Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-07-01
Restore the Loom to Farm
Homes

Homes
1 have before me a letter from one
of the very foremost men in Georgia,
distinguished for many things and with
national fame added, who writes splen-
didly concerning the value of the loom
to southern farm homes.
know that the objection is often
urged that women are busy enough with
plenty to do, without ever considering
again the spinning wheel or the family
LOOM But every one who has lived In
the south before the war Will remem-
Der the superior wear and excellence
of the cloth woven by the women of
that era and the comfortable and good
bed spreads and comforts of that time
Of course, 1t required diligent labor
and a web of cloth needed care in prep
aration and skill in the handling, but 1t
meant warm and durable cloth when it
was finished and fashioned into gar
ments. One yard would simply outwear
three of store bought cloth, and while
ii had a rougher finish in most of cases,
1t was in all essentials much better for
working men and boys. But only pro-
posed to introduce the letter, that is
very interesting and suggestive to my
mind Says he:
II believe that one fundamental prin-
ciple lies at the bottom of every ques-
ton, whether moral, political or econ
omic, and that until we discover this
idea and begin to build on it our achieve
ments are more or less futile and results
disappointing and indeterminate. The
pueblo and Navajo Indians have since
154O maintained their tribal integrity,
through every vicissitude, whilst all the
other American tribes and nations that
did not have the DEMONSTRATING influence
of the loom. have been scattered or
ceased altogether to survive.
THE fighting edge of a people (talk-
ed about so much by Roosevelt with
that order of interest which is both SUI
perficial and obJective), if it has ever
been a main feature per Sc of any peo-
pies tribal or national characteristics,
II has been also the cause of the decline
and extinction of that peoples tribal
or national life. If people have homes
and songs and poetry, temples and fire-
sides the fighting edge or the military
spirit may have been dormant for years,
but when those things dearest to them
are endangered, you may always depend
that the kind of simplicity ascribed to
the Pueblo and Navajo Indian is never
incompatible with the readiness and the
strength of the warrior
al believe that all of the present day
great national life OF the world had nu-
tritive founders who took the raw mate
rails, either wooden or something else,
and wove them into their raiment, and
that such domestic employments were
peculiar to the origin of the strongest
people in the empire of nations. This
same original cannot be neglected with
out a decline In the moral and industrial
strength Of any people.
The spinning wheel and the loom were
the industrial symbols of the domestic
contentment and avocation of our first
American country life. -.
The hum of the spinning wheel is no
longer a sweet sound in the homes Of
the country folk of the south, and the
old loom does not even survive in the
scrap heaps Of our rural districts.
When machinery spinning was invent
ed in the latter part of the 18th century
and water power applied to it. and to the
loom In Wales, factories had to be built
within the span OF a leather belt from
those water powers.
with horsepower and hydro-electric
power it was impossible for the hand
loom to compete.
One of the looms in any of our Co
lumbus factories will turn off daily about
so or 10 yards of cloth and the power to
actuate each loom is from one-fourth TO
one-half horsepower. But gasoline en-
are gradually getting in use for so many
purposes connected with farm life that II
would be difficult to mention them.
The rural mail and telephone have got
ten to be some of the modern conven-
fences of country life everywhere in the
south, but nevertheless our women and
girls who are the wives and daughters
Of our farmers have not enough to do.
Time often drags heavily on their heads
I claim that the modern loom should
be restored to the homes of these farmer
housewives and then will come the dawn
of a new and better. more contented and
profitable life in the country. Its weari-
sonnness and enforced idleness, be great
~ arrested whenever home work can be
made at home, as many weaving fac
ted by fraction of horsepower from an
engine or water power already in use
for many other purposes on the farm.
Both wool and warp might be better
bought from the spinning mills than
made at home, as many weavanig fac
tories are now doing
Two or three hundred dollars would
supply enough equipment for the expert
ment of bringing back TO our farmers
homes the loom. which was feature
when country life had its greatest charms
and when its monotony and idleness for
its women and girls was not so intol-
cradle as II Is today.
I consider the loom the anchor and the
real stay of country life and in its use
the constant driftings of the white popu-
lation to towns and cities would be
stopped.
we have plenty of intelligence in the
country but II is unemployed, plenty or
disposition to work without the means
for profitable and useful work. The loom
in the family would both night and day
consume the margins of all the idleness
which is today the bane of the country
life and the impoverishment of the ener-
gies of women.
I would like so much to have you in
sympathy with my views and to get your
cooperation for some practical expert
ments.
l wish l had space to copy the full
text of this wise and suggestive letter.
II opens up a vista OF endless enterprise
and progressive excellence in this tech
nicaI direction. I can see where country
people might weave rugs, carpets, por-
tiers, bed spreads, blankets, etc, to re-
pIenish the worn and fiimsy things that
were bought with hard earned money
and which were only made to sell.
Perhaps 1 may continue this thought in
another issue of The Semi-Weekly Jour-
nal