Scientific American Supplement, No. 324, March 18, 1882

by Various

Second. Time and attention are more costly in the United States than in other countries.

Third. Consequently, cocoons can be more cheaply raised in other countries than in the United States.

Fourth. The United States possess no special advantages as a market for cocoons, and therefore they must be sold as cheaply as elsewhere, and the labor costing more, there is less profit.

Fifth. The profits made by raisers in Europe are not very great, and as they would be less in the United States, it is not worth while to try to raise cocoons in that country.

It must be acknowledged that upon the surface this all appears to be very sound and almost unanswerable, but I hope to be able to show that there is in reality not the slightest real foundation for the conclusion to which this argument points.

Taking the points cited in order, I would say, as regards the first and second, that although labor and time are required to raise cocoons, I am convinced that the labor and time of the kind necessary will not be found more expensive in our country than in Europe, for the following reasons:

The work is a home industry. It can be carried on without severe manual labor except for a few days, at the end of the season, when large crops are raised.

Now, nothing is better known than that there exists in many of our States an enormous number of wives and daughters of country people of a class entirely different from any to be found elsewhere, except, perhaps, to a limited extent, in England. I refer to the "well-to-do" but not wealthy agricultural and manufacturing classes in small villages.

One or two generations ago the farmers' and mechanics' wives and daughters found plenty of work in spinning, weaving, dyeing, cutting, and making the linen and clothes of the family. This has entirely ceased as a domestic industry with the exception of the "sewing" of the women's clothes and men's underwear. As a consequence, the women of the family are condemned to idleness, or to the drudgery of the whole household work.

Upon a proper occasion I think that much might be said of the evils and dangers which are likely within a short time to arise from the fact that perhaps a large majority of American women find themselves, because of the present organization of society and industry, almost unable to contribute to the family income except by going away from home, or in doing the most menial and severe labor as household workers from one end of the year to the other. I shall at present, however, only point out that in hundreds of thousands of homes in the country an opportunity of gaining a very moderate sum in addition to the present income by the expenditure of some weeks of care and light work would be hailed as a Godsend, and that, too, in families where the feeling of self-respect and the desire to keep the family together are far too strong to permit the women to go away from home in any way to earn money.