The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-05
ABOUT COTTON MILLS.
Their Management Requires Brain Work
OF No Ordinary Capacity.
Augusta Chronicle. I

There are mills and mills. Yarn mills
and cloth mills. Yarn mills and yarie-
ty yarn mills. Sheeting mills, check
mills, fancy mills and combination
mills, all requiring grades of skillin
their management as different as are
the mills themselves. Running a sheet
ing or shiring mill, spinning, perhaps,
one number of warp and two of filling,
and weaving the tree into as many DIFF
ferent grades Of cloth, is one thing.
Running combination mill, making
forty or fifty different grades of brown
goods, and two or three hundred differ
ent weaves and patterns Of fancies,
from twenty-five or thirty different
numbers of warp and filing, is an
other. The first is about as easy Of
accomplishment compared with the
last as rolling eff a log is compared
with jumping from a balloon half
mile from terra frma. -
The first is simply question of keep
ing half a dozen different things
straight without any attempt what
ever at an introduction of new grades.
The last is succession of changes, ne
| cessitating on the part of the superin-
tendent an intimate and infinite
acquaintance with twists and drafts.
and phys andreeds and harness, and no
guess work in it, either. The first is a
specialist, if you will it, in the
initiatory stages of cotton manufacture;
the last is graduate in the all around
school of experience.
The sheeting mill makes no changes
for 1000 yard order, nor for less, per-
haps, than million yards; and if, in
the case Of such change, the warps of
the first set may be little too narrow,
there is enough of the order to make,
to enable the "width sufficient goods
to be worked off 1.-TWO cuts to bale,
where they will never be found"
The combination mill takes an order
for 1000 yards of fabric, when shades
and colors, weave, construction, Weight>
and width must be O. K. first pop, or
constitute so much dead or deprecated
stock until next season. Such being
the case, it is evident that not only
must the superintendent Of combina-
ton mill be a man ofintimate acquaint-
ance with the various manufacturing
processes, with all the data for such
variety Of work at his fingers ends, but
the official Of the company, be he pfesi-
dent or treasurer, or both, who fixes
the money value of the product, must
be a man particularly good judgment
in the details Of the business, or quota
tions, asked for almost daily, would
seldom be satisfactorily given. In sell
ing the product of such mill, a thous-
and and one things "bob up serenely"
to confront and confuse, that in sheet
ing mill only, are never thought of.
Little things require calm, deliberate
judgment and consideration before
they will down.
10 keep combination mill of 1000
looms goirg right along, and to dispose
of the product at remunerative prices
requires brain work of no ordinary
capacity. Either position-that -is,-
either that superintendent or that of
president of such concern, is pretty apt
to partake of the nature so often de-
scribed as midway between the devil
and the deep sea-" Compared to these,
either position in sheeting mill is ali
most a sinecure.
Then, another thing, the help of
sheeting mill are more easily kept than
are the help of a combination mill.
Orders come along to the latter at good
prices, but involving q new departure
in the construction of the goods. Ordi-
narily, the management can afford to
pay good price for weaving, much
better, perhaps, than is being paid for
the grades there in operation. The
weaver, however, aever stops to prove
the earnings the new cloth will afford,
nor even to consider the price in any
way. ''It's something new," "never
saw it BEFORE" doesn't know if he can
run it, and without trying to do so
puts on his coat and hat and crosses
the street to the next place where he
knows his services will be eagerly ac-
cepted and goes to work for less
| wages.
Hundreds Of times have + seen that
little tableau not only here in the South,
but in the North, too. Yes, running
combination mill demands executive
and administrative and technical talent
of no ordinary calibre, and yet, strange
to say, like editing newspaper, every
typo thinks he "can do it" better than
the man who is doing it.
Considering the fact that variety and
combination mills are long steps in ad-
vance in Southern development they
have done well in every way. Ten
years from now they will be more COM
mon in the South than they are to-day.
Then the pioneers in the business will
be reaping the harvest Of dividends
whilst good many Of the present
sheeting mills will have been frozen
into experiments in the direction Of
combination mill just as the present
successful Southern sheeting mills froze
Eastern mills to the same ultimatum.