Waltham System and Lowell: Labor Conditions

Massachusetts Investigation into Labor Conditions

Excerpted from Massachusetts House Document, no. 50, March of 1845.

The Special Committee to which was referred sundry petitions relating to the hours of labor, have considered the same and submit the following Report:

... On the 13th of February, the Committee held a session to hear the petitioners from the city of Lowell. Six of the female and three of the male petitioners were present, and gave in their testimony.

... Miss Sarah G. Bagely said she had worked in the Lowell Mills eight years and a half, six years and a half on the Hamilton Corporation, and two years on the Middlesex. She is a weaver, and works by the piece. She worked in the mills three years befo re her health began to fail. She is a native of New Hampshire, and went home six weeks during the summer. Last year she was out of the mill a third of the time. She thinks the health of the operatives is not so good as the health of females who do house-w ork or millinery business. The chief evil, so far as health is concerned, is the shortness of time allowed for meals. The next evil is the length of time employed -not giving them time to cultivate their minds. She spoke of the high moral and intellectual character of the girls. That many were engaged as teachers in the Sunday schools. That many attended the lectures of the Lowell Institute; and she thought, if more time was allowed, that more lectures would be given and more girls attend. She thought tha t the girls generally were favorable to the ten hour system. She had presented a petition, same as the one before the Committee, to 132 girls, most of whom said that they would prefer to work but ten hours. In a pecuniary point of view, it would be better , as their health would be improved. They would have more time for sewing. Their intellectual, moral and religious habits would also be benefited by the change. Miss Bagely said, in addition to her labor in the mills, she had kept evening school during th e winter months, for four years, and thought that this extra labor must have injured her health.

... From Mr. Clark, the agent of the Merrimack Corporation, we obtained the following table of the time which the mills run during the year.

Begin work.

From 1st May to 31st August, at 5o clock.

From 1st September to 30th April, as soon as they can see.

Breakfast.

From 1st November to 28th February, before going to work.

From 1st March to 31st of March, at 7 ¼ o'clock.

From 1st April to 19th September, at seven o'clock.

From 20th September to 31st October, at 71/2 o'clock. Return in h alf an hour.

Dinner.

Through the year at 12 ½ o'clock.

From 1st May to 31st August, return in 45 minutes.

From October, at 7 ½ o'clock.

Return in half an hour.

Dinner.

Through the year at l2 ½ o'clock.

From 1st May to 31st August, return in 45 minutes.

From 1st September to 30th April, return in 30 minutes.

Quit work.

From 1st May to 31st August, at 7 o'clock.

From 1st September to 19th September, at dark.

From 20th September to 19th March, at 7 ½ o'clock.

From 20th March to 30th April, at dark.

Lamps are never lighted on Saturday evenings. The above is the time which is kept in all the mills in Lowell, with a slight difference in the machine shop; and it makes the average daily time throughout the year, of running the mills, to be twelve hour s and ten minutes.

There are four days in the year which are observed as holidays, and on which the mills are never put in motion. These are Fast Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. These make one day more than is usually devoted to pastime in any o ther place in New England. The following table shows the average hours of work per day, throughout the year, in the Lowell Mills:

	Hours	Minutes		Hours	Minutes
January	11	24	July	12	45
February	12		August	12	45
March	11	52	September	12	23
April	13	31	October	12	10
May	12	45	November	11	56
June	12	45	December	11	24