Philip Hubert on the Factory, by Arieh Sclar

Opinions differ as to whether or not the growth of the factory system is a blessing to a community, but, as a rule, it is conceded that the standard of intelligence and of living among the mill-hands of New England is not so high now as it was forty years ago…The very growth of the mills has tended to do away with certain features of factory life, that worked for good in smaller communities. In the old days, say in 1850, the owner or agent of a small mill in a small town was able to exercise something of a paternal supervision over the few hundred girls or men who might work for him. With the immense increase in mill plants, the force now numbering thousands where it was a hundred fifty years ago, this is impossible.

[if !supportLists]- [endif]Philip Hubert, ‘The Business of the Factory,’ 1897

[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Provide and explain two events from 1865-1897 that would contradict Hubert’s understanding of the new factory system?

[if !supportLists]2. [endif]How would Samuel Gompers and Henry Grady have viewed Hubert’s description of the factory system?

[if !supportLists]3. [endif]How would the Gilded Age reading explain the growth of factories during the era? What two political or economic issues emerged directly from the growth of the factory system from 1865-1897?