Scott—Labor Conditions in Massachusetts, 1860-70. 175 
factories, and were willing to accept less pay. 33 The excess of 
female over male labor may have had something to do with the 
comparatively slow readjustment of wages after the war. On 
the other hand, it had an indirect, hut beneficial effect, in that 
it was a partial cause of the agitation for shorter hours. After 
the war the disproportion between male and female employees 
decreased, and by 1870 it was slightly less than it had been in 
I860. 34 
In 1865, there came,, as has been stated, an increased demand 
for labor. Confidence was now restored, and it seemed that 
with the encouragement of the war tariff, the use of new labor- 
saving machinery, and constantly increasing facilities for trans¬ 
portation, manufactures must flourish. The demand for labor 
was met by two classes of men. In the first place, there were 
the returned soldiers. Many of these very naturally stepped 
into the unfilled places in the mills and factories. Secondly, 
there were immigrants from Europe and British America to 
meet the demand for unskilled labor. Immigration into Mas¬ 
sachusetts had fallen off enormously between 1855 and 1865. 
In 1850 there were 164,024 foreign bom persons in the state ; 
in 1855 there were 244,685, an increase of 80,661 persons. 35 
In 1865, however, there were only 265,486 foreigners in Mas¬ 
sachusetts, 36 an increase of but 20,801 over 1855. In other 
words, the number of immigrants during the ten-year period 
1855 to 1865 was less than a third of what it had been during 
the five-year period 1850 to 1855. In 1870, however, we find 
353,319 foreign-bom persons in Massachusetts’, 37 an increase of 
87,833 in the five years following the war. A large proportion 
of these people went into the factories. Miss Turvill, in her 
thesis a Immigration into Massachusetts, 1820-1900/’ says 
“About two-thirds of the Canadians who were employed were 
found in manufacturing industries. In this respect, the French- 
33 The Voice, July 25, 1865, gives the average daily wages of a woman 
at 87% cents. 
34 u. S. Census Reports, 1860 and 1870, give the number of hands 
employed: Male, 1860, 146,268; 1870, 179,032; Female, 1860, 71,153; 
1870, 86,229. 
35 u. S, Census Report, 1870, Mass. Census Report, 1855. 
36 Mass. Census Report, 1865. 
37 U. S. Census Report, 1870. 
