Printed address delivered by C. J. H. Woodbury, Secretary of the New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association, at the opening of the Lowell Textile School year on October 4, 1897. It traces textile instruction in colonial Massachusetts, including the 1642 and 1655 laws on spinning and weaving and the Boston spinning schools of the 1700s. It then argues for technical education, note-keeping, and good design, and ends with remarks on Francis C. Lowell, the power loom, and the social effects of cotton manufacturing.