it was found
that but seven per cent of those arrested were from this class; and this
is true of all points where the foreign-born element is not largely in
the majority.

Last comes the question of intellectual degeneracy, under "E." On this
point it is hardly fair to make comparison of the present worker with
the Lowell girl of the first period of factory labor, since she came
from an educated class, and was distinctively American. Taking workers
as a whole, a vast advance shows itself. Regularity and fixed rule have
often been the first education in this direction; and the life, even
with all its drawbacks, has the right to be regarded as an educational
force, and the first step in this direction for a large proportion of
the workers in it. There are points where the arraignment of Alfred, in
his "History of the Factory Movement," is still true.[16] He speaks of
it as a "system which jested with civilization, laughed at humanity, and
made a mockery of every law of physical and moral health and of the
principles of natural and social order." The "Report of the New York
Bureau of Labor for 1885" shows that the charge might still be
righteously brought; and Mr. Bishop gives the same testimony in his
reports for New Jersey. Evil is still part of the system, and well-nigh
inseparable from the methods of production and the conditions of
competition; but that there are evils is recognized at all points, and
thus their continuance will not and cannot be perpetuated.

FOOTNOTE:

[16] Alfred's History of the Factory Movement, vol. i. p. 27.

IV.

RISE AND GROWTH OF TRADES UP TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Defeat and discouragement attend well-nigh every step of the attempt to
reach any conclusions regarding women workers in the early years of the
century. It is true that 1832 witnessed an attempt at an investigation
into their status, but the results were of slight value, actual figures
being almost unattainable. The census of 1840 gave more, and that of
1850 showed still larger gain. In that of 1840 the number of women and
children in the silk industry was taken; but while the same is true of
the later one, there is apparently no record of them in any printed
form. The New York State Census for the years 1845 and 1855 gave some
space to the work of women and children, but there is nothing of marked
value till another decade had passed.

It is to the United States Census for 1860 that we must look for the
first really