Talk:Lowell System

Merge Request
In my opinion, the Lowell System article has been poorly maintained, while the Lowell Mill Girls is now pretty well written, well cited, etc. I think there should be one article as the intended topics overlap considerably, probably under the title Lowell System with Lowell Mill Girls serving as a redirect. I'll volunteer to do the work, but I don't want to work unilaterally. Any agrees, disagrees? Thanks, CSZero (talk) 04:05, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok, I WP:BOLDed and blew away that other article after moving whatever info wasn't already there over to here. Revert if you strongly disagree, otherwise, I'd like to discuss moving this page to Lowell System and fixing any double-redirects.  CSZero (talk) 04:35, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm very much opposed to eliminating the article titled "Lowell Mill Girls". While there are some points of overlap between the two, I believe that the LMGs deserve their own page. The reason I did all the research and writing to make LMG into a GA is because they are an important example of labour organizing, and well known among many of us in the world of organized labour. I'm sure there are many aspects of the Lowell System which are not unique to the LMGs, and I feel that the girls are important enough to merit their own article. Scartol  •  Tok  11:58, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Somebody pointed the Lowell System redirect over to here, which is fine by me if that's the consensus. The thing is, the "Waltham/Lowell System" seems to be largely defined by the labor force, which is of course the mill girls.  This system was later used in Lawrence, and I believe Manchester, NH, Lewiston, ME, and Holyoke as well at least.  The other defining characteristic that I can think of, we are talking about the Waltham/Lowell System as opposed to the Rhode Island System, is of course, the unified cotton-to-cloth operation.  Whereas the Rhode Island system had cotton "sent out" to rural farm laborers for spinning, and was woven in factories, again, not usually in a city.  This is such a simple add that I don't see the warrant for two pages, unless someone wants to write an actual well-researched and cited article about the urbanization, efficiency gains, etc.  As it stands, the Lowell System article was about the Mill Girls, and not about the urban/rural spinning mill/full mill divide that made the Lowell System. CSZero (talk) 16:29, 27 February 2009 (UTC)