The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-12-21
FOREIGN OPERATIVES FOR
SOUTH CAROL INA COTTON MILLS.
IA Number OF Emigrants Are Al
ready at Work in Up Country
Mills and Are Giving
Great Satisfaction.
Brought in TO Repiaee Native Help Who
Quit TO Grow Ten Gent Gotten.
ADyEErtsE NBn TT:
By 6. w. Mccaw.

Columbia, Dec. 1.-THE scarcity
of cotton mill labor, due TO the high
price OF cotton drawing the present
help back 60 the farms, has led to
systematic effort on the part of the
cotton mill homogeneous Of this state
to draw in foreign help to make up
the deiciency. Already this help is
being brought to the leading cotton
mill centres of the up country. Three
mills in Greenville alone have taken
twenty-five families each OF Germans
and Poles, and more are to come as
RAPIDLY as this help can become skill
ed in the work. President Orr Of the
Piedmont mill is now making an eff
fort to get colony Of SCOTS to make
mp the deficiency exising in his mill.
Mr.. Lewis w. Parker, President OF
a number of mills here and IN Green
Vile, in conversation with your cor"
respondent today, exressed entire sat-
nisfaetion with the experiment being
made IN Greenville. The mill man
agements there are delighted with the
sseadiness and reliability of the new
help, and tbe foreigners, many of
whom are well educated, seem to be
pleased with their surroundings ard
new work. Mr. Parker thinks that
eventually foreign help will be brought
80 the cotton mills generally through
out the state. The cotton mill owners
have NO objections to the present
neIp, they are drawing In the foreign
help merely to Ell in." The only
fault they have to find with the kind
of help they have been having the last
several years, which has come largely
from the farms, is its present scar
city.
The strain of the cotton mill man.
agements is to keep their whole plants
always running on full time, this is
their only hope OF paying dividends.
It is a naturally serious condition
then that one third of sine spindles
are lying idle in this state today, on ac-
count of an insufficiency Of help. This
statement rs made on the authority
of Commissioner Of immigration Wat
sr. who has been called Epo1 to in
yestigate the situation. He says this
condit tion prevails generally through
ont the south. and he does not doubt
that foreign help will be'dEawn to the
mills throughout the cotton belt.
Alabama, Louisiana and Texas mills
have already taken much Of the South
Carolina help in spite of the iramIgfa-
tion agent law, which it is impossible
to enforce.
Jt has been stated that this new
belp was brought here through the
pew Bureau of Immigration: this was
denied and in the denial 1t was said
Jhat the Southern Railways land and
industrial department. has assisted the
mills to this help As matter Of fact
the Greenyiile mills secured this help
entirely independent of either the
South Carolina immigration bureau
or the Southern railways land and
Industrial department.. Although it is
not unlikely that the immigration
bureau will be called upon to lend
assistance IN this direction In the
near future.
Immigration to South Carolina is
only beginning, but the immigration
hurean and the railroads are not the
only factors bringing it about. Editor
Edmunds OF the Manufacturers Re-
cord in recent address at Clemson
college surprised many of those who
bad been studying the statistics along
that line by his statement that South
Carolina has up to the present time
been sending away many more people
that she has been taking in. Enough
people from this State have sought
homes elsewhere in the past few de-
cades to populate state of this size:
The fact that real estate agencies had
confined their operations to the locali-
ties in which they were situsted is
party responsible for this condition
largely so, IN the opinion Of the rail
road people. A number Of real estate
agencies III various parts of the state
have changed their methods in this
respect in the past year and the rail-
road people say. they are feeling the
results on all sides.