The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-02


business; he was syOon taken INTO partnership bv
his employer and upon their death or retire
ment ne 1ecame sole master of the establish
ats energy, prudence, and reasonable philan-
throphy soon made IL thelargest OF the kind i'm
Leeds, and insured for him so much prosperity
that IN due time he cane TO be the recognized
head of the woOlen trade in Yorkshire From
first to last he aimed, above all things at pre-
serving the independence of the small dealers
ano ,maannfactrreLs. run OF sympathy for the
| jealous eye the development of huge factories
| like those of the Peels, at Bury and Tam worth
and the Monteiths at BlannJ1e and Damar-
| mock.
He saw that this was an inevitable tendency
), OF modern commerce: be yielded 10 it himself
and became proprietor of monster factory OF
| his own; but he felt that this gro with OF trade
| Vt, on the one hand, il was very helpful to the
| lower classes, was likely, on the other to inhct
upon them serious injury. He considered that
| the men who we're only fit to be the servants of
others could not possibly be hurt but would very
| likely be benefited by having employment in
large instead of small establishments. But he
was very 10th to damage the position of the
multitudes of insignificant manufacturers who
honorably preferred to be their own masters
and to follow the calling inherited from their
fathers only kaided by their own sons and
daughters, or perhaps by one or two appren-
tices, who hoped in time to be also indepepdent
clothmakers. With all such men BENJAMIN Gott
was anxious to trade in their own way He
sought them out, bought their produce from them
on equitable terms, made every allowance for
any defects in its character that were due to the
incompleteness of the machinery with which
they were forced to be content, and encouraged
them to go on in their old ways, only adapting
those ways to the demands of modern commerce
or cheap and well-made goods
With that excellent purpose he did his utmost
TO carry on the smaller sorts OF business that
had characterized bis house when he first be-
came partner in 1t. He was, however not
content with that. Reasonably mindful of his
own Interests, as well as with the view of pro-
noting the welfare of his town and trade, he
also became manufacturer on large scale
His factory at Armley was, towards the end of
the eighteenth century, so extensive that his
Workmen's wages amounted to G1000 a Week-a
snalI sum I'M IN the eyes OF many great manulactu-
re1s OF the present day. but very large indeed
II taken as measure of the extent of an en-
pioyers business seventy years ago.
AT that time wool and worsted were worked
exclusively by hand; neither Hargreayes' Jenny
nor Crompton's mule nor any of the other in.
Ventlons that had already caused wonderful
Improvement in cotton manufacture having
been as yet adapted to woollen fibre. The wool
wa was hrst sorted and then combed or carded by
the manual labour OF men and boys, whose
average wages amounted to about twelve shi-
lings week; then it was spun, generally by
women and girls. whose wages varied from
eighteen pence to hali-a-crown a week. It was
hnally submitted to the hand-!oom weaver who
with hard work, could rarely earn more than
Ten shllllngs week. In 1858 the average wages
OF the men employed IN the Leeds woOllen fac
tory amounted to twenty-five shillings week.
while boys received about six and eightpence
ana women and girls more or less than eight
shillings. Thus the labourers' rate of pay has
been more than doubled, Notwithstanding the
very great reduction in the price OF the
goods produced by them, through the introduc
hon OF machinery into the woollen manufacture,
begun by Gott and his associates and greatly
extended in recent y ears by younger men, like
trict containing abonGt bsIG tRe Rr Lesds @ cothing dis
Of Yorkshire, and more than fourth of that OF
all Great Britain, was occupied by $40 manufac-
turers; who gave employment to 23,32S opera
tives, besides using 1905 gigs, 2344 power looms,
and 423,4S2 spindles worked by steam-power
equal to the force of 1910 horses.
And while the woolen trade has been thus
progressing in Leeds, under the announcement
OF men like Benjamin Gott, the town has become
the home of another wealth.producing branch
of commerce, with John Marshall for its foster
father.
There had been a linen made in Leeds as in
every other part of England, IRON time imme-
mortal. Long before woollen fabrics came into
general use, it was the fashion for country peo-
pie to grow, or barter, little flax, and there
with make rough clothing for themselves and
those belonging to them. There was guild of
linen weavers in London in the fourteenth CEN
tury, and every important town had similar
association during the middle ages. But the
trade was slow in making progress as q trade.
Long after England had grown famous for
its woolen manufactures, the making of linen
clothing was left chiefly in the hands of
country folks and the daughters of the house
hold their coarser wares being found GOOD
enough for ordinary use, while the better sorts
were imported from France ana Holland In
the second half of the seventeenth century how.
ever great change began. In 1868 law was
passed Tor the encouragement of linen manu-
iacture in England, and without the aid of laws,
the trade was readily prosecuted in various parts
OF Scotland. About l76O, moreover, some Scots
resident in the north of Ireland started the
manufacture in Belfast and the neighborhood,
where for many centuries flax had been freely
grown, put only for expectation or domestic
use. mo women are abler to spin linen thread
WE'LL" said Sir William Temple in 1850, ''than
the Irish, who, laboring little in any kind with
their hands, have their fingers more supple and
soft than any other women OF the poor condi-
ton among US. And this may certainly be i'm
linen, so as to Bear down OWN I'll the t9i trade
both of France and Holland, and draw
much Of the money which goes from
England to those parts upon this occasion into
the hands of his Majesty's subjects of Ireland,
without crossing any interest of trade in Eng
land" Successive generations of statesmen
were of that opinion, and in all sorts of ways
the linen trade was encouraged in Ireland,
much good to the country beng done thereby
in spite of the consequent injury to the older
business in woollen goods. By the year 1860,
Belfast, Newry, Drogheda, Londonderry, Dun
Galk and Dublin had come 10 have a thriving
trade IN linen, most OF which was shipped to
Liverpool, for distribution in various parts of
England In Scotland, also, the trade made
rapid progress, Glasgow being its headquarters,
and other towns, like Kirkealdy and Dundee
being set by it on the highway to prosperity.
In the first half of the eighteenth century,
'linen being everywhere made at home,r ac.
Cording to contemporary report "the spinning
executed by the servants during the long winter
evenings, and the weaving by the village webster,
there was "A general abundance Of napery and
underclothing. tvery woman made her web
1, 4l..aa, eltf IA 81 -