The age-herald., 1898-01-07
A Place for the Poor Whites.

From the New York Commercial-Adver-
 tiser.
 There is perennial interest in the great social causes whose operation determines large industrial movements, apparently causeless and capricious, though full of import to large part of the human race. Study of these is as fascinating as that of great physical laws which determine vast changes in human life and environment, once referred to the caprice of superhuman powers. Rarely are these causes so p.ain- ly evident as in the phenomena of the in- dustrial changes now going on in the United States The migration of the iron industry westward and southward has been com pleted. That of the cotton industry from New England to the south, now going on, has causes similar, though not the same. Roth seek conditions of cheaper produc- tion in new seats. The migration or the iron industry was provoked by cheaper fuel, raw material and transportation and raw material are somewhat cheaper in the south.
 Ideal conditions for cotton spinning exist in the Piedmont districts of the south; that is, in the foothills of the mountain ranges that cover parts of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Ihis IS not the cotton growing country, though it it is near it. In the cotton belt itself, which is also the black belt, there is neith- CT steam nor water power nor human labor fit for mills. The unfitness of the blacks for mill labor has been one of the argu- ments against success of this industry In the south There are few blacks in the Piedmont districts, but there is cheap coal, abundant water power and the pest raw material for mill labor in the so-called poor white' population, which seems to have been waiting century and half to c,1npIv inst this industrial need.
 The ideal source of mill labor seems to he A peasantry which has over-crowdsd the land and whose children have grown tired of the farms. British industry drew its labor from this source, and the fiocking of sons and daughters of New England farnn- CTS to the mills was similar theme two generations ago. Weary of solitary drudg- cry and narrow life, these New England peasants worked patiently and cheerfully for long hours and low wages, as their Eng fish ancestors did before them, finding compensation in novelty and society. It is only after a generation or two, when novelty has worn off and society begins to pail. that the conditions which now menace industry in both New and Old England begin to arise among the modified peasantry of the mills.
 In the so-called ''poor whites" of the southern mountains the mill industry finds a peasantry hardly changed from the v ,e of it's migration from the very northern
 
 British industry. It is poor, hardy, shrewd though ignorant, content with little and pleased as children with change The young are tired of the poor mountain farms and attracted by the society and novelty of the mills While the charm lasts they will work long hours for small wages and make cotton for cents per pound that costs to make under trades union domination in New England. They are going to revolu- tionize the cotton spinning industry of the country.
 This is not the first important part this interesting people has played in the his tory of the country. They are the. Scotch Irish backwoodsmen who settled behind the so-called Cavaliers and their black ser- wants Their fathers were founders of states, conquerors of savages, hunters with Boone, followers of Sevier and Robertson, men of Kings Mountain, plotters of cession before Aaron Burr and defenders of union after Jefferson Davis They live in Roosevet's histories and Craddock's novels. They have been vital strain in the American nation. Now they are act ing upon it's industry as vigorously and purposely as they have acted upon Its his- fnru