The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-06-07
THE NEW ENGLAND MILLS.
What South Carolinian Saw in 81 Factory
Towns.

1ea the Editor Of The Ners and Cou.
a.. u my boyhood worked upon q
4 N Carolina farm, being, Of course,
loved in what economists techni.
call an extractive industry; that
aiwas engaged in predicting raw
|,erial, cotton, to be a. T, sr7asds con-
ted into goods by some one else.
! experience in the evoluti, neces-
x for preparing the raw aaterial
] the spindle and the loom began
u after the war, not the Cuban -ar,
the civil war. 1t was a time,
N most Southerners, OF homespun
B3hes. corn bread and bacon, and
On in these things rations were
4. never considered homespun
Slu,iful or "dressy,'' notwithstand-
81 il was worn by the rich as we'll as
Door. With me, as with most
srs. it was a case Of necessity and
q sentiment. A thing done from
kssity and not from choice ceases,
great measure, to crafty our
#betic tastes or to tickle our poetic
3y. When trade relations were re-
ed between the sections after the
when so many goods Of every de-
$btou came pouring into the South
3uch profusion, I wondered why
l. things could not be made in the
h as we'll as the North. I was
:sa with a desire to 60 North and
the processes by .yhich the raw
bn was converted into yarn and
which / considered so much
beautiful to the eye, even though
re not thing Of so much utility
II Confederate homespun. l lit
bought then that within quarter
s century South Carolina would be
cessful rival of Massachusetts in
IL manufacturing as she had been
many years the rival Of Massa-
tts in the forum and in the halls
bngress. NV contemplated trip
bot take place till after South
ina had, within her own borders,
gh spindles and looms to consume
shousand bales Of cotton
|ar, and mills and additions to
being built to consume another
red thousand bales by the close
year 1899.
&hing to mako comparison of
b manufacturing in South Caro-
+ 5ith the same in New England,
icing more especially desircus Of
b7ring the social conditions Of the
mives of the two sections, and,
could take advantage of the
vacation, I left Yale Univer-
h the Both Of March to visit the
fotton mill towns Of New Eng
to see for myself how things
to compare results, and to draw
ID 70 conclusions Sociology being
@ my chief studies, OF course, my
on was directed more to the
be people lived than to The man
lring Of cotton goods. ! wished
Some practical sociological work.
g books and hearing lectures
E4e very inadequate conception
Areal state Of things as they ex-
visited the following towns:
ence, Pawtucket, Valley Falls
;(onsdale, Rhode Island. Fall
s New Bedford, Boston, Lynn,
Lowell, Lawrence and Spring
assachusetts; Portland, Saco
ddeford, Maine; Nashua, Man
and Concord, New Hampshire;
Falls and Brattleboro, Yer.
&nd Hartford, Connecticut.
attention was given principally
Pn mill towns, as that was the
curing industry we were most
s. ged in in South Carolina. AS
Whe mills are much larger than
those in South Carolina, but
3 Ger constructed. ] was inside
,.SEo cotton mills-the Slater
Ol Pawtucket, and the Merrimac,
ell. These were representa-
Us, and much Of the machinery.
a ID outof date. I,was told by
es at different places that
pills we're still running with
ted machinery, and could not
fully compete with mills fur
fith that which'is new. Some,
:, han replace the old machinery
y, would abandon cotton man
Bid ng altogether, and I'll the
/ Halth machinery for some other
nee industry. In fact, some have
done this. I saw no new mills
uilt, but saw come that had
lndoned. Ny opinion is, after
seen the New England mills,