The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-16
Product of Plant at
 Alexander City.
Knitting Min h TaiIspoesa County Finds Market h East for Its
 Output ef Ladies' Light
 Weight Usderwear.
By Bruce Kennedy.

from Alexander City to NeW nn&iaHu.
 The laurel has been wrested from the brow of Lowell. Alabama is ship ping cotton goods to the country that pre- -empted the cotton goods industry a half century ago. Alabama Is com ing into it's own.
 This is one of the things I learned up here in this interesting hill country of Alabama.
 When I went into the mill of the Russell Manufacturing Company seek ing w. M. Dress, the Superintendent. I was directed to the shipping room. found Mir. Dress, marking pot in hand, labelling huge cases of ladies un- derwear. He had just written Nc Keesport, Pa" Surprise was express ed as I shook his hand that an Ala bama factory was shipping it's product to the great manufacturing section of our country.
 "why, that is our market" explained MT. Dress. We ship our goods to Pennsylvania, Massachusetts. Connecti- | cut, Vermont and all of New England. and they take all we can manufacture. Of course we find a market in Ala bama and nearer home, but we have a steady patronage and q steady de- mand for our underwear in the East. '" Making Cotton Underwear. The Russell Manufacturing Company  dies light. weight cotton underwear, principally undervests. While the plant is equipped for the manufacture of the finest grades of cotton under wear it is found to be more profitable l to turn out the cheapest grades because so much more of the cheap material 1 is sold This factory is knitting 100 dozen ladies' undervests daily. They are of the quality that is sold by the factory at from 6s cents to s1.25 dozen. They are the vests that women shoppers see on bargain counters marked down to 10 cents a garment. Several grades of vests are made here. They range from the perfectly plain garments with braided neck band and hemstitched sleeves to the gar ment with showy lace about the neck band. The body of all of the gar nents is of the same material al- though often of different patterns. The difference in price and quality Is fixed by the difference in trimmings.
 Six toi eight cases of vests, sixty dozen vests to the case, are shipped from the factory daily: There have been times when car load of these cotton vests have been hauled away from Alexander City but this is un- usual as the Russell factory Is not large one.
 All of the working material used in this Alabama knitting mill comes from the South except the fine thread ard the faces and braids used in finishing. The thread comes from Amsterdam N. Y and the iaces and braids from Bos- ton. The cotton yarn is manufactured at Anniston and is purchased by yearly contract. The neat posteboard boxes into which the underwear Is packed by the dozen pieces for display by retail CTS, are manufactured in Atlanta and Chattanooga.
 The plant of the Russell Company is situated one-half mile west of Alex ander City and near the main line of the Central of Georgia Railroad. The main building. a low one story brick structure. 90 by 105 feet, resembles cotton miN There is also a bleaching house, a drying house and a machinery room. When the factory was establish ed about three years ago, the main building was constructed of wood It grew to be such an important industry that more substantial home was needed. Customers were clamoring for the product of the mill and work could not be stopped to remove machinery and tear down the plant. The problem was solved by building brick structure around the wooden structure. When the wooden building had been encased in brick and a slate roof had been laid the wood was torn out ana there stood brick plant completed without the loss of an hour by the mill operatives.
 Forty Persons Employed.
 The mill operates twenty body frame knitting machines thirteen sleeve knit ting machines and fifteen finishing machines. Forty men and women are employed, mostly women. The thirty three knitting machines are automatic and are cared for by three men. two knitters and one machinist. The finish ing machines are much like the ordinary domestic sewing machines and each of them is operated by a girl It IS on these machines that the gar ments are stitched braided and laced after they have passed the cutters, the bleachers and the classiriers.
 All of the labor is paid by the piece, and 1t is said that the women employed here are much better paid than the average of cotton mill employees. Girls in the finishing department average from thirty to seventy dozen vests day, and they earn from seventy-five cents to $3 each for working day of ten hours. Nose of these girls are natives of Tallapoosa county, although few expert workwomen have been brought here from the knitting mills of the Carolinas.
 The knitting machines are fed by balls of yarn and the machines knit an end less chain of body material which Is cut to proper length after the body material has passed through bleach ing, a drying and a pressing process.
 The capacity of each one of these knitting machines is twenty-five dozen vests 6 day.
 The season begins with the cotton knitting trade on June 1. Since last June, and up to April 14, the Russell Company has shipped 1.23o cases of la dies vests, or 73, 800 dozen ladies vests. The stock room Is now filled and looks Ike the salesroom of a big Jobbing house
 Owned by Alabama Men.
 The Russell Manufacturing Company is owned by two Tallapoosa County boys, Ben Russell and T. c. Russell. They are young men and they are set ting an example of what young men of Alabama with the proper foundation. may accomplish. Their father came out of the hills of TaMapoosa and establish ed a mercantile business at Alexander City when Alexander City was ono of the infant towns on the new railroad that ran from Birmingham to Opelika. The elder Russell grew with Alexander City.
 The Russell brothers established the First National Bank of Alexander City. and Ben Russell is now its President. Without any knowledge of the knit ting business the Russell boys estab- lished this factory about three years ago. They had money to invest and they learned that a knitting plant In North Carolina was for sale. They pur- chased the plant and removed 1t to Alexander City. Then they showed