Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-04-15
EMPLOYMENT AND DIVIDENDS.

A number Of Yorkville citizens were
treated to an interesting talk last We'd
nesday night by Mr.. ]. ]. Littlejohn of
Jonesville, S. c., on the subject Of the
knitting mill as a town builder and
dividend payer.
Mr.. Littlejohn was here at the spe-
cial invitation Of Messrs. w. B. Moore,
w. I. Witherspoon and ]. Brown Neil,
who have for some time past been In
vestigating the knitting mill question
with a view to investing. and at their
request he kindly gave the people pres
ent the benefit of his experience.
At the outset Of his remarks, Mr..
Littlejohn took occasion to explain
| that he was not public speaker, and
that he did not claim to be much OF
mill man.; but that his experience
had been such as to convince him that
| there Is no question Of the fact that
we'll managed knitting mill is bound
to prove a paying investment.
He commenced the knitting mill
business at Jonesville, he said, under
all kinds Of disadvantages, and he had
made a success of 1t from the jump
| It is successful now, and he had every
reason to believe 1t would continue to
be successful, as all the mills that are
engaged on the kind Of product on
which he is working have never been
able to supply the demand.
Among the peculiar advantages or
the knitting mill as town builder. he
said, is the fact that by far the greater
part Of the expense Of production Is
charged to the labor account, and in
the second place the labor must neces-
sarily be of such a high. and intelligent
class as to command good wages. He
said that employed in his mill there
are a number Of ladies who have given
up teaching and clerking because Of
the better pay. and they are able to
make from 81 to 50 a day each.
reason Of the failure Of the mill at
Blacksburg, and he said that there
was no doubt Of the fact that the trou-
BILE was due entirely to a mistake In
putting in the wrong kind Of machinery
to begin with. The machines were
simply incapable of turning out pro-
duct that could be sold profitably IN
competition with the product OF bet
ter grade Of machines.
Another important matter to which
the speaker called attention Is the fact
that knitting mill operatives do not
move about like cotton mill operatives,
and that the necessary help can be OBJ
tained only by training local people to
the work. On this account 1t Is not
advisable to attempt to start operations
with a larger plant than say about
fifty machines: but at the same time
the plant should be constructed with
n view to enlarging to 200 machines
so soon as it should become practicable
to use so many.
Mr.. Littlejohn was asked number
Of questions as to details, and gave
comprehensive and satisfactory an
swers in all cases. He stated that
about $4,000 would be about all that
would be necessary to put first-clas
knitting mill in operation in Yorkville,
and that the plant could afterward be
increased to 200 machines with $4,000
capital.
Those present were very much In
terested in Mr.. Littlejohn's talk and
a test Of sentiment developed subscrip-
tions to the amount Of about $4,000.
1t Is understood that determined
effort will be made to raise the full
amount of capital stock required-$32,-
000 and there seems to be good reason
to believe that there should be no SER
ious difficulty about the matter.