The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-06-07
THE NEW ENGLAND MILLS.

Towns.


TO the Editor Of the NesOs and Cou-
rser:: In my hoyhood ! worked upon a
South Carolina farm, being, of course,
employed in what economists techni-
cally call an extractive industry; that
is, I was eugaged in producing a raw
material, cotton, to be afterwards con-
verted into goods by some one else.
MY experience in the evolution neces-
sary for preparing the raw material
for the spindle and the loom began
soon after the war, not the Cuban war,
but the civil war. It was time,
with most Southerners, Of homespun
clothes, CORE bread and bacon, and
often in these things rations were
short. Ineyer considered homespun
beautiful OF Sdressy,'' notwithstand-
ing it was worn by the rich as well as
the poor. With me, as with most
others, it was case of necessity and
not sentiment. A thing done from
necessity and not from choice ceases,
in great measure, to crafty our
aesthetic tastes or to tickle our poetic
fancy. When trade relations were re-
sumed between. the sections after the
war, when SO many goods Of every de-
scription came pouring into the South
in such profusion, wondered why
these things could not be made in the
South as we'll as the North. was
filed with q desire to go North and
see the processes by which the raw
cotton was converted into yarn and
cloth, which / considered so much
more beautiful to the eye, even though
it were not thing Of SO much utility
az our Confederate homespun. / lit
tie thought then shat within quarter
Of 'centSry South Carolina would be
a successful rival Of Massachusetts, in
cotton manufacturing as she had been
for SO many years the rival Of Massa-
ichusetts in the forum and in the halls
of Congress. NY contemplated "trip
did not take place till after South
Carolina had, within her own borders,
enough spindles and looms to consume
four hundred shousaHd bales Of cotton
q year, and mills and additions to
mills being built to consume another
hundred thousand bales by the close
Of the year 1899.
A! Wishing to make comparison OF
cotton manufacturing in South Caro-.
lima with the same in New England,
and being mere especially desirous Of
comparing the social conditions Of the
operatives Of the two sections, and,
while could take advantage Of the
spring vacation, / left Yale Univer-
sity on the 30th of March to visit the
chief cotton mill towns of New Eng
land, to see for myself how things
we're, to compare results, and to draw
my own conclusions. Sociology being
one Of my chief studies, Of course, my
attention was directed more to. the
way the people lived than to the man
ufacturing Of cotton goods. I! wished
to do some practical sociological work.
Reading books and hearing lectures
give one avery inadequate conception
Of the real state Of things as they ex-
ist. I visited the following towns:
Providence, Pawtucket, Valley Falls
and Lonsdale, Rhode Island; Fall
River, New Bedford, Boston, Lynn,
Salem, Lowell, Lawrence and Spring
field, Massachusetts; Portland, Saco
and Biddeford, Maine; Nashua, Man
chester and Concord, New Hampshire;
Bellows Falls and Brattleboro, Yer.
mont, and Hartford, Connecticut.
Ny attention was given principally
to cotton mill towns, as that was the
manufacturing industry we we're most
" engaged in in South Carolina. AS
rule the mills are much larger than
most Of those in South Carolina, but
no better constructed. / was inside
cn;y two cotton mills-the Slater
Mill, at Pawtncket, and the Merrimac,
at Lowell. These were representa-
tive mills, and much Of the machinery
is old and out of date. Iswas told by
operatives at different places that
many mills were still running with
antiquated machinery, and could not
successfully compete with mills fur
nished with that whichis new. Some,
rather than replace the old machinery
with new, would abandon cotton man
ufacturing altogether, and ELL the
houses with machinery for some other
kind Of iDdust,... In fact, some have
already done this. I saw no new mills
being built, but saw some that had
been abandoned. My opinion is, after
Lor;rr soan tbo Now Euu1an6 mills