The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-24
FIRST BLEACHERY FOR
 COTTON GOODS IN SOUTH
Sign Seen at Lanett Which Marks Not Only an Industrial Enterprise. But Tells of an
 Epoch in History as We'll.

were Northern arguments. The work just couldn't be done in the South, t was contended. The water was too hard or it was too soft. Something was the matter with 1t. Something was wrong with the climate, It was too damp or it was too dry. And last of all the old time clinching argument was brought fofth--there was no skill ed labor in the South.
 The brick structure built along the track of the Western Railroad in the face of all these claims is full and suf- ficient answer to all these arguments It can bleach daily some 25,o00 yards of goods and do in a modern and ex- pert manner second to none in the country.
 It is above ard beyond an experiment now. For eight years it has been op- erated--a successful dividend paying institution. One more successful bleachery has been established in the South at point in North Carolina. Tho Lanett bleachery, however. is the point of interest to the Southern man. ufacturer of cotton goods who. wants some part of the output of his mill turned Into bleaching. From practical ly every Southern State cotton piece goods come here from the Lanett pro- cess. There Is now no doubt about the suitability of the water, the desirabil- ity of the climate and the skill of the labor of the South so far as a suc- cessful bleachery Is concerned.
 Skilled Labor Aplenty.
 To bark back to the old cry of the unskilled labor of the South. I got from L. Lanicr. the president of the va ried industries about here some con vincing thoughts on this question. about which so much has been said and written in the North.
 Tn the matter of labor" said Mir. Lanier, "the cotton mills of the South are today right where the mills of New England were fifty years ago. I mean by that, the South has the best mill labor in America. For fifty years ago mills in New England were operated by native Americans, men and women, boys and girls No people on earth make better mill operatives than the native Americans. But the labor of New England has steadily retrograded. The mills there by degrees lost their native employees. Their places were taken by foreigners. by emigrants with out the intelligence and without the energy of the native-born Americans"
 Just now and, for years to come the natives are doing the work in the Southern mills. Somehow it seems to just suit them. They take to it na- turally. The Southern natives seem to have a knack, a peculiar understand ing of the machinery in the cotton mills"
 They have, too. the patience and determination which is so lacking in the foreign-born employees and which IS especially lacking in the negro For this same reason negroes never have and never will be successful mill op- eratives. Some time ago I had a bright negro boy employed about one Of our mills in a place that paid him a neat little sum every week. After a short while he quit and loafed around the streets. I asked him why he spent his time in likeness when he could earn good money at the mill.
 "oh, de money wuz all right" he said, ''but dat work at de mill ain't onregular enough to suit me-" G
 This represents the attitude of the negro race to the work in the cotton mills, daily constant task with some- what long hours. The negro wants no such work as that and he won't have It."
 This pioneer bleachery of the South was put up in 1895. The men who sus- tained the undertaking went about their enterprise cautiously. They sent of the water of the Chatta- hoochee to New York to be analysed to find out if the water was suitable for use in bleachery. The New York experts sent a favorable reply, but the which was building the bleachery decided to make the enter prise permanent and enduring insti- tuition. Wherefore several fine artesian wells were bored in the bleachery yard.
 Financially considered the bleachery was no epoch making enterprise. It was built at no big cost, when com pared to some cotton mills. It Is not able by reason of it's unusualness and by reason of its being the first of it's kind, a fact which marked an era in the cotton goods manufacturing busi- ness of the South
 InnuguratlnE the MiIl
 The original cost of the bleachery and the dye works, this latter being a twin enterprise under the same roof, was $100.000. The officers of the com pany which ventured that sum in the pioneer undertaking are W. II. Vel ington. President; l.. Lanier, Vice President, and J. E. Gale( Secretary md Treasurer. To superintend the | mill, to look after the rather Intricate l machinery and the rather delicate | work within the bIeachery the com | ,any secured P. J. McNamara of Maine, | m expert in that sort of an industry. |
 In addition to the bleachery and dye | works yarn and twlne making plant