LABOUR-SAving versuS COTTON-SAVING

13

Lancashire policy of economizing cotton at the expense of wages, may be equally sound for the respective countries. I do not say that America has nothing to learn from Lancashire, or Lancashire nothing to learn from America; each, I believe, can teach the other a good deal. But the point at which the balance should be struck between the economy of labour and the economy of cotton is not one and the same for both. The product of the American system is a cloth which is, on the whole, distinctly inferior in appearance, 'feel,' and finish to that produced by the Lancashire system. To equal a Lancashire cloth in these respects an American cloth must not only be made of better cotton, but must contain more of it-perhaps 5 per cent. more. To this rule of inferiority there are, it is needless to say, exceptions-notably some of the American drills made for the China market. But the American home market, which absorbs nearly the whole of the product of American looms, is less exacting in these matters than the markets in which Lancashire cloths are sold. The question for our manufacturers is: How far may American methods, with all that they imply, be profitably introduced into Lancashire?

CHAPTER II

New Bedford-From whaling to cotton-A typical fine-spinning mill-Electrical warp-stop motion-Electric driving-Wages for fine spinning and fancy weaving at New Bedford-Cost of ring frames-Fine spinning and fancy weaving at Fall RiverIngenious machinery and elaborate fabrics-A Lancashire weaver's experience-An older mill-Bad atmosphere-An odd spectacle.

FACTORY town whose mills use sea-water for con

sion, possessed each his own boat and fishing-tackle, whose streets are avenues of well-grown trees-such is New Bedford. Once the greatest whaling port in the world, it sent its ships into every sea, and boasted that in proportion to its modest population it was the richest city in the United States. The whalers are all gone now, and the talk at the street corners and in the saloons is no longer of blubber and whalebone and voyages to the Southern Ocean; the subjects discussed now would be quite in order at Bolton. But so long as there are quays and schooners at New Bedford, the salt flavours of the old seaport will never wholly disappear. Dungaree and oilskins and sea-boots may still be bought in the shops near the harbours, and within a biscuit's throw of Professor Wall's Boot-blacking Parlors,' which may stand for an example of the landsman's finicking and luxurious. habits, you may yet hear the ring of the ship carpenter's hammer, watch a new fore-topmast being fitted to an old fore-and-aft schooner, or see a cutter-load of very free-andeasy American man-o'-war's men being pulled off, after a night's shore leave, to a gunboat at anchor in the harbour.

Close beside the harbour stands a mill which may be taken as a type of the most modern fine-spinning mills in

New England. The equipment, when I saw it, was not yet complete, although more than a year had passed since the work of building began; but part of the machinery was running. The buildings are of brick, and are designed after the English rather than the American plan, in that the spinning and weaving departments are in separate buildings and the weaving shed is lighted from the roof. The spinning mill is a four-story block with wooden floors and pillars such as I have already described, and the height of the rooms from floor to ceiling is 17 feet 6 inches. The windows are made to open casement-fashion, and there are outside staircases of iron to give safe egress in case of fire. In this building there are, or were to be, 90,000 ring spindles, spinning 80's on the average, with the necessary machinery for preparation, some of which was of English make. The weaving-shed stands alongside the spinning mill, not further away than is necessary to secure light for the lower windows of the mill, and is connected with it by a covered bridge. It has a basement, lighted by windows, and the shafting and drums from which the looms are driven are under the floor of the shed. The looms, 2, 100 in number, were plain looms and dobbies, from 36 inches to 40 inches reed space, and were intended to weave fine lawns, cambrics, and fancy goods. The cost of the plain looms was $58, say £12 55. each, whilst every twenty-stave dobby loom had cost $91, or nearly £19. They were all to have an electrical warp stop-motion, which was to cost about five guineas a loom extra. The condition of the air in the weaving shed was to be regulated by two gigantic humidifiers, and the walls and ceilings of both mill and shed were painted white with enamel paint.

The engine-house, as I saw it, contained a high-speed engine of 2,000 horse-power directly coupled to a 1,700-horsepower Schenectady alternating current generator working at 600 volts. Space had been left for duplicating this plant. The current was carried to motors which drove the lines of shafting (none more than 3 inches thick) in every room independently, and I was informed that the installation of electrical machinery had added over £2,000 to the first cost of the driving plant. Steam was raised in seven boilers, fitted with mechanical-stoker furnaces, so that one fireman

could attend to all, and the cost of coal was 15s. 6d. per short ton. The city of New Bedford supplies fresh water for mill purposes at 2 cents a thousand gallons; the water for the condensers is drawn from the harbour.

The total cost of the mill, complete, was to be $1,250,000, or over a quarter of a million sterling. This works out at a fraction less than $14 per spindle for the whole plant, and includes $15,000 paid for the 6 acres of land upon which the mill stands.

The first cotton was being spun into 60's and 70's twist when I visited the mill; it was of 1 inches to 1 inches staple. In the card-room I noticed girls minding a pair of roving frames (240 spindles each), and in the spinning-room some had twelve sides of 112 spindles each and others ten sides of 128 spindles each. The wage paid on the shorter frames, spinning 60's, was 72.69 cents (say 3s.) per side per week. The warping mills here had a cone drum differential motion for varying the speed, and the warpers each ran three of them. The slashing machines had positively driven cylinders, an arrangement intended to relieve the wet warp of tension, but by no means universally approved; they could size 400 50-yard cuts of 1,700 ends a day, and the men who ran them were paid 50s. 6d. a week.

At another fine-spinning and weaving mill at New Bedford I found 100,000 spindles, and 3,200 looms weaving fancy goods, some wholly of cotton, some of silk and cotton. The ring-spinners were minding 1,200 spindles each, and were paid 37s. 6d. a week; the mule frames had two joiners, also paid 37s. 6d. a week, each of whom was attending to 1,000 spindles. The finest counts used in this mill were 140's ring twist and 240's mule weft. Thirteen-hank roving is used for 60's ring twist, 18-hank roving for 80's ring twist, 22-hank roving for 125's ring weft, and 28-hank roving for 150's ring weft. The cost of the American ring frame as used in these mills is $3 (12s. 6d.) per spindle, delivered and fitted up ready for use. In this mill two warpers and one creeler were in charge of eight warping mills which were running at a speed of 50 yards a minute. The warpers were receiving 40s. id. a week and the creeler 235.

New Bedford, which so far as fine spinning is concerned is the Bolton of America, is a town of 65,000 inhabitants.

A DARWEN WEAVER'S EXPERIENCE

17

Its prosperity may be gauged by the fact that 5,000 new looms, with spindles to supply them, were to be started this year (1902). One new mill had just ordered about £60,000 worth of textile machinery from Manchester. But New Bedford is indebted to Lancashire for more than machinery. In nearly every mill one finds Englishmen in responsible positions-sometimes in supreme charge; and Mr. C. P. Brooks, the head of the textile school there, which is one of the best equipped and most successful in the United States, was brought from Manchester to direct it.

Although pre-eminent in fine-spinning and weaving, New Bedford has no monopoly of this branch of the American cotton industry: there are several mills at Fall River and in Rhode Island and Connecticut which produce yarns and fabrics almost as fine as those of New Bedford. The Granite Mills at Fall River contain 43,000 mule-spindles, 77,000 ring-spindles and 3,090 looms, employ 1,150 hands, and manufacture dobbies' and plain cloths, including many goods with yellow silk weft. Silk weft up to 400's and cotton weft up to 150's were being used in the manufacture of very beautiful and elaborate fancy cloths when I visited the mill. Some of these were combinations of a satin stripe, a thick cord, a leno and a lappet, requiring three beams at least. An expert Lancashire weaver has told me that the lappet motion used here is better than anything he has ever seen in England. The lappet needles are worked from the top instead of from underneath, and the 41-inch lappet looms were running at 150 picks a minute. The weavers here were running four dobby looms each-two lappet and two plainand were earning as much as 50s. a week.

One weaver to whom I spoke was a Darwen man. He told me that he was fifty-two years of age, and had been in America three years. His earnings from four looms were between $11 and $12 a week, and since he came over he had been able to save $200, which were now in the bank. His house cost him 10s. a week, but he did not find other necessary expenses much greater than at Darwen, although there was at Fall River a higher standard of unnecessary expenditure. Many weavers,' he said, 'fling money about.' This is the right side of the water,' he cried into my ear through the din of the looms.