The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-01
W. E. CHRISTIAN ON VIRGINIA"
AT GREAT ATLANTA BANQUET
Opening of the piedmont - the Occasion of Great
Speech From This Popular Rail
road Official,

in the late census with the same interest
and thrill which / found in my boyhood
in the pages of Ivanhoe, because | love
my State and my people-because in these
figures | see the weeping of the night
vanishing before the Joy of the morning.
| must not stop here; in the Southern
State wage earners in the cotton manu-
factories numbered in 1870 1918; in
1880 16 741: in 1890, 36.416; in 1900, % $50.
IN the New England States these wage
earners numbered in 1870 94475; in 1880,
1927. 1855: in 1890, 147 359: in 1900, 1884
From ten thousand to ninety-seyen thou
sand in the Southern States since 1870,
and in the New England States from 94,-
600 to 164 600. Since 1890 from $4,000 to
~ 600 i'm the Southern States and in the
New England States from 147 600 to 1884,
600 Could the dear old dodgers OF the
Revolution have beaten it?
From the census of 1900 find that the
growth of the cotton industry OF the
South is the one great fact in it's history
during the past ten years. In 1880 there
were one hundred and sixty-one estab-
lishments: in 1890 there were two nun
dred and thiPty-nine, an increase OF Is
or 4S4 per cent; and in 1900 there were
four hundred separate establishments, an
increase from 1890 of 161 or GA per cent.
A scrutiny of the returns by States shows
that substantially the whole increase IN
the South has been in the four States OF
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia
and Alabama. The number of establish
ments in these four States was ll9 in
1880, 191 in 1890. and 355 in 1900 In the
decade of 1880 to 1880 the number OF
spindles in these four Southern States in
creased almost tWo-fold from 422 S07 to
/ 1876 256, and the average number OF
spindles to the mill increased from 3,ooo
to 6,25S From 1890 to 1900 the progress
has been at even a greater ratio; the
total number of spindles being 3,791,65f,
an increase of 1856, 1893, or 217 per cent,
the average number of spindles to the
mill being 10, 651. These four States con-
sumo nearly one-third of the cotton crop
grown within their borders, and North
Carolina and South Carolina spin more
than half the cotton grown within their
limits. 1t is proper to state that the
Cotton Exposition in Atlanta in 1881 gave
the industry an imputus which it has
never since lost The possibilities OF
the region were shown when the Governor
of Georgia appeared at the exposition
dressed in a suit of clothes made of
cottonade manufactured in the grounds
from cotton which had been picked from
the stalk on the morning Of the same
day in sight of the visitors to the Fair.
These spindles in Southern mills have
increased from $4,000 in 1880 to 1928 1888
in 1900 and the bales of cotton used have
increased from 205,000 to 1,477,7 within
the decade from 1880 to 1890. The capital
invested in cotton manufactures in 1900
in the United States was $3.50, S42 .772, an
increase over 1890 of 302 per cent. in
the New England States 1912. SOS, 914. an
increase over 1890 of '121 per cent. In
the Southern States 1924, 532, S65, an in
crease of 1914 per cent
| will not continue further with these
figures: they tell the same story for
iron and lumber. What shall we say of
the showing? Shall we not say that the
South, for which Virginia has stood for
the type and l might say, the sponsor.
has addressed itself to the problems for
the last thirty years with result worthy
of the men who met the problems of their
own times in the different eras of the
South's history? That after all is what
should give us heart. If we need men of
technical education we are getting them
as fast as the conditions of the situation
will allow. 1t must be remembered that
the promoters of most of our manufac-
lures are Southern men, educated before
the days of technical education in the
South. l recall one a soldier on Jackson's
staff, who was shot at Charlottesville,
and who went back to his farm lame for
life. A swift stream ran near by, that
had been unused in all the years. Not
many years ago he constructed partly
with his own hands. an unambitious little
mill. run by the water-power from this
stream. His children were in the nur-
sery, under the big trees up at the home
place. This mans fortitude remained the
same as that which gave him distinction
in the battle which took his leader away
from the South on that fateful 3rd of
| May. He it was who, when the litter
bearers. shot down by the enemy had
left the great leader thrown upon the
ground stretched his own body over that
of his chieftain. To me this silent act
of heroism down in the jungle of Chan
cellorsville. in the dead of night, was
nevertheless luminous with the splendor
of the sun. 1t is not known, because this
man has never thought to speak of it,
except within the circle of his own fami-
ly. He it was who kept running the
| little mill while his children went to
school One of them graduated at the Ag-
ricultural and Mechanical College of
North Carolina and is now an expert
cotton mill man, and has returned homo
and taken charge of the establishment
which was put on it's feet under the cir
| cumstances detailed above. This is one
instance in which a citizen of the South
has applied himself to new condition with
the courage of his forefathers, one oG
them, by the way, having been a general
in the Revolutionary army and signer
of the NIecklenburg independence. And
there are thousands of them.
1t is true that fully one-half of all
the persons that work in the South are
engaged in agricultural pursuits. the pro-
portion in South Carolina being nearly
seven tenths and more than three-ffth
in North Carolina. in Georgia, and yet
these are three of the four States which
stand practically for the cotton manufac-
ture Of the South. But this fact is real
tied and is being met. Your Technilogi-
cal School in Georgia is taxed to its Ut
most. the Agricultural and Mechanical
&c Nyorth CaroI;pa ca T0raei,1ap+