THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



19 



vary /rom lis. to 12s. 6d. per week. Men's 

 wages miiy vary from 13s. lo 18s. per week. 

 Thus in every department, the rate o( wa<^es is 

 generally liigher in the United States than in 

 Britian : nor do I think that they will, at least 

 for many years, be so low in this country as in 

 Great Britain. 



" The price of living here is higher, and the 

 hours of labor longer, besides the greater part of 

 the factory workers being connected with liirniing, 

 whenever wages become reduced so low, as to 

 cease lo operate as an inducement to prelcr factory 

 labor above any other lo which they can turn 

 their atleniion, then a great many factories will 

 have to shut up. During a stagnation of trade, 

 it is common for the manufacturers here to stop a 

 part, or the whole of their factories, and then the 

 workers retire to their larms ; such was the case 

 in 1837, when a vast number of factories were 

 entirely shut up. Yet it seemed not to aifect ihe 

 workers very materially ; indeed, many of the 

 girls who had been some time in a factory, seemed 

 to rejoice and regard it as a time of recreation ; 

 eo that the manufacturing population of America 

 are an entirely diti'erent class, and placed m very 

 different circumstances li-om those of Great Bri- 

 tain, and very great changes must lake place be- 

 fore the wages in the former can be so low as in 

 the latter country ; and, indeed, the manufacturers 

 here can afford to pay higher wages than the 

 British, because they run Iheir factories longer 

 hours, and drive their machinery, at a higher 

 speed, from which they produce a much greater 

 quar-tily of work, at the same time they can pur- 

 chase their cotton at least one penny a pound 

 cheaper, and their water power does not cost 

 above one-fourth of the same in Great Britain. 

 But though wages cannot be reduced much lower 

 than they are at present, there are other means 

 by which manulacturers might abridge iheir ex- 

 penditure. Their establishments might be erected 

 at much less expense — a more improved arrange- 

 ment might be adopted — and the work conducfed 

 with much more economy. All these, however, 

 are matters which the Americans will very 

 speedily learn ; every successive depression of 

 trade will lead tfiem more and more to see the 

 necessity of managing every department of the 

 business with the least possible expense ; and as 

 soon as they can equal the British in this, they 

 will be able to compete wiili them, and that suc- 

 cessfully too, in any market whatever. 



*• The British have, no doubt, attained lo great 

 perfection in the art of manufiicturing cotton 

 goods ; but whether they will be able lo maintain 

 that high pre-eminence to which they have arrived, 

 or have to yield to the increasing improvements 

 of foreign nations, are questions difficult of solu- 

 tion. Their most powerful rivals are, doubtless, 

 the Americans. The manufacturers of no other 

 country can purchase their cotton so cheap, and 

 it is presumed no country possesses so extensive 

 water privileges; only a small portion of which 

 have as yet been occupied. If we add to these the 

 intelligence and enterprising spirit of the people, 

 it will at once be obvious to every unprejudiced 

 mind, that the American manufacturers are the 

 most formidable competitors with which the Bri- 

 tish have to contend in foreign neutral markets." 



It will be observed that the foregoing estimate 

 embraces no compulation of the cost of working 



power or of the comparative expense of steam 

 and water power. 'I'he estimate of 7 1-2 per 

 cent, for the wear and tear of machinery and 

 buildings also, if intended to embrace, besides 

 wear, the interest on capital, seems to be inade- 

 quate, and perhaps hardly more than sullicient to 

 cover the charge of wear and repairs, in which 

 case a further allowance of 6 per cent, in this 

 country, and 5 in England, should be made for 

 interest. 



We can hardly imagine, however, that there is 

 not some error in the estimate of the comparative 

 cost of buildings in the two countries. The sum 

 of $4,608, appears to be a very small sum for the 

 cost of a building of the dimensions described, and 

 we can hardly suppose it to be adequate to the 

 erection of such a building in a style of strength 

 and durability, bearing any comparison with 

 buildings used for the same purpose in this coun- 

 try; since the difference of cost slated is evidently 

 much greater than can be accounted for from the 

 greater cheapness of labor and machinery in 

 Great Britain. 



The cost of water wheels and geering, and also 

 of a sleam engine, is given in the estimate above 

 quoted, but no estimate is made of the cost of 

 water power, or of coals for producing steam. 

 These are important items, and the question 

 of their comparative cost is one of considerable 

 interest. We regret that it is overlooked in this 

 work. 



Among Ihe miscellaneous articles at Ihe close 

 of the book, are calculations of the cost of water 

 power as it is sold by the proprietors of' the locks 

 and canals at Ijowell, Massachusetts, and also at 

 Manayunk, Philadelphia. At Lowell, a mill 

 power sufficient to carry 3,584 throstle spindles, 

 witli the accompanying machinery, computed 

 to be equal to 54 l-'2 horse powers, together with 

 lour acres of land, is sold at the rate of $4 a 

 spindle, amounting 10^14,336. Deducting !ii8,436 

 lor the value of the land, it leaves $! 10,900 for 

 the cost of the water power, or $200 per horse 

 power, the interest of which at 6 per cent, is .$12 

 per annum. At Manayunk, water power has 

 been sold at a much higher rate, viz. at a rate 

 computed to be equal to $1,016 per horse power 

 or a rent of $60 96 per annum. The first of these 

 statements may be considered as affording a just 

 criterion of the cost of water power in this country 

 in an eligible position lor extensive manufacturing 

 operations. 



Among the same miscellanies we find an esti- 

 mate of the costs of steam power in a mill in 

 Massachusetts, where an engine of 40 horse 

 power carries 3,700 mule and throstle spindles 

 with the accompanying machinery. This esti- 

 mate is for cost lor coal and attendance, $12 20 a 

 day; which is equal lo $3,782 per annum, and to 

 $94 55 per horse power. This is exclusive of 

 oil, packing, &c., which would swell the estimate 

 to $100 per annum for each horse power. The 

 only information given in the book relative to Ihe 

 cost of steam power in Great Britain, is the 

 remark appended to the above statement, that the 

 estimate there given is about double the cost of 

 the same power in Glasgow. At this rate the 

 cost of the steam in Glasgow is equal to four times 

 the cost of that in Lowell. 



In the testimony of Mr. Kemplon, given on an 

 examination by a committee of the house of com- 



