Gold, Silver and the Coinage of the Silver Dollar. 287 



American labor is much more productive than that of any other 

 country for these reasons: First, because the ratio of able-bodied men 

 among the operatives is larger. Second, because machinery is brought 

 to greater perfection and more universally used than in Europe. Third, 

 because " protective " duties give an artificial value to those products 

 intended for home consumption. Ib., pp. 127, 128. 



At Newburyport, in hosiery weaving, by the use of the power stock- 

 ing-loom, the capacity of the female operative was increased ten times 

 (about 1830). Wright's Report, p. 177. 



In 1833, a weaver fifteen years of age, with a young assistant, could 

 perform nine times as much work in a given time as could be performed 

 by a man in 1803. Merrimac prints, which in 1825 averaged 25.07 

 cents per yard at the factory, declined to 16.36 cents by 1830.* The 

 cotton cloth made at Waltham, a staple article, sold as follows in the 

 years succeeding the introduction of the power-loom, viz.: 

 In 1816 at 30 cents. 

 1819 " 21 

 1826 " 13 

 1829 " 8 1-2 

 1843 " 6 1-2 



Wright's Reports, p. 177. 

 From 1850 to 1880 there was an increase of 75 per cent in the value 

 of the product per operative in the cotton manufacture of the New 

 England States. The increase in pounds of product, since 1831, per 



P There was in th/same industries, from 1831 to 1880, an average in- 

 crease in the wages of employees of 97 per cent, and in same time a 

 decrease in the hours of daily labor of 12 per cent. Also, in same 

 time, a decline in prices of heavy sheetings, of 11.8 per cent, and in 

 printed calicoes of 58.8 per cent. Wright's Report, pp. 186-188. 



Here was, concurrently during the same period, an advance of 97 per 

 cent in wages of employees, a shortening of their hours of labor, 12 

 per cent; and an average decline of price of goods produced, of 35 per 



