The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-14
SOUTHERN PROGRESS
rxpANsroN or THE COTTON MANU-
 FACTURING IsDUsTRY.
The Most strilEisg Phrase of the Ineas- trial Renalssance and Growth sx Tkfs section h the Past
 I've Decades. @


 Baltimore. Oct. 1a~-(speciai;) )--Ex- pansion of cotton manufacturing in the South is, perhaps, the most striking phase of the industrial renaissance and growth of that section in the past twenty five years. One oe the most Interesting features of the textile tn- dustry is the practical interest mani-
 Tested by mill managements in the education and the material comfort ana welfare of their employees. This in It's varied forms is without parallel in the history of the industry elsewhere. ana probably without parallel in the history of any other industry anywhere. Tn many respects the situation In theSoutn is unique.
 While many cotton mills are but ad- ditions to the wealth creating activities l of cities and towns, many others are ! beyond corporate limits, or constitute | individual communities of their own. | Hence, it is found that in some cases the operatives are merely indistinguish- | able units in a population with many I lines of occupation, and in others form with their employers self-dependent groups. The result is a social condt- tion varying according to different localities and inducing divergent edu- cationaI manifestations. Types of these are presented through succfnct and au- thoritative statements from the men most interested in furthering education in their respective cities, towns and vif- lages, published in this weeks issue of the Manufacturers' Record which in summary says:
 "A statement made to the South Caro- line Legislature two years ago. based upon returns from s5 of IF miles in the State, showed that in addition to pay ing more than s50.o00 in taxes. the mills were giving annually more than $27,000 for schools in buildings furnish ed by the companies at cost of about | $S5,000, and that they had expended more than $s0,000 toward the building of churches in the mill villages. Minute study of the contribution with which that statement dealt would have reveal ed for South Carolina the manifold shapes which such contributions take | in all the distinctive cotton manufact- l uring States of the South. Character | istic facts are these:
 "A North Carolina mill built and | equipped about fifteen years ago a
 schoolhouse for the operatives, and has l since that time furnished the school for
 ten months in the year entirely free with the exception that books and
 stationery are sold to encourage the
 pupils to take care of them. Till last | ycdE tHG AuAli th duuAtlOh tO phytu6 | taxes for the common school fund, met | all of the expenses of this school It 1 then arranged with the school board, of which the superintendent of the mill | and one of the operatives are members. l to make a school district of the village,
 and it is ready to supplement the school fund so that the school term of ten
 menths may be maintained. Another I company in the same State erected a school building at a cost of $6,000 or l $7.000 to accommodate 40 pupils, and supplements the common school fund with a donation sufficient to guarantee 1 an eight months term. In a group of three mills in Georgia the common
 management expended S10,000 in build ing and equipping schools, and provides | heating and lighting and janitor ser- vice, in addition to supplementing the l public school fund. Stockholders of q | mill company in South Carolina are
 building and eauipping a club house | CT baths, reception rooms, class rooms.
 etc., for the operatives at a cost of $l0,- | 900.
 Tn an Alabama town, in the absence of
 adequate facilities. the mill built a | schoolhouse for its own children and
 ran 1t independly for three years. In
 1901 the mill village and the town were l made special school district, and the company contributes enough to insure
 an eight months term. It, moreover,
 has established a free library and
 amusement hall for it's employees. One
 Mississippi mill has asked permission
 to enter the children of its employees | in schools of a nearby town, and has | offered to pay the town for the privi- | lege. A few other facts may be thus | condensed: School building on mill property built by the mill partly SUD-
 ported by State funds for seven years;
 schoolhouse furnished to the mill | which adds to State and County funds
 from $1,00O to $15,00 year for its sup port; between $1,000 and $15,00 contri-
 may be open nine months; the school
 supported by a mill, the only graded | school in the country, and the only pub lie school having a longer term than | four months; school run by the mill | independently of county or town; grad
 ed school of the town furnished a build
 ing free of charge by the mill; free tu- ition given all employees children be- tween the ages of six and twelve years; $15,0O added by a mill to the district
 school appropriation to build and equip
 an up-ro-date house; help urged to
 avail themselves of the opportunity
 for schooling. and extra help employed l to permit operatives disposed to study
 to attend school One mill president
 writes that he does not know of a
 single mill in his section not contri-
 outing to schools from It's private
 funds. and another Is convinded by
 personal observation Shat one will find
 that nine mills out of ten in the South ern States maintain schools for the
 benefit of children of the operatives.
 As has been noted, 1t is not alone in provision for schools that the spirit of
 the mill owners Is displayed. In some places, where the comparative can
 tiness of population would not Justi- fly a church building for every denomi-
 nation represented among the opera | tives, a union church Is provided by the
 mills, where services for the different
 denominations are enjoyed in regular course. In other places the mills are foremost in encouraging the building
 of churches by giving sites and by con- | tributing toward erection of the build
 ing and aiding generously in the sup | port of the ministries, while the fami- | lies of the magnates are represented | among the Sunday school teachers and l in other religious and philanthropic work Families of operatives are given
 medical facilities by mills. Kinder gardens and play grounds are maintain | ed for infants, while older children and men and women have their free libraries
 halls for lectures and other entertain ment. and in one NoFth Carolina town | the mill sees that a baseball team is l ,raIt supnorted Several thousand doI-