Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-09-14
TILLNIAN AND OUR MILLS.
New England Has Legislated
Against Everybody and Every
thing.

There is more sound sense IN
this interview than anything from
Tillman in a long time ED. AD-
vERTIsER.
Manchester, N. H., Sept. g.
United States Benjamin R. Till
man, of South Carolina, who visit
ed this city in company with
Senator William E. Chandler, to
inspect the great cotton industries
located here, in reply to a question
as to what he thought of the
industrial situation in New
England, with special reference to
the cotton industry, said:
II believe the cotton business
here in the north has got to the
wall. We have got all the natural
advantages IN the south, and you
haven't got any. You have
legislated and legislated and legis-
lated against everyb dy and every
thing in order to protect your
cotton mills, but you can't legislate
God out of existence nor suspend
the operations of natures ben
efcent laws.
"Why, you amt satisfied with
a protective tariff that shuts out
foreign goods from this market, but
you have actually had the nerve
to introduce bill into congress
10 protect one part of the county
against another. This Lowering
bill asking for constitutional
amendment regulating the hours
hours of labor is a direct blow at
the constitutional rights of the
states to legislate for themselves,
and we will fight you on that all
summer and winter and forever
until we beat you. You can'tstu
legislation of that kind down our
throats. We won't have it.
"Now, as far as our natural
advantages are concerned, the only
thing we have ever lacked in my
state is capital, and we are now
getting that in abundance. We
have doubled our spindles in the
last four years and quadrupled
them in the last II. Can you
show me another section of the
country that has done SO well?
"It has been truly said, that
we have cotton in the back yards.
and coal in the front yards, and
a. mill in between. We don't have
to pay the excessive freights that
you people have to pay in New
Hampshire. We have all our raw
material right on the ground, our
help work more cheaply and is
more contented than yours, and
we can turn out just as good goods
as you can at a good deal less
money.
ave can make just as fine grade
of goods in South Carolina as they
can anywhere. Why just look at
it There are only four months of
the year that we have to have our
windows closed in a southern cot
ton mill. In the northern mills
there are only four months that
they can be kept open. The result
is that our operatives for eight
mouths in the year breathe the
pure air ofheaveu, while yours for
an equal period are subsisting on
an atmosphere that is close,
unnatural and enervating.
"Why shouldn't we have a
superior workman, and if a sup
enlor workman why not superior
work? Our manchlnery, too, is
modern and up-to-to-date, while
yours is obsolete. Our cotton
mills are mostly located in The
country, while yours are grouped
in the cities. Our operatives own
their own home and are generally
surrounded by little garden
patch cultivated by some member
of the family, while yours are cor
raled in enemcnt houses and
packed into stuffy and ill-ventilat-
ed attics. Can there be any COM
parison between laborers situated?
Another thing: The purchasing
power of your dollar is growing
greater. We have not been treated