But If Wages At Manchester Were Raised To
The Lowell Standard, The Manchester Women Would Not Be Clothed,
Fed, Cared For, And Educated Like The Lowell Women.
The fact is,
that the workmen and the workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the
chances of an open labor market.
They are taken in, as it were, to
a philanthropical manufacturing college, and then looked after and
regulated more as girls and lads at a great seminary, than as hands
by whose industry profit is to be made out of capital. This is all
very nice and pretty at Lowell, but I am afraid it could not be
done at Manchester.
There are at present twelve different manufactories at Lowell, each
of which has what is called a separate corporation. The Merrimack
Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1822, and thus Lowell was
commenced. The Lowell Machine-shop was incorporated in 1845, and
since that no new establishment has been added. In 1821, a certain
Boston manufacturing company, which had mills at Waltham, near
Boston, was attracted by the water-power of the River Merrimack, on
which the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal called the
Pawtucket Canal had been made for purposes of navigation from one
reach of the river to another, with the object of avoiding the
Pawtucket Falls; and this canal, with the adjacent water-power of
the river, was purchased for the Boston company. The place was
then called Lowell, after one of the partners in that company.
It must be understood that water-power alone is used for preparing
the cotton and working the spindles and looms of the cotton mills.
Steam is applied in the two establishments in which the cottons are
printed, for the purposes of printing, but I think nowhere else.
When the mills are at full work, about two and a half million yards
of cotton goods are made every week, and nearly a million pounds of
cotton are consumed per week, (i e. 842,000 lbs.,) but the
consumption of coal is only 30,000 tons in the year. This will
give some idea of the value of the water-power. The Pawtucket
Canal was, as I say, bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town
was incorporated in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was
opened in 1835, under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the
gentleman by whom the purchase of the canal had in the first
instance been made. Lowell now contains about 40,000 inhabitants.
The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Lowell: "Mr.
F. C. Lowell had, in his travels abroad, observed the effect of
large manufacturing establishments on the character of the people,
and in the establishment at Waltham the founders looked for a
remedy for these defects. They thought that education and good
morals would even enhance the profit, and that they could compete
with Great Britain by introducing a more cultivated class of
operatives. For this purpose they built boarding-houses, which,
under the direct supervision of the agent, were kept by discreet
matrons" - I can answer for the discreet matrons at Lowell - "mostly
widows, no boarders being allowed except operatives.
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