The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-09-16

NCopyrlSnt, 1917, by FRANK q. CdfpeHter'y
Greensboro, N. c.
~ HAVE Just visited the biggest over
all mill of the world I mean the
biggest cotton mill that makes
the cloth for overalls. The technt-
cal name of the cloth is blue denim
We all know what it Is 1t is sold ev-
erywhere in the stores and almost ev-
cry workingman wears it. The mill
visited makes nothing else. 1t is now
engaged en- rush orders for the United
States government, 1t is turning oui
10000 yards daily. It takes three and
half yards of the stuff to make suit
OF overals for man. The daily output
is enouSn to make suits for more than
10000 men, and the yearly output would
furnish suits for 100000 and leave
some to spare. The factory can make
47,0O0.000 Yards in one year. The cloth
is about as wide as the strip of carpet
which covers your floor. The output OF
one day, if joined together, would car
pet q railroad track from New York TO
Philadelphia. The output of a year, If
it could be Joined and stretched over
mountain and plain. over ocean and
world at the equator and there would
still be enough left TO reach half way
to the center Of the earth.
This factory is known as the White
Oak factory. 1 take 1t as sample OF the
great cotton manufacturing industry OF
Inc south 1t stands on the edge of the
cotton fields, and hundreds of thou
sands of bales are raised within a few
hours ride of it by rail. The cotton can
be brought from the fields almost to
the MILL and the saving in transporta-
ton ia great.
The mill is a three-story building
covering acres. 1t is made of brick,
stone and glass. The glass windows are
many. They look like eyes shining out
OF the red rim of the bricks surround
ing them The building has Is acres
of floor space, and its rooms are of vast
extent. The room where the spinning
is done is about $50 feet wide and moro
than 900 feet lond. 1t has 5000 spindles
within it. They go whirling around so
fast that it makes you dizzy to look.
The weaving rooms contain about 1000
looms. They are equally large. The
building is filed with machinery of the
latest make and Of cost-efficiency pat
terms. The managers tell me 1t Is up-to-
date, and the old machines go to the
scrap heap. The motive power of the
mill is electricity furnished by the
Southern Power company and gener-
ated in some Of the largest turbines
ever erected in the United States.
The labor of the factory is white. 1t
is composed mostly of women and girls
from the country about and from the
Mountains nearby. 1t is American la
Tor, and the employees work 50 hours
a week and strikes are almost unknown.
The company treats its hands well. 1t
has a mill village of 500 houses of from
three to six rooms each. The rent is
81 month, and this includes electric
lights and running water from an artes-
ian well 800 feet deep. 1t has store
where the employees can, If they wish,
buy goods at a slight advance over cost
The manager of the mill tells me the
wages are about the same as those of
the cotton mills of New England.
The White Oak mill Is a type of the
up-to-date cotton industry, which has
grown SO rapidly throughout the south
ern states. generation ago New Eng
land was making almost all of our cot
ton goods. Now, as far as the amount
of cotton consumed Is concerntd, the
factories of the south are manufacture
ing more than all the other states of
the union combined. In 1916 they ate up
almost third of our whole cotton
crop. The cotton produced that year, in
round numbers was just about 1900, 009
bales, Of which something life 100000
bales were exported. OF the balance the
cotton growing states used 100000 bales,
while New England and the other states
consumed the remainder. The south has
now almost 800 cotton mills, with $780,
900 spindles The capital invested is $780,
100000.
The size of cotton mill Is measured
by the number of spindles. The spindle
Is the slender rod on which the thread
Is twisted and wound by machinery
There are hundreds and thousands of
them in a great modern mill. In all
the world there are now, in round num-
bers 139, 100000 such spindles, and they
spin about all the cotton thread used
by mankind. OF these spindles the Unit
ed States has easily more than one-fifth
of the whole. That means that of every
five yards of cotton worn by men, wom-
en- and children anywhere on this big,
round earth, one yard is made in the
United States. We have altogether over
B3, 900 spindles. OF the remainder more
than half of the cotton mills are to be
found in Great Britain, which is by far
and large the biggest cotton manufac-
turer OF the WOrlu. IL mas blU0O,0O0 spin
dies. 1t makes more than twice as
much cloth as we do, and IT gets the
most of It's raw cotton from us. The
profit Is hundreds of millions of dollars
There are 100000 spindles or one
third more than we have, working on the
continent, and the most of these are in
Germany. In the East Indies there are
less than 100000 and there are scatter
ing factories in Russia Japan and China
There are also few in Brazil where
q high tariff Is necessary to protect the
industry.
I have visited cotton mills in most of
these countries. Japan has now almost
100000 spindles and its business is
growing enormously on account of the
war. 1t expects to gobble the big mar
ket of China, and 1t has flooded the
German province of Shantung with Jap
anese goods. During my last trip through
Asia. I went through the mills of one
Japanese company which had more than
100000 spindles at work. The machinery
was of the latest invention, the most
of 1t imported from the United States
One of the mills had SO 900 worth Of
raw cotton on hand. A large part OF
the employees were children and they
worker 10 hours a day. Their wages
were from IL to 30 cents of our money,
or a little more than / to 3 cents for
each working hour. At that time there
were about 10000 women and girls at
work in the cotton factories of Japan
and there were % 900 children employed
each of whom was under IA years of age
The goods made were equal to any man
ufactured in the United States.