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 of spindles to be tended was reduced from 75 to 50, and the machines were run at a lower rate of speed.  The task was changed accordingly so that the worker’s wage, simply with the bonus, was as it had been before.  But she was unable to overrun the task as far as she had, formerly.  By the workers’ constant attention, the work now improved in quality, but the limit of quantity, was, of course, lower.  The wages with the bonus dropped back to a smaller excess, or $1.47 a day.  This was, of course, disheartening, though Lucia said it was better, she was so much less tired by the work than she had been before.  But the work is still undoubtedly very wearying and difficult.  The spoolers still give incessant attention to their work, still do their best, and yet make by close application far less than they had grown accustomed to expect whether justly or unjustly.[57] The task is now 12 doffs a day—­each doff requiring a change of 208 bobbins.  So that in changing bobbins alone the girls have to stoop down over 2000 times a day, without counting all the stooping for knot tying, which the forewoman said would about equal the labor of bending and working at bobbin changing.  She had talked with the management about having the frames raised, so as to eliminate this exhausting process of stooping to work for the spoolers.  This change had been made in two machines and will doubtless be extended.[58]