rs had
come to be one of the most important industries of the British Empire.
The war of 1812 intervened; but before the return of peace Mr. Lowell
took measures for starting the business in New England. A company was
formed with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars, and Mr. Lowell
himself undertook the construction of the power loom, which was still
guarded in Europe as a precious secret. After having obtained all
possible information about it, he shut himself up in a Boston store with
a man to turn his crank, and experimented for months till he had
conquered the difficulties. In the fall of 1814 the machine was ready
for inspection.

"I well recollect," says Mr. Appleton, "the state of admiration and
satisfaction with which we sat by the hour watching the beautiful
movement of this new and wonderful machine, destined as it evidently was
to change the character of all textile industry."

In a few months the first manufactory was established in Waltham, with
the most wonderful success. Henry Clay visited it, and gave a glowing
account of it in one of his speeches, using its success as an argument
against free trade. It is difficult to see what protection the new
manufacture required. The company sold its cotton cloth at thirty cents
a yard, and they afterwards found that they could sell it without loss
at less than seven cents. The success of the Waltham establishment led
to the founding of Lowell, Lawrence, Nashua, and Manchester. There are
now at Lowell eighty mills and factories, in which are employed sixteen
thousand men and women, who produce more than three million yards of
fabric every week. The city has a solid inviting appearance, and there
are in the outskirts many beautiful and commanding sites for residences,
which are occupied by men of wealth.

But now as to the question above proposed. Why are the operatives at
Lowell less discontented than elsewhere? It is in part because the able
men who founded the place bestowed some thought upon the welfare of the
human beings whom they were about to summon to the spot. They did not,
it is true, bestow thought enough; but they _thought_ of it, and they
made some provision for proper and pleasant life in their proposed town.
Mr. Appleton, who many years ago took the trouble to record these
circumstances, mentions that the probable effect of this new kind of
industry upon the character of the people was most attentively
considered by the founders. In Europe, a