The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-06
Living Issues.
THE NEW FACTORY TOWNS IN THE
SOUTH.

much talk regarding the COInpoII61Ou
between Northern and Southern cot
ton mills, and there is a popular i'm
preston that labor and the cost of
production in the South are much
cheaper than in the North. This
impression is only partly confirmed
by the Investigations of Charles b.
Spahr, n of the editors of The Out
look, who has devoted a chapter to
this subject in his new book on
Americas Working People" He
declares that some of the Southern
manufacturers with whom he talked
went so far as to say that the South
ern manufacturers had no advan-
tage whatever over the Northern,
and while it was generally admitted
that the Southern labor was less
efficient, yet wages were correspond
ingly low. Mr.. .Spahr says:
Employers at the South may re-
ceive a somewhat larger share of the
product than employers at the North,
luSb do CuuD1Oy O1S az OAO -
ceive a somewhat larger share than
employers in England but, in the
main, labor at the South, at the
North, and in England is paid pretty
nearly the same proportion of the
value of it's product. Everywhere
employers and employed together
get the whole product, and every
where they divide it on pretty much
the same basis. The employer who
counts on getting rich at the South
from the supposed underpayment of
labor there, and not from the same
attention to business that would
make him prosper at the North, is
likely to end in bankruptcy"
Different conditions in various
localities make it difficult, says Mr..
Spahr, to form correct g~eneraliza-
tions. For example, in Lindale, Ga,
which is selected as a typical new
Southern manufacturing town, the
price of coal was only $3.50 a ton, as
compared with the Massachusetts
rate of about S.; and the price of
cotton, bought direct from the plan
tations, was also much cheaper. On
the other hand. in Concord, N. c.,
which Mr.. Spahr also visited, the
price of coal was 1870; and it was
found that the high freight rates
ohn-~nI on tho o0&%Or "hioh -oo II
shipped to New York, took away
most of the apparent advantage of
being nearer the cotton supply. Mr..
Spahr continues:
1.-The only difference which every
where operated strongly in favor of
the South = \ = were the cheaper
grade of goods made, and the better
feeling between employers and en-
ployed. The first of these was prob
ably the more important. Cotton
manufacture at the South never
gained rapidly upon cotton manufac-
ture in Massachusetts until the hard
times set in, in 1898. The economies
forced upon all classes greatly re-
duced the demand for the fine goods
made at the North, but hardly
affected the demand for the cheap
goods made OF the South. AS a re-
suit, Southern mills were able to
keep their hands at work, while
Northern mills ordered shutdown
after shutdown. The constant work
at the South was one of the reasons
why the employees were in cordial
relations with their employers,
though the chief reason was the
~closeness of social and even church
relationships between them, and the
great prosperity of the mill hands
compared with the neighboring farm
hands. These cordial relations exist
ing, the employees had not fought
against reductions in wages CORE
spending to the reductions in prices.
The absence of trades-unions had
probably contributed to the same
end"
Mr.. Spahr gives many interesting
particulars regarding Southern in
dustrial life. He found child labor
almost universal, but he says that
the c~heerfulness of the children and
the pride in their work made their
conditions seem much better than
the ''slavery'' he had imagined.
Moreover, child labor was not only
acquiesced in, but even encouraged,
by the parents. Along with the early
employment of children, however,
goes the early retirement of adults.
1.-The people marry" says Mr.. Spahr,