Cotton mill

“ In the experiment of negro operatives the old factory was again opening up a vista to the South, for, as it was vainly pointed out to the negro population of Charleston, if the trial of colored operatives in the Vesta Mill had succeeded, plants all over the section would offer employment to negroes. [383] When this third effort to use the plant for a cotton mill came to nought, the machinery was moved to Gainesville, Georgia, and though the top of the new mill was carried away by a cyclone almost as soon as completed, the company is now doing well in its new location. ”

“ But the most beautiful sight to the old man was to see the children every fall picking the cotton. Little boys and girls, who before had worked twelve hours a day in the old, hot, stifling, ill-smelling mill, now stood out in the sunshine and in the frosty air of the mornings, each with sack to side, waist deep in pure white cotton, flooded in sunshine and health and sweetness. ”

“ At the commencement of the great period of cotton mill building in the South, every town which could make any pretensions to ability to establish a mill was engaging the utmost resources of the moneyed men it had—capital was hardly seeking opportunities for investment. Sometimes, however, a place with almost no resources and with only a few enterprising citizens, perhaps, would advertise itself openly as an inviting chance. ”

“ The statement was made by the committee that, in spite of these superiorities of situation, the cotton mills in the South make less than the mills of New England because, in considerable measure, [Pg 216] of poor financing, particularly poor borrowing facilities; their credit is not good. [322]
Northern mills can borrow money frequently at 2 or 3 per cent. less than Southern mills even today, though the credit of the Southern manufacturies has steadily risen. It is true that New England mill paper will sell cheaper, almost invariably, than Southern mill paper. ”

“ They have, most of them, some qualifying doubts as to agricultural progress, the cheapening of cotton production, the raising of home supplies, immigration, mining, and the many other now ambitions and enterprises which have engaged so much attention since the opening of the new era of industrial development. But concerning the future of manufactures, particularly of cotton, all men of intelligence and business experience speak with the assurance of inspired prophecy. It is, in fact, not easy to see why the mill should not seek the cotton instead of the cotton seeking the mill. ”

“ In February of 1881, after the cotton mill campaign had gotten a fair start, the Chester Bulletin commented: "Just now there is a widespread and deep feeling amongst our people throughout the State to foster the manufacturing interests of the country. More than a year has elapsed since our people felt beat a pulse of enthusiasm for the home industries. (Reference was here had to the chartering by the Legislature of two mill corporations which attracted almost no subscriptions.) There is money enough in the county to start the hum of three thousand spindles. ”

“ There is no doubt that, along with other appeals to local resources, confidence in the projectors of a cotton mill, as personal acquaintances and men whose whole lives were familiar knowledge in a small community, had a powerful influence. Next it is shown that the profits of the South Carolina mills for the year 1879, probably the last available for citation, warranted a belief that the Charleston mill would succeed, having at least as good a chance as county plants. These profits had ranged from 18 to 251⁄2 per cent. ”

“ He decided to build a cotton mill at Concord—really the first at the place belonging to the great period of establishment—and got some $60,000 in subscriptions to stock locally. This was not sufficient capital, $75,000 being aimed for. Mr. Cannon under these conditions went to Stone, to Loeb and to Wood and Son and explained his plans. The mill would enable the town of Concord to grow, and he could [Pg 201] do a larger business with each of them. ”

“ His project of a cotton mill at Vicksburg, Mississippi, was "on the high-road to success;" he had secured the organization of a company with $40,000 then subscribed to manufacture the staple at Jackson, Tennessee; he had about consummated a contract with New England capitalists to revive manufacture in a building at Corinth, Mississippi; a Connecticut manufacturer was looking for an opening at the South, and would be induced to settle at Huntsville; in all, he expected to bring about the investment of $1,000,000 in factories in Huntsville in the three years to come. ”

“ At the opening of the cotton mill period, it was said of the Rock Bill Cotton Factory that "The best evidence of its success is that not one dollar of its stock can be bought." [439] In the same month of the same year it was published that of the successful Mississippi mills, "The one at Wesson pays 26 per cent. dividends, and the stock is worth over 300." [440] Pacolet was built in 1880. The architect suggested a certain firm as selling agents for the mill, and Captain John H. Montgomery, the projector of the company, was introduced to a member of this firm. ”

“ Slavery clings to cotton.
When the directors of a cotton mill, in a Massachusetts village, decided, in the middle '70's, to move their cotton factory from New England to Alabama, they had two objects in view—cheaper labor and cheaper staple. ”

“ The statement of a railroad man in the New York Herald is valuable: "Mills for the weaving of the coarser cotton fabrics are now in successful operation in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and several of the Atlantic Coast States, all of which have been [Pg 152] built by native labor, mostly with local capital and are managed by Southern men." [205]
The Clifton Mill near Spartanburg, furnishes a fair example of the distribution of holdings of the capital stock of a larger enterprise. ”

“ Yorkville to all appearances is moving forward with a determined purpose to put into successful operation a cotton mill.... The shares have been placed at $500 each, and up to this writing about $25,000 have been subscribed. I would state that this amount has been raised within the limits of the town. A prospectus will be forthcoming this week and the doors will be thrown open to citizens generally of the county who may be able and disposed to assist in carrying forward the project. ”

“ When the second and effective agitation for a cotton mill at Gaffney, already referred to, was proving successful, it was determined not to seek aid from commission merchants because they "—want too many enlargements; they want more goods; the more they sell, the more they get. This does not always suit the local stockholders." [327]
An interesting allusion, showing the effect of the desire for enlargment on the part by commission houses and machinery manufacturers, is contained in an Augusta dispatch to The News and Courier, Charleston, in April, 1881. ”

“ A young lawyer whose firm has had considerable to do with suits over cotton mill securities, referred to the fact that in the process of starting a mill capital is often depleted [Pg 210] before goods are got on the market; at this critical juncture, he said, come to the commission men. Their part has not by any means always been for the good of the people of the South. They get a breeches hold on the president of a mill. The mill may in time go up, but they will have cleared on their commissions. ”

“ The widespread publicity given to the whole matter of Southern manufacturing in the cotton mill campaign, while no doubt it was registered in all parts [Pg 168] of the North and East, was commenced and carried on as of concern to the South.
Correspondence of the New York Times from Atlanta well illustrates this. It is to be noticed how quickly the preliminaries are got over—considerations and speculations in which Southern papers indulged to any length: "Manufacturing in the South is the one subject on which thinking men here speak with entire confidence. ”

“ H. P. Hammett, an old cotton mill man in South Carolina, said: "I do not share in the [Pg 165] opinion commonly expressed that we must procure capital from the North to manufacture the cotton at the South. I would by no means exclude it, but gladly welcome it." But he worked around gradually to this concluding statement, relative to the report that English and Northern capitalists were seeking to locate mills on the water powers of the South: "—it would be unfortunate if most of the best powers should pass from the control of our own people before they knew it." ”

“ The cotton mill invented in England within the last 20 years is a signal illustration of the general proposition which has just been advanced. In consequence of it, all the different processes for spinning cotton are performed by means of machines, which are put in motion by water, and attended chiefly by women and children, and by a smaller number of persons, in the whole, than are requisite in the ordinary mode of spinning. ”

“ The Whitin and Draper companies own most of the stock of the mill, and the Whitin representative in Charlotte is president of the mill. Commission houses hold some of the stock. The Loray Mill is the largest and the poorest in Gastonia; it makes coarse cloth from the local short-staple cotton on some 2,000 looms, [336] while the small mills built by local capital for the most part are making good profits from some of the finest yarns, of long-staple cotton, spun anywhere in the Southern States. ”

“ The whole family—men, women, and children—are engaged in the same industry in which every other family in their community is engaged. They have their own churches and their own schools, in many cases furnished by the mill owners. They live, with few exceptions, in houses owned by the mill company. They buy their provisions, in many cases, from the company store. The cotton mill is the center of their lives. Their present and their future are bounded by it. In less isolated industrial communities there is always the prospect of working into some other and higher industrial 110group. ”

“ The estimate of $100,000,000 is given as the charge on the cotton crop of the South of 1879, on Edward Atkinson's figures, for the items mentioned.
"... to the anxious capitalist tired of a petty 4 per cent. and seeking new and more profitable investments such facts are not without interest. They go to support the claim that the Southern mill has an advantage of from 10 to 20 per cent. over its New England competitor. But these advantages are by no means confined to the elimination of unnecessary charges for baling and transportation." ”

“ The cotton, in being separated from its seeds, has lost about two-thirds of its weight. But the first process in the long series that manufacturing entails has been completed, and the cotton is ready to begin its long journey to the mill. It is usually carted to the nearest railroad station, and from there shipped to the compressing point.
The small farmer almost always gets his money for the cotton as it leaves the gin. His interest in it, therefore, is ended when the buyer there pays him the current price. The cotton is a market commodity from that time forth. ”

“ An eminently successful mill president in Augusta was full of pessimism toward all the problems broached to him, but three characteristic sentences as to the capacity of Southern cotton manufacturers for financial administration fit the case of too many mill officials, undoubtedly:
"The people of the South have got no business sense; I am a Southern man, and I say that. Back yonder before the war what money they had was in land and niggers. They knew nothing about financial management on close make-or-lose propositions." ”

“ There are in the State 38 cotton factories, with 123,233 spindles and 2,125 looms. There are 14 woollen factories, with 4,200 spindles and 135 looms. Augusta and Columbus take the lead in the number and capacity of these works, for which certain important advantages are claimed. The water-power is so ample that the mills are run by it alone. The streams do not freeze in winter. The cotton and wool are grown at the factory door, saving to the mill-owner the cost of transporting his raw material from a great distance. Labor is cheaper. ”

“ On the farm they received the same wages as when in the mill, and each family was furnished with a mule, a cow, and poultry, and with a good garden.
To reclaim this land and build up the soil was now the chief work of the old man; but having been overseer on a large cotton plantation, he knew his business, and set to work at it with all the zeal and good sense of his nature. ”

“ The dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton manufactured by themselves, except the richer class, and even many of these wear a good deal of home-spun cotton. It is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe. Those four States furnish a great deal of cotton to the States north of them, who cannot make it, as being too cold. There is no neighborhood in any part of the United States without a water-grist mill for grinding the corn of the neighborhood. Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, abound with large manufacturing mills for the exportation of flour. ”

“ The older sheetings and plaids had been sold largely in the South, or almost so; the commission firm, to supply a larger trade, found it must re-organize the product of its client mills. It was attempted to persuade a mill at Durham, North Carolina to increase its denim output, but this was not done. In order to provide canton flannel, a new goods for the South, the commission house induced some interests to establish a mill at Greensboro, North Carolina. This prospered, and the house itself built a denim mill at the same place. ”

“ The Baltimore American said the same thing: "The South is now the focal point of trade aspirations for the whole country. [Pg 174] Capital and industrial activity are crowding upon it from every point of the compass. Every railroad system in the land is struggling to reach it...." [236]
Outside capital invested in Southern cotton mills took two forms—subscriptions to the stock of mills managed in whole or in part by Southern men, and the actual setting up of plants in the South owned throughout by Northern promoters. ”