COTTON.

Almost exactly in the center of England is the County of Derby. A few miles north of the city of Derby, on a small river called Derwent, a branch of the Trent, is the little town of Belper. This town was noted for its early manufacture of cotton and silk goods. Here, about the time of the American Revolution, Richard Arkwright and Jedediah Strutt were successfully engaged in cotton spinning.

In this town, in 1763, was born Samuel Slater. As the lad grew up, his father, a well-to-do farmer, sent him to school where he received the advantages of a good English education. His school days, however, ended when he was fourteen years of age. He was greatly interested in machinery. The hum of the spinning frame was music to his ears. Therefore, he was apprenticed to Mr. Strutt to learn the business of cotton spinning, and gained a thorough mastery of the process of carding and spinning cotton, and even while an apprentice he made many improvements in machinery.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the Constitution of the United States was adopted and George Washington became President. We have already seen that England did not permit her American colonies to engage to any great extent in manufacturing. But now, the very first Congress under Washington passed an act to encourage manufactures, and one or two of the States offered bounties for the introduction of cotton machinery.

Young Slater, now about twenty-one years of age, determined to emigrate to America. Since the laws of England did not permit him to take drawings or models with him, he had to trust entirely to his memory to construct new machinery when he should arrive in this country. He landed in New York in November, 1789, and soon after wrote to Moses Brown, a wealthy merchant of Providence, Rhode Island, telling him what he could do and asking his help. Mr. Brown immediately replied: "If thou canst do this thing, I invite thee to come to Rhode Island and have the credit of introducing cotton manufactures into America."

So it happened that on the 21st of December, 1790, Samuel Slater, representing the business firm of "Almy, Brown and Slater," set up at Pawtucket three eighteen-inch carding machines, with the necessary drawing heads, roving cases, winders, and spinning frames, with seventy-two spindles. Here, in an old fulling mill, and by water power, was started machinery for the making of cotton yarn. Mr. Slater had been obliged to prepare all the plans of this machinery, and either to construct it with his own hands or to teach others how to do it. From the first the enterprise was successful. An excellent quality of yarn was manufactured, quite equal to the best quality then made in England. No attempts were made to use water power in weaving the yarn into cloth. This was still done by hand looms in the farmhouses of the country. A second cotton factory was started in the year 1800, and within ten years from that date there were many of them in different parts of the land.

When Mr. Slater came to America, he left at his father's house in Belper a little brother. In 1805 this brother, now grown to manhood, came to America, and went to Pawtucket to find his brother Samuel. Here he found Mr. Wilkinson, a brother-in-law of Mr. Slater. Mr. Wilkinson took him to his brother's house and said: "I have brought one of your countrymen to see you; can you find anything for him to do?" Mr. Slater asked from what part of England he came.

He replied: "Derbyshire."

"What part of Derbyshire?" said Mr. Slater.

"I came from the town of Belper," said John.

"Belper, the town of Belper? Well, that is where I came from. What may I call your name?"

"John Slater."

The boy had changed so much that his older brother did not know him. The interview was a delightful one to both; it was like the meeting of Joseph and Benjamin. Questions and answers flew rapidly.

"Is my mother yet alive? How are my brothers and sisters? How is my old master, Mr. Strutt? Is the old schoolmaster Jackson living?"

The next year the two brothers built a cotton mill in Smithfield, Rhode Island, and in 1808 a large stone mill was erected at Blackstone, Massachusetts.

So the business continued to increase. The power loom was invented, and soon the manufacture of cotton cloth became one of the leading interests of New England. The mills of Lowell became famous. Manchester, in New Hampshire, Lawrence and Fall River, in Massachusetts, were soon dotted with great mills turning out cloth of all varieties by the million yards. The falls upon the rivers of New England were utilized, by means of the water wheel, to furnish power for moving all the machinery used in the making of cotton goods. The song of the picker, the hum of the spinning frame, and the whack, whack of the loom are now heard in a thousand mills in various parts of our country.

Mr. Slater was visited at one time by Andrew Jackson while he was President. It is related that the following conversation took place between them:

"I understand," said the President, "that you have taught us how to spin so as to rival Great Britain and that it is you who have set all these thousands of spindles at work, which I have been so delighted to see, and which are making so many people happy by giving them employment."

"Yes sir," said Mr. Slater," I suppose that I gave out the Psalm, and they have been singing the tune ever since."

Samuel Slater died in 1835, leaving a large fortune to his family. John Slater died a few years after the death of his brother. It was his son, John F. Slater, who in 1882 placed $1,000,000 in the hands of a board of trustees, the interest of which was to be used for the education of the freedmen of the South and their descendants. The great Rhode Island orator, Tristam Burgess, said in Congress on one occasion: "If manufacturing establishments are a benefit and a blessing to the Union, the name of Slater must ever be held in grateful remembrance by the American people."

It would be next to impossible to give any adequate account of the improvements which have been made in American machinery for the manufacture of cotton cloth. Beginning with the cotton gin and the introduction of the carding machine and the spinning frame by Slater, we should have to record the great success of the double speeder, the modern drawing-frame, the Crompton and the Whitin looms, and especially the ring traveler spinning frame and the self-operating cotton mule.

In 1791, 200,000 pounds of cotton were exported, very little being used in this country. In 1891, the cotton produced in America reached more than 3,500,000,000 pounds. This cotton is now grown in the Southern States upon more than 20,000,000 acres of ground. The mills of America to-day are using more than 2,000,000 bales of cotton per year. In 1793, Samuel Slater started seventy-two spindles to spin cotton; in 1893, there were 15,000,000 spindles. To such great proportions has this industry grown from the small beginnings of Samuel Slater's bold attempt to bring over from England in his memory the machinery necessary to its manufacture.