nt of
hands even at the improved rates. Again the Southern operatives have
been visited by emissaries from the operatives of the New England
States, which explains partly the present aspect of the wages question.
Mr Pidgin, in his official report to the Massachusetts Bureau of Labour
Statistics, questions whether a saving in wages can be expected to
continue, and points out that though wages have been low the average
efficiency of the operatives has not been high. Some, indeed, were sent
to gain experience in Northern mills in the hopes that on their return
they would spread the tradition of working at high pressure. Mr Pidgin
is at some pains to measure labour efficiency in the South and North as
far as it is possible to do so, but no simple sets of figures will prove
very much. The value of the product per operative in 1900 was $1200 in
Massachusetts, $1010 in Georgia, $937 in North Carolina and $984 in
South Carolina, but the value of the product per operative depends as
much upon the fixed capital charge per operative as upon the latter's
efficiency. And the amount of machinery used per head is higher in the
South than in the North. The percentage of operatives to machinery in
Massachusetts being expressed as 100, that of Georgia was 53, that of
North Carolina 43 and that of South Carolina 55 in 1900. These figures
must be borne in mind when the average numbers employed in a mill in
different States are being considered: in 1900 the averages were 565 for
Massachusetts, 273 for Georgia, 171 for North Carolina and 378 for South
Carolina. Measured by quantity of machinery the sizes of mills would
stand in quite different relations. Hours of work in the South are bound
to fall and the abuse of child labour, which had unquestionably crept
in, may be expected to discontinue entirely. The factory conditions of
children are better now than they were, but in some places they are
still very bad. In Georgia no children under twelve are employed, but
infants without fathers may begin work at ten years of age, and
according to Mr Pidgin's report, "it certainly seemed as though the
intention was honoured more in the breach than in the observance, or
that there must be many widows in the neighbourhood of the cotton
mills." In North and South Carolina the employment of children under
twelve is illegal, but in these States also conditions are recognized
under which it is possible to employ them earlier. According to figures
relating