USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lawrence > Immigrant city: Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1845-1921 > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
1. A. W. Doe, Statistics of Lawrence (Mass.) Manufactures, January 1861 (Manchester, N.H., 1861); Oliver Warner, Abstract of the Census of Massachusetts,-1865 ... (Boston, 1867), p. 65. Charles P. Neill, Report on Strike of Textile Workers in Lawrence, Mass. in 1912, 62 Congress, 2 Session, Senate Doc. 870 (Washington, 1912), p. 9; Immigration Commission, "Woolen and Worsted Goods in Representative Community A," Immigrants in Industries, Part 4: Woolen and Worsted Goods Manufacturing, II, Immigration Commission, Reports, X, 61 Congress, 2 Session, Doc. 633 (Washington, 1911), p. 741.
2. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Third Annual Report ... 1872, Senate Doc. 180, p. 164; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, "Fall River, Lowell, and Lawrence," Thirteenth Annual Report ... 1882, Mass. Pub. Doc. 15, p. 205.
114
IMMIGRANT CITY
to the mills, and in their search for manpower the mills had to look to the immigrants. Thus were their fates combined.
Since most of the immigrants had not previously worked in mills, the adjustment was difficult. The Immigration Commission report showed that only the English, German, and Scotch males had much previous experience.
NATIVE-LAND OCCUPATIONS BY PERCENTAGE
Males
Textile Manufacturing
Other Manufacturing
Farming
General Labor
Hand Trades, Trade, Other
Total
26
5
35
5
29
Canadian, French
9
4
53
9
25
English
55
9
2
8
25
German
72
5
4
2
17
Irish
16
5
48
10
21
Italian
2
3
45
5
45
Polish
8
3
74
3
12
Russian
11
1
65
9
14
Scotch
43
18
6
6
27
The one-third who had formerly been farmers found work in the mills particularly unpleasant. This dislocation in part accounted for the chronic dissatisfaction expressed by the French Canadian in Le Progrès, for the difficulties of the Irish, and for the abuse showered on the later immigrants. Those who had the least trouble in Lawrence were the ones whose past experience had in- cluded mill work, notably the Germans and English. And the fact that the Germans and English were predominantly Protestant and generally spoke English made their acceptance of, and by, America all the easier. The former farmers on the other hand were most often Catholic and frequently could not speak English. Since half of the female operatives had previous experience in the mills, their adjustment must have been simpler.3
3.
NATIVE-LAND OCCUPATIONS OF FEMALES BY PERCENTAGE*
Textile Other Manufacturing Manufacturing Farming
Domestic Service
Other
Total
50
1
27
5
17
Canadian,
French
33
4
35
6
12
English
91
2
3
4
Irish
49
4
12
24
11
Italian
14
1
19
6
60
Polish
7
3
71
11
14
* Immigration Commission, "Community A," pp. 755-56.
115
SECURITY IN THE MILLS
Peasants who had once depended upon their landlords now relied completely on the mill owners. The line between success and failure was a thin one, and a manufacturer's whim could determine the future of hundreds of immigrant families. His in- fluence reached far beyond America because many nations had a stake in Lawrence prosperity. So many came to Lawrence from Bradford, England, that it was called the "Bradford of America." The Bradford Observer quoted from the Lawrence newspapers and carefully followed the career of Joseph Walworth, a Pacific Mill wool buyer who was born in Bradford. When two Montreal cotton mills shut down in 1883, the Lawrence Journal announced that 1,500 would be seeking jobs in Lawrence and Lowell. The Canadian Soleil spoke sadly of the closing of the Pemberton Mill. An attempt by outsiders to buy a cotton mill in Lawrence, where Russian Jews could work unmolested, reflected the hope that the immigrant city held out to the world.4
The mill owners continued the policy of the model town by exercising strict control over their workers. Often it was to the employees' advantage. The Pacific Mill made so many contributions to the "material, intellectual, and moral welfare" of its workers that it won a prize at the Paris Exposition of 1867. For many years the Washington Mill gave each operative a turkey or a skirt for Christmas. William Wood was merely following an old tradition when he built his model Wood Mill in 1905 and put in many con- veniences for the workers.
The influence of the owners on elections was less admirable. In 1870 the Sentinel accused the paper manufacturers of sitting at the voting table to intimidate their employees. It was natural that the mill owners should oppose the secret ballot. When Mark Hanna ordered all Mckinley supporters to fly an American flag before the election of 1896, the Washington owners forced their workers to contribute five cents each and Thomas Dolan and John McKenna, who refused, were discharged. The Tribune maintained that other mills let men go for not joining McKinley gold clubs and that the Boston and Maine railroad got rid of one for giving to a
4. Ibid., pp. 745-46; The Evening Tribune, Feb. 23, 1892, Feb. 9, 1894, Feb. 21, 1895; Lawrence Journal, Nov. 3, 1883; Le Progrès, June 28, 1904.
116
IMMIGRANT CITY
Bryan flag fund. The members of the B & M Gold Club paraded to jeers of "That's right, boys! Hold on to your jobs!"
To restrain possible labor agitation the corporations used private detectives and often pitted one immigrant group against another. William Forbes discharged some of his plumbers when they joined a union. To guard against such tactics the Knights of Labor told its members to remain unknown and to "refrain from any ... petty strikes." Owners occasionally evicted strikers from their boarding houses and often would not rehire strike leaders. The employment of children also served to control adult labor.
Inside the mill the foreman's word was law. Since he was generally American, British, or Irish, he was not sympathetic with the more recent arrivals. Recognizing the antagonism between the older and newer employees, he believed that if he started to hire southeastern Europeans for one department, he would find no one else who would work there. One worker reflected the feeling of many when he stated: "The little jests that break the monotony of millwork are impossible when a 'dago' is working next to you; if you joke him, he will stick a knife into you." As a result, the foremen usually put the "impulsive, industrious, erratic" Italians by themselves in the spinning room. There were frequent com- plaints against domineering foremen, particularly concerning the way they counted up the amount woven or spun. One foreman at the Washington threatened to discharge workers who protested his reckoning of the cuts. Operatives in all the mills complained about the excessive number of machines they had to run. No immigrant in the Lawrence factories believed himself to be a free man.6
5. Pacific Mills, Statement Presented to the Special Jury of the Paris Ex- position of 1867 (Lawrence, 1868), pp. 12-13 and notes. For material on mill welfare see The Lawrence Sentinel, Dec. 27, 1862; Journal, May 2, 1885, May 21, 1887; Lawrence City Mission, Annual Report, XXVI (1883), 42; The Lawrence Sun, Dec. 3, 1909. For influence of corporations on politics see The Lawrence Courier, Dec. 7, 1857; The Lawrence Sentinel, Nov. 11, 1865, Dec. 10, 1870; Lawrence Journal, Feb. 3, 1883. The corporation said the two men were discharged for laziness. The Evening Tribune, Oct. 16, 24, 26, Nov. 2, 1896.
6. The use of scab labor to break up strikes in Lawrence was not uncommon. When the Arlington wool sorters struck in 1891, they were so afraid of strike- breakers from England that they cabled Bradford, England, urging sorters there not to come to Lawrence. Strikebreakers were imported in 1902 to end a spinners and doffers strike. The Evening Tribune, May 29, 1891, Jan. 16, 1902. The Knights of Labor quotation is in the Lawrence Journal, Mar. 10, 1888.
117
SECURITY IN. THE MILLS
But since they were poor the immigrants had to accept the mills and their officials. Thousands arrived as paupers. Deep in the winter of 1877, with the temperature below zero, the city mis- sionary found one of these families in a filthy shack. Four of the children were covered by a single shawl in one bed and in another the father and mother tried to keep the baby warm with a quilt. "Cold, hunger, nakedness, with no work, no credit in a land of strangers, made that home one of the most desolate of places." And there were many others equally naked and fully as hungry. While the foreign-born population was less than half of the whole, it contributed about two-thirds of the mission cases. At the start of the Civil War the Irish and the English, with only a third of the population, had two-thirds of the cases. Four decades later native Americans made up only 30 per cent of the new cases reported by the Overseers of the Poor.7 One Common Street pawnbroker started with only ten dollars, another came without even a proper pair of pants, and forty Rumanian Jews arrived without any money at all. Le Progrès complained that even though the French Cana- dians entered the city poor, the church bled them of whatever they had. The Boston authorities found that only twenty-five of seventy Genoese who had come to Boston destined for Lawrence during the 1912 strike had bank accounts. These were immigrants seeking security in Lawrence.
For treatment of workers inside the mills see Immigration Commission, "Com- munity A," pp. 770-72.
7.
THE PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL RELIEVED BY CITY MISSION BORN IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES*
1861
1890
1900
1910
United States
30
38
36
42
Ireland
43
28
20
14
England
21
22
16
9
Scotland
4
5
8
3
Canada
2
5
11
14
Germany
1
1
1
1
Poland or Russia
2
6
Italy
4
Foreign-born
70
62
64
58
* The 1861 figures are for families relieved; those for 1890 and after for new cases. For additional details, dissertation copy, Table XL. City Mission, Report, III (1861), 5; XIX (1877), 11; XXI (1879), 5; XXXI (1890), 24; XLI (1900), 13-14, 22-23; XLII (1901), 14-15; LI (1910), 20-21. Overseer
118
IMMIGRANT CITY
On his arrival in Lawrence the poverty-stricken immigrant found that wages were not as high as he had expected. Nor were they steady because with the long layoffs he could never count on more than forty weeks of work a year. Wages went up from the start of the Civil War until about 1875, when the panic of 1873 began to drive them down. Even at this peak the average Lawrence wage of about $400 a year was far below the state average of $476. Men of course did better than women and children and could count on about $500 a year, compared to about $250 for women and $150 for children. Ten years later the average in Lawrence had fallen to $325 a year, lower than all except eight other cities in Massachusetts. The bottom was reached in 1893 when pay in Lawrence was below $300 a year and was one-quarter less than in Fall River and Lowell.8
In terms of individual jobs the decline after 1875 was even more startling. The Pacific was paying dressers only $10.00 a week in 1896 compared to $17.00 previously. The aristocratic loom fixers and wool sorters in another mill went from $13.00 and $11.00 a week in 1889 to $12.00 and $10.00 in 1894. Arlington weavers, who received $10.00 a week for two looms in 1875, got only $7.00 in 1896 for five. And the lowly doffers were down to a bare $3.60 a week in 1894. In one mill the average pay for all jobs was only $7.00 a week.º
At best the pay was inadequate. Even during the Civil War an operative earning $11.00 a week said he could not save. A group of poor Lawrence families in 1869 had an average of $20.00 more in expenses than in income. At the high point in 1875 the average male in Lawrence earned $500 a year for 250 days of work. Since his total expenses were over $600, he could not survive unless his
of Poor figures from ibid., XLI (1900), 24; Municipal Records and Memoranda 1856-1859, IV.
8. The Lawrence average wage in 1875 was actually $392. Constance Green, Holyoke, Massachusetts (New Haven, Connecticut, 1929), p. 56; Lawrence Journal, June 21, 1879; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Fourteenth Annual Report . .. 1883, Mass. Pub. Doc. 15, pp. 346-47, 365, 372-73; Carroll D. Wright, Census of Massachusetts: 1875, II (Boston, 1877), 354, 436, 444, 447, 577, 583; Tribune, Oct. 14, 1893.
9. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Report ... 1870, Senate Doc. 120, pp. 117, 380-86; Census of Mass., 1875, II, 436, 444, 449, 577, 583; The Essex Eagle, June 17, 1876; The Evening Tribune, Oct. 29, 1892, Aug. 18, Oct. 1, 1896; Immigration Commission, "Community A," pp. 757-60, 773.
119
SECURITY IN THE MILLS
wife worked.10 And prices fell much more slowly than wages after 1876. Tenement rents in 1893, when wages dipped below the $300 mark, were often $200 a year. By this time a man had difficulty surviving unless his children as well as his wife worked.11
As wages hit their low point in 1895 the immigrant, who sought security in the mills, had apparently failed. Trapped at a job for which he was not trained, accepted only reluctantly by his foreman, ruthlessly controlled both inside and outside the mill, caught between dropping wages and more stationary prices, he faced a desperate situation. Here early in the decades of despair the immigrant seemed to have no chance for economic security.
Fortunately the mills recovered from their economic nadir and wages began to rise again after 1896. Wages had always fluctuated with the business cycle. After an initial boom connected with the building of the city, Lawrence suffered her first major depression after the panic of 1857. Hard times were the rule until the Civil War, when a boom began which lasted until the panic of 1873. Difficult conditions prevailed down to 1885, when mild prosperity took over until 1893. On the morning of April 12, 1893, 15,000 workers were out of jobs and for the first time in the memory of most citizens every mill was closed. Though unem- ployment never exceeded this figure, Lawrence wallowed in the depression until 1896, when it began to climb toward the great
10. A survey of over 1,000 Lawrence workers in 1876 showed how narrow the margin was between earnings and expenses. The figures for males and females were as follows:
Male
Female
Average number dependent on each worker
2.84
1.74
Days employed per year
252.83
239.19
Daily wages
1.93
$ 1.01
Yearly earnings
$ $504.84
$238.57
Rent paid
$130.85
$ 78.82
Remaining cost of living
$481.17
$197.30
Total expenses
$612.02
$276.12
Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Report . 1870, pp. 116-18, 407; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Sixth Annual Report ... 1875, Mass. Pub. Doc. 31, pp. 376, 381; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Seventh Annual Report . .. 1876, Mass. Pub. Doc. 31, p. 102; Lawrence City Documents 1906-1907, p. 8.
11. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Tenth Annual Report . . . 1879, Mass. Pub. Doc. 31, p. 83; Board of Trade of London, Cost of Living in American Towns, 62 Congress, 1 Session, Senate Doc. 22 (Washington, 1911), lxxviii; Anzeiger und Post, Sept. 25, 1909; Sunday Sun, Sept. 8, 1907; The Evening Tribune, Jan. 27, June 5, 1893, Aug. 7, 1902; The Sunday Register, Feb. 26, 1899; Neill, Report, pp. 158-60. See Table XVIII.
120
IMMIGRANT CITY
peak year of 1909. Thanks in part to the construction of the giant Wood Mill in 1905, the population increased so dramatically that the press called it the biggest boom in Massachusetts and asserted that within two years Lawrence would be the first industrial city in the state. In sum, prosperity was dominant in the period 1845- 73, depression in 1873-96, and prosperity again in 1896-1912. Population increases went hand in hand with the periods of prosperity.12
Wages followed the business cycle until by 1909 the city was about level with the 1875 peak average of $400 a year. Loom fixers and wool sorters at $15.00 a week were higher than ever before. Even the doffers were making $5.50. The average weekly wage throughout the city was between $8.50 and $9.00, with men at $9.50, women at $8.00 and children averaging $6.00.13
There was hope as soon as wages began to go up. The strike observers believed that the workers' pay was intolerably low in 1912 and it was; but from the immigrant's point of view, wages were much higher than in 1894. With the hope of even more in- creases after the strike and with evidence of a business boom all about, the immigrant was finding more security in the mills than anyone might have guessed.
He derived some consolation also from a steady reduction in hours. As early as 1847 the Labor Reform organization met to demand a ten-hour day, but the real drive came between 1865 and 1870, when the Short Time movement and the Ten-Hour Clubs flourished. Partly because of this pressure and in part owing to the depression, hours dropped in 1873 from 64 a week to 62.5, and a year later they were down to 60. Here they re-
12. For complete documentation see Donald B. Cole, "Lawrence, Massa- chusetts: Immigrant City, 1845-1912" (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1956), pp. 279-81. Population 1850-75: up 306 per cent; 1875-95: up 49 per cent; 1895-1910: up 65 per cent. See Table II.
13. Immigration Commission, "Community A," pp. 757-60, 773. The median figures for all jobs studied at one mill were: 1889-$6.45; 1894-$5.85; 1909-$8.10. The average was: 1899-$7.50; 1894-$7.00; 1909-$9.50. For 1909, therefore, there were three figures given for mill wages in Lawrence: $9.50 (the average of the specific jobs studied in one mill); $8.10 (the median of the specific jobs); and $8.75 (the average of all mill wages in the city). Since $8.75 is between $9.50 and $8.10, it is probably the best figure. The average person in the Lawrence textile mills was earning $8.75 a week in 1909, the high point since 1875. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Fourteenth Annual Report . 1883, pp. 372-73. Anzeiger und Post, Mar. 9, 1907.
121
SECURITY IN THE MILLS
mained until about 1890, when Massachusetts began to lower the maximum number of hours women and children could work. During the next two decades the hours went from sixty to fifty- eight, to fifty-six, and finally in 1911 to fifty-four. Since about half of the operatives were women and children, the mills found it convenient to set the hours for all employees at the same limits. The way the corporations handled the reduction to fifty-four hours incited the strikers in 1912.14
In addition to the business cycle and the steady reduction in hours the immigrant cycle made the immigrant feel that his search for security in the mills would not be in vain. He knew that the arrival of new immigrants improved the position of the older ones. His own pay might not be much, but he had reason to believe that his son would do better. The figures of the Immigration Com- mission in 1909 bore out his faith. While native male workers with native fathers averaged a little over $11.00 a week, those with foreign fathers received something less than $11.00 and the foreign-born got only about $9.25. Though an Irish immigrant was making only $10.21, his son was up to $10.54, and the Germans showed the same improvement over a generation. The earlier immigrants, notably the English and the Germans, were earning the most and the later ones, such as the Italians and the Poles, were getting the least. The longer a person had been in the United States, the higher his earnings. Among men who had been here over ten years only the Syrians had a median wage of less than $7.50, while for those here less than five years four of the southeastern European nationalities were below the $7.50 level. The immigrant cycle brought hope to those who were suffering in Lawrence.15
The immigrant father hoped more than anything else that his son would abandon the mills and turn to the crafts, because skilled artisans in Lawrence often earned two to three times as much as
14. Lawrence Journal, Feb. 22, 1879; The Lawrence Courier, July 24, 1847, Feb. 7, 1852; The Lawrence Sentinel, Sept. 2, 1856, April 13, 1867, Aug. 7, 1869, April 16, 1870; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Report ... 1870, pp. 390-91; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Fourth Annual Report ... 1873, House Doc. 173, p. 315; The Essex Eagle, April 13, 1867, Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 1874; The Evening Tribune, April 21, 1891, Oct. 22, 1892, Dec. 15, 1896, April 22, 1899; Sunday Sun, Jan. 7, 1912.
15. Immigration Commission, "Community A," pp. 757-65. See Table XVIII.
122
IMMIGRANT CITY
the ordinary mill workers. About 1900 horseshoers and painters had a minimum weekly rate of $15.00. Newspaper workers and paperhangers got $12.00 to $18.00 a week. When the carpenters and plumbers began to demand $2.00 to $3.00 a day, Le Progrès complained that it was too much and that soon they would be asking $5.00 a day. From skilled brewmasters at $23.00 a week down, the craftsmen were in a favored position.16
Not all the immigrants could become craftsmen, but the federal census reports proved that they improved their jobs after several decades in the city. The following chart taken from the reports of 1880 and 1900 establishes definite trends in the occupations of different nationalities. It shows the percentage of the workers of each nationality in four job categories. The statistics for 1880 are according to the nativity of the worker, while those for 1900 show the nativity of the worker's parents. This variation is useful. Take the Irish, for example. The 1880 statistics cover the immi- grants who came about the time of the Civil War, while those for 1900 include both them and their children as well as later Irish immigrants. This makes it possible to compare the occupations of the Irish-born in 1880 with both first- and second-generation Irish-Americans in 1900. The four job categories were not com- pletely satisfactory because they lumped a wide variety of jobs under the same heading. "Manufacturing and mechanical pur- suits" covered mill labor, skilled craftsmen, and mill owners; "trade and transportation" went from banker to street railway employee. But generally the best jobs were the "professional services"; second, "trade and transportation"; third, "manufacturing and mechanical pursuits"; and last, "personal service." Those employed in agri- culture were never more than 1 per cent of any group and so were not listed in the following table.17
16. Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Thirty-fourth Annual Report . .. 1904, Mass. Pub. Doc. 15, p. 370; Bureau of Statistics of Labor, Thirty-sixth Annual Report ... 1906, Mass. Pub. Doc. 15, p. 477; Le Progrès, April 26, 1906.
17. See Tables XIX and XX. These percentages and the material on occupa- tions that follows were derived from United States Census Office, Tenth Census of the United States . .. 1880, I (Washington, 1883), 882; United States Census Bureau, Twelfth Census of the United States, Special Reports, Occupations (Washington, 1904), pp. 588-91. The total number gainfully employed in 1880 was 19,153; in 1900, 30,254. The native-born figures for 1900 were for whites only, and though the other figures included the other races, there were so few non-whites in Lawrence that the discrepancy is meaningless. The
123
SECURITY IN THE MILLS PERCENTAGES OF EMPLOYED 1880, 1900
Occupation
Nativity
1880
Total
United States
Ireland
Great Britain
Ger- many
Canada
Italy Poland Russia
Professional Services Trade and Trans- portation
2
4
1
1
1
1
9
13
7
5 90
90
80
11
8
20
4
3
13
-
1900
Parent Nativity
Professional Services Trade and Trans- portation
3
8
3
2
2
1
0
15
29
14
12 78
11
12
12
Manufacturing
70
48
66
80
74
77
Personal Service
12
14
16
8
6
12
10
6
5
-
Manufacturing Personal Service
78
75
72
The over-all figures reveal what immigration meant to a city such as Lawrence. Within twenty years the percentage in pro- fessional service went up 50 per cent and that in trade and trans- portation rose 67 per cent. For those who had been in the city in 1880 the change was even greater, the Irish, for example, tripling their percentage in the professions. Bearing the burdens relin- quished by the early immigrants and natives were the southeastern
Canadian figures stood for British America in 1880, but Canada in 1900. Professional Services included clergymen, dentists, journalists, lawyers, mu- sicians, physicians, surgeons, officials, and civil employees. Trade and transportation embraced clerks, salesmen, dealers, bankers, teamsters, street railway employees, grocers, and sailors. Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits included such artisans as blacksmiths, shoe makers, carpenters, engineers, ma- chinists, masons, painters, plumbers, and printers, but also such persons as bakers and butchers, as well as the nebulous cotton, woolen, and worsted mill operatives. Personal services meant barbers, bartenders, hotel keepers, janitors, policemen, firemen, and ordinary laborers. Clearly the professional service people had the best jobs, and in general the personal service individuals were at the bottom of the economic ladder. The groups between were difficult to rank. The bankers, brokers, and highly skilled craftsmen in the mills re- ceived higher pay than the remainder of the trade, transportation, and manu- facturing groups. For a more complete study of Lawrence occupations in- cluding material on 1847-49, 1870, and 1912 see Cole, "Lawrence," pp. 236-46 and Table XXXVIII, pp. 436-40. This work lists the first ten or twelve occupations of each nationality in both 1880 and 1900. It breaks the Canadians in 1900 into French Canadians and English Canadians; the southeastern Europeans into Italians, Poles, and Russians; and the native-born into native-born with native parents and native-born with foreign parents.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.