The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1898-01-11
Southern and Northern Cotton Mills.
ACOMPARISON OFTHF LABOR
EMPLOYED.
How the Southern Manufacturers Man
age and Treat Their Help Parents
Insist on Their Children
Being Employed.

Boston journal, Mr.. Coolidge, has bee
visiting the cotton mills in the South
and his letters on the labor question
in which he contrasts the Northern
and Southern methods, have attracted
much attention in the mill cities o
New England. His letter from Spar
tanburg describes child labor in The
factories, and Is as follows
SPARTANBURG, S. C, Dec. 30..-A
Northern man visiting Southern
mill will be impressed particularly
with two things First, the easy way
in which the operatives go about their
work and their comfortable air OF
familiarity with the men in charge
second, the extent to which children
are in evidence. In II Northern mill
the operatives seem to be part Of the
machinery, to be more closely identified
with wheels and the shafting than
with the world outside. In Southern
mill they are individualized.
They are on terms Of acquaintance
with the men in charge, and they seem
to take an interest in whatever hap.
pens to be going on This was notice
able in the Spartan mills, through
which | was accompanied by Capt.
Montgomery, the President of the com
pany, and il the Clifton mills, which
were visited in company Of the Super
lhVSuoSuVJ ME. oDct. IL Is no
ent in these establishments than in
others throughout the South. The
men in charge of the mills know tleir
hands by name and they exchange re-
marks in pleasantly Informal and
democ ratio way.
This condition OF fairs is noticeable,
particularly in the newest mills, where
the latest improved machinery is in
use. You will not see mon and women
bending continuously over the looms,
afraid to let their attention flag for an
instant lest a broken thread escape
them; work is taken easily in these
places there Is time to stroll about, to
sit down occasionally, to run to the
window once in while, for {. bit of
light and air, although these newer
mills are wonderfully light and airy
everywhere.
la the Clifton mills a good many of
the girls tending the speeders perched
nonchalantly on boxes at the end of tn
sides, clapping their heels as though
they had nothing more eXacting to do
in the world. These girls earn $5
week, and IL hours Of this kind OF labor
cannot be called oppressive. The great
consideration which is shown for the
comfort OF the employees while at work
is one of the things that keep them
contented with their meagre pay and
long hours, and which put strikes and
agitation at a discount.
These people have to be treated in a
way peculiar to themselves, and that
is one reason why Northern Superin-
tendents and Overseers have not, as q
rule, been successful in handling them.
Mr.. Shea is Northern man, with a
Fall River experience, and he has been
with the Clifton mills for ten years.
He succeeds because he has adapted
himself thoroughly to the conditions in
which he has been placed. Mr.. Stone,
the Superintendent Of the Spartan mills
is New England man, who has been
with CapttMontg6mery l4!years, and he
has beeneanally successful, but these
two areeE6eptions.
The,R&re not many like Them. 1t
takes Northern Superintendent or
OverSsFSf@ or three years usually to
get accustomed to the new order of
things, and mOst Of them destroy their
own usefulness long before that time
and quit. AS Capt. Montgomery ex-
presses 1T, "lf Superintendent comes
from the North he has got to learn
what some OF the rest Of us know already
how to get along with the people,"
1t would be a waste of time and trou-
BILE trying to conduct aNorthern mill
and Southern mill on the same plan
with regard to the cOntrole Of labor
The Soutberner Is no more like his
Northern competitor than IL he lived
under different system of government
and spoke different language. The
Southern operative Is thoroughly in
digenous to the soil. 1t is rare indeed
for an outsider to creep in. In the
Spartan Mill there is one Irishman
who has lived IN the county over 20
In ha Clifton Milla
man and his wife, who drifted in from
the North two or three years ago.
These are pointed out as curiosities.
There Is something about the atmos-
phere Of these Southern mills not un-
like that Of the Fairbanks scale works
or the Howe scale works in Vermont,
where men have been identified with
the establishment for lifetime, and
feel themselves as much part Of it as
the prOprietors themselves. or course
the Vermonter is good many grades
higher In the scale OF intelligence and
education, belonging, as he does, to 6
distinct class by himself, but there Il
the same evidence OF native character
and with the strides the Southernel
has been making in the past few years
there Is no telling how long it will be be
fore he claims place by the eide of the
more favored New Engl land type. On
school marin " was pointed out to 10,
in the Clifton Mills. She was brigh
eyed, clear. quick and decid
edly pretty. She teacnes school bacl
in the mountains three months in tn
year, and works In the mills at inter
walls She earns 72 cents q day, an,
evidently relishes the work. 1t Is quit
q common thing for these countr
school teachers to come into the mill
In this way, quite after the manner c
earlier days in lowell. / saw some {
the girls who finished work early leav
the mill They were dressed neatly II
black, and each wore huge white sur
bonnet, stifliy starched and fairly glis
tening. That Is the ordinary headgea
of the girls of the mills. The cloa
rooms are white with them durin
working hours.
One little incident illustrates YER
well the spirit in which the Souther
operative Ia treated. In most Norther
mills the windows are made of drille
glass, admitting light but shutting o
the view. When the new Spartan Mi
was building the architect propose
putting In this kind of window, b,
Capt. Montgomery vetoed the propos
tion. y You will haze any amount
trouble with the help II you don't {
It," PLEADED tho architect. They wi
be fiocking to the windows all the tin
and sitting on the ledges"
/ don't care about that" repli,
Capt. Montgomery. "If the oversee