regulated by her variable will; and then she may be called upon at all hours, having no time that she can properly call her own. It is otherwise in the mill. Here, though she is immediately under the eye of the overseer, she is subject to his control only in regard to that particular part which she has undertaken to perform. Her hours of work are fixed; and whether it be ten, twelve, or fourteen hours a day, when the bell rings at night her work is done, and the rest of the twenty-four hours is completely her own, to be applied as she chooses to any purpose of recreation or profit. This habit of working at fixed hours, and at one appointed task, subject to no control except in regard to the work and time, begets a feeling of independence, which, in the opinion of the uneducated at least, little accords with that deference and submission which is expected in the domestic service. This feeling is farther increased by a consciousness of the power which may be exerted by combination, which is manifested upon all such occasions as excite a general feeling of pity or indignation. It is not often, therefore, that they are obliged to submit to gross injustice or abuse. That petty tyranny, which the petulance of an unfeeling mistress too often inflicts upon a gentle and timid disposition, can hardly show itself within the walls of the mill, without exciting at once such a general clamor of indignation as will compel the observance of a tolerable degree of justice and propriety. If this independence has sometimes degenerated into insolence toward the wealthier and better educated class of society, it is not the natural result of the factory system, but the consequence of the treatment to which they have been subjected. When individuals, qualified by manners, education and morals to hold a respectable station in society, are excluded by those who claim to hold the first rank, and are denied the privileges of social intercourse, and treated with contempt, as belonging to a class degraded by their occupation, they cannot be expected to bear much good-will toward those who have unjustly scorned them. And thus losing one of the strongest inducements to self-improvement, they have as a class sometimes given way to feelings of envy and bitter hatred. There are some persons in other parts of our country who are accustomed to look upon factory life as a thing in some degree akin to slavery, and to speak of the men and women who work in the mills as degraded morally, mentally and physically. Such shallow observers betray an entire ignorance of the factory system. These views were once very prevalent in some parts of NewEngland, both among those who were in independent circumstances, and those also who, being obliged to support themselves by manual labor, sought work in the mills. Within the last twenty or thirty years a complete change has been wrought. Good wages and steady employment have tempted those to become factory girls' whose common sense and education were sufficient to teach them that honest labor was honorable, and that they were in no way degraded, or en titled to less respect, since they had taken up this occupation, and poverty no longer compelled them to submit to be ranked indiscriminately as a lower class.' The means by which they were able to enforce their claims to a proper consideration, may be illustrated by the following incident, which happened a few years ago in a flourishing manufacturing town in New-England. An independent military company had been organized, and kept up for some time with the usual spirit of patriotism and gallantry which our young men are wont to manifest in times of peace and general prosperity. The ladies of the town, wishing to display their grateful admiration of the courage and devoted gallantry of their defenders,' proposed that a handsome banner should be presented to them in the name of the Ladies of D.' A subscription for the purpose was accordingly opened. Some of the factory girls' wishing in like manner to show their patriotism as American women, and feeling perhaps a personal interest in some of these ‘defenders' of their country and themselves, subscribed among the others. Those who had started the subscription, however, looked with contempt upon such as worked in the mills, and intended that their banners should be entirely the gift of the 'Ladies' of D—,' as they styled themselves exclusively. They therefore declined receiving the contributions of the 'factory girls,' which were quietly withdrawn. The banner was procured, and the day appointed for the presentation. The lawyer of the town was employed to present it in behalf of the ladies, and make an appropriate speech. The day came, and all passed off with the usual ceremony and display, the company performing their exercises in their best style, and the ladies' appearing in procession with their deputy, who made the presentation. This was the end of the first act. The factory girls were all this time keenly sensible of the indignity that had been put upon them, and were little disposed to submit tamely to this assumption of superiority; and before this, had got the affair all in train for the vindication of their honor and credit. Two hundred young women, more or less, with a fair share of beauty and intelligence, could be at no loss for the means of redress under such a pointed insult. Brothers and lovers were of course ready to assist them. It was not long, therefore, before another military company was chartered, much larger than the other, and more handsomely equipped. To furnish these with a standard, the factory girls' raised a subscription among themselves, and procured a banner of the most elegant design and execution. The lawyer, who was undisputed orator of the village, had been employed as spokesman by their rivals on the former occasion; but they thought that for them to do such a thing would be to acknowledge themselves incompetent to carry out what they had undertaken, and they accordingly chose one of their own number to prepare and deliver the address at the presentation. The girl they selected for this duty was a dressertender in one of the mills, a young woman of good natural abilities and well-educated. She wrote the address at first in Latin, and showed it to the agent of the mill, who was favorably interested in their undertaking, though his position in society would have ranked him with the Ladies' clan. Not being a classical scholar, however, he could not read it, but advised her to write it in English, which she accordingly did. When all was ready, the presentation was made by their own hands, with neat and appropriate speeches, well delivered on both sides; the girls, all arrayed in simple white dresses, with lace-caps and tasteful parasols, forming a long and beautiful procession, which completely eclipsed the display made by the Ladies' who had treated them so contemptuously. This was the death-blow to Aristocracy in the town of D As we have already said, they err greatly who look upon the 'operatives'* of a manufacturing establishment as all of one class, to be despised or respected alike. Factory life is in fact but little understood, as a general thing, even in New-England, by those who are not immediately connected with the mills. An authentic observer, standing off on one side, will see much that is curious and new to him, and much that will teach him valuable lessons in the philosophy of life, and oblige him to throw aside his preconceived notions, like old clothes, out-grown and ill-fashioned, and array himself in many a garment of new opinions. But it will be in vain for him, how acute soever he may be, to expect to understand it thoroughly. To do this; to see and know what factory life is, and what the inmates of the factory are; he must go among them, live with them, work with them, join them in their recreations. Then will he have the subject laid open before him; and if he is mindful of all the little incidents that happen around him, and discriminating in his observations, he will be able to form some judgment upon the effects of this system, which brings so many together for the purpose of unremitting toil. Then will he be able to understand the feelings of the men and women subject to this influence, and to account for their prejudices and peculiar tastes, and to sympathize with them in their cares and in their joys. Then will he know what are the necessary and what the incidental effects of hard work, for twelve or fourteen hours a day, upon the minds and manners of those who must follow it year after year. If he will not do this, then let him never meddle with the subject; for whatever he may say about it will be but senseless drivel, like the dull pratings of learned stupidity, which reclines at ease in luxurious libraries, and preaches about the divinity of labor,' and the blessedness of that man's lot whose spirit is crushed with hopeless poverty; whose moral growth has been checked, and whose physical life is wasting away prematurely, under the influence of never-ending and ill-paid toil. Out upon the whole canting tribe! If there is any thing above all others disgusting to the weary laborer, it is this ill-timed and ill-applied praise of the fruitful source of his bodily ills and mental anxieties. He works too much; he knows it; the world at large knows it; and so will this canting philosopher know * 'OPERATIVES' — a detestable word; but then what can we call them? Workman' lacks a corresponding term for the other sex; and workies,' the new term, is slang, double distilled. it when he has thrown aside his books, and taken upon himself for a few months the happy condition' of this son of poverty, whose life is spent in one dull round of ceaseless labor, with only now and then a glimmer of bright sunshine and a breath of fresh air. Let him, if he really wishes to understand this subject, go to work, either in the fields or the work-shops, early and late, week in and week out, month after month, and year after year. They who have done this for years know what are the pleasures and what the trials of this lot, and they also know that those who would teach them its blessings, which they have not learned by the sweat of their brow,' are only idle puffers, if not bare-faced hypocrites. A large cotton-mill is a little world of itself, containing in different degrees at different times almost all varieties of character and progress of cultivation. You might as well undertake to describe minutely the characters of all the citizens of a large city with a single stroke of the pen, as to make one description fit all the inmates of the mill. Here is youth and age, ignorance and education, love and hatred, piety and profanity, truth and falsehood, rudeness and refinement; yes, even that high refinement which pure and holy thought, awakened by education, breathes over a spirit gentle and truthful, filling it with the graces of Christian love. Such characters, it may be thought, must be rare in the factories. Even so; they are rare in the world at large; and if we are not greatly mistaken, not too common in any class of society. To judge of the effects of the factory system, however, it would not be fair to compare those subjected to its influence with those whose circumstances in life have given them greater advantages. We must take the workmen and the girls of the mill as they are, and see what in all probability they would have been, had they not been subjected to this influence. In order to illustrate this comparison, and to aid the dissemination of correct opinions, we propose to set forth in these sketches some of the scenes with which we have been familiar, and which are illustrative of the present condition of factory life. The little State of Rhode-Island ('little only in a physical point of view,' its sons are wont to boast,) is more completely than any other a State devoted to manufactures. Cotton and woollen mills, with their little villages, are scattered all over its rugged surface. From the hilly nature of the country, its streams of water have a considerable descent in their short courses, and thus furnish a great amount of water-power in proportion to the quantity of water they pour into the sea. The principal streams are bordered with a succession of villages, large and small, which sometimes lie so close together as almost to touch each other, for many miles in extent; each being a cluster of dwellings formed around one or more manufacturing establishments. The chief city of the State is itself a kind of head-quarters of the factory business; an exchange, where those interested in machinery and its products do mostly congregate.' Here leading citizens themselves are all, or almost all, concerned directly in some of these establishments. Every little stream with water enough for more than the wheel of a grist 6 |