that men getting $0.95 a day in 1850 would be getting $1.69 in 1900 and not have to pay any more for their food and clothing. American prices made some very sudden jumps during this period, especially at the time of the Civil War, but there was undoubtedly a general increase in real wages. Since 1900, however, it is held that the rise in wages has not kept up with the rise in prices, especially for unskilled workmen. It seems to be true that the increase in wages during the past century has largely gone to the skilled workUnskilled workmen are not much better off than

men.

they were.

Farm laborers have not gained so much as clerks and workers in the skilled trades. The low wages of the great numbers of unskilled workingmen and working women are still a serious problem.

When the factory system was first introduced it (9) Class did not make a sharp separation between owners and division workmen. In many cases all came from the same stock. Factories were small. The owner often worked in his factory side by side with the men whom he hired. A picture of the conditions in the early Lowell mills has been given by Lucy Larcom, who was herself a worker there:

"Work began at five o'clock on summer mornings, and at daylight in the winter. Breakfast was eaten by lamplight during the cold weather; in summer, an interval of half an hour was allowed for it, between seven and eight o'clock. . . The only hours of leisure were from half-past seven or eight to ten in the evening, the mills closing a little earlier on Saturdays."

The children did not work continuously. "It did not often occur to us that we were having a hard time,

The cruel hardships of children in the collieries and factories of Great Britain we silently wept over, wishing we might do something to relieve their miseries. The oldest and the youngest of us often wearied of the long work day, and of the continuous moan and clatter of machinery. But the unillumined darkness of of those poor English children's lot seemed as remote from us as what we had read of heathen nations that sacrificed their little ones to idols."

The conditions of discipline, so different from those at present found in factories, are illustrated by the statement that one operative pinned up on a post of her dressing-frame a mathematical problem she and her companions solved as they paced up and down mending the broken threads of the warp; another studied leaves from a book on philosophy, another committed verses from the Bible, and still another, going on with the study of French, would get excused from her work for an hour twice or thrice a week to recite to a teacher outside. Many taught school in summer and worked in the mills in the winter. These conditions are in strong contrast with the conditions in a city factory of today whose windows show only brick walls or dreary successions of back stairs and housetops (if indeed the smoky atmosphere permits anything to be seen), and whose machinery is often speeded to the limit of the workers' capacity.

Slips of poetry" were frequently seen pasted up and down the sides of the window recess, where a girl sat watching her work between thinking and dreaming. One such I remember, where I used to sit, a very young spinner, refreshing myself alternately with the blue river and the lovely landscape beyond, and with some

scrap of poetry upon the wall beside me, which was also another window, opening into the unseen.”

Perhaps the most striking things as to the social conditions was that the girls formed no "class." There were daughters of farmers, clergymen, physicians, or men of business, and they looked upon their work purely as temporary, returning after a little to their homes in the country.

66

Certainly we mill girls did not regard our lot as an easy one, but we had accepted its fatigues and discomforts as unavoidable, and could forget them in struggling forward to what was before us. The charm of our life was that it had both outlook and outlet.” * The factory today makes classes. By bringing men How the to work together in one building it is constantly making factory them acquainted and grouping them. Further, to work with machines, it is claimed, gives a different temper than to work at a desk or in a shop. The trade unions form more easily under such conditions. As factories grow larger there is less contact between employers and workmen. As profits have accumulated, greater differences in the style of living have followed.

In

cities the owners live in a prosperous region, the workmen live near the factory or in cheaper residence districts. Owners and workmen are then no longer neighbors as in earlier days. Many owners do not even live in the towns in which their factories are located and hence know nothing of how the workmen. live, to say nothing of knowing them personally through churches or political parties. Finally, the factory system has stimulated immigration, and thus contributed to bringing to America a great multitude

Lucy Larcom "Among Lowell Mill Girls "; The Atlantic Monthly, 1881, Vol. XLVIII.

makes classes

of various races and languages. When the owner and workman belong to different races and speak different languages, the division between them is likely to be greater.

Social classes in this country are not so fixed as they are in Europe. People who begin working with their bare hands and have unusual ability are constantly rising to positions of large responsibility. Presidents of railroads, banks, and manufacturing companies are frequently men who have begun at the bottom. The common schools, high schools, colleges, and universities are open to all. But there are also forces constantly at work to divide us into distinct social classes, and the more clearly we see these the better we can deal with them.

CHAPTER XIX

THREE PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS AND

T

INDUSTRY

O one who for the first time looks upon a game Rules in of football, men seem to be rushing about, sport tumbling over each other, bumping into each other, hit or miss. But if the spectator makes inquiries, he finds that the men are playing a game according to very definite rules. These rules have been framed to give players and spectators the greatest amount of enjoyment. They provide for a sport that shall have the thrill of excitement and the tense feeling which goes along with rivalry and overcoming obstacles, with taking risks and achieving daring exploits. But they guard against foul play. There is no glory in winning unless the sport is clean.

The business of getting a living at the present day and in has often appeared to the observer to be a confused business rushing about, in which men strive to crowd their way through others and over others with no very clear purpose, except to win something. Yet, as in football, there are certain rules of business which have as their purpose to make the game fair. The game of business is a game that all, or nearly all, of us must play. It is based both on our need of getting a living and also on the interest we take in doing or achieving. It calls out our instinctive rivalry. It has to be controlled in