a fixed position, after he has shown a capacity to rise above it; where, indeed, men pass by each other, ascending or descending in their grades of labor, just as easily and certainly as particles of water of different degrees of temperature glide by each other,there is found as an almost invariable fact, -other things being equal, that those who have been blessed with a good common school education, rise to a higher and higher point, in the kinds of labor performed, and also in the rate of wages paid, while the ig norant sink, like dregs, and are always found at the bottom.-Mr. Mann's Fifth Annnal Report as Secretary of Mass. Board Education.

The house with which I am connected in business, has had for the last ten years, the principal direction of cotton mills, machine shops and calico printing works, in which are constantly employed about three thousand persons. The opinions I have formed of the effects of a common school education upon our manufacturing population, are the result of personal observation and inquiries, and are con firmed by the testimony of the overseers and agents, who are brought into immediate contact with the operatives. They are as follows: 1. That the rudiments of a common school education are essential to the attainment of skill and expertness as laborers, or to consideration and respect in the civil and social relations of life.

2. That very few, who have not enjoyed the advantages of a common school education, ever rise above the lowest class of operatives; and that the labor, of this class, when it is employed in manufacturing operations, which require even a very moderate degree of manual or mental dexterity, is unproductive.

3. That a large majority of the overseers, and others employed in situations which require a high degree of skill in particular branches; which, oftentimes require a good general knowledge of business, and, always, an unexceptionable moral character, have made their way up from the condition of common laborers, with no other advantage over a large proportion of those they have left behind, than that derived from a better education.

A statement made from the books of one of the manufacturing companies under our direction, will show the relative number of the two classes, and the earnings of each. This mill may be taken as a fair index of all the others.

The average number of operatives annually employed for the last three years, is 1200. Of this number, there are 45 unable to write their names, or about 3 per cent.

The average of women's wages, in the departments requiring the most skill, is $2.50 per week, exclusive of board.

The average of wages in the lowest departments, is $1.25 per week.

Of the 45 who are unable to write, 29, or about two-thirds, are employed in the lowest department. The difference between the wages earned by the 45, and the average wages of an equal number of the better educated class, is about 27 per cent. in favor of the latter.

The difference between the wages earned by 29 of the lowest class, and the same number in the higher, is 66 per cent.

Of 17 persons filling the most responsible situations in the mills, 10 have grown up in the establishment from common laborers or apprentices.

This statement does not include an importation of 63 persons from Manchester, in England, in 1839. Among these persons, there was scarcely one who could read or write, and although a part of them had been accustomed to work in cotton mills, yet, either from incapacity or idleness, they were unable to earn sufficient to pay for their subsistence, and at the expiration of a few weeks, not more than half a dozen remained in our employment.

In some of the print works, a large proportion of the operatives. are foreigners. Those who are employed in the branches which require a considerable degree of skill, are as well educated as our people, in similar situations. But the common laborers, as a class, are without any education, and their average earnings are abou two-thirds only of those of our lowest classes, although the prices paid to each are the same, for the same amount of work.

Among the men and boys employed in our machine shops, the want of education is quite rare; indeed, I do not know an instance of a person who is unable to read and write, and many have a good common school education. To this may be attributed the fact that a large proportion of persons who fill the higher and more responsible situations, come from this class of workmen.

From these statements, you will be able to form some estimate, in dollars and cents, at least, of the advantages of a little education to the operative; and there is not the least doubt that the employer is equally benefitted. He has the security for his property that intelligence, good morals, and a just appreciation of the regulations of his establishment, always afford. His machinery and mills, which constiute a large part of his capital, are in the hands of persons, who, by their skill, are enabled to use them to their utmost capacity, and to prevent any unnecessary depreciation.

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My belief is, that the best cotton mill in New England, with such operatives only as the 45 mentioned above, who are unable to write their names, would never yield the proprietor a profit; that the machinery would soon be worn out, and he would be left, in a short time, with a population no better than that which is represented, as I suppose, very fairly, by the importation from England. - Letter from S. K. Mills, Esq., Boston, to Mr. Mann.

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I have been engaged, for nearly ten years, in manufacturing, and have had the constant charge of from 400 to 900 persons, during that time, ** and have come in contact with a very great variety of character and disposition, and have seen mind applied to production in the mechanic and manufacturing arts, possessing dif ferent degrees of intelligence, from gross ignorance to a high degree of cultivation; and I have no hesitation in affirming that I have found the best educated, to be the most profitable help; even those females who merely tend machinery, give a result somewhat in pro

portion to the advantages enjoyed in early life for education,— those who have a good common school education giving, as a class, invariably, a better production than those brought up in ignorance.

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I have uniformly found the better educated, as a class, possessing a higher and better state of morals, more orderly and respectful in their deportment, and more ready to comply with the wholesome and necessary regulations of an establishment. And in times of agitation, on account of some change in regulations or wages, I have always looked to the most intelligent, best educated, and the most moral for support, and have seldom been disappointed. For, while they are the last to submit to imposition, they reason, and if your requirements are reasonable, they will generally acquiesce, and exert a salutary influence upon their associates. But the ignorant and uneducated I have generally found the most turbulent and troublesome, acting under the impulse of excited passion and jealousy.

The former appear to have an interest in sustaining good order, while the latter seem more reckless of consequences. And to my mind, all this is perfectly natural. The better educated have more, and stronger attachments binding them to the place where they are. They are generally neater, as I have before said, in their persons, dress and houses; surrounded with more comforts, with fewer of "the ills which flesh is heir to." In short, I have found the educated, as a class, more cheerful and contented, devoting a portion of their leisure time to reading and intellectual pursuits, more with their families and less in scenes of dissipation.

The good effect of all this, is seen in the more orderly and comfortable appearance of the whole household, but no where more strikingly than in the children. A mother who has had a good common school education will rarely suffer her children to grow up in ignorance.

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From my observation and experience, I am perfectly satisfied that the owners of manufacturing property have a deep pecuniary interest in the education and morals of their help; and I believe the time is not distant when the truth of this will appear more and more clear. And as competition becomes more close, and small circumstances of more importance in turning the scale in favor of one establishment over another, I believe it will be seen that the establishment, other things being equal, which has the best educated and the most moral help, will give the greatest production at the least cost per pound. So confident am I that production is affected by the intellectual and moral character of help, that whenever a mill or a room should fail to give the proper amount of work, my first inquiry, after that respecting the condition of the machinery, would be, as to the character of the help, and if the deficiency remains any great length of time, I am sure I should find many who had made their marks upon the pay-roll. being unable to write their names; and I should be greatly disappointed, if I did not, upon inquiry, find a portion of them of irregular habits and suspicious character.

[H. Bartlett, Esq., Lowell.

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I have had under my superintendence, upon an average, about 1500 persons of both sexes; and my experience fully sustains and confirms the results, to which Mr. Bartlett has arrived. I have found, with very few exceptions, the best educated among my hands to be the most capable, intelligent, energetic, industrious, economical and moral; that they produce the best work, and the most of it, with the least injury to the machinery. They are, in all respects, the most useful, profitable, and the safest of our operatives; and, as a class, they are more thrifty and more apt to accumulate property for themselves

I have recently instituted some inquiries into the comparative wages of our different classes of operatives; and among other results, I find the following applicable to our present purpose. On our pay-roll for the last month, are borne the names of 1229 female operatives, forty who receipted for their pay by "making their mark.” Twenty-six of these have been employed in job-work, that is, they were paid according to the quantity of work turned off from their machines. The average pay of these twenty-six falls 18 per cent. below the general average of those in the same departments.

Again, we have in our mills about 150 females who have at some time, been engaged in teaching schools. Many of them teach during the summer months, and work in the mills in the winter. The average wages of these ex-teachers I find to be 17 per cent. above the general average of our mills, and about forty per cent. above the wages of the twenty-six who cannot write their names. It may be said that they are generally employed in the higher departments, where the pay is better. This is true, but this again may be, in most cases, fairly attributed to their better education, which brings us to the same result. If I had included in my calculations, the remaining fourteen of the forty, who are mostly sweepers and scrubbers, and who are paid by the day, the contrasts would have been still more striking; but having no well educated females engaged in this department with whom to compare them, I have omitted them altogether. In arriving at the above results, I have not considered the net wages merely the price of board being in all cases the same. I do not consider these results as either extraordinary, or surprising, but as a part only of the legitimate and proper fruits of a better cultivation, and fuller development of the intellectual and moral powers.-J. Clark, Esq., Lowell.

In the present state of manufactures, where so much is done by machinery and tools, and so little is done by mere brute labor, (and that little is diminishing,) mental superiority, system, order, and punctuality and good conduct, qualities all developed and prompted by education are becoming of the highest consequence. There are now, I consider, few enlightened manufacturers who will dissent from the opinion, that the workshops peopled with the greatest number of educated and well-informed workmen will turn out the greatest quantity of the best work in the best manner.

From the accounts which pass through my hands, I invariably find that the best educated of our work-people manage to live in the

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most respectable manner at the least expense, or make their money go the furthest in obtaining comforts. By education, I may say, that I throughout mean, not merely instruction in the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but better general mental develment; the acquisition of better tastes, and of mental amusements and enjoyments which are cheaper, whilst they are more refined. The most educated of our British workmen is a Scotch engineer, a single man, who has a salary of £3 a week, or £150 per year, of which he spends about one-half; he lives in very respectable lodg ings, he is always well dressed, he frequents reading-rooms, he subscribes to a circulating library, purchases mathematical instruments, studies German, and has every rational enjoyment. We have an English workman, a single man, also, of the same standing, who has the same wages, also a very orderly and sober person; but as his education does not open to him the resources of mental enjoyment, he spends his evenings and Sundays in wine-houses, because he cannot find other sources of amusement, which presuppose a better education, and he spends his whole pay, or one-half more than the other. The extra expenditure of the workman of lower education of £75 a year arises entirely, as far I can judge, from inferior arrangement, and the comparatively higher cost of the mere sensual enjoyment in the wine-house.-A. G. Escher, Switzerland, Secretary of Poor Law Commissioners.

If there be any intricate work in anything that requires close. mental application, as a class, we always select the men of the best school education first. In out-door work, when, for example, there is a steam-engine, or a water-wheel, or mill work, to erect, a foreman or some responsible workman must be chosen, and the choice in nine cases out of ten falls on the man of the school education. It is then found to be very useful to have a man capable of making a drawing, taking dimensions. or sending a letter.

We find that those who have had a good school education, have had a better conception of the organization and system implied in change of operation. It appears to require mental training in early life to enable a man to arrange a sequence of operations in the best manner for clear and efficient practical efforts. Men with such capacity we rarely find, except amongst those who have had a school education.

There is no doubt that the educated are more sober and less dissipated than the uneducated. During the hours of recreation the younger portion of the educated workmen indulge more in reading and mental pleasures; they attend more at reading-rooms, and avail themselves of the facilities afforded by libraries, by scientific lectures and lyceums. The older of the more educated workmen spend their time chiefly with their families, reading and walking out with them. The time of the uneducated class is spent very differently, and chiefly in the grosser sensual indulgencies.-William Fairbairn, Esq., Manchester.