ion is impossible. From the impersonal viewpoint, leaving out
of account the human elements, the problems of wages, and the correlated
problem of trade organization, there remains the question of individual
efficiency. It is that which we have chiefly to consider.

[Illustration: _Inspecting finished cloth_]

The number of men, women, and children employed in the cotton mills of
the country has increased at a very high rate, but there has been an
interesting diminution in the proportionate percentage of women and
children under sixteen years of age employed.

The United States Census of Manufacturers gives the following figures:

AVERAGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYES IN AMERICAN COTTON MILLS

_Men_ _Women_ _Children_ _Total_
1870 42,790 69,637 22,942 135,369
1880 59,685 84,539 28,320 172,544
1890 88,837 106,607 23,432 218,876
1900 134,354 123,709 39,866 297,929
1910 190,531 141,728 38,861 371,120

In percentages these figures express themselves as follows:

_Men_ _Women_ _Children_
1870 31.5 51.4 17.1
1880 34.6 49.0 16.4
1890 40.6 48.7 10.7
1900 45.1 41.5 13.4
1910 51.3 38.2 10.5

The question of nationality has had an important bearing upon the
development of the industry in the United States. The constant influx
into the country of successive waves of immigration from the different
countries of Europe has often served in a decade to change the whole
complexion of the labor question. In the original New England mills, the
employees were of almost pure English stock. The sons and daughters of
the Yankee farmers entered the mills, not as a permanent occupation, but
merely as a means of getting a start in life.

Just before the Civil War, the Irish began to come rapidly, and the
actual advent of that struggle saw a great number of the remaining
natives leaving for the army, or thrown out of work. When the fighting
was over they did not return, but the Irish came in even greater numbers.
The next decade saw the arrival of the French Canadians in the New
England states, and there also came, in quick succession, natives of
Italy, and of the various states of eastern Europe.

[Illustration: _Baled cloth being put aboard waiting freight cars_]

This change in the national complexion had two very important results. It
brought int