Year: 1875

increase in deposits IN this year-1S72-3-was only
S. 033 GA This year Of hard times but the in
stil handsomely above the addition Of
six per cent interest to the amount Of the previous
year In December 1874, the total deposits were
$4s, I'll sol, and the depositors 9S, ,359, Of whom
l3, 521 had over 1000; 14,SS4 over $500 ard
under $1,000, and 80, 954 depostors had less
than $500 each. That IS 20 say during the year 1874
the depostors Or ST. 600 had slightly increased by
415-namey, the depositors OF between $500 and
81 600 had also slightly increased by 2Sl and he de-
postoTs having less than $780, the greater number OF
whom are probably mechanics laborers and servants,
had increased BY 459l In this last year the savings
banks deposits OF the State amounted to average Of
over s495 TO each depostor and $lss per head
Of the total population OF the State


am aware that such figures as these from the saw
ings banks returns have but indefinite value, but
put together with the small pauper population and the
absence Of strikes Of which there have been none or
almost none, during the year, and the CON
siderable increase Of deposl.ors Of less than $500
EACH il looks as though there could be but little absolute
want ana suffering in the state Most Of mills in fact
are at work. and the factory population which consists
largely of French Canadians and Irish, is earning
wages and at rates OF pay which enable at least the IN
married To Law by money II they wish to- Many OF the
mills keep stores running over hastily numoer
OF 'pay envelopes" which found in manufacturers
counting room noticed that not few OF the opera
tves trade out the greater part Of their pay am toa
that they are not generally proydeni and this Is PROB
bly, true or the factory population everywhere. In
some OF the towns there are cooperative stores,
and here and there hears Of 'soveregns OF indus
try societies whose object is to buy at wholesale,
through an approved agent and thus the profit Of
.ald tha sh and
cessful


The necessary expenses OF an operative consist OF
course or three elcmen.s--sheer TODD and clothing
Under the factory house system in Rhode Island and
Massachusetts house is usually higher now than
before the war where the house is owned by the com
pany. The owners purposely keep down rents
Houses of the mill lands-as at Fall River-cost more
because they under the general law Of competi
ton Food is except in the article Of meat nearly
cheap before the war, Clothing is cheaper
just now am told that the relation Of prices to wages
enables unmarried women to lay by more than be-
fore the war; families do not do quite wel there
being still difference against them in the Of food.
1t remarked by several persons that the fac
tory population had-in with the rest OF the
country-got into the habit OF spending money
during the war when everything was inflated and
that they but slowly and reluctantly returning to
the old economies which is but natural The trades
unions do not make much headway in Rhode Island,
and this, they say is mainly because there but few
English among the operatives. Tho greater part Of
them French Canadians and Irish.


PROMISING.


The conclusion which l come to after an attentive
though necessarily brief survey of the cotton industry
is that it has extremely promising future, which
will be realized general industry revives
That the mill somewhat too apt 10 complain
Of high wages when thcy would do better to ener-
geticaly seek a wider market and skill and enter
prise in trying to adapt their goods to foreign
demand That when trade is very dun, 1t is just
now. is not good time for operatives
TO strike. That as soon as industry and
trade revive factory wages likely TO rise
because there is not, believe actual surplus OF
operatives If all the mills working full time. That
lively demand for cotton goods would at develop
scarcity of at least kinds Of operatives, and
hence a natural and inevitable rise in their wages And
finally that still in this industry in this country
at the point where wages will rise fall not by the
arbitrary intervention motion Of either mill
or operatives but by the natural and sufficiently quick
operation OF the law of supply and demand The mill
could better afford TO pay higher wages they
had a full demand for their product than they
afford to pay the present rates at the present
time OF depression. They cannot afford at any time
to opprcss their operatives because these would leave
them They can better afford TO work without profit
than to stop, because II they stop their machinery
deterorates great part OF their expenses continues
and they dsorganize and lose their trained laboring
force. II those propositions correct, believe
they are there does exist In the relations between
the mill and their operatives in this country
such condition OF unlimited power the one side
and dependence the other would imperl the



oppress them without risking losses OF a kind which
they could not afford CHARLES NORDHOFF