SECTION II. SECTION II. 
So much is said in Europe of the scarcity of agriculturallabour in the United States, that it is a matter of surprise thatmanufactures should have succeeded as they have done. It is evensupposed by some that the tariff was rendered necessary by adeficiency of labour: that by offering a premium on manufacturingindustry, the requisite amount was sought to be drawn away fromother employments, and concentrated upon this. This is a mistake.There is every reason to suppose that the requisite amount oflabour would have been forthcoming, if affairs had been left totake their natural course.
It has been shown that domestic manufactures were carried onto a great extent, so far back as 1790. From that time to this,they have never altogether ceased in the farm-houses, as thehomespun, still so frequently to be seen all over the country,and the agricultural meetings of New England, (where there isusually a display of domestic manufactures,) will testify. Thehands by which these products are wrought come to the factories,when the demand for labour renders it worth while; and drop backinto the farm-houses when the demand slackens.
It is not the custom in America for women (except slaves) towork out of doors. It has been mentioned that the young men ofNew England migrate in large numbers to the west, leaving anover-proportion of female population, the amount of whichI could never learn. Statements were made to me; but soincredible that I withhold them. Suffice it that there are manymore women than men in from six to nine States of the Union.There is reason to believe that there was much silent sufferingfrom poverty before the institution of factories; that theyafford a most welcome resource to some thousands of young women,unwilling to give themselves to domestic service, and precluded,by the customs of the country, from rural labour. We have seenhow large a proportion of the labour in the Lowell factories issupplied by women.
Much of the rest is furnished by immigrants. I saw English,Irish, and Scotch operatives. I heard but a poor character of theEnglish operatives; and the Scotch were pronounced"ten times better." The English are jealous of their'bargain,' and on the watch lest they should be asked to do morethan they stipulated for: their habits are not so sober as thoseof the Scotch, and they are incapable of going beyond the singleoperation they profess. Such is the testimony of their employers.
The demand for labour is, however, sufficiently imperious inall the mechanical departments to make it surprising that prisonlabour is regarded with such jealousy as I have witnessed. Whenit is considered how small a class the convicts of the UnitedStates are, and are likely to remain, how essential labouris to their reformation, how few are the kinds of manufacturewhich they can practice, and that it is of some importance thatprison establishments should maintain themselves, it seems whollyunworthy of the intelligent mechanics of America that they shouldbe so afraid of convict labour as actually to obtain pledges fromsome candidates for office, to propose the abolition of prisonmanufactures. I believe that the Sing-Sing and Auburn prisons, inthe State of New York, turn out a greater variety and amount ofproducts than any others; and they have yet done very little morethan maintain themselves. The Sing-Sing convicts quarry and dressgranite: the Auburn prisoners make clocks, combs, shoes, carpets,and machinery. They are cabinet and chair-makers, weavers, andtailors. There were 650 prisoners when I was there; and of thesemany were inexperienced workmen; and all were not employed inmanufactures. Jealousy of such a set of craftsmen is absurd, inthe present state of the American labour-marKet.
I saw specimens of each of these kinds of labour. A few daysafter I entered the country, I was taken to an agriculturalmeeting, held annually at Pittsfield, Massachusetts. We were toolate to see the best part of it,--the dispensing of prizes forthe best agricultural skill, and for the choicest domesticmanufactures. But there were specimens left which surprised me bythe excellence of their quality;--table and bed-linen, diapers,blankets, and knitted wares. There was an ingenious model of abed for invalids, combining many sorts of facilities for changeof posture. There were nearly as manywomen as men at thismeeting; all were well dressed, and going to and fro in thehousehold vehicle, the country-wagon, with the invariablebear-skin covering the seat, and peeping, out on all sides. Acomfortable display, from the remains of the dinner, was set outfor us by smart mulatto girls, with snow-berries in their hair.Tlle mechanics' houses in this beautiful village would be enough,if they could be exhibited in Engand, to tempt over half heroperatives to the new world.
The first cotton-mill that I saw was at Paterson, New Jersey.It was set up at first with nine hundred spindles, which wereafterwards increased to fifteen hundred; then to six thousand.Building was still going on when I was there. The girls were allwell-dressed. Their hair was arranged according to the latestfashions which had arrived, via New York, and they wore calashesin going to and fro between their dwellings and the mill. I sawsome of the children barefooted, but carrying unbrellas, under aslight sprinkling of rain. I asked whether those who could affordumbrellas went barefoot for coolness, or other convenience. Theproprietor told me that there had probably been an economicalcalculation in the case. Stockings and shoes would defend onlythe feet; while the umbrella would preserve the gloss of thewhole of the rest of the costume. There seems, however, to be astrong predilection for umbrellas in the United States. Aconvict, in solitary confinement in the Philadelphia prison, gaveme the history of all his burglaries. The proximate cause of hiscapture after the last was an umbrella. He had broken into agood-looking house, and traversed it in vain in search ofsomething worth the risk of carrying away. On leaving the house,he found it rained. He went back, and took a new cotton umbrella.It dawned as he entered the city, and he was afraid of being seenwith the umbrella; but thought suspicion would be excited if he"heaved it away." He met an acquaintance who wasfurther from home than himself, and insisted on his accepting theloan of the umbrella. The acquaintance, of course, was caught,and told from whom he had had the umbrella; and the burglar was,in consequence, lodged in jail. What English burglar would havethought of minding rain? If, however, there ever was a case ofamateur burglary, this was one.
1 visited the corporate factory-establishment at Waltham,within a few miles of Boston. The Waltham Mills were at workbefore those of Lowell were set up. The establishment is for thespinning and weaving of cotton alone, and the construction of therequisite machinery. Five hundred persons were employed at thetime of my visit. The girls earn two, and some three, dollarsa-week, besides their board. The little children earn one dollara-week. Most of the girls live in the houses provided by thecorporation, which accommodate from six to eight each. Whensisters come to the mill, it is a common practice for them tobring their mother to keep house for them and some of theircompanions, in a dwelling built by their own earnings. In thiscase, they save enough out of their board to clothe themselves,and have their two or three dollars a-week to spare. Some havethus cleared off mortgages from their fathers farms; others haveeducated the hope of the family at college; and many are rapidlyaccumulating an independence. I saw a whole street of housesbuilt with the earnings of the girls; some with piazzas, andgreen venetian blinds; and all neat and sufficiently spacious.
The factory people built the church, which stands conspicuouson the green in the midst of the place. The minister's salary(eight hundred dollars last year) is raised by a tax on the pews.The corporation gave them a building for a lyceum, which theyhave furnished with a good library, and where they have lecturesevery winter,--the best that money can procure. The girls have,in many instances, private libraries of some merit and value.
The managers of the various factory establishments keep thewages as nearly equal as possible, md then let the girls freelyshift about from one to another. When a girl comes to theoverseer to inform him of her intention of working at the mill,he welcomes her, and asks how long she means to stay. It may besix months, or a year, or five years, or for life. She declareswhat she considers herself fit for, and sets to workaccorcdingly. If she finds that she cannot work so as to keep upwith the companion appointed to her, or to please her employer orherself, she comes to the overseer, and volunteers to pickcotton, or sweep the rooms, or undertake some other service thatshe can perform.
The people work about seventy hours per week, on the average.The time of work varies with the length of the days, the wagescontinuing the same. All look like well-dressed young ladies. Thehealth is good; or rather, (as this is too much to be said abouthealth any where in the United States,) it is no worse than it iselsewhere.
These facts speak for themselves. There is no need to enlargeon the pleasure of an acquaintance with the operative classes ofthe United States.
The shoe-making at Lynn is carried on almost entirely inprivate dwellings, from the circumstance that the people who doit are almost all farmers or fishermen likewise. A stranger whohas not been enlightened upon the ways of the place would beastonished at the number of small square erections, likeminiature school houses, standing each as an appendage to adwelling-house. These are the "shoe shops," where thefather of the family and his boys work, while the women withinare employed in binding and trimming. Thirty or more of theseshoe-shops may be counted in a walk of half-a-mile. When a Lynnshoe manufacturer receives an order, he issues the tidings. Theleathcr is cut out by men on his promises; and then the work isgiven to those who apply for it; if possible, in smallquantities, for the sake of dispatch. The shoes are brought homeon Friday night, packed off on Saturday, and in afortnight or three weeks are on the feet of dwellers in all partsof the Union. The whole family works upon shoes during thewinter; and in the summer, the father and sons turn out into thefields, or go fishing. I knew of an instance where a little boyand girl maintained the whole family, while the earningsof the rest went to build a house. I saw very few shabby houses.Quakers are numerous in Lynn. The place is unboundedlyprosperous, through the temperance and industry of the people.The deposits in the Lynn Savings' Bank in 1834, were about 34,000dollars, the population of the town being then 4,000. Since thattime, both the population and the prosperity have much increased.It must be remembered, too, that the mechanics of America havemore uses for their money than are open to the operatives ofEngland. They build houses, buy land, and educate their sons anddaughters.*
It is probably true that the pleasures and pains of life arepretty equally distributed among its various vocations andpositions: but it is difficult to keep clear of the impressionwhich outward circumstances occasion, that some are eminentlydesirable. The mechanics of these northern States appear to methe most favoured class I have ever known. In England, I believethe highest order of mechanics to be, as a class, the wisest andbest men of the community. They have the fewest base and narrowinterests: they are brought into sufficient contact with therealities of existence, without being hardened by excess of toiland care; and the knowledge they have the opportunity of gainingis of the best kind for the health of the mind. To them, if toany, we may look for public and private virtue. The mechanics ofAmerica have nearly all the same advantages, and some others.They have better means of living: their labours are perhaps morehonoured; and they are republicans, enjoying the powers andprospects of perfectly equal citizenship. The only respect inwhich their condition falls below that of English artisans of thehighest order is that the knowledge which they have commonly themeans of obtaining is not of equal value. The facilities aregreat: schools, lyceums, libraries, are open to them: but theinstruction imparted there is not so good as they deserve.Whenever they have this, it will be difficult to imagine a modeof life more favourable to virtue and happiness than theirs.
There seems to be no doubt among those who know both Englandand America, that the mechanics of the New World work harder thanthose of the Old. They have much to do besides their dailyhandicraft business. They are up and at work early about this;and when it is done, they read till late, or attendlectures; or perhaps have their houses to build or repair, orother care to take of their property. They live in a state andperiod of society where every man is answerable for his ownfortunes; and where there is therefore stimulus to the exerciseof every power.
What a state of society it is when a dozen artisans of onetown,--Salem,--are seen rearing each a comfortable one-story (or,as the Americans would say, two-story) house, in the place withwhich they have grown up! when a man who began with laying brickscriticises, and sometimes corrects, his lawyer's composition;when a poor errand-boy becomes the proprietor of a flourishingstore, before he is thirty; pays off the capital advanced by hisfriends at the rate of 2,000 dollars per month; and bids fair tobe one of the most substantial citizens of the place!
Such are the outward fortunes of the mechanics of America. Oftheir welfare in more important respects, to which these are buta part of the means, I shall have to speak in another connexion.
There are troubles between employers and their workmen in theUnited States, as elsewhere: but the case of the men is so muchmore in their own hands there than where labour superabounds,that strikes are of a very short duration. The only remedy theemployers have, the only safeguard against encroachmentsfrom their men, is their power of obtaining the services offoreigners, for a short time. The difficulty of stopping businessthere is very great; the injury of delay very heavy: but thewages of labour are so good that there is less cause fordiscontent on the part of the workmen than elsewhere. All thestrikes I heard of were on the question of hours, not of wages.
The employers are, of course, casting about to see how theycan help themselves; and, as all are not wise and experienced, itis natural that some should talk of laws to prohibit TradesUnions. There is no harm in their talking of such; for the matterwill never get beyond talk;--unless, indeed, the combinations ofoperatives should assume any forms, or comprehend any principlesinconsistent with the republican spirit. The majority will notvote for any law which shall restrain any number of artisans fromagreeing for what price they will sell their labour; though Iheard several learned gentlemen agreeing, at dinner one day, thatthere ought to be such laws. On my objecting that the interest ofthe parties concerned would, especially in a free and risingcountry, settle all questions between labour and capital withmore precision, fairness, and peace, than any law, it was pleadedthat intimidation and outrage were practiced by those whocombined against those who would not join them. I found, oninquiry, that there is an ample provision of laws againstintimidation and outrage; but that it is difficult to get themexecuted. If so, it would be also difficult to execute lawsagainst combinations of workmen, supposing them obtained: and thegrievance does not lie in the combination complained of, butsomewhere else. The remedy is, (if there be indeed intimidationand outrage,) not in passing more laws, to be in like mannerdefied, while sufficient already exist; but in enlightening theparties on the subjects of law and social obligation.
One day, in going down Broadway, New York, the carriage inwhich I was, stopped for some time, in consequence of an immenseprocession on the side-walk having attracted the attention of allthe drivers within sight. The marching gentlemen proceeded ontheir way, with an easy air of gentility. Banners were interposedat intervals; and, on examining these, I could scarcely believemy eyes. They told me that this was a procession of thejourneymen mechanics of New York. Surely never were such dandymechanics seen; with sleek coats, glossy hats, gay watch-guards,and doe-skin gloves!
I rejoice to have seen this sight. I had other opportunitiesof witnessing the prosperity of their employers; so that I couldbe fairly pleased at theirs. There need be no fear for theinterests of either, while the natural laws of demand and supplymust protect each from any serious encroachment by the other. Ifthey will only respect the law, their temporary disagreement, andapparent opposition of interests will end in being merereadjustments of the terms on which they are to pursue theircommon welfare.
* The deposits in the Lowell Savings' Bank for 1834, wereupwards of 114,000 dollars.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeII, Part II, Chapter III, Section II, - "ManufacturingLabour." London: Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 242-255.
Forward to Society in America, Vol II,Part II, Chapter IV, "Commerce."
Back to Society in America, Volume II,Part II, Chapter III, Section I, - "The Tariff."
Back to Society in America - Table ofContents
Back to the Dead Sociologists'Society Index