The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-10-26

should be homo in mind that this is hut a
very small part of the cotton-lnanufacturing
interest that is represented. There are
living in Charlotte at the present time the
presidents of no fewer than forty cotton
mills that arc located here or scattered
about the surrounding country
Here in Charlotte he mills are all operated
by steam, the smokeless Pocahontas Goa
for the most part being used; but in the
surrounding country water power is almost
exclusively used. The water power of the
Piedmont country for hundreds of miles
around cannot lie surpassed Anywhere in
the world, and ii is this fact which has
CONVEX ed this part Of North Carolina int o
the great teelning hive Of manufacturing
Industry that it has become.
POOR WHITES BENEFITED.
The great benefits that have come TO
this part of the Stale from the wonderful
development Of this business are by no
means confined TO the cities They reach
out into remote regions, where, in reality,
the beneficial effects upon the population
are greater than in tho cities themselves.
The operatives in the cotton factories are
all whites, and their ranks are recruited
from tine poor whites, an isolated and
stranded race who. In the days long before
| the war, descended 70 a grade in the social
scale that practically was beneath that of
the NJ groes themselves.
Their ignorance was Of density past
compro hension. They lived in mental
atmosphere. the horizon OF which was little
beyond the narrow area covered by their
five senses.
Their homes were squalid bowels; their
food of the coarsest and poorest. Reading
| and writing were as much beyond the SCOPE
| Of their ambition as calculus.
To these people the cotton factory has
| been an indispensable blessing. II has
| brought them out OF misery and soualor
| into plenty and comfortable homes and
! lothny.
Their children are learning to read, and
| the school for the first time IL within reach
| And through the country in the milling
| centres there are settlements of them which,
as compared with their colonies of the
past are as light is to darkness
TIE MorSTAINEERs
They arc not To bc confused in the mind,
| these people, with the mount aineers. The
latter are another and far nobler type:
| they are the tittest of tho poor whites of
| long ago ante-bellun DAYS, those who got
| away from the sordid life which poverty
| in a white man meant when he was in con-
| tact with overwhelming slave labor.
The strong people, who were poor. those
strong in physique, character and native
intelligence, went TO the mountains and
those Of their descendants who have found
or made opportunities for themselves have
| developed into fine types Of American
| manhood.
Those who remained behind in the low.
| lands and tho foothills left the descendants
who now are prof'ing by this latter-day
development Of industrial enterprise In
the State.
coon ROADS.
Rut In other Wavs the wake Of this rising
| tide Of prosperity is leaving it's visible
mark In monuments that are destined TO
be OF lasting endurance. In the matter
| OF good roads alone, that great clvlhzinc
| and .nlightening factor in rural life, Tn,
| progress that has been made la Meckl.n-
| burg county and elsewhere within the
last fifteen years IL little short OF marvellous
In that time over IO0 miles Of macadam-
| lied roads have been built and paid for In
| Mecklenburg county alone at a cost of over
S2Soc The lines are still pushing Oh
and on, further aud further into the COIN
| try from the great centres Of industry and
| the time Is nnt faS distant when the whole
OF this beautiful Piedmont region will he
| covered by network Of ~ fine roads as
faro to DO found anywhere in the entire
| county.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
Aside from its attractions a. a groet in