The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-08-09
AGAINST SOUTHERN FACTORIES.

AGAINST SOUTHERN FACTORIES.
Some time ago the Abbeville
Press and Banner opposed the erec-
ton ofa cotton factory at Abbeville,
and its views, besides being sharp.
ly criticised by the press, drew
; forth a letter full of facts and ar.
gument, from Mr.. Hammett, Presi'
dent of the Piedmont Manufactur.
ing Company. The Press and Ban.
ner' of last week contains a long
and forcible editorial in reply to
its critics and reviewers, from which
we publish the following extract
defining our contemporaries posi-
ton. The views expressed are not
popular perhaps; but we believe
them to be honest; and they de.
serve consideration. We think that
they are not very unlike the views
once held on the subject by Jno. c.
Calhoun:
Mr.. Hammett takes great credit
to the Company which he repre-
sents, for the enhancement Of the
lands for miles about Piedmont
Even if the factory had brought
about this wonder, which we do not
admit, it is not an unmixed good
The great majority of our people
own no land, and if the establish.
ment af the factory has placed the
price of home beyond their reach.
we fail to see wherein that part OF
our population is benefited. On
the other hand nine.tenths of the
owners of the land do not want to
sell, and if the taxes on those who
do not want to sell have been in
creased in the ratio Of the selling
price, then nine-tenths of the owners
of the land do not want to sell.
and if the taxes on those who do
not want to sell has been increased
in the ratio of the selling price,
then nine-tenths of the owners of
the land have suffered a direct in.
jury by such enhancement of value.
1t matters little to the owner of a
farm, who expects to live on it.
whether it is of great or small
marketable value-the productive
ness of it is the same. So, all of
Mr.. Hammett's boasted benefit in
the matter of the enhanced value of
land dwindles down to doubtful
quantity.
But we have been led away from
the subject. Our objection to fac.
tories is, that ours is thinly set.
tied community, and that it is bet
ter for our people to stay on the
farms than to congregate as labor.
ers in factories; a woman who goes
into factory becomes, SO to speak,
mere machine, learning to do
only one thing, while if the same
woman remains at home she learns
the duties and work of a womanly
life-the life, which nature and the
laws Of our civilization intended
that she should live. We cannot
see how factory girls are to learn to
sew, to cook, or to keep house fo1
the husband which she should have
We also object to girls going to
factories because it establishes caste
between our own race, and we think
their entrance into these institu'
tions often lessons their chances OF
proper marriages. We think it well
for capitalists to let factories alone,
for with an honest administration
of the National Government and
the Constitutional C protection which
the State guarantees to our people,
capitalists can find better invest.
ments for money. 1t is cheap
money, and not cheap labor, which
enables the English manufacturers
to compete with us. The English
capitalist is satisfied with from two
to four per cent. while the South
erner wants from ten to twenty
per cent. The difference in the de.
mand for interest lies in the fact
that we have little money while the
Englishman has more of it than he
knows what to do with. No new
country can compete with any old
country in manufactures. The dife.
renee in freights, which everybody
talks about. is the merest nothing.
AS the capital stock Of no factory
in the South had any appreciable
value before the war-and before
the days of protective tariffs and
tax-dodging-so they have but lit,
tie value when these impositions on
the people are removed.
The Abbeville Press and BanAer
saws: ssThe month of July has