APPENDIX. 431 



that the employment of this loom " substantially re- 

 duces the cost of production, and at the same time in- 

 creases the earnings of the weaver, because it permits 

 him to conduct more looms " (p. 15). Altogether, we 

 learn from Mr. Helm's remarks that there are now 

 85,000 automatic looms running in the United States, 

 and that " the demand for weavers is greater than 

 ever " (p. 16). In a Rhode Island mill, 743 ordinary 

 looms required 100 weavers, while 2,000 Northrop 

 (or Draper) looms could be conducted by 134 weavers 

 only, which means an average of fifteen looms for 

 each weaver. At Burlington, Vermont, from sixteen 

 to twenty Northrop looms were conducted by each 

 weaver, and altogether these looms are spreading 

 very rapidly. But it is not only in the looms that 

 such improvements have been introduced. " The 

 spinning frames," we are told by Mr. Young, "con- 

 taining 112 spindles a side, were tended by girls 

 who ran four, six, eight, or ten sides each, ac- 

 cording to the girl's dexterity. The average for 

 good spinners was about eight sides (896 spindles) " 

 (p. 10). 



In a New Bedford fine-spinning mill the ring-spinners 

 were minding 1,200 spindles each (p. 16). 



It is also important to note the speed at which the 

 cotton industry has been developing lately in the 

 States. The census of 1900 gave a total of 19,008,350 

 spindles. But in 1909 we find already 28,178,860 

 spindles for cotton alone (34,500,000, including silk, 

 wool, and worsted). And, what is still more important, 

 most of this increase fell upon the Southern States, 

 where machinery is also more perfect, both for spinning 

 and weaving, and where most of the work is being 

 done by the whites. In a South Carolina print-cloth 

 mill, containing 1,000 Draper looms, the average for 



