The Northern galaxy, and Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1843-1844, 1844-01-31

which is too much for an employment tina
IS pursued the year round. 1t does moi
allow lime enough for reading, study, at.
tending lectures, and other means of NOR,
al and intellectual improvement But, OF
the other hand, it must be considered thai
the labor is very light that many pursue
it for hours together with an open book
before them, reading half the time /; and
that all greatly prefer it TO any other field
of Industry. You can hardly induce an
American girl at the Eastward to do house.
work except for her own family or the
sick; the large majority would prefer
working in factory for 81 so per week
to doing homework for 50. And the es.
Establishment of manufactures has, to our
certain knowledge, more than double the
average recompense accorded 10 female
labor throughout the Manufacturing re-
gion. while greatly reducing the price Of
almost every thing a woman buys. Be-
sides this, the treatment of females who
do homework has greatly improved since
the factories were started. No woman of
sense or spirit will now submit to the hui
Mutations which were common there 90
years ago, land which are common here
now,) because she knows where she may
at any time go TO avoid them.
1t is common enough for our free trade
traders to talk flippantly of our females
engaged in factories as if they were of
like character and condition with those of
England. But this is very unlike the
truth. The American factory girl is gen.
orally the daughter of farmer, has had
common education at the district school,
and has gone into the factory for a few
seasons to acquire little something for a
start in life. She spends some weeks or
months of every year under her fathers
roof, and generally marries and settles in
its vicinity. Many attend lectures and
evening schools after the days work is
over, and of the six thousand, moro than
half regularly occupy and pay for seats
in the numerous Churches of Lowell
Nowhere is the Sabbath better observed,
or the proportion of habitual church>goers
greater than in that thriving city, hardly
any where is Temperance more general,
or are violations of the law less frequent.
Six out of the ten of the females, and a
full half of the males. enjoy better health
in the Mills than they did before coming
there.
Six of the mills are warmed by steam,
only two by hot air, and three by steam
and hot air together. The annual con-
sumption of wood there is 1920 cords;
of Anthracite Coal. 1880 tons; of Oil,
1856 gallons. 100000 bushels of Char.
coal were used in ls43, and 1000 barrels
of Flour for Starch alone. The Locks
and Canals Company use 1925 tons of
Iron per annum: will put up and furnish
factory of 5000 spindles complete in
four months, and employs, when building,
1000 to 1900 workmen.
Such are some of the statistics of the
chief manufacturing town in Americ,.-
As specimen of regulated, systematzed,
well directed industry, it is worthy Of
study. Though doubtless far enough rom
perfection, whether as TO efficiency ordis-
trbution of proceeds, we ask every friend
of the Human race TO judge whether it is
wise or humane to favor policy which
would diminish such towns as Lowell,and
enlarge such as Manchester, Preston and
Glasgow. This is the principal question.
And, while the laborers of England have,
under all changes of policy, been yearly
sinking into deeper and deeper abpcincss
and despair, owing TO causes far beyond
the reach of any policy we may pursue,
we rejoice in being able TO state thai the
working men and women of Lowell have
very large and general deposites in the
Savings Bank of that place, and ;hatthey
are becoming large owners of stock in the
Corporation for which they work-n one
already TO the extent Of 500 600, in an
mother TO the amount of 100000 &c.
&c. Here is the germ of the true and
general reform which we hope to see be-
come universal, and which, when shall
have resulted in making the wGkmen
large and general owners of stock in the
establishment in which they are employed,
sharing fairly in their profits, will put an
effectual stop TO the demagogue resort of
exciting laborers against employers, to the
injury and ruin of both.
One word on the profits of manufactur-
ing, and we close. The ve.y Free.Trade
journals which moralized with ill-conceal-
ed exultation. over the reported failures Of
the Saugerties Iron Works, of Senator
Sprague's Calico Works, &C., as showing
the delusiveness of Protection and Of the
hopes TO benefit 10 manufacture from the
Tariff, since have made the land ring with
their proclamations that the manufacturers,
under the Protective Tariff, are making
profits of 20 to 40 per cent! The excuse
for this falsehood is the alleged fact that
the Merrimac at Lowell and one or two
other companies have made heavy divi-
dends this year. Now the Merrimac is
the Oldest establishment at Lowell, with
extensive and valuable connections, IS en-
gagged in printing calicoes, (the same bust
ness which Senator Sprague failed in this
year y having capital of s2,OO0000
and thus able to supply the market when
it is favorable and withhold its goods when
otherwise /; just as the Harpers make mon
ey by publishing, when younger and weak
- bo,eoo mo down al n rourd flam Cal.