The invention of machinery and factory production brought a sudden change to this life of simplicity. People began to have more goods, have choices in how they lived their lives, have chances to try new jobs. But they also endured long hours of work and low pay. In the 1920s, partly because of worker demands for better conditions, the textile and shoe industries in New Hampshire began to lose their place in the national market. In 1935, the Amoskeag Mills were finally forced to close their doors. What would take their place?

From the decline of shoe manufacturing and the collapse of the textile mills, New Hampshire learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of concentrating its resources too heavily in a limited area. When New Hampshire industry began to recover after the depression of the 1930s, it blossomed with a variety of new industries which manufactured a variety of usable products. This diversification was a healthy change for our state, which offered a strong economy and steady employment for New Hampshire people.

New Hampshire industry today remains diversified and provides career options that were never before possible. Sanders Associates in Nashua provides electronic equipment; Digital Equipment Corporation in Salem (note: Digital Equipment was bought by Compaq in 1998) makes a line of computers. Ingersoll-Rand in Nashua manufactures heavy machinery for making plastic molding and environmental pollution control systems. Miniature Precision Ballbearings in Lebanon makes bearings for navigational equipment. Phas-R Laser Company develops custom lasers. Anheuser-Busch in Merrimack brews beer. The Felton Brush Company in Manchester manufactures brushes, while New England Homes in Portsmouth produces pre-fab homes. This diversified yet highly specialized group of industries requires workers who are well trained in a particular field. Some tasks call for patience and a delicate touch; others call for dexterity and concentration. Some industries employ workers with skills of metal cutting, precision-tooling and welding; still others need workers to produce hand-set and custom items. Indeed, the skill of the colonial craftsman exists in an altered form.

Training for such specialized tasks is acquired in a variety of ways, including attending technical institutes and on-the-job training. In all cases, students gain marketable skills that benefit the whole state. New Hampshire products and the skills of New Hampshire workers, in fact, benefit the entire nation--even other nations. Today's workers are more likely to be involved in and dependent upon a much larger world than colonial workers. This kind of interdependence gives new meaning to the concepts of worldwide cooperation and accommodation. New Hampshire industry is part of a network of industry that spans the globe.
 

1. To explore some of the present-day industries that contribute to New Hampshire's economic welfare.

2. To begin to appreciate the intricacy and skills involved in modern New Hampshire industry.

3. To catch a glimpse of various career options available to a modern-day work force.

4. To consider some of the changes in the essence of "manufacturing" from past to present.

5. To consider some of the benefits of "diversification" in industry.

6. To examine the educational purpose of vocational-technical schools in New Hampshire.

7. To gain an awareness of the interdependency of modern industry by examining New Hampshire industry as a part of an international network of trade.

8. To develop an appreciation and a sense of pride in New Hampshire by surveying its products and considering their value to the nation's economy.

1. Review the Industrial Revolution and its effect on New Hampshire's people.

2. Discuss manufacture, diversification, and other vocabulary (listed under "Words To Know").

3. Talk about the types of careers that you think are available to people who work in New Hampshire.

4. In small groups, make lists of the types of industries presently operating in New Hampshire. Compare these lists to industries examined in the lesson.

1. Discuss the following:

• How has the word "manufacture" changed in meaning from colonial times?
• How have machines changed our lives? What have we lost? Gained?
• How has New Hampshire diversified its industries? How does diversification in industry help a state's economy?
• What careers are presently available in New Hampshire?
• How is New Hampshire's economy dependent on other states? Other countries? How are their economies dependent on New Hampshire products?

3. Hold a debate on the value of mass production versus small quantity production and keep score of the losses and gains of each method.

4. Write an essay comparing colonial crafts and craftsmen to modern-day products and producers.

5. Make a collection of the variety of ways in which New Hampshire producers advertise their products, using local newspapers, magazines, and other media.

6. Develop a photographic display of pollution as a byproduct of modern industry.

7. Visit an old New Hampshire mill that is still in operation, interview the manager to discover how production has changed over the years.

8. Develop a skit which explores why people go on strike, how they arbitrate, why some strikes are illegal, and other related topics.

9. Examine some questionable work practices of the past such as child labor, unsanitary food processing, unequal pay for equal work. Consider if, and how, these practices are controlled today.

10. Hold a debate on (a) to unionize or not to unionize; and (b) the value of industry before and after the Industrial Revolution.

11. Develop an assembly line which will culminate in an actual finished product. Consider the effect of piecemeal work on the laborer.

12. Start a folder of career options available to a modern day work force. Consider which careers might not exist in New Hampshire and where a person might have to live in order to pursue such a career.

13. Develop a skit which depicts "on-the-job-training" for some specific task.

14. Invite several apprentices to class to talk about the value of their experiences to their new profession.

• vocational-technical school
• on-the-job training
• flamecutter
• soldering
• computer
• titanium
• pollution
• forklift
• ballbearing
• navigational
• conveyor belt
• laser
• prefab
• union
• foundation
• manufacture
• strike
• welder
• Industrial Revolution
• breadline
• mechanized
• loom
• beermeister
• steam whistle
• radar systems
• textiles
• diversify(ied)
• missiles
• mass-produced
• circuit boards
• precision products
• interdependence
• apprentice

• Sanders Associates, Nashua
• Anheuser-Busch, Merrimack
• Digital Equipment Corp., Salem
• Felton Brush Co., Manchester
• Ingersoll Rand, Nashua
• New England Homes, Portsmouth
• Miniature Precision Ballbearinqs, Lebanon
• Amoskeag Mills, Manchester
• Phas-R Laser Company, New Durham

• Any of the above
• Mall of New Hampshire
• Any local industry
• Voc-Tech schools in your area

 

CONCORD - Wages averaged $3.50 a day, but gasoline was plentiful. Eight out of 10 of the 450,000 people living in New Hampshire were born in the state. Four of every 10 acres were farmland and one-third of fruit was New Hampshire grown. 

This year was 1929.

The statistics and assessment of New Hampshire life were gleaned from a chance find at a yard sale -a 50-year- old Industrial Survey of New Hampshire.

"The findings of this survey are encouraging and support our faith in New Hampshire's future," wrote Frank Comerford, president of Grafton Power Co., for which the survey was conducted in 1929. "We trust that the information contained herein will justify continued confidence in New Hampshire,: he said.

The information contained in the report's faded pages includes the following:

- Agricultural production was "efficient," with 37 percent of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the state grown locally.

- 90 percent of the electricity generated in the state was hydroelectric.

- There was no tax on the income of industrial corporations.

- 80 percent of the residents were native-born.

- 40 percent of the land was farmland.

- More businesses were moving into the state than out.

- Unemployment was low.

- Passenger train service thrived.

- There was little highway traffic, and few highways.

Glaring differences exist between the New Hampshire of 50 years ago and the New Hampshire of today, not the least of which are the drastic reduction in farmland, increased dependence for food and population growth.
And businesses here will be quick to note that the absence of a tax on industrial income is long gone. The business profits tax is the state's single largest source of income. 

Agriculture officials say the state now is dependent on other areas for more that 85 percent of its fruits and vegetables.

Officials cite to reasons for the pendulum swing.

More people live in New Hampshire, prompting higher demand for food. And the land needed to grow the food has been gobbled up at an alarming rate either to house the people or build stores for them.

The 40 percent farmland in 1925 has decreased to 9.5 percent and is still falling, said Vincent Peterson of the state Agriculture Department.

The survey says farms covered 2,262,084 acres in 1925. They cover 506,000 acres last year, with only 110,000 acres of harvested cropland.

In the survey year 80 percent of New Hampshire residents were New Hampshire natives; today, planners estimate nearly 58 percent of the state's residents were born elsewhere.

Population figures show tremendous growth in southern New Hampshire. Derry's population has more than tripled since 1929, rising from 5,570 to 16,861; Nashua's has more than doubled; rising from 30,100 to 66,000; Salem, which has less than 5,000, now has 28,000.

But the population in the North Country city of Berlin has decreased from 19,235 to 14,600.

Others showed mostly modest increases - Manchester from 84,000 to 93,000; Concord from 22,600 to 31,800; Portsmouth from 15,000 to 22,300; Dover from 13,500 to 23,000; Laconia from 11,400 to 16,100.

The state's population has nearly doubled. 

The largest single category of employment was in the textile industry, which accounted for 28 percent of the industrial output of the state.

The survey said a 54-hour work-week was "general" in industry throughout the state, with an average wage of $3.50 a day. Many residents now make more than that in a hour.

However there are similarities between the New Hampshires of 1929 and today. First, there is still no personal income tax nor general sales tax.

A similar survey today would still show more businesses moving into the state than moving out. And still remaining are the low, but rising, crime rate; low unemployment; relatively pollution-free air and water; and few of the problems of other states.

WEB RESOURCES

• Business and Industry Association of New Hampshire
• New Hampshire Office of Business and Economic Development
• New Hampshire Biotechnology Council
• Software Association of New Hampshire Website
Top