ders nearly twice as great an output as
before. Mrs. MacDermott's wage as a teacher has been raised to $12.

From the speeders, the doff boys send the roving--called fine roving in
the mill, because the other rovings in preceding operations are
coarser--upstairs in the older building to the spinners. Spinning is a
more difficult task than speeding. Two rovings are here twisted together
by the machines. The spinners have 104 bobbins on one side of a frame,
and watch for breakage, and change the bobbins on three frames, or six
"sides." Spinners formerly worked at piece-work rates and by watching
eight sides, and frequently doing the work very imperfectly, would earn
about $9. After a time-study was taken, the task was set at six sides,
and doffs as called for by a schedule. With the bonus the girls' weekly
wage comes to about $10. In the spinning department there is a school for
spinners. The heads receive a dollar for every graduate who learns to
achieve the task and bonus.

The yarn is carried from the spinners to the spoolers, and wound from
bobbins to spools for convenience in handling. The work of the spool
tenders seemed to the present writer to be the severest work for women in
this cotton mill. The bobbins run out very rapidly, and require constant
change. The girls watch the thread for breakages just as at the other
machines. In replacing the bobbins and fastening the broken threads with
a knot tier, the girls have to stoop down almost to the floor. Before the
time-study was taken, the girls were watching 75 bobbins, hurrying up and
down the sides, bending up and down perpetually at this work. Some of the
spool tenders had $6 a week on piece-work; others, more experienced
workers, were able to earn $10.50 at piece-work, although the work was
frequently unsatisfactory and had loose ends. A little Italian girl, who
may be called Lucia, an extremely rapid worker, used to run wildly from
one end of the frame to the other, and in the summer-time fainted several
times at her work from exhaustion. A time-study was taken from the work
of a very deft young Polish girl, and from Lucia. The other spoolers were
taught to work with the same rapidity, and were soon able to earn with
the bonus and the work done beyond the task a sum which brought their
wage up to nearly $12 a week.

This lasted for about two months. But the work was so improperly done and
the spools were so full of loose and untied ends, etc., that the number