“While the condition of American operatives during the Industrial Revolution was undoubtedly much better than in Europe, it was not enviable. A paternalism in which the operatives lived in company houses, spent their earnings in company stores, worshiped in company churches and had to submit to excessive supervision of their private lives would be considered intolerable today, and the long hours would tax the strength of even the hardiest farm girl. Nominal wages at the opening of the Industrial Revolution, it is true, gradually rose, but real wages fell. As in England, the increase of wealth due to machinery went largely into the hands of the capitalist class." Harold Underwood Faulkner American Economic History, Fourth Edition, 1938 p. 318 - 320
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 22:06:42 +0000
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