The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1901-04-25
THE NEGRO IN COTTON MILLS
A Sensible View of the Condition
of Things III the South.

A Sensible View of the Condition
of Things III the South.
The following article was recently
contributed to Tile Independent by Col.
james l.. Orr, of Grccnvillc, and the
editor introduces the article by say
ing that Mr.. Orr is president of
one of the largest cotton manufacture
ing plants in the world, and well
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 Southerncrs generally, but which
seems to strike our Northern friends
as new and original
l cannot say definitely, perhaps,
why the negro will never make sue
cessful operative in the cotton mills,
for have seen most excellent hand
weavcrs, laundresscs, scamstresscs
among the women of that race, and
carpenters, brlcklaycrs, blacksmiths
and mechanics among the men, both
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 90 to sleep actually or mctaphori-
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 is not lack of
capacity, nor is it lazness it is the
faculty of concentrating their atten-
ton 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
large scale, and since emancipation Il
good many Of them have been used in
the factories in the South for doing the
heavier and unskiled work In some
places the machinery, including the
pickcrs, has been run entirely by nc
groes, but wherever il has been tried
failure has quickly followed. A cotton
mill III Concord, N. c., 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 q failure.
There will never be better oppor-
tunity TO test negro ability under moro
favorable circumstance. A plant worth
S5OO,O0 was bought for 300, 900, To-
Gated in Charleston, whore they hal
a large number of the most intelligent
negroes in the South. With plenty OF
capital behind it, as competent selling
agent as there is in New York hand
ling their goods and the best manufac-
turer in the South in charge of the
actual operation, still after years.
patient labor 1t has proved a failure
not because the negro could not do the
work properly, but simply because he
would not work regularly. The ne
q OeB 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 off to every burial, excursion,
picnic, and never could be aroused to
take any interest in the work.
Tho relative value of the mixed
blood has given mo great deal of
thought, and l have observed it for
years. As Il general rule, l 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 l
have ever seen for rcliablcncss and in
tclligencc combined arc the copper COL
orcd negroes.
ain changing my mind very much
as to tho value Of educating tho negro
starting out with the belief that ar
educated man or woman is far supcrio,
to one with equal capacity unoducated
/ have about concluded, 80 far as the
negro is concerned that lady ex
pressed the true philosophy il, speak
ing of educating tho negro when sh,
snid that every one OF them that yol
educate beyon,l the point of being abl
to read their Bibles and to write thei
accounts you utterly unfit for thci
mission in this world, and change
satisfied and helpful citizen into
worthless and frequently criminal en-
cumbrance.
The most scrlOus want that the SOut
will feel in the next ten or fifteen years
ii cotton manufacturing mere ascs tn
world over as it is doing at the prcscn
time, will be hands to cultivate tn
crops. In the last ten years tho cot
ton crop has increased probably 80 pc