1900 in value output, and was
followed in order by Philadelphia, New Bedford, Lowell, Manchester and
Pawtucket. The climate of Fall River is very similar to that of English
spinning districts. Its population in 1900 was 105,000, and of these
only 14,600 were of American parentage. Of the remainder, 16,700 were
English, 17,800 Irish, 29,600 French Canadians and about 5000
Portuguese. Among the rest of foreign parentage, Armenians, Russians and
Italians are numerous. But Massachusetts is famous for the number of
immigrants it attracts. It is almost incredible, but nevertheless a fact
according to a recent statistical report, that in 1903 as many as 91% of
the cotton operatives of the State were of foreign descent--chiefly
French Canadian and Irish. In 1902 there were nearly 90 mills at Fall
River with 3,000,000 spindles and 16,000 looms. The spindles amount to
about one-third of all in Massachusetts, but Fall River's share of the
looms of the State is not large. The spindles exceed in number those
possessed by any State except of course the one in which it is placed.
In comparison with a great spinning town in England, nevertheless, Fall
River does not appeal strongly to the English imagination. It has little
over a quarter of the spindles of Oldham, or three-fifths of those of
Bolton,--among English towns it would stand third, i.e. between Bolton
and Manchester and Salford, which, in spite of the movement of spinning
to the hills, still holds in England a leading place. The whole of
Massachusetts, it is of interest to observe, has fewer spindles than
Oldham, and only about half those of Oldham and Bolton together.
Originally it was the river which attracted the mills to Fall River, and
as the water-power available was almost inexhaustible, it was possible
for the mills to congregate together and for a town to grow up. In
England, when much of the industry was dependent for power upon water,
decentralization was entailed, for the thin streams of Lancashire could
not support more than two or three mills at most in proximity. Hence in
England, after Watt's steam-engine had succeeded, the economies of
centralization led eventually to the desertion of the mills on the
water-courses. But at Fall River the perfecting of the application of
steam-power merely involved its use to supplement the water-power on the
old site. The presence of water-power explains half the success of New
England. In the six States 35% of all the power u