Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-28
AN INDUSTRIAL UTOPIA
Employers and Workmen Treat
Each Other Fairly.
MILLS ON THE MERRIMAC
River Turns More Wheels Than Any
Other in the World.
PRODUCTS WORTH MILLIONS
Establishment of Cotton Manufacture
ing Twenty Years Ago-Purchase
of the Amoskeag Falls.
BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
ial Correspondence OF The Star and

Nie'iai or ne star the Chicago
Record-IIernld.
MANCHESTER. n. H. July %, 1907
There is a remarkable industrial situation
in Manchester, unlike any that | have found
in the world before 1t is a city of 90 eco or
1890 inlIa bitants, with more than 10000
mechanics and factory hands who are en-
trely un0rganized. There are no unions:
there has never been a strike-at least not
within the present generaton-or any other
form Of trouble between the employers and
the employees. This situation, I am told, is
a striking Illustration of the consequences
or fair and honorable treatment on both
sides. Here are corpora tons that are not
soulless and workingmen who appreciate
and respond to generous treatment and fair
wages The corpora tons own the greater
part of the town, and not only rent long
blocks of the tenements to their employees,
but look after the boarding houses main
tain supervision over them and regulate
their management. They require the board
ing house Keepers to furnish certain quail
ties and quaruti's of TODD and limit them
10 certain ch%rs 3. The corporations pro-
vide amusement, hospitals and other neces-
saTles for their @Hployes in an enterDrlsIng
and generous manner. They increase ana
decrease wages according to the fiuctuation
In prices of the goods mat are produced, and
the employees accept each cnange in the
scale as II occurs because of tncir conf
Gence in the honesty and justice Of the d.-
reCtoTs of the mills.
1t seems to he an industrial Utopia and I
do not know where its like be found.
The Amoskeag Mill.
The great corporation here is the Amos
keag cotton mill, which IS probably the
largest in the United States, employing in
the neighborhood of 1900 hands under the
management OF Herman F. Straw. who is
known as the agent, a title peculiar to cot
ton factories in New England He is gen
efal manager of all the interests of the
company, sunJect to the supervision and in
strncuona OF board OF directors. VINO
own or control the sock of the company
Mr. Straw's father was agent or manager
or the null before him, ana must have been
great man, because he organized the sys-
tenn and conducted the anairs which re-
suited in the Ideal situation winch now pre-
Valls. He established the relations between
the company and its employees, and trained
MS son 10 carry out his theories with equal
success, while Mr. Herman Straw. the pres
ent agent. is training his son IN a like nan
her TO follow III his footsteps. and eyentu-
any he, representing the tnlrd generation
Will take control.
it is a beautiful ride from, Co,cor5 g.,
Manchester along the bank OF the Merri-
mac river You can go by railway train.
ny trolley, by carriage or by .automChi. e. as
dld, although every one cannot have Mr.
SN'"s'it ~ sui, secretary OF state of
New Hampshire, for his guide. The dis
lance is eighteen miles, through a fine
farming country mostly given up to diaries
Tor Manchester and neighboring manufac-
turing towns require great deal of milk
and butter. The soil is good but there is
comparatively little p.ougued land What
ever IS cultivated is devoted to oats pota-
Toes and OTHER vegetables and garden truck
me BARNS are severa! times as large as the
houses, because there are more cattle than
peop!e TO take care of and great deal of
space Is required to store the hay that
feeds the stock through the winter Some
farmers milk fifty and sixty cows regularly.
and they require lot Of room and a vast
quantity Of fodder
The road is one of the best in New Eng
iaAd. II Is section of the boulevard which
leads from Boston to the White mounta MS
and the distance is eighteen miles. We pass
through the village of Pembroke the birth
place of the late Gen. Byron NJ. Cutcheon
OF Michigan and Thomas w Knox the
traveller ana author who was secretary of
the Lotcs Cub of New York for more than
thirty years. nephew of the late George
Peabody and one of his heirs has a hand
some house and lives there in ideal stvle.
Inc old Pembroke Academy, one Of the
Oldest IN the country, has been famous as
n preparatory school and many prominent
men have been fitted for college there The
village of Bow. the birthp ace of Mrs Mary
baker g. Eddy, is part of Pembroke, and
Aer rather S farm lies along the river II
originally comprised about fifty acres Mrs
Eddy 8 birthplace is an oId-fa sh oned farm
house, which still belongs in the family
having been inherited by one of her con-
sins. Another cousin died here a few wears
ago at ninety three years of age and hcy
brother Albert, who WAS considered one of
the most brilliant men in New HaInpshire
was a roommate OF the late Gov. Currier of
New Hampshire at Oar, mouth College
Wheels Turned by the Merrimac. .
The Merrimoc valley is one of the bust
est hives OF industry on earth The Merri
mac river, 1t is claimed, turns more wheels
than any other stream in the world for not
only Manchester, but Lowell, Lawrence
Newburyport, Haverhill. Amesbury, Nashua
and ether big manufacturing towns lie upon
its banks. The value of their united products
mounts up into the hundreds of millions
Manchester alone produces wearing appar-
ell, shoes, locomotives and other articles to
a value of $47,00o,00O a year The cotton
mills Of this city produce 10000 miles Of
cloth every year. and enough every day to
reach from the Merrimac to New York
city and return. The city of Lowell has 256
different manufacturing establishments and
an annual output of more than sJ0.Uo0GoO
More than 10000 men are employed in its
mills, who are paid more than S13 OO0 600
in wages annually. There are seven cotton
mills four wooden mills, five worsted mills
eight hosiery mills, six shoe factories, thir-
tyfour plants devoted to the manufacture
Lowell.
Lawrence produced last year S21, 400 900
of manufactured goods, of which $4,000, 900
worth We're textiles, and the other cities
along the river added a corresponding
amount to the wealth of the world. Haver-
hi ! produced y sos, $50 pairs of shoes, val
ued at about 100000. 600. and other cities
along the banks Of the Merrimac added n |
corresponding amount to the wealth of the |
country
The river is formed by the junction of
the WinnepeSaukee and the Pemipewasset |
about eighty miles from Newburyport.
where IT flows into the sea, and during that |
DIS lance has fall of about 500 feet with !
a large volume of water which furnishes |
power for factories innumerable. You are |
never out of sight of a factory as you go |
down the stream. and their chief products |
are cottons, woolens, hosiery and paper. |
They tell me here that the waters of the |
Merrimac supply the largest cotton and |
the largest wooden mill In the wor d. The |
latter. known as the Wood mill, is owned |
by the wooden trust, OF which William NJ. |