The Cook County herald., 1904-05-21
= - Y n q. $780,.
Industry a Civil
izin9 Force 49,
The Helpful Influence Of
the Southern Cotton Mills
Amon9 the Workers. s-.,s.
Am0n9 the Workers. s..>s.

AmOll8 lllC WORKERS. Ss'eS
At the outset of the recent cotton man.
utac cturing movement in the South ten
negroes as mill hands. 1t was Short
lived experiment, abandoned as futile by
almost &C., common 9Ir.c agreement. The Pied
less. irregular toilers, as adverse to sys-
tematic labor as the negroes, were not
inaccurately regarded and described by
proved also to be almost as unteachable
and unreliable as the negroes. It be-
same a3 y; necessary therefore, to seek for
lessly the mill owners turned their eyes
to the hills. From that section came the.
help upon which they have since largely
become mill hands was the appeal of the
despairing mill owners for help to a race
OF natives for the most part penniless,
squalld, of industry not ascertained, i'm
proVldent of time, without method, hope
less, ignorant and having no future in
view for themselves or their children
more inspiring than their own cheerless
Very slow at first was the response
from from tn the hills: A few men .ventured to.
come down out OF the mountains and take
hold. They learned the simplest processes,
earned few dollars. were advanced to.
more difficult and remunerative tasks,
went nome with the report of what they
had accomplished. and came back with
recruits eager to earn the first dollars in
reauy neWs money money they had eyer received. The
afire With it. Like fever n! spread plreas "b the
tTon5glng To54 tH to earn money; The very children
2ang of regret, the mountaineers left the
uesoiate. one-roomed cabins along the
ttGbnery tbaiay mountain road, where they and
and er frone ancestors had alternately starved
sWarmed into what to them was a land
Ht iirapd prGmise, IN &C. into what to those who had
crowded mill Villages. TheV Thg came NJ Gn into me
new world. The Insightly milf a' shanties a1tI q
tsy tssy @ and unin7 7iting as they may appear to-
models of convenience and comnapetfue mn pe4fRle
attractiveness. The exodus, made m
ttIhrgely thns OF people of their own class. like
crowd of Jealous searchers after @
nmire Gines; IA an hg eager to earn wages and to ac-
aGH the abor 5st ii time rdd the
might gain from it share of the oreett
worlds wealth. e'0"'
ua1S The III ignorant Sa hill people, now mill
civilization. They cid not know it n Thev ~
would have not believed it if thew hs9
vent esn maqcbnr aHaq 51 but they had they
ce;sslon' ;' blindly, with a sort of uncon-
sclous SC ,aS; origina! ina native pride, but still
MAKE them This forward move did not
dressed, wisely or well-fed relieioas' opeoiy mory
a., tasteful. hopeful, confident beings
thn 1ut IT tGid on them 50 positively that
women was too great to escape observa-
llons. because upon none has the intro
duction of higher civilization told more
Hhmlstakably, and it may be hoped bene-
nclally, than upon the women who came
down from the hills to tend the spindles.
got was 5o6 not II l4hg }6g i after the hl
conscious Of deficiencies in her dress.
She saw enough of more civilized women
eve even IN IN the mills, to know that she was
Cho
told that her sunbonnet would not do.
that her one piece frock made her look
nke 1rlght, that underclothing. how
pensable If outer clothing was to be kept
clean: that she must tidy up her hair.
drop snuft, and quit smoking a pipe.
mil When they We're of years too tender
and OF intelligence too undeveloped to be
the dee the
to. gain wisdom and confidence. Mere
infants, scarcely out of the maternal
arms arms: f6und t6a .,oa1, employment in the mills
their parents and upon the mill-owners
drea tRs Mas b9 of s rfv chill d
tolerated the practice, or impress the '
of 6Ga controlled do by spft
its most Objectionable features. The
fever to learn and to earn burned in old
sndyySt and young ga alike; And the hill children
with the white, children of their neigh
b9rhood; found that among the poor
sakag xais sehod CT tss Ss1
we're woefully deficient, having had i"tS to
schooins noo4 "a at ;aa all Little by little. as
of their young, and also became con-
scous Of desire that they should at
easne of the ehdren 'o of
mill workers found their way-often re-
luctant to give up work-into the schools
and began to pick up the rudiments of an
with the life and ha bits of the hill peo-
Rs %oe ooas eaas @ ans fcr~ard Sss1as SR Hf
promising to lift an ignorant, proud and
despised but independent, .peaceable,
passab]y Industrious. and ambitious por-
ton of the community out of the de-
grading existence into which generations
of them had sunk, have felt satisfa ction
brief period of about ten years it has
not been possible to demonstrate it's un-
qualified beneficence; But slow as has
of hardship, personal distress, and fail
ure of mistaken ambition and folly as
it has been,. and as it may continue to be,
the demand for labor that has drawn
down from the mountains an increasing
number of people from year to year. to be
introduced to new and strange conditions
Of life. to toll and to learn in the mill
country, is believed by many philan-
thropic observers to have been very ad-
vantageous to those who have shared
in the movement.
In time. when the tasks of the mill Ia
borers shall have been lightene6 by con-
siderate corporations. when shorter hours,
higher wages. hot lunches: better schools,
libraries. social assemblies: and other
civi]zng surroundings shall have been
provided in larger measure, the mill
workers of the South will realize the ad-
vantages that the philanthropist now sees
awaiting them. At present their lot is
hard. possibly because of some circum-
stances insepara BILE from exacting work
at low wages, from mill conditions that
cannot suddenly be mitigaIted.-E. G.
Dunnell, in Gunton's Magazine.
His Veracity Was Admirable.
Once number of kindred spirits were
enjoying O. supper in the land of Burns
When the cloth was removed and the
usual toasts were proposed some one sug-
gested song. The efforts of tie