142 LAND AND LABOR. 



in the place that would have required 100 women in 

 our mothers' time to fill. 



The development in the production of cotton goods, 

 by improvements in machinery, with the displacement 

 of muscular labor, is exhibited by the Massachusetts 

 reports of 1875, which show that the average time 

 worked by factory operatives was then very nearly 9 

 months in the year, and for 10 hours a day. In the 

 year ending with May, 1865, work was constant, for 

 12 or more hours daily. Making the adjustment here 

 required, both for lost time and shorter hours, in order 

 that a true comparative exhibit may be obtained, will 

 show that while it required the labor of 24,151 opera- 

 tives, in 1865, to produce 175,875,934 yards of cloth, 

 in 1875, 31,707 operatives, working the same number 

 of hours daily as were worked in 1865, would produce 

 874,780,874 yards. That while the product has in- 

 creased 397 per cent., the increase in manual labor had 

 been only 31 per cent. ; that is to say, that the increase 

 in product had been more than twelve times greater 

 than the increased employment of labor, in the pre- 

 ceding ten years. 



In woolen goods, the Reports of the Massachusetts 

 Bureau of Statistics of Labor, for 1875, states that, in 

 1865, 18,753 operatives produced 46,008,141 yards ; 

 but that in 1875, 90,208,280 yards were produced by 

 19,076 operatives. This shows an apparent increase 

 in muscular employment of 283 operatives. But to 

 make a true comparative showing by this statement a 

 most important adjustment is necessary. In 1865 the 

 working time was not less than 12 hours a day ; but 

 in 1875 it was by statute limited to 10. But making 



