The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1888-07-26
EAcToRY LEE.
The Past and Present of Mill Life I'm the
New England States.


Eighty years ago, when cotton manu-
featuring was in its infancy, an Ameri-
can mechanic would often start lit
tie mill with a few dozen employees.
Among them were probably his own
children and the children of his relatives,
the Youngest of whom might not be
more than seven or eight years old. 1t
was not an ideal state of affairs, but
everybody shared pretty equally in
their unideal conditions. For twenty
or thirty years the mills grew in size
and numbers, but the operatives con-
tinued to be of the same nationality
and the same class as the employers.
Social relations and intermarriages
were not only possible but actual facts,
as an investigation into the private
history OF some prominent manufactu-
ring families would show. A caste
feeling, however, began to develop as
the profits of the employer grew great
er than the wages of the employed,
and the property thus acquired by
some separated into classes those who
a short time before had been equal
neighbors. 1t became an objection to
marriage, as local traditions relate,
that .-her' father worked for s.his''
father, although the youth in question
might in early childhood have worked
in his fathers mill, and might pride
himself, in his successful old age, on
the fact
During this early period it became
customary for the mill proprietors to
possess themselves of tracts of land
about the factories, and TO build there
on tenement-houses, boarding-houses,
and frequently stores for the opera
tives. 1t was necessary that they
should do so, as the sudden growth of
the industry attracted into the river
valleys where the mills were situated
large numbers of people, who must
Immediately be provided with dwelling
places and markets in which to pur-
chase food. The country was young.
and there were no capitalists to hold
the land and put up the houses
but the cotton manufacturers them
selves, the very men whose enter
prise had called to the borders of the
streams the sons and daughters of the
inland farms. The standard of COM
fort was low. The risks of a new bus
mess must also be considered, when we
scrutinize the villages that were built
at that time. They were often far in
ferior to those established in later
days.
The equality of condition moderated
slowly but steadily. Traces of it lin
gered nearly as long as native Ameri-
cans remained in the mill in any num-
ber. have known of one instance of
very intimate friendship existing,
during the middle of the century, be-
tween two thoughtful women, one of
whom was the the mill-owner's wife
and the other an operative in the fac
tory. just such friendship would be
scarcely conceivable possibility un-
der existing conditions. Only philan-
thropic intentions could bring about
even its shadow.
Difference in wealth, with its newt
able result of difference in daily habit,
had already proved barrier between
employer and employed, when, after
the year 1850, a greater distinction
arose. The mill population slowly al
tered its character, and this change
naturally emphasized its distinctness
from the mill-owners. Foreigners be-
gan to come, and the Americans who
had hitherto worked in the mill rose
into superior avocations, until few of
the native women remained, and not
many InoH except InOS6 VINO were
overseers or superintendents The
next generation accentuated the change.
The New England girls of this period
did not go into the factory, as their
mothers had gone. They sought high
er employments during the interval
between school and marriage. The
governing class in the industry, in
cluding owners, clerks, superinten-
dents, and overseers, was now of a diff
ferent race and religion from the
workers, who so far as many affairs
were concerned had become a gov
erned class. l do not mean that such
of the men as had the franchise were
improperly controlled in their political
action. l do not believe that the
manufacturers of New England are
guilty of trying to unduly influence
the votes of their laborers. 1t must
also be noted, in this connection, that
comparatively few of these operatives
can be influenced in that way, since
none of the women and few of the men
are voters. When, therefore. / say
that they are governed by the manu-
facturers, mean that the methods of
their daily life and work are under
B. Chace WynsGss IN
Atlantic.