Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1878 — Fall River’s Blight. [ARTICLE]

Fall River’s Blight.

Fall River, the great cotton-spinning center of America, will long feel the shock caused by the extensive defalcations of the treasurers of the Union, Border City and Sagamore mills. This New England town has always prided itself upon its commercial honor and integrity, and developments of systematic plundering by men who had been trusted was a severe blow. The first cottonmill was built in Fall River in 1813, and had 896 spindles. There were at this time something like 200 inhabitants in the little town, and the growth of the place was very slow afterward. But in 1840 there were eight mills, with 32,084 spindles, and the population had increased to about 6,700. In 1870 there were eighteen factories, 544.606 spindles, and over 27,000 inhabitants. At tne time when the recent defalcations were discovered, in April, the mills in Fall River, about forty in number, had something like 33,000 looms, 1,400,000 spindles, and produced annually 377 - 000,000 yards of cloth. Not far from 16,000 operatives were employed, and the annual pay-roll amounted to nearly $5,000,000. It is evident that disturbances and interruptions »f any kind, in such an important manufacturing town, must be widely felt throughout the country. In due time the busy lifo of Fall River will be resumed, and her business men will have learned a lesson for future time.— Harper's Weekly.