Hours of labor were generally long in
the factories. As a rule only the skilled artisan had achieved
the ten-hour day, and then only in isolated instances. Woman's
labor was the poorest paid, and her condition was the most
neglected. A visitor to Lowell in 1846 thus describes the
conditions in an average factory of that town:
"In Lowell live between seven and eight thousand young women, who
are generally daughters of farmers of the different States of New
England. Some of them are members of families that were rich the
generation before.... The operatives work thirteen hours a
day in the summer time, and from daylight to dark in the winter.
At half-past four in the morning the factory bell rings and at
five the girls must be in the mills. A clerk, placed as a watch,
observes those who are a few minutes behind the time, and
effectual means are taken to stimulate punctuality.... At
seven the girls are allowed thirty minutes for breakfast, and at
noon thirty minutes more for dinner, except during the first
quarter of the year, when the time is extended to forty-five
minutes. But within this time they must hurry to their
boarding-houses and return to the factory.... At seven
o'clock in the evening the factory bell sounds the close of the
day's work."
It was under these conditions that the cooperative movement had
its brief day of experiment. As early as 1828 the workmen of
Philadelphia and Cincinnati had begun cooperative stores. The
Philadelphia group were "fully persuaded," according to their
constitution, "that nothing short of an entire change in the
present regulation of trade and commerce will ever be permanently
beneficial to the productive part of the community.
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