Textile Troubles

In New England in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the manufacture of cotton goods was a comparatively simple matter. Nearly every town of any importance had its red brick factory owned by a thrifty Yankee who combined the qualities of feudal lord, social mogul, town benefactor. His employees admired him, had simple wants, were content with frugal wages. Raw cotton from the slave states was cheap and plentiful. The New England mills had a virtual monopoly of U. S. textile manufactures. The thrifty Yankee prospered, passed his factory down from generation to generation. The Civil War upset many a factory, but that was only a passing indigestion compared to modern ailments.

New England has lost its monopoly of the textile industry, for factories have grown under favorable conditions in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Then too, the Yankee is perhaps less thrifty. Some of his sons and grandsons have preferred golf sticks to spindles. Others have sold the old factory to absentee owners in Manhattan. Meanwhile, mass production was bringing in foreign populations.

Except for 1923, when eight billion square yards of cotton products were manufactured in the U. S. (two billion more than any year before or since), New England textile rajahs have sat on uneasy thrones. In 1924 many were forced to cut employees' wages 10%. In recent months, barely noticed amid prosperity literature, they have again made cuts. The Pepperell Manufacturing Co. (sheets & pillow cases) of Biddeford, Me., started it early in December with a 10% wage decrease. Quickly followed the Bates and Andrescoggin mills of Lewiston, Me,, and the Edwards mill of Augusta. Then the Amoskeag Co. of Manchester, N. H. (largest textile mill in the world) announced a 10% cut, and the game was on. The Newmarket Manufacturing Co. of Newmarket, N. H., followed suit. In the huge textile centre of Fall River, Mass., the Stevens Manufacturing Co. and the American Printing Co. lead the way. Just before the fire last week (see p. 11) the Fall River Cotton Manufacturers' Association announced that all its members had put into effect a 10% wage cut. This included such potent firms as the Algonquin Printing Co., American Linen Co., Davis Mills, King Philip Mills, Lincoln Manufacturing Co., Sagamore Manufacturing Co., Granite Mills.

Firms which have not sliced wages are notably the makers of fine draperies, bedspreads, laces, frills, etc., in New Bedford and North Adams, Mass., the vast Naumkeaz Steam Cotton Co. in Salem, Mass., and others in Rhode Island, Connecticut and middle Massachusetts. The woolen and silk mills, although in no booming condition, have not yet pared pay envelopes.

Said robust Thomas F. McMahon, president of the United Textile workers of America, editor of The Textile Worker: "We have read so much recently, like millions of our countrymen, about this thing which is called prosperity, but I am willing to confess that outside of bankers, speculators, bootleggers and prize fighters, the thing to me is a myth, if not worse."