1, calico and cotton; 2, fur; 3, fustian; 4, leather; 5, linen; 6, silk;
7, wool and woollen. Silk and wool are of animal origin, and require
different treatment in dyeing from substances of a vegetable nature,
such as cotton and flax. All the various colors and shades of dyed goods
were originally derived from the combination of the four simple
colors--blue, red, yellow, and black. Cotton is more easily dyed than
linen, and the colors are brighter. Much of what is said under "Print
Works" will apply to this subject. They are so similar, a distinction is
scarcely necessary. In large manufacturing cities, dyers usually confine
themselves to one kind of goods, as wool or silk, and some to certain
colors. Dye houses, in other than manufacturing cities and towns, are
mostly for the coloring of goods that are worn, or new goods that have
been damaged. A great deal of dyeing is done in our large cities.
Frequently, persons going into mourning have articles of dress dyed.
Steam has taken the place mostly of hard labor. When goods have been
well dyed, a casual observer could not detect it. Permanency of color is
a desirable item in dyeing. Some women make a living by keeping a little
shop, where they receive goods to be colored, and have the work done at
dye houses, making, of course, a profit. There is generally a dye house
connected with every large factory of woollen goods. A girl who was
employed in a dye house says the work is far from being neat. The work
of most of the girls is light. It is to put letters or figures on the
articles sent, and when dyed, fold and tie them up, and place the
numbers on. In the dye house where she was, one girl received $3.50--the
others, each, $3 per week. They worked ten hours a day. One girl was
employed in finishing the goods--that is, running them over a heated
cylinder to smooth and dry them. She says the floors of dye houses are
so wet that women would find it not only filthy, but injurious. Mr. Y.
says women are not employed in the mechanical department of his dye and
print establishment--that the business requires the workers to stand in
liquids, and the atmosphere is very damp. A woman would be liable to
suffer from exposure of that kind. A girl employed at another place to
mark goods, told me she received $3 per week. Was told at C.'s dye house
that he employs four girls, paying $3, and $3.50 a week. They put
numbers on goods, and do other work of that kind. They work ten hours. A
cotton goods bleacher and dyer told me the work was too wet and dirty
for women. Most of the winding of cotton for dyeing is done by
machinery. By steam power one person could do ten times as much as by a
wheel. At one place they paid thirty-five cents for basting together two
pieces of cloth eight yards long to be bleached; and a woman could earn
from seventy-five cents to $3 per day; but the work could not last long.
We called at a dyer and bleacher's. He said: "Very few women are
employed in dyeing in this country, but in the old country they are. He
has seen them at it in Scotland, and there it is rather better paid than
most women's work. They are also employed in bleaching, both by
chemicals and exposure to the sun. It is not unhealthy, although in a
dye house a person must be wet from the knees down. By wearing thick
boots, and leggings of India rubber, they would not be likely to suffer.
Occasionally, dyers get some of the chemicals they use into sores on
their hands and feet, which may injure them some, but not seriously. He
says the work must be done in a certain time, and so they cannot be
particular about keeping their feet dry. He pays old women for hanking
cotton 37½ cents a score, and so they may earn $2.25 a week." There are
mechanical modes of printing textile fabrics. In the Staten Island Dye
and Print Works, "there are a good many women and children employed. The
latter are principally confined to the printing department, each of the
sixty printers engaged there being allowed a child for the purpose of
adjusting or distributing the color evenly, previous to the application
of the block. The rate of wages paid in this establishment is, we
understand, as follows: the printers and block makers are paid by the
piece, and when in full work can earn from $60 to $70 a month; the dyers
and other workmen receive from 37½ cents to $1.25 a day; the women $6 to
$12 a month, and the children from $6 to $8." A dyer writes: "Women are
sometimes employed in the finishing department, and are mostly paid by
the day. Spring and fall are the busy seasons." One in Walpole, Mass.,
writes: "I think more than an ordinary degree of intelligence is
required for the business, because of the thought and observation
necessary." A dyer in Buffalo, N. Y., writes: "I employ two, and
sometimes three women. Women are employed in basting work together, and
in finishing it after it is dyed. In some places they have charge of the
office, and receive and deliver goods. For a healthy person it is not
injurious. In finishing, the individual is on his or her feet all the
time. I pay from $1.75 to $5 per week, and hands work from ten to
sixteen hours. The time could not be shortened, owing to the nature of
the business, and the loss during the winter. The comfort and
remuneration of the part done by women is very good. Women of equal
intelligence with men do better, as it is of female apparel the business
mostly consists. In winter they have considerable unoccupied time they
could devote to mental improvement." The proprietor of the Chelsea Dye
House writes: "We employ about seventy-five women to wash, iron, and
finish dyed goods. About one eighth are Americans. It is not unhealthy,
to my knowledge, or in my experience. Average pay is $3.50 per week.
Those that work by the piece can earn from $3.50 to $6 per week of
eleven hours per day. Women are paid all which the business they do will
afford. It requires a woman of fair capacity a few weeks to learn. Work
is constant for good hands. Work is nearly uniform through the seasons.
Large cities are the best localities for business. They pay about $1.75
per week for board in private families of their own standing." A member
of a firm at Astoria, L. I., writes: "We employ from seventy-five to one
hundred women in washing and dyeing yarns and cloth. We know them to be
so employed in Berlin, Prussia. The employment is not unhealthy. We pay
by the week from $4 to $5. They work ten hours. We pay men $7 per week
for the same work that the females are employed at, because they do
more. It requires about four years to learn fully that portion of work
done by females. They are paid $2 per week while learning. A good public
school education is needed, and temperate, steady habits. The prospects
for females are good--eventually they will supersede the men in one
branch of the business. The spring and fall seasons are the best. The
winter is not so good. About two months in the summer our works are
partially stopped. There is a surplus of dyers in Lowell, Mass. We
employ women in preference to men, because we believe them to be more
intelligent than men--especially emigrants. About two thirds are
Americans. They have evening schools, lectures, and church services.
Those that board pay about $1.50 per week."
=168. Factory Operatives.= The larger number of operatives in our
manufactures are females. They are of all ages. They do not remain so
permanently in our factories as in those of older countries. They make
skilful and active workers. The factory operatives of this country are
more favorably situated than those of most countries. Most of them have
wholesome food and comfortable homes, or boarding houses. They are not
confined in factories from early childhood until they lie down to take
their last, long sleep; consequently, they are not stunted and deformed,
and prematurely old. The activity and variety attending life in the city
are likely to produce great restlessness, and insatiable thirst for
excitement. This must be checked, or its results may be ruinous. Vent of
the feelings is harmless; wholesome amusements, recreation so far as is
possible in the quiet of the country, reading good books, and social
intercourse with the virtuous and worthy, will form a good substitute
for this artificial excitement. So greatly is the manufacture of
materials into cloth, and cloth into goods, facilitated by machinery,
that wool taken from the sheep's back to-day, can be worn as clothing
to-morrow. The number of factories has greatly increased since the
introduction of machinery; nor is it strange, for goods have become
cheaper and the demand is greater. The materials for manufacturing are
abundant in this country; but the want of workmen acquainted with this
business, and the want of capital, have prevented some branches of
American manufacture from equalling those of older countries. The
improvements in machinery for removing dust and floating cotton in the
work rooms, no doubt renders it more healthy than it was. "In proof of
his assertion that factory labor shortens life, Dr. Jarrold deposed,
that having examined, in the schools, all the children whose fathers had
ever worked, or were still working in factories, he found that from one
third to one fourth were fatherless." "Out of about two thousand
children and young persons taken promiscuously, who were carefully
examined in 1832, two hundred were deformed. These were factory
operatives." These statements refer to operatives in England. Some women
are employed in the manufactories of Birmingham, England, as overseers
in the departments where women work, but the number is small, and in our
country it is still more uncommon. Cotton and woollen goods are
extensively manufactured in the New England States, New York, and
Pennsylvania. A gentleman told me that a little more than a year ago, as
he came from Vermont, he saw a young man in the cars with about twenty
girls, that he was bringing down from Canada to a cotton factory in
Massachusetts. The manufacturers had offered a bonus of $5 apiece for
girls, and to pay their travelling expenses, and this young man was
making a business of it. He says, in busy seasons there is a scarcity of
hands in the New England factories. We believe that when men and women
do the same kind of work, such as weaving, and are paid by the quantity,
no difference is made in their wages. In comparing returns from several
factories in Massachusetts, I find weavers earn in them from $4 to $5.50
per week; warpers, $3 to $5; dotters, $3 to $4. Irish women, by working
for less wages, have pushed American women out of factories. In Lowell,
a few years back, nearly all the operatives were young American girls
from the country. Many worked from the most honorable, self-denying
motives; some to educate younger members of the family, some to assist
widowed mothers or hard-working fathers, some to lay by a sum to support
themselves in old age, and some to acquire the means for obtaining a
more extensive school education. A manufacturer of printing cloths,
Reading, Pennsylvania, writes: "In all countries where there are cotton
mills, women are employed as weavers, fly and drawing tenders, spoolers,
warpers, dressers, and cloth pickers. The work is not more unhealthy
than any indoor employment. Workers earn from $2.25 to $6. Men and women
are paid the same for the same kind of work. Our kind of work may be
destroyed a year or so by the unsettled state of the country--otherwise
it is good. The hands work about eleven hours at present prices, one
hour less would reduce wages about 10 per cent. There are openings in
cotton mills along the Hudson River, and farther East, and a surplus of
hands in mechanical towns inland. The work is lighter than most of
womanly employments. Women are superior in attending faithfully to their
work, and are more easily managed than men. Board is from $1.50 to $1.75
per week, and is much better than their homes would be, if they were the
daughters of day laborers, as many of them are. I would say further, in
our branch of business women are treated in all respects as regards
their work the same as men, paid the same, and under the same rules and
restraint. In our dressing department the women make from $6 to $8,
while the men make from $8 to $10, with the same machine at the same
price. There are but few mills that employ women dressers, except in
Pennsylvania. They are not strong enough; but here the descendants of
the old Dutch stock are more masculinely developed, and are taking the
place of the men in this branch." A gentleman who has been manufacturing
cotton cloth in North Adams, Massachusetts, between twenty and thirty
years, writes: "We employ women and girls in our mill. Some of the work
requires constant stepping and walking. Wages for spinning girls, $2.50
to $3 per week; for boys the same, for spooling; from $2.75 to $3 for
speeder and drawer tenders; $3 for warpers, or $4; all the rates of
labor include the board. Farther East, women are employed as dressers,
earning from $4 to $6 per week. Weaving is paid for by the piece--most
other work by the week, as it cannot so well be let by the piece. To
learn to spin on the throstle frames requires from six to eight weeks.
The qualifications desired in an applicant are expertness, good
behavior, ability to read and write, industry, and a desire to be useful
to the employer. In midsummer, hands are most scarce. Good workers are
never thrown out of employment except during panics. In this place
(North Adams), hands usually work from twelve to twelve and a half
hours; Saturdays we close at four o'clock in summer. Farther East, a
number of operators work eleven hours; some, twelve; and some, even
twelve and a half. The legislature of the General Government is, and has
been for many years, against encouraging the industry of the country.
Whatever revenue laws would promote the making of iron, wool, cotton, or
cutlery, would assist and support agriculture, the making of shoes, and
all other branches of labor. The cotton mills can merely subsist. The
hours could not be shortened. Those employed in watching, warming,
oiling up, superintending, repairing, &c., have the same hours. There
has been a demand for hands everywhere in Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and adjoining States. Women are more orderly, more easily governed, and
more cleanly than men. Their slim fingers enable them to be more expert.
They are more attentive, as a general thing, where the labor requires
only looking after, creating no fatigue, except that which arises from
close attention. For these reasons women are preferable. Their labor is
somewhat cheaper than men's of the same age. In Western Massachusetts,
about three fourths are American women; in Eastern Massachusetts about
one half are, and the other half foreigners. The women have good
boarding houses, and live and dress well. Here, a hand can leave his
employer by giving two weeks' notice; farther East, four weeks' notice
is required. In both places, effort is made to spare them at once, if
they desire it. My American work people are above mediocrity; the
others, rather below. Children under fifteen years of age are required
by law to be kept out of the mills for at least three months in the
year, to attend school; more if the parents choose, as the schools are
free. Employers, as a general thing, press and urge the children to
school, as intelligent hands are worth more than ignorant ones. For good
board, women pay $1.50 per week; with lodging and washing, $2. Many
hands lay up sums in the savings banks; very many more might do so, if
they chose. Good female spinners, speeder tenders, spoolers, warpers,
twisters-in, and weavers are always rather scarce. They command from $3
to $6 per week. Widow women, with families of girls to support, can get
a good living by such work, and lay up some money if they try." Hitherto
few manufactories have been established in the Southern United States:
but now that the South will depend more on its own resources, no doubt
manufactories of cotton goods will be built up very rapidly. From
"Northern Profits and Southern Wealth," we make an extract: "One third
of the hands employed in factories at the East are females. At the
South, female labor is taking the same direction. At the North, this
element of labor is supplied by immigration in nearly its whole
extent--a very large proportion of the females employed in the factories
being Irish. The Eagle mills in Georgia have one hundred and thirty-six
looms, and employ seventy girls, who earn 50 cents to $1 per day. The
operatives in all these factories are white people, chiefly girls and
boys, from twelve to twenty years of age. On an average they are better
paid and worked easier than is usually the case in the North. Country
girls from the pine forests, as green and awkward as it is possible to
find them, soon become skilful operatives; and ere they have been in the
mills a year, they are able to earn from $4 to $6 a week. They are only
required to work ten hours a day. Particular attention is paid to the
character of the operatives, and in some mills none are received but
those having testimonials of good moral character and industrious
habits. Churches and Sabbath schools are also attached to several of the
manufactories, so that the religious training of the operatives may be
properly attended to. In 1860, 45,315 males and 73,605 females were
employed in cotton factories. The woollen manufacturers employed as
operatives in 1860, 28,780 males and 20,120 females.
=169. Gingham.= From the Manchester Gingham Manufactory, we learn 149
American women are there employed in weaving, winding, spooling,
piecing, drawing, reeling, and spinning. "Spinners' maximum is sixty
cents per day. Weavers receive twenty-six and eighteen cents per cut.
Women receive for winding ten cents per cut, nine cents for spooling,
forty cents per day for piecing, for drawing $2.50 per week, and for
reeling 1¼ and 1½ cents per doff. We pay the same to men and women for
the same kind of work. They are usually about two months learning.
Prospect for work is very good. We make a staple article. Summer is the
best season; we have steady work the year round. Hands work sixty-nine
hours during six days--twelve hours, five days; and nine on Saturday.
There is some demand for them; we prefer women for weaving. They pay for
board $1.40 per week." The agent of the Gingham Mills, in Clinton,
Mass., in reply to a letter seeking information, says: "We employ four
hundred females, young and old, in the various branches of cotton
manufacture. They are paid from forty cents to $1.25, according to skill
and ability; they work 11½ hours. They are paid partly by the piece, and
partly by the day. By the piece, and for the same kind of work, women
receive as much as men. Some branches are learned very quickly, and some
slowly, according to capacity. Women are paid while learning, much to
our loss. Ordinary intelligence and complete use of the physical
faculties are necessary qualifications. We work at all seasons. The
women are very careful to select their times for absence, visiting, &c.,
when we are preparing the winter style of goods, which are of darker
colors, and possibly less profitable to them. They are sure to come back
during the manufacture of lighter styles. It is clearly a womanly way of
doing business, but _the men do the same_. The kinds of work women do in
mills do not require the strength of men, and so women are employed. It
is cheapest to employ women; because, if we employed only men, half the
village would be idle. Boys can do all the work that the females do. We
have four hundred males also. One third are American. In weaving, where
men's and women's work is most justly and fully compared, men do the
most and the best in quality. In other branches there is no decided
difference. Board $1.50 per week; the houses are of good moral
character, and very comfortable."
=170. Hosiers.= The invention of machinery for making hose is ascribed
to William Lee, of England, 1589. Some trace the invention of knit
stockings to Spain. The number of hands employed in the manufacture of
hose in Saxony amounts to 45,000. Cotton, woollen, linen, and silk are
the kinds of hose common to us. The manufacture of hose worn by
Americans is mostly English. The amount of capital required, and the
small number of good operatives in our country, cause the products of
some of our manufactures to be of an inferior quality. Years back
knitting was much done, particularly in the country, but the general use
of machinery has superseded the knitting needle. In our large cities,
the great amount of hosiery worn might make the sale of hose and half
hose a payable business. In making cotton and woollen hose, some
children wind the cotton, some join the seams, and others sew them on
the boards, to put them in shape. We called to see Aiken's knitting
machine. It is quite an ingenious affair; price, $65. I think if any two
women would buy one, and one should knit, while the other formed the
feet and finished them off, it would pay better than sewing. Large
quantities of hosiery are made in Germantown, Pa. It gives employment to
many women, who, at their houses, finish them off. The United States
Government have usually obtained their clothing, shoes, hats, and socks
for the army and navy at Philadelphia, but since the war commenced, most
of the clothing has been made up in New York. The manufacture of hosiery
is very limited in New York. At the principal hosiery establishment we
were told they only employ women to seam that are the wives of the
weavers, and they do the work at home. It is very poor pay, and is done
almost altogether by English women who have been brought up to the
business. It would not pay a person to learn it. An English stocking
weaver told me that he does theatrical work, as it pays best. He has
known two women from his own country that wove hosiery in the United
States. One did journey work with her husband in New York. She earned
from $4 to $5 per week. Such work is paid for by the piece or dozen. The
work pays poorly. A woman cannot earn at it more than thirty-seven or
fifty cents a day, being paid eighteen cents a dozen for seaming socks.
To seam shirts and drawers pays better, six cents being paid for each
article. Weaving stockings by hand looms will not pay in this
country--they can be imported so cheaply. It is rather light work. Work
done by steam power is not so neat; the selvages are not well made, and
the goods must be cut and sewed in seams. Many women are employed in
hosiery manufactures where steam is used. A stocking manufacturer in
Lake Village, N. H., writes: "Seven hundred girls and married women are
employed in this village to make stockings. Wages run from 50 cents to
$1 per day of ten hours; some are paid by the day, others by the piece.
Men's work, being harder, is better paid. It requires from three to five
weeks to learn. Women have their board paid while learning. Spring,
summer, and autumn are the best seasons for work. Some work at the
business to maintain their families; others, because they have nothing
to do. All are Americans. They pay for board from $1.25 to $1.50 per
week." A manufacturer writes: "We employ twenty-five females in the
mill, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five who take work
to their homes. Nine tenths are Americans. We pay from $3.50 to $6 per
week. It requires but a short time to learn in some departments. They
are paid from the time of entering the factory as a learner. It is
considered a permanent business. Men and women do not work on the same
branches." At the Troy hosiery manufactory, "sixty women are employed in
tending knitting machines, winding yarn, and sewing by hand and by
machines. The employment is healthy. Their wages run from $3 to $6 per
week, average $4.50. They work mostly by the piece, a few by the week.
Males and females usually work side by side, and the wages are alike.
They are continually learning, from 18 years old to 40. The prospect is
good for future employment, and the employment in factories is generally
constant. They work twelve hours per day. If shorter time was universal,
it would not affect the profits. About one half are Americans. The rooms
are well ventilated, and the temperature from sixty to seventy degrees
summer and winter."
=171. Men's Wear.= A gentleman in Darby, Penn., writes: "Women are
employed in factories equally with men, throughout this section of
country, as weavers. They are paid just as well, for the same kind of
labor. The employment, for aught I can see, is entirely healthy. They
receive from $18 to $25 per month of four weeks. They are paid by the
piece. It requires about three months to learn weaving, dependent upon
the facility with which the learners acquire knowledge. Learners are
never paid while receiving instruction; but on the other hand, they more
often pay their companions for the privilege of being taught.
Industrious habits and quickness of perception are essential to complete
success. By a law of Pennsylvania, sixty hours constitute a week's labor
in factories. There is neither a demand nor surplus of hands at present,
though a number of factories are in course of erection in this section
of country; but they will doubtless be filled as soon as ready, for
American women especially prefer factory to household labor. About one
half our hands are American. Women have more stability of character than
men, and are generally superior to them in the neatness with which they
bring the cloth from the looms. Board for operatives is from $8 to $9
per month."