The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-01
GREENSBORO GREAT TOWN FOR OVERALLS Gigantic Strides Made By North
 Carolina City MILLS ARE BIS FACTOR Sketch of the Men Who Have Helped to Make the City creat-Never
 Bothered By Labor
 Troubles.
MILLS ARE Bl6 FACTOR
FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.


 Greensboro, N. C.. September, 1s07.- Looking over a battlefield where conti- mental troops in buff and blue grappled with scarlet coated Britons for Amer ican independence is an inspiration, but the true American will be no less thrilled by the sight of acres and acres of looms weaving blue denim to be made into overalls for the uniforms of the vast army of working men who have gained for the United States the industrial su- premacy of the world. These are two
 sights to which Greensboro treats the visitor. In a room nearly quarter of mile long there are 200O looms which each year produce enough blue denim to make a pair of overalls for every man between 21 and 50 years old east of the Mississippi river.
 The thousands who toll in this mill are all native Americans, descendants of the colonists. Every face Is of the Anglo Saxon type and not a foreigner is to be seen. They have come down from the farms where their fathers and grand fathers have lived for century, grub bing a scanty living from the soil Too proud to accept work as farm hands, because that is too much like personal service, they have found acceptable em- ployment under the operation of sys- tenn. In the old days they exchanged their little crops at the country store for the necessities of life and rarely saw any money. The mills offered them cash for their labor and they took it.
 Over them is an overseer. He is one of them, a native of the Piedmont sec tion, who went into the mill at the bot tom. Over the overseers is a superinten- dent. He, too, is one of them. He un- derstands his own people and they under stand him. Thus the friction between 'boss" and .'hand' Is reduced to a mini mum. Three of the largest mills at Greensboro, one of them the denim mill, are owned by the same people. There Is a general superintendent in charge of the three.
 That man Is Robert G. Campbell He was born in North Carolina and his an cestors have been here since colonial days. He started in the mill without a nickel and without an education. He WOIhSu up lTOHl lHt DOllOIn. NOW ne Is In charge of the operation of an invest ment of five millions of dollars and he Is still Bob Campbell. He lives in a house erected by the mill at cost of $750O He has good salary with which to sup port his aged mother in comfort and to educate six children. Two of these motherless children are hisl own. Two are adopted. Two just live there," They are of his kith and kin, and if Bob Can hall hos fha,r xnyflI . to something in the world.
 Much as he has done for himself, Bob Campbell is prouder of the fact that he has invented a machine which saves the mill a hundred dollars a day, and which has revolutionized one detail of the pro- cess of making cotton cloth, than he Is of what he has done for himself He builds mills and operates mills, employs labor and controls labor, works day and night for his employer and night and day for his hands, and puts by something in the bank. Yet he Is apt to forget to wear necktie when coming to town, and he has devoted but little thought to the problem of personal adornment. He is a living example of what the introduc- tion of manufacturing has done for this section of the south.
 Greensboro will celebrate the one hun dredth anniversary of It's foundation as city next spring. Politically 1t Is a century old industrially 1t isn't out of it's teens. When the civil war broke out, Greensboro had a population of 1500. In 1900 1t had 10000 Now 1t has 5000 in the corporation and 1000 in the mill vil- lages which lie just outside. Seven years ago the savings deposits of its banks were less than $60,000 Now they are over a million The total bank deposits have grown from $500 GOO to over R GOO OOO in the same period of seven years. The postoffice receipts have more than tripled in the same period of time.
 Greensboro is in the Piedmont region which is the section wherein the greater part of the cotton mill industry has been developed Fifteen years ago manufac- turing was begun here on a small scale and since that time the town has re- garded itself as a manufacturing place. But 1t was not until 1900 that the develop ment was successful to any marked de- gree. In the past seven years the place has grown by leaps and bounds. Cotton mills are its chief feature, but the manu- featuring is much diversified. There are terra cotta works, large machinery works which make machinery for furniture fac tories and other woodworking plants. There are wood working establishments aEd allied industries. A match factory is the newest addition. In the old days il was said that the south couldn't make cotton cloth because of the lack of in- telligent labor The labor was found and the cloth is being made, although the larger part of the product is of coarser grades. The same thing was said of machinery, and thereby hangs a tale