Loom and spindle : $b or life among the early mill girls with a sketch of "the Lowell offering" and some of its contributors — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Loom and spindle : $b or life among the early mill girls with a sketch of "the Lowell offering" and some of its contributors
John Stuart Mill · en
has been a thorough deterioration not only in the people employed in
factories, but in their home-life. Something of this note is sounded
in the last chapter of this book; yet it must be recognized that the
factory system has been and is a power in civilization,--a factor in
developing it, in truth.
The factory girl of the early period was not degraded through her
employment or her surroundings. She stepped out of factory life into
professional or semi-professional occupations. She was succeeded by a
class originally beneath her, the members of which have in their turn
graduated from the factory, and stepped into higher callings. This
process has been repeated, the destiny of the factory being ever to
reach down and lift people up out of lowly into higher conditions.
This gives the surface appearance of deterioration, when the real
fact is that through the factory the lower orders, so far as mental
capacity is concerned, are being constantly elevated. The author sees
this, yet naturally cannot help regretting that the heterogeneity of
the factory population--natives coming from many lands, with differing
social ideas, with little or no training, with few opportunities for
advancement, with low earning capacity, and with varied languages--has
changed the atmosphere of the factory community. The human lives
involved are worth more in this atmosphere than they were in the
cloddish labor out of which they have risen.
“Loom and Spindle,” valuable as it is for its details of economic
history, for the inspiration which comes from studying the lives and
characters of noble women, teaches the lesson which the author and
her associates taught,--that whatever is honest in employment is in
the service of God. Their lives emphasize the fact that the modern
system of industry has exercised a wonderful influence in securing
intellectual stimulation, and in dignifying every honest calling.
CARROLL D. WRIGHT.
WASHINGTON, _May, 1898_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION iii
I. LOWELL SIXTY YEARS AGO 1
II. CHILD-LIFE IN THE LOWELL COTTON MILLS 25
III. THE LITTLE MILL-GIRL’S ALMA MATER 40
IV. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY FACTORY GIRLS 60
V. CHARACTERISTICS (_Continued_) 83
VI. _The Lowell Offering_ AND ITS WRITERS 97
VII. _The Lowell Offering_ (_Continued_) 109
VIII. BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF SOME OF THE WRITERS FOR
_The Lowell Offering_ 132
IX. THE COTTON FACTORY OF TO-DAY 202
LOOM AND SPINDLE.
CHAPTER I.
LOWELL SIXTY YEARS AGO.
“That wonderful city of spindles and looms,
And thousands of factory folk.”