Massachusetts is a busy state. The old time factory bell has not entirely given way to the steam whistle, nor the simple village spire to the more pretentious ecclesiastical tower of to-day, yet the energizing force of material prosperity has quickened the blood in nearly every hamlet, modernized the old, or built up a new, so that throughout the state there is a substantial freshness indicative of progressive thrift.
The Tenth Census of the United States classifies the entire working population of the state in four divisions of labor as follows:--Agriculture, 64,973; Professional and Personal services, 170,160; Trade and Transportation, 115,376; Mechanical, 370,265; with a total population of 1,941,465.[4] The aggregate steam and water power in 1880 was 309,759 horse power; the motive power of 14,352 manufacturing establishments having an invested capital of $303,806,185; paying $128,315,362 in wages to 370,265 persons who produced a product value of $631,135,284. These results, in proportion to area and population, place Massachusetts first in the Union as a manufacturing state. In mechanical science a complete cotton mill has been considered the cap stone of human ingenuity. In 1790 Mr. Samuel Slater established in Pawtucket, R.I., the first successful cotton mill in the United States, but the saw gin, a Massachusetts invention of Mr. Eli Whitney in 1793, laid the foundation of the cotton industry throughout the world.
There are 956 cotton mills in the United States with an invested capital of $208,280,346, with a wage account of $42,040,510. The relative importance of the four leading states in the manufacture of cotton goods is shown as follows:--
No. Capital Wages Value of Mills. State. Invested. Paid. of Product.
206 Mass. $74,118,801 $16,240,908 $74,780,835 133 R.I. 29,260,734 5,623,933 24,609,461 97 Conn. 21,104,200 3,750,017 17,050,126 41 N.H. 19,993,584 4,322,622 18,226,573
As in cotton, so also in the manufacture of woolen goods has Massachusetts maintained from the first the leading position. In 1794 in Byfield parish, Newbury, Mass., the first woolen mill went into successful operation. In 1804 a good quality of gray mixed broadcloth was made at Pittsfield, Mass., and it is said that in 1808 President Madison's inaugural suit of black broadcloth was made there.