brother, or friend. Many hearts have been moved to earnest gratitude for the aid which they have thus secured in their time of need. It requires a vast amount of patient listening to complaints, to tales of sorrow and want; but it has had its reward in seeing so many relieved, made glad and hopeful.

The real moral effect, and the real satisfaction in such a relation between employer and employed, cannot be written. The spirit of the employer is imparted to the more responsible and influential workmen, and to those under them, while a healthy moral condition is secured.

INTELLECTUAL WELFARE OF WORKMEN.

When the company was first established the directors appropriated $1,000, or 5,000 francs, for the purchase of suitable books for a circulating library, and provided a suitable room for it on their premises. The work-people have always been required to pay one cent each week during their service, and they thus become members of the "Pacific Mills Library Association," which is managed entirely by themselves, they choosing their own officers for the control of its affairs and for the selection of books, but selecting the resident manager for the president and chairman of the library committee. This weekly payment secures the privilege of the use of the library and reading-rooms of the society. One room is appropriated to males, and is supplied with the local newspapers of the city, and of Boston and New York, together with numerous serials of a scientific and literary character, and is open from 6 o'clock a. m. till 9 o'clock p. m., warmed and lighted. It is in close proximity to the other room containing the library, now exceeding 4,000 volumes, and also a cheerful, airy, comfortable apartment for the females, which is carpeted, and made attractive by daily and weekly publications especially adapted to their wants, and stereoscopes with numerous slides, all in charge of an intelligent and cultivated young lady. It is open from 9 o'clock a. m. till 9 o'clock p. m., and is much frequented and valued.

A large number of volumes of the library are in constant circulation, as the number of the work-people who cannot read or write does not exceed 50 in 1,000, and these are universally of foreign birth. All new publications adapted to this class of readers are bought as soon as published. The privilege of taking books from the library is extended to members of families whose head is a member of the association. The funds of the society are also used to purchase tickets of admission to lectures and suitable popular amusements, which are distributed among the members.

This association, as well as the relief society, it will be seen, is supported and managed by the work-people themselves, who secure a valuable return for their small outlay, and also the permanency of its operation, avoiding the dependence for existence and usefulness upon the life, or even connection, of any one person of special prominence.

A law of the State forbids the employment of children under 10 years, and requires that children employed between 10 and 12 years of age shall be in school 16 weeks in each year, and those between 12 and 16 years 11 weeks. The company contributes annually to the support of an evening school for both sexes.

SUCCESS OF THIS CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIZATION.

It has often been stated that care of employers for the elevation and welfare of their operatives, especially to the extent herein shown, is incompatible with pecuniary success. Facts prove that this is not true with the Pacific mills, but others must determine how much of this is due to the principles of action established and maintained.

It is also believed that the work-people have received great benefit. Some of the evidences of this are the following:

1. There have been no strikes among the work-people, which are their curse, and the dread of employers. They have been encouraged to feel that any grievances will be patiently listened to, and frankly discussed, and the result has always been favorable to good order.

By no means has every uneasy spirit been quieted, but the mass has been satisfied.

2. A higher class of workmen has been secured. Those best able to appreciate the privileges enjoyed in connection with this company have been drawn thither for employment. Specially is this true among the overseers, who engage the laborers in their different departments, and give character to the mass. Their intelligence and hearty co-operation in the plans for the material, moral, and intellectual advancement of the operatives, moulds the whole, and secures a higher standard. The general influence of the principles adopted by the company leads these prominent workmen to feel that they are intrusted with a degree of guardianship of those under them, and this feeling is very manifest. Respect for the manhood of a workman moulds him.

3. Many of the work-people have invested their funds in savings banks, and this is specially encouraged. Formerly the company received deposits themselves from the work-people, allowing an annual interest of six percent.; but for some prudential reasons this plan was abandoned, and the depositors encouraged to invest in chartered banks. The company held in their hands at one time more than $100,000, or 500,000 francs, of the earnings of their work-people, which has been changed into other channels. There is no doubt that their deposits now exceed this sum largely.

4. Quite a number of the work-people own houses free of debt, while others have been partially assisted by the company, it reserving a portion of their wages each month in reduction of the debt. More than $50,000, or 250,000 francs, are thus invested.

5. Others invest their funds in the bonds of the United States government in preference to savings banks.

6. Several of the workmen are owners of the stock of the company, and

have the same rights in regard to the control of the officers and general management as other stockholders. Their stock has now a market value exceeding $60,000.

7. Investment of earnings in premiums on life insurance has been made by many of the workmen.

8. More than one of the workmen has been a member of the city government in its board of aldermen and common council, and not an annual election passed without the choice of one, or more, to some of these important offices.

9. The pecuniary success of the company has warranted a liberal spirit in the payment of wages to the work-people. The least sum now paid in weekly wages to the youngest employé is $1 82, gold, a little more than 9 francs, and the number belonging to this class is very small. Boys of 16 years do not receive less than $2 85, gold, weekly, or more than 14 francs.

The least amount paid weekly to men is $6 75, gold, or nearly 34 francs, while a very large majority receive much more. Females receive from $2 48, gold, weekly, or about 12.50 francs for the least, to $6 72, gold, or more than 33 franes; while a few earn more. This excepts young girls, whose wages are the same as the least sum named above. Spinners, weavers, and a few others are paid in accordance with their product, some of them earning very large wages.

The stockholders, as previously stated, have invested $2,500,000 in the company. During the past 12 years they have received in dividends more than $3,000,000, and the fixed property has cost a much larger sum than the amount of the capital stock. The treasurer furthermore holds in his possession a very large amount of undivided earnings with which to purchase cotton, wool, and other materials, for cash.

APPENDIX F.

THE WOOLLEN AND WORSTED TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Description and statistics from the third report of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the best means of preventing the pollution of rivers, (rivers Aire and Calder,) presented to both houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty, 1867.

A glance at table D of the interesting and valuable returns (page 134) will inform the reader that woollen and worsted products to the extent of 384,200,000 pounds in weight, and of a value of £64,400,000 sterling, are annually sent out of the mills of Great Britain.

The West Riding of Yorkshire is not the only district in which this vast industry is located, but it may safely be taken that from one-half to two-thirds of the woollen and worsted trade is carried on there.

This trade is of ancient date in England. The Romans had weaving establishments of woollen cloth at Winchester, where the copious springs from chalk afforded means both for power and for washing and dyeing. The mother of Alfred the Great is recorded to have been skilled in spinning wool. Flemish woollen weavers settled in England about the time of the Norman conquest, and continued immigration of woollen weavers from Flanders took place in the reigns of Henry I, Henry III, Edward I, and Edward III. The woollen tissues first spun and woven at Worsted in Norfolk, about the year 1388, became the staple trade of Norwich. Devonshire manufactured woollens soon after the introduction of the trade into England, and Worcestershire a little later. Friezes were also early manufactured in Wales. In the middle of the sixteenth century Berkshire took the lead in woollen manufacture.

About the middle of the last century the West Riding of Yorkshire became the seat of the worsted and woollen trades. Halifax began to be specially noted for kerseys. From about this date these trades finding so much water available, not only for power, but also for washing, dyeing, scouring, fulling, and all other purposes, the Yorkshire manufacturers and traders were enabled to undersell those of other places.

The rivers Aire and Calder were made navigable by act of Parliament about the year 1698, and have from time to time been improved so as to meet and supply the requirements of a growing trade. This navigation has such advantages and has been so ably managed up to this date that it successfully competes with the established railways.

It is of the utmost importance to study the rise, progress and condition of any manufacture, especially if it has changed its locality. Successful trade is generally contingent upon local natural advantages which forethought and care may improve, or which continued abuse may deteriorate and even ultimately destroy. The West Riding of York

shire, and especially the Aire and Calder district, possesses many natural advantages favorable to the establishment and conduct of trades requiring good water. A range of mountains composed principally of scar, limestone, and Yoredale rocks, capped with millstone grit, forms the western boundary, and sends down numerous spring-fed rivulets and streams to wind and flow over the entire breadth of this portion of the county. The graduated fall affords means of obtaining water power, and the numerous valleys offer favorable sites for storage reservoirs. The vast numbers of mills and dyeworks (upwards of 5,000) established since the commencement of the present century, and the rapid growth of the worsted and woollen trades of the West Riding, clearly indicate that the natural advantages of this part of Yorkshire are great. There are not only spring and river water, but there is also cheap fuel obtained from the local coal field, enabling the manufacturers to supplement water power with steam, and in numerous instances to obtain all the power required from steam alone. Abuses in the district by throwing solids into running waters and by pollution have, however, become in some cases destructive to trade, and in numerous cases prohibitive to further extensions, some branches of trade having migrated to Scotland, where water less polluted is obtainable.

The various processes to which water is put in cleansing wool and in manufacturing woollens and worsteds, may be stated as follows:

1. Scouring the wool with a ley and hot water to remove grease and dirt.

2. Washing with clean cold water.

3. Dyeing when the cloth is to be wool-dyed.

4. Scouring cloth with fuller's earth to remove oil and size.

5. Dyeing when piece-dyed.

6. Milling or fulling with soap and warm water, either in the fulling stocks or in the improved milling machines, where the cloth is squeezed between rollers.

7. Scouring to remove the soap.

8. Boiling cloth to give it a permanent face.

9. Steaming to take away the liability of the finished cloth to spot. Dirty water may be used for power, but even for such purpose it is a nuisance, and for washing and dyeing water may be so polluted as to be injurious even to dark and coarse goods, and totally unfitted for cleansing and dyeing fine fabrics.

The vast interests involved in the wool, woollen, and worsted trades of Great Britain are set forth in the following statistical tables kindly furnished to the commission by Mr. Jacob Behrens, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Bradford.