Congress was called upon to restrict importations. The result of all these efforts and influences stimulated the manufacture of cotton and other textiles. The water privileges of New England and the Middle States offered to enterprising men the inducement to build factories for the spinning of yarn for the household manufacture of cloth. At the close of 1809, according to a report made by Mr. Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury in 1810, eighty-seven cotton factories had been erected in the United States, which, when in operation, would employ 80,000 spindles.

The perfect factory, the scientific arrangement of parts for the successive processes necessary for the manipulation of the raw material till it came out finished goods, had not yet been constructed. As I have said, the power-loom did not come into use in England till about 1806, while in this country it was not used at all till after the war of 1812. In England even it had not been used in the same factory with the spinning-machines. In fact, for many years the custom of spinning the yarn under one management and weaving the cloth under another has prevailed in England.

In 1811 Mr. Francis C. Lowell, of Boston, visited England and spent much time in inspecting cotton factories, for the purpose of obtaining all possible information relative to cotton manufacture, with a view to the introduction of improved machinery in the United States. The power-loom was being introduced in Great Britain at this time, but its construction was kept very secret, and public opinion was not very favorable to its success. Mr. Lowell learned all he could regarding the new machine, and determined to perfect it himself. He returned to the States in 1814, and at once began his experiments on Broad Street, Boston. His first move was to secure the skill of Paul Moody, of Amesbury, Mass., a well-known mechanic. By and through the encouragement of Mr. Nathan Appleton, a company had been organized by Mr. Lowell and Mr. Patrick T. Jackson, with Mr. Appleton as one of its directors, for the establishment of a cotton manufactory, to be located in Waltham, Mass., on a water privilege they had purchased. This factory was completed in the autumn of 1814, and in it was placed the loom per

fected by Mr. Lowell, which differed much from the English looms. Mr. Lowell had neither plans nor models for his factory and looms, but in the year named the company set up a full set of machinery for weaving and spinning, there being 1,700 spindles; and this factory at Waltham was the first in the world, so far as record shows, in which all the processes involved in the manufacture of goods, from the raw material to the finished product, were carried on in one establishment by successive steps, mathematically considered, under one harmonious system. Mr. Francis C. Lowell, aided by Mr. Jackson, is unquestionably entitled to the credit of arranging this admirable system; and it is remarkable how few changes have been made in the arrangements established by him in this factory at Waltham.

So America furnished the stone which completed the industrial arch of the factory system of manufactures.

The growth of the factory system [is well] illustrated by the cotton manufacture. After the success of the powerloom, the cotton manufacture took rapid strides, both in Europe and America. The hand-loom and the hand-weaver were rapidly displaced. Factories sprung up on all the streams of Yorkshire and Lancashire, in England, while in this country the activity of the promoters of the industry won them wealth, and won cities from barren pastures. They erected Lowell, Lawrence, Holyoke, Fall River, and many other thriving cities and towns, and now in this generation the industry is taking root upon the banks of Southern streams. The progressive steps of this great trade are shown by the tables which follow. The facts for Great Britain for the year 1833 are taken from Baines' "History of Cotton Manufacture," and have been corroborated as far as possible from other sources; they constitute the most reliable data obtainable for that period. For 1831, for the United States, we have the census returns and other sources, none of them very accurate, yet they give the best approximate figures.

It will be observed that the number of cotton factories in this country was 801 in 1831, 1,240 in 1840, 1,074 in 1850, and that since 1850 there has been a constant decrease in the number of establishments. This is the result of consoli

dation and the establishment of large works, the smaller factories being closed or united with the large ones. While the number of factories has decreased, the consumption of cotton and the production of goods has steadily increased. Perhaps the best gauge for the progress of the industry is to be found in the quantity of cotton consumed per capita of the population. In Great Britain, in 1831, the home consumption of cotton per capita (excluding the proportion for the export trade) was 6.62 pounds; in 1881 it was 7.75 pounds; in the United States, for 1830, it was 5.9 pounds; in 1880 it was 13.91 pounds. That is, the clothing of the people of this country in 1830 required 5.9 pounds of cotton per annum and now it requires 13.91 pounds.

If we take the per capita consumption of the factories, including exports and home consumption, the proportion for Great Britain in 1831 was 16.15 pounds; in 1881, 40.8 pounds; for the United States, in 1831, it was, on this basis, 6.1 pounds; in 1880 it had risen to 14.96 pounds. The ratios given as to spindles to persons employed, capital to spindles, product to spindles, capital to product, product to persons employed, while in some sense fallacious, and more valuable to the expert than to the general reader, yet are true for the time given and the existing circumstances, and certainly show the change of circumstances. The ratio of consumption to spindles is of course influenced largely by the number of the yarn produced, and many of the British mills spin finer numbers than do the mills of this country; but whatever may be the cause, the ratio stands as given, and shows that the attendant circumstances, either of machinery or kind of product, or of some other matter, vary as to the two countries.

1 The number of cotton factories for 1880 should be increased by the number of mills engaged in working raw cotton, waste, or cotton yarn into hosiery, webbing, tapes, fancy fabrics, or mixed goods, or other fabrics which are not sold as specific manufactures of cotton or of wool; some of these work both fibres, but belong more in the class of cotton manufactures than in any other. These establishments, 249 in all, in 1880, have without doubt been included in the list of cotton-mills heretofore; so that now the total number, to correspond with the past, should be 1,005 cotton factories in the United States in 1880.

THE FOLLOWING TABLE SHOWS THE CONDITION OF THE COTTON MANUFACTURES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES IN THE

THE COTTON MANUFACTURES.

FROM ATKINSON'S REPORT ON THE COTTON MANUFACTURES, TENTH CENSUS, VOL. II. PP. 946-955.

THE cotton manufacture of the United States may be now considered more firmly established than ever before. The method on which the business is conducted in the United States varies greatly from that of any other country; and this difference arises mainly from a difference not only in the habits and customs of the people, but also in their condition and intelligence.

The home market is the most important one, and may long continue to be so, although the export demand for our fabrics now takes from 7 to 8 per cent of our annual product, and is likely to increase.

In contrast with the cotton manufacturer of Great Britain, our principal rival, we are therefore called upon to meet the demands of an intelligent class of customers, living under substantially uniform conditions, and varying but little in their requirements. Hence we are not called upon for the great variety of fabrics that must be supplied by Great Britain. In consequence of this demand for a great variety of fabrics the work of the cotton manufacturer of England is much more divided than with us. With the exception of a few large establishments, working mainly to supply the home market, few goods are known in England by the name of the factory in which they are made, nor are they sold under the name of the manufacturer; but to a very large extent the yarn is spun in one establishment, woven in another, and finished in a third. The gray cloth is sold to the warehouseman, or to the merchant, to be stamped and packed by him, or to be dyed, bleached, or printed under his direction. If English goods had been sold under the name and stamp of the manufacturer, as cotton goods are in the United States,