USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 3 > Part 38
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It is notable that during the debates Henry Clay, then speaker of the House, and at that time a pronouneed Republiean (Demoerat), was an enthusiastie advocate of further protection, while Daniel Web- ster, of Federal antecedents, and from Massachusetts, was determined- ly opposed to a higher tariff. Judge (Job) Durfee, a Congressman from this State in 1823, was also a stalwart opponent of further pro- teetion. A new tariff bill was finally passed and approved in May, 1824. The only ehange in the duties upon eottons was an inerease of the minimum valuation from 25 to 35 eents the square yard, in order to proteet fabrics of finer grades than the three lower grades, upon the importation of which the previous tariff was praetieally prohibitive. Many mills had been started, however, during the interval between the elose of the war and the going into operation of the tariff of 1824.
From returns made by the seeretary of state in 1824, in obedienee to a resolution of the Senate, it is found that the value of dutiable artieles manufactured annually in Rhode Island was $878,558. The returns of the eensus of 1820 showed that there were then 63,372 eotton spin- dles in the mills of the State, more than one-fourth of the number in the whole country, and nearly twiee as many as were operated in any other single State. The faet is recorded that when President Munroe was inaugurated for his first term, in 1817, "following the example of
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his predecessor, the President wore for the occasion a suit of American cloth from a Pawtucket manufactory."
In 1826 there were 110 cotton factories in the State. Pawtucket was then the fifth village in New England in cotton manufacturing, while Slaterville was eighth, and Pawtuxet-a village on both the Cranston and Warwick sides of the Pawtuxet River-the tenth. About one-third of the mills now had power looms, and a third hand looms, while the remainder spun yarn and twist for the Western States where, as in Philadelphia, it was woven by hand under contract, or in families. Calico printing was now carried on in Pawtucket.1 The price of cotton machinery, which was worth in 1810 three or four hundred per cent. more here than in England, could be obtained now at prices only about fifty per cent. in advance of their cost in England.
Cotton mills had many ups and downs during the twenties, but their number continued to increase in this State. In 1829 there were one hundred and thirty nine within its small area, twenty of them being in Warwick, and twenty in Smithfield, which then included the present town of that name, a portion of the present city of Woonsocket, the towns of North Smithfield and Lincoln and the city of Central Falls. In 1826 a lace dress made in Pawtucket, which had taken a premium of ten dollars at the State Fair, was purchased by President Adams. A lace school about that time in Newport, according to Bishop, "em- ployed five hundred young women."
The question of the further protection of American industries was hotly debated at every session of Congress, and the New England mem- bers, as manufactures increased among their constituents, ranged themselves on the side of protection, and one of the warmest and most effective supporters in the House of a new schedule of duties, adopted in 1828, was the famous Tristam Burges of Rhode Island. The duties on cotton bagging by this new tariff were raised from three and a half to four and a half cents on the square yard and after June 29, 1829, to five cents. Under the encouragement thus given the making of cotton bagging became profitable. In 1830 a good quality of it was made in Providence from factory waste. It was strong and heavy, weighing one and three-quarters pounds to the yard, or a quarter pound more than the best hemp bagging, and was sold at eighteen cents a yard.
The change in the tariff did not give the degree of relief that was expected by its advocates. Mills which still adhered to old methods found it difficult to keep running, nor were the best equipped and most
1 Calico printing was begun on the site of the Dunnell Manufacturing Com- pany at Pawtucket in 1824; William Sprague commenced block printing at. Cranston Print Works in 1825; Philip Allen started the Allen Print Works at Providence in 1830; and printing was begun in the Clyde Print Works at War- wick by Greene and Pike about 1833.
23-3
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wisely managed factories always able to run at a profit. Bishop says : "The Boston Daily Advertiser of the 2d March (1829), gave the names of twelve cotton factories destroyed by fire within one hundred and fifty miles of that city, since the first of January. An unusual degree of distress prevailed at this time among the manufac- turers of New England, particularly in the cotton branch, producing numerous failures and great depreciation in the value of stocks." A careful examination of the Providence Manufacturers' and Farmers' Journal of that period shows that only one Rhode Island cotton fac- tory -- that of the Jenks mill at Central Falls-was burned during the period specified. As this mill had no insurance whatever, the implica- tion of fraud contained in the above quotation docs not apply to Rhode Island manufacturers.
It appears from statistics compiled under the auspices of a National Tariff Convention in 1832, there were 116 cotton mills in the State, with a capital of $6,262,340. They used 10,415,578 pounds of domes- tic cotton, which was spun into 9,271,481 pounds of yarn, and woven into 37,121,681 yards of cloth, which sold at an average of ten cents a yard. The cotton industry gave employment to 8,500 persons, of whom 1,731 were men, 3,297 women and 3,472 children. Their wages amounted to $1,177,527 annually, of which sum they were believed to save five per cent. on the average. Mills having in the aggregate 141,000 spindles, used anthracite coal for heating purposes, while wood was burned by mills with 95,000 spindles. In addition to the regular cotton mills there were five bleacheries employing 300 persons-two- thirds men and one-third boys and women. There were also two print works employing 186 persons. The bleacheries paid $69,500 in wages and the print works $40,000. There were 1,246,000 cotton spindles in the whole country at that time, and Rhode Island with 235,000 stood second, Massachusetts being first with 330,000 spindles.
In answer to certain questions propounded by Samuel Slater re- garding cotton manufacturing, in pursuance of a resolution of Con- gress, John Whipple, who, in company with Ephraim Talbot, was running the Hope mill in the town of Scituate, claimed that there was no money in cotton manufacturing. In the whole period since 1790, only four men in the State had become rich in the business. He cited the Hope mill as an instance of the condition of cotton manufacturing. Up to 1821, when they sold to Whipple and his partner, the original proprietors of the mill had expended $85,000 for building, machinery and. repairs. Simple interest on this sum would amount to over $70,000. They sold for $21,000 and had only $8,000 left after paying debts. This $8,000, Whipple claimed, was all that the founders of the business had to show for the $155,000 paid out. This testimony of Whipple's was quoted all over the country in tariff circles and was published with editorial comments in Niles's Register, a publication
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of great influence in political and industrial circles. Anti-tariff peo- ple, however, belittled Whipple's testimony, and declared that it was impossible to determine the profit or loss of a mill unless its running expenses and the value of its products were considered. Tariff dis- cussion during the twenties and thirties was carried on with great bitterness, some of the Southern opposers of the protective system even threatening secession. In 1832 a so-called compromise tariff involving a gradual reduction of rates for a series of years was adopted. The duties upon cotton bagging by this tariff were reduced to 3 1-2 cents on the square yard, and under the reduction system the 25 per cent. duty upon cotton cloth, yarn, twist, thread, etc., fell to 24 per cent. in 1836, 23 per cent. in 1841, and 21 1-2 per cent. on June 30, 1842.
While the cotton mills of Rhode Island had their prosperous and depressed periods under this compromise tariff, on the whole they appear to have been fairly remunerative during the thirties. The Lonsdale mills at Lonsdale and several other factories in other sec- tions of the State were started during the decade. The census statis- tics of 1840 showed that there were then 209 cotton manufactories in the State, besides seventeen dyeing and printing establishments. The mills contained 518,817 spindles, their products were valued at $7,116,792 and gave employment to 12,086 persons. The capital in- vested in the business aggregated $7,326,000. The cotton industry had evidently made great progress in the State since 1832. Rhode Island in 1840 was only exceeded by Massachusetts in the magnitude of its cotton manufactures. Its mills and print works were up to date in every particular. Bishop states that "in February, 1840, a new pattern of mousseline de laines arrived from France at New York, and was offered by the importer at fourteen cents per yard by the case. The agent of a Rhode Island calico-printing establislumnent forwarded a piece of the new style of goods to Providence the day after their arrival, and in sixteen days he had the same style of goods and of equal fabric in New York, selling at ten cents per yard. The manu- facturer had but twelve days to engrave the new pattern on a copper cylinder then hardened and made ready for impression ; the compound for ingredients for colors discovered by chemical experiments ; the cloth printed, dried and cased for market."
The statistics of manufactures for 1840 were probably not entirely accurate. Many errors were exposed at the time, and the apparent gain in cotton manufactures may have been larger than the facts would warrant. The improvement in machinery has constantly les- sened the cost of production, and hence the price of the finished pro- duct has fallen in a corresponding degree. The manufacturer who employed the best labor-saving machinery possessed a great advantage over those of small or involved capital who felt unable to discard their slow and obsolescent machinery. Consequently throughout the whole
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period of the factory system in this and other states there have been constantly occurring failures and closing of mills. These failures have sometimes taken place during the most propsperous periods, but have been much more frequent during hard times. When the mass of the people have been short of money, goods have become unsalable and prices have fallen. Our cotton mills in the early stages of manufac- ture were unable to supply the domestic market, and the importation of foreign goods was necessary, but afterwards, when the multiplica- tion of spindles made outside help unnecessary, the importation of foreign textiles tended to keep down prices and to lessen the income of both manufacturer and operative. The compromise tariff of 1832 does not seem to have been injurious to our cotton mills as a whole, but after the panic of 1837 business for a time was not good, and a movement was organized in high tariff circles to repeal or modify the agreement of 1832, so as to secure higher duties. It was called a "home league" and was generally endorsed by Rhode Island manu- facturers. As the revenues of the National Government had fallen off, owing to the lessening of imports, the opposition to a slight in- crease of duties on the part of the anti-protectionists was not strong, and a new tariff bill was passed on August 30, 1842, which increased the duties upon cotton bagging to four cents a square yard, and upon cotton cloth, yarns, etc., to 25 to 30 per cent. The change had the effect of increasing customs receipts, but the agitation increased, and on July 30, 1846, a revenue tariff was adopted which reduced the duties on cotton goods generally fron 30 to 25 per cent.
If the statistics of cotton manufacture of 1840 and 1850 are correct in each instance, the industry lost ground in this State during the decade. The figures for 1850 report 158 manufactories with a capital of $6,675,000, employing 10,875 persons, and producing goods valued at $6,447,120. The value of cotton products in the whole country had increased from $46,000,000 to $61,000,000, and the number of persons employed from 72,000 to 92,000. The secret of the diminished figures for this State may lie in the fact that woolen manufacturing here was largely increased during the decade, and it appears that some mills changed from cotton to woolen.
Manufacturing and nearly all other industries were very prosperous during the decade between 1850 and 1860. Factories were multiplied in number or enlarged. In this small State, where the water power of the streams had been generally put in use already, the tendency was to increase the capacity of old mills, rather than to establish new ones. Manufactures generally were so prosperous that the tariff, whose average rate had been reduced in 1846 from 33 per cent. to 24 per cent., was reduced still further in 1857 to about 19 per cent. The duties upon cotton fabrics, yarn, etc., were reduced from 15 to 24 per cent. The passage of this tariff bill was not strongly opposed by
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manufacturers, and it is a notable fact that one of the two Rhode Island members of the House and all of the Massachusetts members voted for it.
The statistics of manufactures for 1860 show that there were then 135 cotton manufacturing establishments in the State with an invested capital of $11,500,000, employing 12,089 persons and producing goods valued at $12,258,677. The mills contained 766,600 spindles and 26,000 looms. The increase in the value of cotton products during the ten years had been 88.7 per cent., while the average increase in the whole country was only 75.78 per cent.
In an article upon cotton manufacture, prepared for the United States Census Report for 1880, Edward Atkinson says: "Since the year 1860 the cotton manufacture of the United States has been ex- posed to greater vicissitudes than any other important branch of national industry, and the wonder is not that there should have been some disasters, but that it should have survived at all in the hands of its original owners. From 1857 to 1860 the cost of constructing a spinning and weaving factory on medium fabrics, woven of No. 25 yarn, was from $16 to $20 per spindle. The value of a bale of cotton of 480 pounds was from $40 to $50. Then came the combined effects of war, paper money and scarcity of cotton. At one period more than two-thirds of the cotton machinery of the country was stopped; the value of a bale of cotton rose to over $900, and the price of some kinds of cotton goods was seven or eight times the present price. Alittlelater new mills were constructed which cost from $30 to $40 per spindle. . At the date of the census (1800) the value of the bale of cotton was again from $40 to $50; the standard printing cloth, which reached 33 cents a yard during the war, was worth 4 cents; the No. 25 mill for spinning and weaving could be built for from $14 to $18 a spindle."
During this time the proportion of operatives to cach 1,000 spindles had been decreased from 26 1-2 to 15, or 43 per cent., while wages had been increased.
In 1870 there were 139 cotton manufacturing establishments in Rhode Island, containing 1,142,000 spindles, employing 16,745 per- sons ; with a capital of $18,836,300, and producing goods valued at $22,049,203.
In 1880 there were 115 cotton manufactories in Rhode Island with a capital of $28,047,331, employing 21,474 persons, and producing goods of the value of $22,875,111. While there appears to be but little gain in the value of products over the total of 1870, it should be under- stood that prices were inflated in 1870, and that our paper money, upon which the valuation was made, was then worth only about 85 cents to the dollar in specie. The aggregate weight of various manu-
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factures of eotton of Rhode Island mills in 1880, was 60,905,602 pounds, and 1870 but 38,503,060 pounds.
The tendency for the past twenty years in Rhode Island factories has been to consolidate and enlarge existing establishments, rather than to start new ones. The priees of cotton produets have gradually fallen, owing partly to improvements in machinery and partly to over production, and many failures have occurred. The largest cotton manufacturing house in the State (A. & W. Sprague) failed between 1870 and 1880, and some of the factories owned by this firm have been practically elosed, while others have been enlarged by the manufac- turers now in possession of them.
Great progress has been made during this period in the manufacture of cotton goods at the South, and grave misgivings have been mani- fested in manufacturing eireles as to the ability of New England fac- tories to compete with Southern mills, where labor is cheaper and the cost of transportation of the raw material less than here in New Eng- land. Thus far, by the employment of skilled labor and the best machinery ; by providing every possible convenience for the economieal handling of the raw material in the various stages of its change to the finished product ; and by striving to produce a finer and better quality of goods than formerly, our mills have contrived to hold their own.
The census of 1890 gave the State 94 cotton factories, with a capital of $38,798,161. They employed 24,832 persons, used $14,347,672 worth of raw materials, and produced goods valued at $27,347,672. Besides the 94 factories making cotton fabrics, there were 22 dyeing and finishing establishments, which used a capital of $5,739,692, gave employment to 3,720 persons, and turned out calicoes and other goods valued at $4,743,561. The returns of the census of 1900 report 87 cotton establishments, employing 24,032 persons, to whom $8,023,007 are paid annually in wages, and whose products are valued at $26,435,675. The decreased value of the produets compared with 1890 is owing to a fall in prices, as the quantity of the product was greater in 1900 than in 1890.
There were 24 dyeing and finishing establishments in 1900. They gave employment to 5,942 persons, paid $2,474,042 in wages, and turned out finished products valued at $8,484,878. There was a great gain in the number of persons employed and in the value of the pro- duct over 1900.
"Dockham's American Trade Reports," in its edition for 1901, gives information regarding 129 cotton manufactories of different grades in Rhode Island, of which number 13 are new establishments. To these 129 should be added two cotton mills in Tiverton-just across the line from Fall River, and which are credited to Fall River by Dockham. It should be understood that the 131 cotton establishments, to which allusion has been made as now in operation in the State, does not in-
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clude the print works, bleacheries and dye works which finish textile fabrics. The State Census of 1895 enumerates 20 such establish- ments, employing 4,730 persons and producing goods valued at $7,957,151, with a disbursement in wages of $1,995,124.
In concluusion it may be said that Rhode Island cotton mills com- pare favorably with those of other manufacturing states and other manufacturing countries, in methods of manufacture, in the quality of their products, in wages paid, in regard for the health and well- being of their operatives, and in the intelligence and skill of the latter. The State contains some of the largest and most perfectly equipped cotton factories in the world.1
WOOLENS, WORSTEDS AND OTHER TEXTILES.
The sheep is of much greater antiquity in domestic economy than the cotton plant, and in America, as well as in the Old World, woolen cloth was made before cotton fabrics. The wool was at first carded by hand by the housewives, spun on spinning wheels, and knit into stockings and mittens, or woven into cloth to clothe the family. Every housewife and marriageable maiden must know how to card and spin ; the spinning wheel was a necessary part of the household furni- ture; but hand-looms were less plenty, and not every woman knew how to weave. Henee it happened that weaving was virtually a trade of itself, and that every neighborhood had its professional weaver-often a man-who received the yarn of a customer at his own house or shop, or moved his loom from house to house, and wove the family yarn for so much a day and board. Fulling mills for dressing the cloth were established at different places in this State more than two hundred years ago, and some years before the use of power in spinning and weaving, some woolen mills had been established in the State to satisfy the growing demand for ready made yarn or cloth.
Reference has already been made to early fulling mills and weavers and need not be recapitulated. During the Revolution, however, and for some time afterward the bulk of woolen cloth made here was ac- complished by domestic manufacture. It was several years after the introduction of power spinning in cotton mills that it was applied to woolen manufacture in this State. Prior to the advent of the factory system the only branch of woolen manufacture of any extent in the
'Messrs. B. B. & R. Knight's mills contain about 300,000 spindles. The Lons- dale Company, Berkeley Company and Hope Company, of which the Goddard Brothers are agents, contain about 300,000 spindles; and the Manville Company, of which Col. H. F. Lippitt is agent, operates factories at Woonsocket and Man- ville containing about 225,000 spindles. The Conant Thread Mill, or the Paw- tucket branch of the "J. & P. Coates Company, Limited", is the largest thread mill in the country. It contains 300,000 spindles and affords employment to over 2,100 persons. The Natick mill, owned and operated by B. B. & R. Knight, is the largest single cotton mill in the State, and contains 100,000 spindles.
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State outside of household fabrics, was the making of hats. There were three hat factories at East Greenwich toward the close of the eighteenth century, and hats were also made in Providence and other towns.
Rolls of wool carded by hand when spun were very uneven, and consequently the cloth would be imperfect, the different parts shrink- ing unevenly in the process of finishing. A person clothed in home- spun was therefore considered illy dressed.
The first woolen factory with power machinery was established at Byfield near Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1793, by Arthur and John Scholfield, who had recently come over from England. The machinery for the mill was constructed by John Scholfield. Arthur removed to Pittsfield in 1801, and started a factory there in which he made, in 1804, the first broadeloth manufactured in this country. The first attempt at woolen manufacture in Rhode Island with power machinery was at Peacedale in South Kingstown by Joseph Congdon, John Warren Knowles and Rowland Hazard, who set up a carding machine in 1804. Mr. Hazard soon afterward took full control of the business. The first machine simply earded the wool into rolls, which were put out to be spun by hand. About 1812 Thomas R. Williams of Newport invented a power loom for weaving saddle girths and other webbing, and in 1813 or 1814 some of his looms were started at Peacedale. After they had been fully tested Rowland Hazard pur- chased four of them for $300 each, and in 1814 or 1815 they were in sueeessful operation. The operation of power looms at Peacedale antedates those started in Judge Lyman's mill in North Providenee by about two years, and the claim is made that they were the first to be sueeessfully started in America. Isaae P. Hazard and Rowland G. Hazard, sons of Rowland Hazard, took charge of the business in 1819, and they with their sueeessors in the family have made many additions to the property until it is now an extensive establishment.
The embargo previous to the War of 1812, the effeet of which was to stop our commeree with England and its colonies, then as now the most liberal purchasers of American goods, had advanced the price of manufactured cloth, and after war was deelared it went still higher. This called the attention of men possessed of eapital to the fact that there was money in manufacturing. An experienced manufacturer from England came to Providenee shortly after the declaration of war, and indueed Sullivan Dorr, Samuel G. Arnold, Joseph S. Martin, Daniel Lyman and E. K. Randolph to form a company for the manu- facture of broadeloths. This was the Providenee Woolen Manufac- turing Company. A large stone mill, with two wings and a dye house, was built where the Allen Print Works now stand. A high pressure steam engine, believed to be the first used in Rhode Island for manu- facturing purposes, was obtained from Oliver Evans in Philadelphia.
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