In between these two there are, according to the individual mill, a dozen or more other foremen, all reporting regularly to the superintendent, all captains of their own companies of workers, and all keen, in the interests of their own reputations, to operate their departments as intelligently, as efficiently, and with as little friction with their individual operators as possible. For it is generally recognized throughout the cotton industry that profitable business depends as much upon the whole-hearted cooperation of the wage-earners, as upon any other single factor. The Question of Individual Efficiency As for the operators themselves, they are so varied, there are so many problems which they have to face, and such difficulties which those who employ and direct them have to solve, that anything like adequate consideration is impossible. From the impersonal viewpoint, leaving out of account the human elements, the problems of wages, and the correlated problem of trade organization, there remains the question of individual efficiency. It is that which we have chiefly to consider. [Illustration: _Inspecting finished cloth_] The number of men, women, and children employed in the cotton mills of the country has increased at a very high rate, but there has been an interesting diminution in the proportionate percentage of women and children under sixteen years of age employed. The United States Census of Manufacturers gives the following figures: AVERAGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYES IN AMERICAN COTTON MILLS _Men_ _Women_ _Children_ _Total_ 1870 42,790 69,637 22,942 135,369 1880 59,685 84,539 28,320 172,544 1890 88,837 106,607 23,432 218,876 1900 134,354 123,709 39,866 297,929 1910 190,531 141,728 38,861 371,120 In percentages these figures express themselves as follows: _Men_ _Women_ _Children_ 1870 31.5 51.4 17.1 1880 34.6 49.0 16.4 1890 40.6 48.7 10.7 1900 45.1 41.5 13.4 1910 51.3 38.2 10.5 The question of nationality has had an important bearing upon the development of the industry in the United States. The constant influx into the country of successive waves of immigration from the different countries of Europe has often served in a decade to change the whole complexion of the labor question. In the original New England mills, the employees were of almost pure English stock. The sons and daughters of the Yankee farmers entered the mills, not as a permanent occupation, but merely as a means of getting a start in life.