sed is derived from
water, and in the cotton-manufacturing of these States water provides
32.6% of the power. For industrial purposes generally the river most
exploited is the Merrimac, upon which stand the leading cotton towns of
Lowell, Lawrence and Manchester. Hitherto little has been done in the
way of using water to generate electric power.[52]

The two most striking features of the American industry to-day are the
introduction of the automatic looms, already briefly referred to, and
the development of the South. The Northrop Loom Company has spent a
fortune in pushing its loom on to the market. It has not hesitated to
share risks, and it has run one "advertisement" mill at least, namely
that at Burlington, Vermont, with 55,000 spindles and nearly 1300 looms.
In this mill the labour-saving is shown by the following figures, the
looms being of two sizes, 32 in. and 44 in. Of the former, 3 weavers run
18 each, 39 tend 16 each, only a few odd weavers tend less than 16, and
learners even are at work on 8 to 11 each; on the latter, of 29 weavers
17 mind 16 looms each and 12 mind 12 (on stripped fabrics).[53] Of
course a high level of efficiency would be expected in this show mill.
That American employers have readily been converted to a belief in the
economy of the new machinery we are not astonished to learn in view of
the American temperament, the intensity of competition among business
leaders, and the prevailing spirit of adventure. Thousands of workable
old looms have been scrapped, and probably at the present time there are
100,000 automatic looms running in the United States. No other country
can point to a rate of substitution which approaches that in the United
States. The causes, apart from the temperamental and social to which
reference has already been made, are probably (1) that there is
disagreement as to the present economy of automatic looms on many
fabrics,[54] (2) that Americans aim at frequency of renewal of plant,
and avoid making their machinery so durable as to prove ultimately,
perhaps, a handicapping inheritance, and (3) that a greater bulk of
American work is appropriate for the new looms than of English or
continental work. But automatic machinery is being used increasingly in
Lancashire.[55] And the operatives ultimately benefit. It is the
half-developed machine, to which labour must actually be linked as an
essential part, which is responsible for monotonous work and creates the
dislike of me