Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-11-26
NEW ERA IN SOUTH cARoLINA.
A Great Industrial State Instead Of q
Ruined commonwealth.

| NEW ERA IN SOUTH CaROLlNA.
A Great Industrial State Instead Of q
Ruined Commonwealth.
Few who have not suffered in the
south know the depths Of poverty and
Ignorance to which the masses of
South Carolina, who constitute the
cotton mill operatives, were reduced
at the close Of the reconstruction per-
iod.
/ At the breaking out Of the civil war
in 1860 South Carolina was third
among the states in per capita wealth,
and expended that year for education
approximately 100000. an amount ex-
ceeded by few. Between the COM
mencement Of the civil war and 1876,
the close Of the reconstruction period,
South Carolina lost more than rs per
cent Of her property, large proper
ton Of her best citizens and nearly all
means of education.
The last call for troops, February,
1866, took into the field every white
male from 16 to go years Of age. so
that while the states Of the north, east
and west had for the most part SUI. :
ed uninterrupted prosperity, South
Carolina in 1876 domiciled her surviv-
ing citizens among graves and the ruin
of her former civilization. Was 1t any
wonder that the United States census
Of 1880 records South Carolina's ILL
teracy (white and colored) at 55.4 per
cent?
Under new and tolerable political
conditions, but with resources and
capital almost exhausted, and without
trained manufacturers and operatives,
manufacturing urged forward by ne
cessity and the old southern spirit to
successful issue; and in four years
they had the new movement well un-
der way.
Climatic reasons located the mills
almost entirely in the western part of
the state, but Charleston furnished
capital and several prominent presi-
dents and directors; while the farsee-
ing business methods and friendl.ness
of New England cotton machinery
manufacturers and New York sales
agents provided what capital was nee
essary from without the state
In 1880 South Carolina had eighteen
mills with less than 1900 looms, which
were wonderfully increased by 1908 to
over $50 mills, with approximately sS.-
OvO looms; and the world was taking
note that from illsigniflcance in cotton
manufacturing South Carolina was
ranking second in the United States,
with mills costing over $100,000,000 Of
which the citizens owned 75 per cent,
and with a mill village population ex-
ceeding 100000 persons.
The mill movement in South Caroli-
ma found several men waiting for each
mans job, no market for land any
where, and starvation wages driving
many from the state. The following
figures and statements will give some
indication Of how it changed these
conditions during the period 1S76-1s0S.
In 1876 there were about 1000 cotton
mill operatives with yearly wage OF
about $250,000. These were increased
to nearly $4,000 with wage approx
mately $12,000,OOo.
In 1876 the average day wage of the
operative for thirteen hours was less
than sixty cents This was gradually
increased to an average day wage Of
$1.10 for ten hours. During this per-
iod one-fifth Of the white population
Of the state were taken from the farms
to the mills, and thereby changed from
producers to consumers Of farm pro-
ducts.
BY 1907 the mills purchased cotton
to an amount exceeding $34,000,0 1000.
equivalent to 80 per cent of the states
cotton production. 1t was largely their
influence on conditions in the state
which enlarged the cotton crop from
approximately 100000 bales in 1870 to
over 100000 in 1900, and during the
same period doubled the corn and rice
crops, increased the hay crop twenty
times and the tobacco crop $40 times,
producing agricultural prosperity ror
the first time since the war. BY 1908
the payrolls Of the mills approximated
$12, 100000 a year, and their dividends
SO, soc, 900.
Night labor in South Carolina cotton
mills can be said to have nearly
ceased, as there are only four Of the
smallest mills that continue this in
furious practice. Such child, married
women and night labor as should not
have existed in South Carolina was
caused by extreme poverty and lack
of standards and traditions among the
operatives, and as decreasing Under
more favorable conditions. Already
the percentage Of women operatives IN
South Carolina is less than in Massa-
chusetts; the United States census Of
1900 gives South Carolina a percent
age Of 81, and the Massachusetts state
bureau gives that state in 1906 per-
centage Of 43-South Atlantic Quar-