To this extent a knowledge of the age of the machinery in a mill is of great value as tending to explain differences in cost of production for the same products in different mills, and also aiding in arriving at a conclusion as to the up-to-dateness of the industry as a whole in so far as it has been covered by the investigation.

In this connection it may be added that while the investigation of the Board covered only about 20 per cent of the total number of cotton spindles and looms in operation in the country, it is fairly representative of the conditions in the industry as a whole. . . .

As will be seen from table 147 [here omitted] over 39 per cent of all the spindles and over 46 per cent of all the looms investigated were not over 10 years old, and 78 per cent of all the spindles and over 74 per cent of all the looms were not over 20 years old. Twelve and five-tenths per cent of the spindles and 17 per cent of the looms were from 20 to 30 years old, while 9.3 per cent of the former and 6.9 per cent. of the latter were from 30 to 40 years old. Over 10,000 spindles and 532 looms, constituting 0.2 and 0.4 per cent of the respective totals were from 60 to 65 years old.

Proportion of domestic to foreign machinery. It will be seen [from table 148, omitted here] that by far the greater part of all kinds of machinery, except mule spindles, is of domestic make. Thus, of the looms, at least 99.7 per cent. is of domestic make, and only 0.3 per cent foreign. Of the ring spindles, 99.9 per cent is domestic and 0.1 per cent foreign. Of the roving or jack spindles, 85.8 per cent is domestic and 14.2 per cent foreign. The only exception, as stated, was in the case of mule spindles of which 83.1 per cent is foreign and 16.9 per cent of domestic make.

Loom production [page 494]. The table [153, here omitted] shows that the production per weaver per hour on 29 of the 31 different kinds of cloth was very much greater in the United States than in England, reaching in some instances to five times as much. The reason for this is shown in the column, "Number of looms attended per weaver."

In England the weavers on sample number 14 of the cloths tended two looms, on sample No. 89 three looms, and on the other 29 samples four looms each.

In the United States the number tended on most of the cloths ranged from 6 to 28 looms per weaver. On 7 samples as low as 3 looms per weaver were operated in the United States, the average in 2 mills being 5 looms and in 4 mills 6 • looms each. On samples 30 and 31 the average number of looms tended in this country was the same as in England.

The column "Speed of looms in picks per minute" shows that on 22 samples the speed of the English looms exceeded that of the United States looms. On 2 samples it was the same in both countries, and on 7 samples it was less in England than in the United States.

The column "Yards produced per loom per hour" shows that owing to greater speed of English looms on 22 samples the English production per loom is higher; on 5 samples it was the same as in this country; and on 4 samples it was less in England.

In the table comparison is made of English looms with the automatic as well as the plain looms used in the United States. The number of plain looms attended by one weaver in the United States greatly exceeds the number attended in England.

As the automatic looms in use in Lancashire form less than 1 per cent of the total looms there, they are not included in the comparative production shown in this table. Their use, however, is growing in England, though slowly. The report of the British tariff commission shows that in 1905 there were "only about 1000 of these working in England," while in May,

1911, there were 5409 automatic looms in use in Lancashire in a total of 741,260 looms of all kinds in use there at that date. It is estimated that there are at the date of this report nearly 10,000 automatic looms in Great Britain, as against approximately 220,000 in the United States.

Factors limiting automatic looms. Several reasons are advanced for the delay in the more general adoption of the automatic loom in England. For one thing, the automatic loom costs about two and a half times the ordinary plain loom, and this has deterred many English mills already equipped with plain looms from adopting them. Again, English mills do not run such a large number of looms on a single-standard fabric as do American mills, and the automatic loom has not been found so suitable as plain looms for the varied Lancashire trade in dhoties and other fancies. Furthermore, the automatic loom requires stronger and better warp yarn than the plain loom, for the breakage of a single warp thread stops the loom. The American mills use strong ringspun warp yarns; while a large portion of the English mills, producing mainly for the poorer classes of the Orient and other regions, have to size heavily to make goods cheap enough, and they ordinarily use a much lower grade of yarn than would American mills for fabrics that pass under the same trade name. The warp yarns used in the bulk of English cloths are mule spun; and since they are soft twisted to enable them to take up a larger amount of sizing and to give the required feel to the cloth, they are not so suited to the automatic loom as are the stronger American yarns.

An additional reason for the limited use of the automatic looms appears to be the objection to them of the labor unions, which have been afraid that they would be used to displace labor and to throw more work on the weaver without proportionately increasing his earnings.

Men and women are employed in weaving both in England and in the United States. It is probable that upon the whole there is little difference between the amount of work done by men weavers and by women weavers. The production of the men weavers is, if anything, slightly greater. As has already been shown, there is a difference as between England and the United States in the practice of supplying weavers with assistance. In England a weaver has assigned to him a given number of looms, and is commonly required to do all the "laboring" connected with these looms. In the United States the weavers have, as a general rule, no helpers, but the work of oiling, sweeping, and carrying yarn and cloth is done by operatives known as "oilers," "sweepers," and "filling carriers," etc., employed by the mill. In a number of the American mills for which information was secured the wages of oilers and other employees mentioned amounted to slightly over 7 per cent of the wages of the weavers. This percentage may therefore be regarded as the amount of assistance which the American weavers receive in their work. As the English weavers usually pay their own help, the percentage representing the assistance received by American weavers should be taken into consideration when comparing the amount of work done.