Their hours had not been affected.  These were in all instances 10-1/2 a day and 5-1/2 on Saturday.  There was no overtime.  But on five nights in the week, women preparing yarn for the following day worked at speeding and spinning from six at night until six in the morning, with half an hour for lunch at midnight.  This arrangement had always been the custom of the mill.  The girls go home at six for breakfast, sleep until about half past four, rise, dress, and have supper, and go to work in the mill again at six.  The night workers I visited had worked at night in other mills in New England before they worked in New Jersey.  Their sole idea of work, indeed, was night work; and if it were closed in one mill, they sought it in another.  One of the youngest girls, a clever little Hungarian of 17, who had been only 3 years in this country and could barely speak English, knew America simply as a land of night work and of Sundays, and had spent her whole life here like a little mole.  The present owner, the superintendent, and the head of the planning department all seriously disliked night work for women, and said they were anxious to dispense with it.  But they had not been able to arrange their output so as to make this change, though they intended to inaugurate it as rapidly as possible.

Concerning the health and conservation of the strength of the women workers in the mill under Scientific Management, the task of the speeders and of the women at cloth inspection tired the girls no more than it had before.  In the spool tending and the winding, as the two most exhausting operations in each process, the stooping and the stamping of the pedals, had been increased by the heightened task, the exhaustion of the workers was heightened.  But the work of the excitable little spool tender mentioned was finally so arranged as to leave her in better health than in the days when she was employed on piece-work, and the management was now endeavoring to eliminate the stooping at the bobbins.  At spinning almost all the spinners found the work easier than before, probably because Scientific Management demands that machine supervision and assistance shall be the best possible.  It must be remembered that the adjustment of conditions in the mill here is comparatively new.  Almost all the girls said:  “They don’t drive you at the mill.  They make it as easy for you as they can.”  It was of special value to observe the operation of Scientific Management in an establishment where all the industrial conditions are difficult for women.  As in the white goods sewing for the Cloth Finishing establishment, these industrial conditions are unfortunately controlled to a great extent by competition and by custom for both the employer and the employees.  The best omen for the conservation of the health of the women workers under Scientific Management in the cotton mill was the entire equity and candor shown by the management in facing situations unfavorable for the women workers’ health and their sincere intention of the best practicable readjustments.