The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-07-19
THE MILLS OF CHARLOTTE.
Comfortable Homes and HealthIui
Surroundings for Operatives.
New York SUM-

CNew York SUM-
If Mr.. Beveridge were not so busliy
engaged just now in the effort to save
his skin he might be induced to visit
Charlotte about this time and inspect
some of the cotton mills hereabout.
After all. Beverage can talk much
more freely about the OF
child labor in the mills if he remains
entirely ignorant of the facts, where
as. if he neglects Indiana politics this
summer he won't be able to talk at
all, at least to the audience he loves
best.
1T is a great pity, though, that he
couldn't have gone with me thus
morning to the Hoskins mill, about
three miles out Of Charlotte, where
they make the finer grades of cotton
goods, employing several hundred op-
eratives. 1t is needless to dwell on
the mill building itself, for to say that
it is clean, sanitary. thoroughly ven
tilated and a~bundantly supplied with
fresh water is merely to say that the
managers are sensible men who want
to make none at their business.
Cotton mills are springing up like
mushrooms all over the region ana
there has come to be a wholesome
emulation among the owners IN res
pect OF making their operatives heal
thy, happy and therefore, contented-
In these days no one could operate
successfully on any other basis, and
in fact. no one tries to do it
At the Hoskins mill, all the working
people have been taken from wretch
ed huts and from squalid environ
ment. Today they live in pretty four
room cottages for which they pay
nominal rent. The cottages are built
in the est style and to each is attach
ed a flower garden and a truck patch.
They grow their own roses and Vege-
tables. they are paid regularly once
@~J 4Iox- 1-o ~, n ~ ~ I'd
cleanliness and abundance, shuch as
they never knew before. They handle
more money in ten days than they
used to do in a year, even when the
moonshine business vas at its best
and they ONE to town as we'll dress
ed as if they lived there permanently.
] found their dwellings, perfectly neat
and garnished, most comfortably fur
nished and surrounded by every indi-
cation of solid prosperity.
You get a better impression Of the
moral and material condition of any
and in what surroundings they live
than by watching them at actual
work. For example, one fearful lady
who visited a Carolina mill with a
busybody official committee from
somewhere North saw a little boy
wiping off a carding machine. She
asked about it, seeing the boy was
dirty, and they told her he was clean
ing away the ''SliverS,' slivers being
cotton just after it has been combed
straight and made ready for the next
process. In the report submitted by
the committee on its return was an
almost heartrending picture Of his
unhappy wretch condemned to wipe
the saliva" from the Machines
boy of doubtless noble instincts de-
based by w~alIowing in filth, But /
not only went through the mill, I also
inspected the dwellings Of the oper-
atives, and comparing them with the
forsaken and sandhill
shacks they knew before and com
pairing the individuals present ap-
p%earance of vigor and self-respect
with the forlorn, aimless. cadaverous
jewellers of the pigsties, [ cannot
imagine q more halcyon TRANSFORMED
ton. TRAVELLER.
Charlotte. N. c., July 7.