<P> Indeed, hiring women made good business sense; not only did women have experience weaving and spinning, they could be paid less than men, thereby increasing the profits of Lowell's Boston Manufacturing Company, and were "more easily controlled then men". Additionally, his tight rein on his employees "cultivated employee loyalty, kept wages low, and assured his stockholders accelerating profits". </P> <P> In line with the Boston Associates' worldview, the mill girls were encouraged to educate themselves and pursue intellectual activities . They attended free lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Quincy Adams and read books they borrowed from circulating libraries . They were also encouraged to join "improvement circles" that promoted creative writing and public discussion . </P> <P> Economic instability in the 1830s as well as immigration greatly affected the Lowell mills . </P> <P> Overproduction during the 1830s caused the price of finished cloth to drop and the mills' financial situation was exacerbated by a minor depression in 1834 and the Panic of 1837 . In 1834, the mills cut wages by 25%, which led the girls to respond by staging an unsuccessful strike and organizing a labor union called the Factory Girls Association . In 1836, they went on another unsuccessful strike when their housing rates were increased . Conditions continued to deteriorate until 1845, when the mill girls formed the Female Labor Reform Association, which joined forces with other Massachusetts laborers to pass laws aimed at improving working conditions in the state, which the mills simply ignored . </P>

Who was the southerner who built a cotton mill modeled on the lowell mills