Cotton, Wool, and Iron Labor tions time) than is produced in any other factory without exception in the world." The three most important manufacturing industries were those of cotton, wool, and iron. In the amount of cotton consumed the United States was second only to England. Of the whole number of looms in the United States more than half were in New England. The manufacturing of woolen goods was stimulated by the embargo and fostered by the protective tariff, but it did not keep pace with cotton manufacturing. Although improved machinery was brought into use in the manufacture of woolens, and although the tariff on woolens was raised from time to time, it seemed that American woolens could not compete successfully with the English product. The iron industry was in a most flourishing condition. In 1820 the output of iron was 20,000 tons; in 1840 it was 315,000 tons. This increase was due both to better processes of manufacturing and to a more lively demand. About 1830 the hot-air blast began to be used in the smelting of iron, and in 1837 anthracite coal was first used as a fuel in the furnaces for smelting. These improvements were timely, for about 1835 iron began to be used in great quantities for railroad purposes. The iron industry. was confined chiefly to Pennsylvania and New York. Labor conditions in the factories were by no means creditable. In the mills of New England operatives worked on an average seventy hours a week. Of the workers in the factories a vast majority consisted of women and little children. It was one of the evils of the industrial revolution that it encouraged the employment of little children, and it was a stigma upon the statesmanship of the period that child labor was not forbidden by law. Of the 60,000 persons employed in the cotton-mills more than 40,000 were women or children under twelve years of age. Of the 8500 persons thus employed in Rhode Island more than 3000 were women who worked for $2.20 a week, and nearly 3500 were children under twelve who worked for $1.50 a week. Commercial progress between 1820 and 1840 consisted chiefly in the development of an inland trade. To understand the The of Trade movements of commerce at this time we must begin with the trade situation at the South. The planters sold their cotton ments to the New England and Middle States and to Europe and Inland bought from the West its surplus of agricultural products. This surplus in some years amounted to as much as $100,000,ooo. With the money which they received from the South the Western people bought the manufactures of the East. So by 1840 the South was getting rich selling its cotton to the East; the West was getting rich by selling its grain to the South; and the East was getting rich by selling its wares to the South and the West. Between the East and the West trade moved for the most part in one direction. The Erie and Pennsylvania Canals carried great quantities of Eastern manufactures to the West, but produce from the West did not begin to move to the East in large volumes until railroads had been built over the Alleghanies, and this was considerably after the period which is now being considered. EDUCATION AND LITERATURE Schools and But it was not only material progress we were making in Free 1840. Men were now giving attention to higher things, and North a desire for more education and more culture was showing South itself in all parts of the country. Statesmen were beginning to realize that in a democracy citizens must be educated, and in a number of States a system of popular education had been established. About 1837 Horace Mann began to urge upon the people of Massachusetts and other New England States the necessity of spending more money upon their schools and of employing better teachers. Mann's efforts were appreciated, and it was not long before there was a general improvement in public education throughout all New England. The Middle and Southern States were also advancing in matters of public education. In the State of New York there were in 1830 more than 9000 school districts and nearly 500,000 pupils. In Pennsylvania a common-school system was established by law in 1834. Maryland and Virginia and other Southern States had Education in the West made provisions by law for public education, but many years were yet to pass before the South began to enjoy a complete system of free schools. In the West popular education had made but little headway by 1840, yet the foundations of a free-school system had been laid. In the maintenance of their schools the people of the West were helped by liberal gifts of the public lands. In the Ordinance of 1787 it was provided that in the government of the Northwest Territory education was to be encouraged (p. 203), and this provision was faithfully carried out. When a State entered the Union one section (No. 16) of the public domain of every township one square mile in every thirty-six-was set aside for public schools. After 1800 every State-with the exception of Maine, Texas, and West Virginia-when admitted received at least two townships-seventy-two square miles of land for the purpose of founding a state university. These school lands were given by Congress to the States for school purposes, and when they were sold to private purchasers the money received for them was invested, the interest being spent from year to year in supporting the schools. These land-grants for schools. encouraged the people of the West to foster education from the beginning. By 1840 almost all the States west of the Alle |