The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-04-24
THE NEGRO IN COTTON MILLS
A Sensible View of the Condition
of Things In the South.

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The following article was recent
contributed to THE Independent by Col
James l.. Orr, of Greenville, and th
editor introduces the article by say
ing that "Mr. Orr is president o
one of tie largest cotton manufactur
ing plants in the world, and wei
known throughout the South as one
of the best authorities on negro labor ,
This contribution of Col. Orr will be
recognized as the common sense view
of Southerners generally, but which
seems TO strike our Northern friends
as new and original
l cannot say definitely, perhaps,
why the negro will never make a sue
cessful operative in the cotton mills,
for | have seen most excellent hand
weavers, laundrcsses, seamstresses
among the women of that race, and
carpenters, brlcklaycrs, blacksmiths
and mechanics among the men, both
during slavery and after but in order
TO get work out of the negro it is neces-
sary for them to be on the alert, doing
something which requires action, for
if they are allowed to be quiet they
will go to sleep actually or metaphors
cally in very few minutes after they
are allowed to stop, hence they have
never been worked to any advantage
in the cotton mills. 1t ia not lack of
capacity, nor is it laziness il is the
faculty of concentrating their atten-
tiou while quiet that they do not
possess.
Before emancipation l knew of
small yarn mills being run entirely by
negroes on the plantations. The eX-
pertinent was tried more or less sue
ccsssully near Columbia, S. c., on a
large scale, and since emancipation a
good many of them have been used in
the factories in the South for doing the
heavier and unskilled work. In some
places the machinery, including the
pickcrs, has been run entirely by ne
groes, but wherever it has been tried
failure has quickly followed. A cotton
mill III Concord, N. g., one in Colum-
bia, 5. c., are ones that ] recall in
connection with the Vesta Mill in
Charleston. This enterprise has been
abandoned in the city mentioned and
moved to Gainesville, Ga, with the
determination to discontinue negro
labor in the mill, as it is failure.
There will never be q better oppor-
tunity to test negro ability under moro
favorable circumstance. "A plant worth
$500 900 was bought for 300, 900, To-
Gated in Charleston, where they hal
a large number of the most intelligent
negroes in the South. With plenty of
capital behind it, as competent a selling
agent as there is in New York hand
ling their goods and the best manufac-
turer i'll the South in charge Of the
actual operation, still after a years
patient labor 1t has proved failure
not because the negro could not do the
work properly, but simply because he
would not work regularly. The ne
gloes had no ambition, were satisfied
to make half wages, if they were al
lowed to only half work, were not will
ing to come regularly, but missed from
two to three days out of every week,
went of to every burial, excursion
picnic, and never could be aroused to
take any interest in the work.
The relative value of the mixed
blood has given me great deal OF
thought, and | have observed it for
years. AS a general rule, would say
that the mulatlO is more intelligent and
less reliable, and the black negro less
intelligent and more trustworthy. The
best class of negroes, however, that |
have ever seen for reliableness and in.
telllgence combined are the copper col.
ored negroes.
ain changing my mind very much
as to the value of educating the negro
starting out with the belief that ar
educated man or woman is far superior
to one with equal capacity uneducated
| have about concluded, so far as tht
negro is concerned that a lady ex
pressed The true philosophy in speak
ing of educating The negro when sh,
said that every one of them that yo,
educate beyond the point of being abl
to read their Bibles and to write thei
accounts you utterly unfit for thei
mission in this world, and change
cASTo1IA.