The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-22

| they give employment to thousands of
people. The Eagle and Phoenix faoto-
| ries there have 1,800 hands, and they
| use fifty bales of cotton every day.
These mills paid good dividends for
years, and since their organization they
| have doubled their capital stock. They
| ship tickings to Canada and other parts
of the North, and they compete with
| the New England mills, I am told, in
| the different markets. It is said that
| the Swift mills. Of Columbus made
more than IL per cent above the divi-
| dends of per which they declared last
| year, or a profit Of about 10 per cent
| on their investment. These mills make
| cheviots, denims, hickory stripes, fancy
| skirtings and other goods Of like nature.
| They make Turkish towels and other
/ fine goods. They do beautiful coloring,
and this Notwithstanding that the cot
| ton men of New England used to claim
| the South could never do fine work. be-
| cause the Southern streams were mud
| dy and would not bleach the goods
| properly. This is the case with many
, of the streams, but the; Swift mills
| got over this by blea ching their water.
| Columbus is on the Chattahoochee riv-
er. the water of which is something
like pea soup. This is the water used
for bleaching the goods 1t Is clarified
by running 1t into an enormous tank
and then putting a little alum in 1t.
The tank contains 10000 gallons of water.
and it is filled every afternoon. Into
1t at intervals every week Is dropped
about forty pounds of alum. This pre-
| cipitates the dirt, and makes the water
as clear as crystal, and the COST all
! told is not more than so cents per
| week
Another great cotton-m making center
! in Georgia is the city of Augusta. 1t
| has twelve factories, with a capital
| stock of more than $7,000,000 1t pays
| out more than 81 100000 a year to it's
employees, and during the hardest of
! times its mills have been running at
full speed and paying full wages. They
have all along paid dividends of per
cent and upward, and they are MAX
ing big money today. Some of these
mills make sheetings and different
kinds of colored goods. Some of the
and a part of their output is sold in
| Boston.
THE WALKING DELEGATE.
One of the reasons the South can
make money in manufacturing is that
there are practically no labor organi-
/ cations here. There is. so far, no
chance for the walking delegate in.
South Carolina, and trades unions are
practically unknown. There are but
few strikes, and you hear no talk Of
the eight-hour law. The laborers work
!
work hard, too, and they are glad to
get a chance to work. They are almost
! altogether white people. The negroes
are not employed in the cotton mills
1 have been told again and again that
they do well on the plantations and
| for rough work, but they are of no
! value in handling machinery. The fac
tory labor of the South comes from the
farms. 1t is largely made up of whai
used to be called the poor white trash
| of people who are accustomed to liv-
| ing off of little, and who did not see a
| $40 bill from one years end to the
| other. 1t was like the millennium for
! these persons to get their wages regu-
! larry twice month, and they are hap
py in their work, although their pay is
much less than that of the Northern
| laborer, who works fewer hours. They
| live much better now than they did
| when working on their farms.
Their log cabins have been changed
to pretty little cottages such as you
may see by the hundreds, scattered
around every big cotton mill center of
the South. They are, it seems to me,
| more happy and better situated than
the factory operatives of the North
They are equally intelligent, and the
| mill men tell me that the supply Of
labor is practically unlimited.
GROWTH OF THE SOUTH.
|
are saving money. Some of the mills
| have savings banks connected with
| them, and business has generally i'm
| proved in the cotton milling centers
1t will, / believe, continue to improve
and today there is no part of the
United States in a better financial con-
dition than that through which 1 have
been travelling. The increase in the
money thrown into circulation by such
means is enormous. In 1880 the South
| had, in round numbers, $257, 000 600 in
vested in different kinds of manufac-
turing. By 1890 the capital stock had
increased to 1868, 900, 900. The gain dur
ing this time was SO per cent greater in
the South than in the rest of the coun-
try, and the increase in the wages paid
was greater than the increase In the
capital stock. In 1880 the factory
hands Of the South got about SIG 600. :
600 in wages, and in 1890 they received
more than 1922, 600, 0O0 or just about
three times as much. At the present
time the South has in round numbers
about 500 cotton mills and the amount
of money invested in cotton manufac-
turing is, l am told, in the neighbor-
hood Of $120,00O 600.
VISIT TO A BIG MILL.
The cotton factories of the south are
I fitted out with the finest Of machinery
! They are equipped with the latest in