The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-06-06
COTTON TRADE-SCHOOLs
IMPORTANCE SINCE TIE DEVELOP.
MENT OF MILLS IN THE SOUTH.

| Producc Better Skilled Labor How
Workmcn Are Trained For the Tex
tile MISUNDERSTANDING Taught.
The development of the cotton mill
In the Southern States has been SO
rapid in the last ten years that whole
sections of the land have been COM
pletely changed In an agricultural and
Industrial sense. The most important
effect of this change has been the EN-
ployment of Southern people In mills
who formerly made an uncertain and
inadequate living In tilling the soil.
In the Carolinas q measure of prosper
ity has been obtained in the cotton mill
| districts never before realized, and the
growth of the new industry has with
out doubt been a great benefit to the
sections in which the mills have been
established. The Southern movement
of the cotton mills is no longer an ex-
pertinent, but a demonstrated success.
and the cotton manufacturing Of this
part of our country promises to de-
velop indefinitely.
One of the problems that confronted,
and is now confronting. Southern mill
men is that of the relative supply of
skilled labor. But there is the begin
ming of new era now which promises
to produce better skilled labor in the
South, and to make up for deficiency
that has long been apparent to close
observers. If the South is to be great
cotton manufacturing centre, trade and
textile schools and colleges are almost
essential. The remarkable construc-
tion of mills and spindles in the South
in the last few years has more than
ever emphasized the Importance of
this. With more splndles the demand
for skilled labor grows more urgent
Under past conditions the development
Of the cotton manufacturing industry
of the South would be seriously handi-
capped. and no one realizes this more
than the mill men and public educa-
tors.
One CT the noteworthy features of
the South's industrial progress is the
establishment OF trade and industrial
'schools, and their future promises as
much for the South as the cotton mills
which first created demand for them
The mills hardly provided the neces-
sary training and education that were
needed for the skilled worker in the
textile world, and the Southern trade
schools were founded to make up for
this deficiency. The trade schools of
New England and of Germany had
demonstrated the value and necessity
OF such institutions for textile manu-
featuring centres, and the fact that the
South has awakened to the RESPONSE
bilities which have come in the wake
of her cotton mills argues well for her
future Industrial career. The training
of workmen for textile mills. and of
engineers for operating the machinery,
is a work that is now being profitably
done in several industrial schools Of
the South, and the curriculums Of these
institutions are liberal enough to prove
of value to the practical and theoreti-
cal workers in the fields.
There are practically only two we'll
equipped cotton trade schools in the
South to-day, but they are the begin
ming of q group of institutions that
have been planned land must eventu-
ally spring up all over the cotton belt)
for the technical training of students
in spinning, weaving carding and de-
signing. The oldest and first of these
cotton trade-schools Is connected with
the Georgia School of Technology, at
Atlanta, and it is so complete in all
departments that it presents to the stu
dents the very latest and most i'm
proved features of mill construction,
and gives thorough course in all de-
partments % cotton manufacture and
textile spinning and designing. This
school was first opened in the season
of 1S9S-99, and it Is called "The A.
French Textile School," because of
the endowment of Aaron French, of
Pitts3urg, who made good the defici-
ency of funds necessary to secure the
$4,000 appropriation OF the State on
the condition that like sum should
be raised by the friends of the insti-
tuition. The school is pretty thorough
ly equipped for the work 1t has in
view, and it will give to the South in
few years crop of earnest, edu-
Gated. skilled textile experts that
should greatly broaden the cotton
manufacturing industry of that sec
tion.
The other textlle-school of the South
is the Clemson College Textile School,
which opened nearly two years ago,
at Clemson, South Carolina, for the
purpose Of supplying that State with
more experts in textile manufactur-
ing. This school aims to supply n
general training for students wishing
to engage In manufacturing wool,
silk, and linen products. In the Geor-
gia school the aim is simply to train
experts for cotton weaving and de-
signing. The equipment of the South
Carolina institution is also complete
enough to give the students a thor
ough practical mill and laboratory ex-
perience. The carding and spinning
departments are as thorough as could
be desired. and the dyelng and weav-
ing departments have no superior
Here the latest methods are taught
according to the most approved sys-
TENS, and the students are brought
into daily contact with the best work
men the country affords.
The idea of both OF these textile
schools is to provide the students with
a broader understanding of the tex