employ about 24 girls. The employment is healthy. We pay girls about
fourteen years old, thirty-three cents a day for 10½ hours in summer; in
winter they work till dark, averaging ten hours. To girls about twenty
years old, we pay fifty cents per day. The men and women do different
work. The prospect of future employment is good. Hands work all the year
the same. The price of good board is from $1.25 to $1.50 per week." The
agent of the Pacific Print Works, Lawrence, Mass., gives the following
reply to inquiries: "We employ one thousand women in carding, spinning,
spooling, warping, and weaving, on sewing machines, sewing by hand,
measuring, knotting, ticketing, &c. The employment is generally healthy,
but the workers are more or less exposed to bad air and to dust. They
are paid from twenty-five cents to $1 per day, according to age or
skill. They work from ten to eleven hours per day. Some work but 5½
days, from choice. It would doubtless be a pecuniary loss to shorten the
hours. Women are as well paid here, generally, as men, when comparative
strength and power of endurance are considered. It requires from three
to twelve months to learn. While learning, they usually receive enough
to pay their board. The more strength and intelligence they have, the
better. The prospect for this employment is good. They work during all
seasons. Women are not usually as well fitted as men to attend large
machines, but are better for smaller ones. From three hundred to four
hundred of our women are continual readers of our library. They pay
$1.50 per week for board. It is as good, for the class of people to be
accommodated, as any I ever saw." The agent of the print works,
Manchester, N. H., writes: "Women are employed in all departments. They
average sixty-five cents a day, and work eleven hours. They are paid by
the piece, and at the same rate as the men. It requires from one to four
weeks to learn. This kind of business is increasing. There is a demand
all through New England for female labor in our branch of business. We
employ 1,200, and three fourths are American. They are more steady than
men. Some of our girls go West to teach, and some teach here. They have
separate boarding houses, and pay $1.37 per week, including washing and
lights. The houses are kept with as much order as any female school. No
operative is received until they certify that they will comply with the
regulations," a copy of which we examined, and found to be very good.
From the print works at Haverstraw, N. Y., we receive the following
information: "Women are employed in sewing, measuring calico, and in the
engraving department, in running the pantograph machines, which dispense
entirely with hand engraving, die making, and machine engraving. Women
are employed in England, but only partially in other European countries.
The women earn from $2 to $4 per week. Men receive double the pay of
women: I know of no reason but usage. Only a few weeks are necessary to
become proficient in our work, except in the engraving department. Men
serve seven years to learn the art of engraving and printing. Women
learn to trace by the pantograph in three months; become proficient in
one year. Ability and good judgment are necessary. The prospect for the
employment of females is good in many other departments, particularly
_designing_. We are decided that females could successfully acquire the
art and trade of designing and drawing patterns for calico. Wages of
males for this work are from $10 to $40 per week--few at the former,
more at $20. Ten hours constitute a day. The time could be shortened an
hour or two without loss. We employ about forty females, because their
labor is cheaper, and they are more reliable. We find women superior in
all branches in which they are employed. The trade society forbids their
employment in other parts of the work. Ability to read and write are
indispensable in some departments. Men pay for board, $3; women, $1.50."
The Suffolk print works pay by the piece, and average eighty cents per
day. One of the proprietors at the print works in Pawtucket, Mass.,
writes: "Women are employed in tracing pantograph designs, and receive
from fifty to sixty-seven cents per day. We have one woman who does a
man's work at folding, and is paid a man's wages. The work is soon
learned, with ordinary capacity. A good physical condition is needed.
There is prospect for employment as long as calicoes are used. Cool
seasons are the best for work--in very warm weather, work is suspended a
short time. We employ fifty. The work is light and clean. The number of
American women is very small. We adopt female labor as soon as the aid
of machinery renders it practicable. Men are superior in strength and
endurance. A locality is desirable where a free circulation of air is
furnished on all sides. For ordinary board, women pay $2.50." The agent
of the Fall River print works writes: "We pay women by the piece. They
earn from $18 to $20 a month; have work the year round. For five days in
the week they work 10½ hours; on Saturday, 8½. We employ women because
they can do more and cost less than men. Localities are sought where
there is a good supply of soft water. Board from $2 to $2.50." A lawn
manufacturer in Lodi, N. J., writes: "We employ women in engraving, in
stitching, and in finishing goods. The work is very healthy. We pay
women $5 per week for engraving; from $2.50 to $5 for other branches.
The work can be learned in from four to five weeks. The business is
increasing. The women are never out of work. One half are Americans.
Women are employed ten hours a day; on Saturday, eight. Women are
employed, to help the village along. Very comfortable board, $5 per
month." The proprietor of some works in Rhode Island writes me: "We
employ about twenty women and girls in measuring cloth, sewing the ends
together for bleaching and fulling, knotting the ends of the pieces of
cloth when folded; also in engraving copper rolls for printing calicoes,
with a pantograph engraving machine. The prices vary from $1 per week to
$3 and over, working ten hours a day. For the same work, females are
paid the same as males. The work is easily learned. Women are paid while
learning. Women will be more employed in future. Work is constant, so
far as seasons go. There is probably no other branch of this work, in
which women may be employed, than those in which they are. Where women
are employed they are as valuable as males. Board of women, $1.50 per
week." "In the calico mills of Great Britain, girls grind and mix the
colors. They are called teerers. They begin at five years of age, and
labor twelve hours a day, sometimes sixteen; and are kept late into the
night to prepare for the following day."
=173. Spinners.= "Each of the workmen at present employed in a cotton
mill superintends as much work as could have been executed by two
hundred or three hundred workmen sixty or seventy years ago; and yet,
instead of being diminished, the numbers have increased even in a still
greater proportion." Again, we read that "a single person can spin as
much cotton in Lowell in an hour, as could three thousand Hindoos, by
whom at one time cotton cloth was principally manufactured." The wages
of cotton spinners in Paris are only from twenty to forty cents per day
of twelve hours. We read in the _Monthly Review_, that "the masters of
mills are unanimous in asserting that girls, and they alone are trained
to flax spinning, never become expert artists, if they begin to learn
after eleven." The small particles set loose in spinning affect
respiration, and in the course of time do so very seriously. In many
parts of Europe women carry portable distaffs, and spin as they walk.
Two kinds of wheels are used for spinning--one for spinning cotton, tow,
and wool--the other is used for flax. Steam machinery is mostly used for
spinning cotton. The prices usually paid spinners will be found under
factory operatives. I inquired of a girl spooling cotton for a weaver of
coverlets, what wages she received. She replied: "$1.50 a week, working
five hours a day."
=174. Spool Cotton.= A manufacturer at Fall River, Mass., writes: "We
employ twenty women in spooling thread, and preparing it for market. The
average pay is $3 per week, and they work eleven hours per day. It
requires from one to two months to become expert. When learning, they
are paid for what they do carefully. The qualifications needed are
neatness, and dexterity in their manipulations. They are employed at all
seasons. The demand and supply of work people are about equal. We employ
twenty females, because the work is adapted to them, and they are
quicker in motion than men. They pay $1.75 per week for board."
=175. Tape.= At W.'s, New York, I saw several women weaving tape for
hoop skirts. They looked dirty and sad enough. They earn from $2 to
$3.50 a week. It does not require long to learn, but they must stand all
the time. W. finds it difficult to get good workers. The incessant hum
of the machinery in such a low-roofed room would deafen me. I think it
must affect the nerves of females. He pays a learner the first month
$1.50 a week. After that, if she is competent, she will receive full
wages. At the Graham Buildings, I saw the girls putting up tape for
skirts. They earn from $3 to $4. The weavers earn from $4 to $6. It
requires but a few days to learn to weave, and but a few hours to learn
to measure and tie up tape. Most of the girls were Irish. Sixty were
employed, and received work all the year.
=176. Weavers.= Weaving is an occupation that was followed by all
classes of women in primitive ages. The story of Penelope's shroud has
been read as far as Homer is known. In Africa spinning is mostly done by
women, and the weaving by men. The invention of machinery has very much
done away with manual weaving. Fifty years back all woollen and most of
cotton goods were made in that way. Some jeans, coarse flannel, rag
carpets, coverlets, and other similar articles are still woven by hand.
Now, shawls, dress goods, gloves, hosiery, fine carpets, cassimere, and
cloth in all its varieties, are woven by machinery. The uniting of
threads, and a constant attention to the machinery, are all that is
necessary. The wages vary according to the places, the capabilities of
the operatives, the goods woven, and the price of living. "A practical
working machine is now in activity, weaving silk by the motive power of
electricity. It is applied at Lyons and St. Etienne to the Jacquard
loom." Children are extensively employed in Great Britain as drawers to
weavers. "The great majority of hand-loom cotton weavers work in
cellars, sufficiently lighted to enable them to throw the shuttle, but
cheerless, because seldom visited by the sun. The reason cellars are
chosen is that cotton, unlike silk, requires to be woven damp. The air,
therefore, must be cool and moist, instead of warm and dry." In
Philadelphia, the average payment of female weavers is from $2.50 to $4
per week. Spinners and spoolers make but from 75 cents to $2. They are
generally unskilful adults or very young girls. The number of female
operatives engaged in the manufacture of textile fabrics in Philadelphia
exceeds twelve thousand. A manufacturer in Providence writes me: "We do
not consider weaving particularly unhealthy. We pay on an average $1 per
day, by the piece. They work eleven hours a day; the time could not be
shortened. Men spend from three to twelve months learning; women, from
three to six weeks. Women are not paid while learning; men are. All
seasons are alike. There is always a demand for weavers. We employ
twenty-two women, one fourth are American; they are not inferior to men
as weavers. Men pay $2 for good board; women, $1.75." A manufacturer of
negro cloth in Connecticut writes: "The employment is very healthy. We
pay weavers from $3.75 to $5 per week, and some make more by the piece.
We pay men and women the same for their labor. Some parts are learned by
women in two or three weeks. We generally pay women while learning. We
sometimes stop a few days, in July and August, for water. They work
eleven hours and a half, except Saturday; then from eight to ten hours.
The time could be shortened by adding extra help and looms, equal to
difference of time. We prefer women, because they weave more than men.
All Americans. They are superior to men in tying knots. Good board,
$1.25." A manufacturer of cotton cloths for calicoes writes: "Women and
girls are employed in power-loom weaving. Weaving requires a little more
labor and skill than the other departments. None under sixteen years are
allowed to weave. Women are so employed over New England, much of New
York, and Pennsylvania, but mostly in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut. There is always a demand for girl weavers. It requires from
one to three months to learn to weave. They will continue to grow more
expert for three years. They weave by the cut from thirty to forty
pounds. The wages of an expert weaver are from $4 to $6 per week; board,
$1.50 per week. Men weavers are paid per cut the same. An expert weaver
attends four looms, weaving from 150 to 160 yards per day. Seamers
generally pay their way at the end of four weeks. The employment is not
thought unhealthy.
* * * * *
=177. Linen Manufacture.= Very little flax has been raised in this
country. The quantity grown was mostly for the seed and the fibre.
Ireland grows and exports large quantities. The soil is not adapted to
its growth. It is the result of the most severe labor and high culture.
In France, almost every peasant woman has a flax plot. She tends its
growth, reaps, dresses, spins, bleaches, and weaves it herself. Some
women are there employed in rotting flax and hemp. Generally, the
manufacturers of flax goods confine themselves to special departments.
Some take the raw flax, and convert it into yarn, and then stop. Some
take the yarn and weave it, and when woven, bleach it; and some only
take the unbleached woven cloth, and bleach it. In D. & Co.'s
establishment in Ireland, all the departments are combined. Eight
thousand people are dependent on this firm for support. Of these, four
hundred females are employed in spinning and weaving flax. Hand-loom
linen weaving is carried on chiefly in the north of Ireland, and, for
the most part, made subsidiary to other employments--therefore, not the
sole dependence of families. Women are employed in flax mills, in this
country, England, and Canada West. A manufacturer writes from a village
in New York: "The business is healthy, and women can do any part of the
work, as well as men. Here, men receive from $9 to $14 per month. While
learning, I pay my men $11 per month, and board them. The work is done
in cold weather, away from the fire, and requires strong, healthy
persons, warmly clad. The business is increasing in this country. The
best season for work is from October till May, and sometimes later. It
is not heavy work. I would pay women $5 a month and board, while
learning; but to men would pay $11 a month and board." (Justice!) The
treasurer of the Boston flax mills writes: "Dear Madam, women are
employed on the different machines in preparing the stock, and in
spinning and weaving. They are employed largely in England, Scotland,
and Ireland, but not much in the United States. They are paid from fifty
to seventy-five cents a day, and from fifty cents to $1 for piecework.
Ordinary female hands are paid about one half as much as men of the same
stamp; best workwomen about two thirds of same grade of men. Men are
employed where it would be too difficult and laborious for women. For
most work, a very short time is needed to learn; for the higher grades,
often many months or years, according to capacity of worker. Common
hands can earn fifty cents at once, and we would pay about that, or
more, while learning the better description of work; but should not
continue it, if they did not improve. A quick eye and hand, and a desire
to give satisfaction, are the best qualifications. The prospect for
employment in this branch is good. All the year work is furnished.
Average time through the year for work is ten hours forty minutes. It is
probable that a mill, where all hands were interested to do their best,
would turn off as much work in ten hours as a similar mill would in
eleven or twelve hours, where the hands were indifferent or careless.
There are but few linen mills in this country, and probably in none of
them is there a superfluity of good hands. We employ one hundred and
twenty women and children. The work is different from that of the men.
Our workwomen are mostly foreigners--Scotch, English, and some Irish.
There is as much comfort in this occupation as laboring people would
expect. The women pursue different branches. We find a great difference
in the capacity of different women, but cannot suggest any superiority
or inferiority as regards sexes. The general intellect among our women
is very fair for foreigners, but would not be considered remarkable for
Americans. Their evenings are their own, although there have been times,
occasionally, when we have worked till nine o'clock, paying, of course,
for extra work. The mill has a good library, and there is usually
evening school in winter for those who wish to attend."
=178. Sewing Thread.= A manufacturer in Andover, Massachusetts, writes:
"We employ about one hundred women, who receive about $3 per week,
working eleven hours per day. Women are sometimes paid while learning.
Morality, industry, and intelligence best fit them for their work. They
work at all seasons. Very few are Americans. Women are inferior only in
strength to men pursuing the same branch." The secretary of the American
Linen Thread Company writes: "We employ about sixty women in spinning,
twisting, reeling, rolling, skeining, &c. Those that work by the week
receive $3; those by the piece, more or less. Women do the lightest
work, and are paid about half as much as men. There is a prospect of
this branch of labor increasing. They have work all the year. Those that
are paid by the day work twelve hours. The time could not be shortened
without serious loss. Most are foreigners. Board, $1.50 to $2." A member
of a firm in Schenectady writes: "We have thirty women in our flax and
tow factory, because they are best adapted to the work. The work is
healthy. We pay from $3 to $4.50 per week, working twelve hours per day.
The working time could not be shortened. A superintendent would require
from two to three years to learn. A girl, say sixteen years old, would
require about a year. Learners receive half wages. Summer is the best
season, but they have work all the year. There is no surplus of female
workers in the business. Two thirds of our women are American, one third
English. Women could not perform that part of the work done by men, and
_vice versa_. One third board, and pay $1.50 per week. The Americans
have a common school education, and are intelligent. The larger ones are
teachers in Sabbath schools; the smaller ones scholars. The best
localities are in the Northern and Western States."--SHOE THREAD. A
manufacturer told me, most or all the flax used for shoe thread in this
country is imported. "The greater part of the shoe thread used in the
United States is spun by machinery, at Leeds, in England, from Russian
flax." The flax of this country is not fine enough; and, for bleaching,
the climate of this country and Scotland is too changeable. If the
bleachers succeed in getting it of a pure white, they extract the
substance--the life of the plant--so that it will not retain its
strength. Flax is not much attended to in this country, but it is
because the tariff is so low that no encouragement is given to
manufacturers. Pennsylvania makes more woven goods of coarse linen than
any other State, and Philadelphia more than any other city. Labor is so
cheap in Europe, that linen can be made there more cheaply than here.
Mr. A. employs a number of small girls in his mills for winding the
thread into balls, as it is imported in skeins, and pays them from $1.50
to $2 a week. They work only in daylight. He thinks the occupation is
well filled. Most factories of the kind are in small towns where living
is cheap.
* * * * *
=179. Woollen Manufacture.= Women and children are not so much employed
in the woollen as in other manufactures, owing to the severe labor
required in some of the processes. Wool growing is increasing in the
United States, particularly in Texas. We doubt not but many woollen
manufactures will spring up when business revives. We called on the
widow of a wool puller, to ascertain what the business is, and learned
that it consists in steeping sheep skins in lime water, then rinsing
them in clean water, then removing the wool from the skin, and packing
it in bales to send away. The daughter of a wool puller in Utica writes:
"Part of the work of a wool puller could be performed by women--that of
removing the wool from the skin, and sorting it according to the
quality. In Gloucester, England, women were at one time employed as wool
pullers. The business is healthy, owing to the presence of disinfectants
employed in manufacturing. It could be made respectable and
remunerative." A wool puller in Buffalo writes: "I employ some girls in
sewing sheep skins. They are paid by the piece, and earn $4.50 a week.
Board, $2. It requires a week for a woman to learn her part--a lifetime
for a man to learn his. A steady hand and good eyesight are essential.
There must be work of this kind as long as boots and shoes are
fashionable. The most busy seasons are fall, winter, and spring. The
best location is where sheep are raised and bark to be had." People
employed in the making of cloth are wool sorters and pickers, scourers,
carders, slubbers, spinners, warpers, sizers, weavers, burlers, boilers,
millers, giggers or dressers, croppers, singers, fuzers, glossers,
drawers, and packers. Some of these are women. I am sorry to say that
carding--the most unhealthy process of all--is performed almost
exclusively by women, and at low prices.
=180. Blankets.= "Blankets were first made at Bristol, England, by a
poor weaver named Thomas Blanket, who gave his name to this peculiar
manufacture of woollen cloths." One hundred and twenty-two women are
reported in the census of Great Britain for 1850, as blanket
manufacturers. A blanket manufacturer in New Hampshire writes: "Women
are employed in carding, weaving, and binding. The work is not
unhealthy. Average wages are seventy cents per day of eleven hours, and
they are paid by the piece. Women receive about two thirds of the wages
of men, because they do less laborious work. It requires from one week
to three months to learn. They are paid small wages while learning. The
manufacture of blankets will increase. Business is the same at all
seasons. There is a demand for hands in many of the manufacturing
villages, and a surplus in country towns. We have twenty women, all
American. They do light work faster than men. They pay for board
twenty-one cents per day, in private families."
=181. Carpets.= Mr. Lagrange writes: "The carpets of Smyrna and
Caramania, so widely esteemed, are evidence of what woman's genius can
produce. They are all woven by feminine hands." In 1858 there were 2,500
persons employed in the manufacture of carpets in and near Philadelphia.
Ingrain and Venetian are the kinds mostly made there, but some of a very
cheap quality are also manufactured. Those made at Hartford and Lowell
are all worsted goods. The business, we believe, has been a successful
and lucrative one. It is said that much carpeting is sold in this
country, as English, that is in reality American. Our finest carpets are
imported. I visited Mr. H.'s carpet factory, New York city, and saw the
entire process, from putting the wool in to its coming out in various
kinds of carpeting, ingrain, velvet, Brussels, tapestry, &c. From that
manufactory we have the following report: "Females tend carding,
spinning, spooling, weaving, and other machines, in the manufacture of
carpeting. The employment is not unhealthy. The branch of manufacture
and the capacities of females vary the wages from 50 cents to $1 per day
of eleven hours. Three fourths work by the piece. Males and females are
not employed at the same kind of work. The time required to learn any
branch of the carpet trade depends on the natural talent and application
of the learner. Many never become proficient enough to pursue the
business profitably. The prices paid to learners depend on their
success. Health, natural talent, and application are essential. The
prospect of employment in the business is good. They have work the whole
year, except during unusual depressions of the trade. Whether the work
time of eleven hours could be shortened would depend on the profit on
the quantity produced in ten hours, compared with that produced in
eleven hours. There is no demand for female labor at the present time.
We employ from 500 to 600 females, because their labor is cheaper. About
one third are Americans. The comfort and remuneration is better than the
average of other employments in this city. They are employed by us in
all branches they can be. Females perform some branches better than men.
They have free evening schools, libraries, lectures, and churches in
abundance. About one half board. The majority board in private families,
the comfort depending generally on the price paid." Carpet manufacturers
in Wrentham, Massachusetts, write: "We employ women in winding yarn. It
is unhealthy only because of sitting so steadily. Women average $14 per
month, and are paid by the piece. They work ten hours a day. It requires
but a few weeks to learn the business. Women are paid something while
learning. They are employed all the year. We employ eight, because the
work is better adapted to them. All the workwomen are foreigners. Men,
as a general thing, do not want to be confined to indoor work, unless
the wages are high. Good board can be had at $1.50 per week." A
gentleman, who was once superintendent of the carpet factory at Lowell,
informed me all the weavers were females, when he was there, and earned
from $3.50 to $4.00 on an average. They had about thirty pickers
(females), whose business it was to pick the knots and loose wool off
the carpets.
=182. Carpet Bags.= K. & M., carpet-bag makers, have a factory in
Newark. The carpet bags are sewed up and the buttons put in by machines.
The lining is put in by hand. It is piecework, and the girls earn from
$3 to $6 a week. It requires but a short time to become sufficiently
expert to make it pay. The busiest times are from February 1st to June,
and from the middle of July to the 1st of November. One of the
proprietors thinks the prospect to learners is good, for the business
will extend. It has increased five hundredfold in the last five years.
Their girls are mostly Americans. Making trunk covers is piecework. The
linings could be put in trunks and valises and the varnish put on by
girls. The linings could be better put in valises than trunks by women,
as they are lighter and less difficult to handle. At H.'s carpet-bag
factory, I was told they employ seventy girls, and make from ninety to
one hundred dozen bags a day. They keep their hands all the year, with
the exception of three weeks. Some work by machine and some by hand.
They take learners when busy. A smart girl can learn in making two or
three dozen bags--of course, is not paid while learning. They used to
allow a few hands, accustomed to the work, to give instruction to
learners, having the profits of their work for their time. Those that
work by machine can earn from $3 to $4.50; hand sewers from $3 to $6.
These work by the piece. Those paid by the week work ten hours, and earn
from $2.50 to $5. The gentleman thinks the prospect for learners to
enter the business is poor. I think differently, if the statement that
he made is true, that there are no manufacturers West or South. A
regulation that struck me as being very unjust was, that if a girl
learns in their factory and goes elsewhere to seek work, she cannot be
taken into their factory again, unless she makes eight or ten dozen bags
for them without pay. A manufacturer of carpet and oil-cloth bags
writes: "We pay by the piece, and women earn from $4 to $6 per week,
working ten hours a day. Women can learn in one month, if skilful with
the needle. Spring and fall are the best seasons, but we find work for
our hands through the winter. They work at home."