The age-herald., 1902-02-16
CONDUCTED BY B. ". BRUMLEY
GROWTH OF
 TEXTILE WORKER.

It is interesting to note the progress being made by the organization of Tex tile Workers for the betterment of the workers in the textile industries, both North and South.
 A national organization of these work CTS with utilization with the American Federation of Labor was only formed last year, and delegates were accepted at the last convention at Scranton. The organization consists of the workers in cotton factories and knitting mills and their strides forward have been rapid and we'll taken. Quite a foothold has been secured in the Carolinas, particular ly North Carolina, the Charlotte district being compactly organized. This starting point is mentioned as the organization of these workers from there. South is of the greatest interest to those persons interested in the cotton factory hands and child labor of the South
 The cotton mills were presumably but study Vf the manner in which they were brought and the conditions that have been produced among many of the people is interesting. The location of factory was much a question of the highest bidder and promoters and land speculators were ever found active in creating a sentiment of progressiveness and imbuing the public mind with the great advantages to the farming classes where the cotton mill was brought to the patch A few mills were actually carried to the patch but most of them were To- cated in the suburbs of boom cities where when the poor workers get through with the pluckings of the operators and pro- motors their meager pay will scarcely suffice to keep soul and body, with the meanest raiment. together.
 The result has been financially satIs- factory to the operators. but 1t has pro- duced condition among the workers from over toll and long suffering has resolve to alleviate this condition through organization where the benefits of organization are understood
 The condition of the textile workers are little understood, and if told in cold black type would probably create a furore The ills and discomforts that come from long and incessant toll. meagre pay, poor housing, lack of schooling life and re- creation, want of churches and entertain ment, and last and most necessary inde- pendence, are all theirs The contrary is the exception and not the rule, partic- ular in Alabama. 1t has been charged, and rightfully, before committees consid- ering child labor questions-which if proper legislation were secured would be big step toward the alleviation of tex tile workers-that the employees were ig- norant and unskilled. majority were recruited from the cotton fields by tempt ing promises to be realized in the years to come, and the glamor of community life, and a lack of knowledge as to their fate. others to shift for a day, and others to become skilled workers, which many think may be possible under the present system of conducting textile workers. They are first robbed of all independence, planted in company houses, often fed company's will. The result is that the spirit of organization has hard ground to work over, but the Textile Workers or- ganization is making headway.
 Mother Jones, that noted woman who has devoted her life to the interest of the organization of labor and to the betterment of the conditions of the work CTS, and whose penchant seems to be the factory workers, came to Birmingham a few years ago and spent considerable time in the Avondale mills working as a weaver and trying to lay ground plans for an organization, but the time was not ripe: yet many of the facts that she made known have been most useful in the work now progressing.
 Where there is a disposition for better pay and better conditions the competition of other factories adverse to all these things often retards all attempts for rem edy. Organization will cause a uniformi- ty in prices and as fast as foothoids are gained in the large and influential mills, the work will become more easy as the cOmDetenCy, output and i'm proved ma- chinery win be the ingredients of success f..l