El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1918-07-13


MANCHESTER, N H, July 15--Thi
w is a story Of the shirt OF the sol
der. 1t relates TO the clothes oui
boys wear in the trenches. They havt
eaten up cotton by the millions o.
bales, and are now coming out OF tho
looms by the tens Of millions Of yards
The first chapters Of the story have
already been published. I have de-
scrfbed the cotton fields OF the south
and shown how the little black seeds
dropped in the burrows. come forth
and produce the white lint.
have described its path through
the gin, where 1t is torn by saws from
the seeds and packed up in great
bales OF 300 pounds each, and have
shown you these bales on their way
20 the market
In this letter I want you TO follow
the bales TO New England and see
how they are transformed into the
cotton cloth. from which the shirt Of
the soldier IS made There is no bet
ter place TO see this than right here
&c the AmosEeag falls Of the Merri-
mac river. These falls are in the heart
OF the city Of Manchester, and about
them has grown up the greatest cot
ton mill OF the United States, II not
Of the world Just now the most Of
It's work is confined TO the army
Makes Cloth Mile Minute.
Can you imagine 8 FACTORY so big
and so efficient that it takes the raw
cotton in at one end and runs ii out
IN cloth at the other at the rate q
90 miles every hour, and Keeps up
that speed all the year through The
cotton comes forth as fast as the high
est powered automobiles fly over the
You might hitch the cloth as It
MHHnrn the MmmHrTu lightning
express train and start the locomotive
OF at fun speed and there would be
no slack or break In the cloth. Il
you'd keep up with the train. even
though the cars were kept running
2oE nine hours a day all the year
through
u started here in New Hampshire
dda first days output would reach
almost % P1ttsburgr ana ny the END
Of the second day the train pulling
ne cloth would be at the edge OF
Chleago. Within four days Il would
b far beyond Denver. and by the end
~ the week Il would have reached
6au Francisco. and II you could get
IGoEE it might be carried uubrOken
Ecross the Pacific ocean to Shanghai
"A ten DAYS thereafter.
ne output Of the mill IS about 500
niles daily. and the output per year
Equals a strip OF cloth almost 49,
60 miles long That strip would car
pet a motor car road Is 1eet wide
around the world, OF, II you should
reach around the earth and stiu have
enough to cover a three foot path
haH way TO the moon
shirtH for 1 900. 900 Soldiers.
The cotton is coming forthenoW at
dae rate Of about a nile minute
shirts 20 be made for the soldiers.
The shirunEs OF that kind already
produced number more than 1900 900
Yards, enough to reach almost all the
way from New Orleans 70 Chicago. /
Z was enough TO supply a shirt apiece
for 100000 soldiers
The same factory IS making vast
Quantities Of WotEteds for the army.
II turns out something Ike so miles
q them every week It makes the
barracks bag which every soldier car
ries TO France. This is woven in a
cT' 'nder Of strong cotton cloth and
the buttons are sewed in on machines
run b- girls.
The bag looks much ike the laun- /
dry bag we use In travelling the I
room in which 10 Is made covers more I
than an acre. and the foreman thereof I
tells ne that he Is weaving such bags ]
at the rate Of 10000 per hour.
city Of Old Factories
The factories where all this is go ]
Ing on are right here at Manchester /
They belong TO one company and they ]
have produced a cotton mill center /
which IS larger than that Of any /
single company IN Great Britain.
It IS. venture. one OF the oldest !
factories OF the world It began to ]
spin and weave cotton within gen
Grafton or so after the spinning jenny
was invented by Hargreaves. and
shortly after the British barber and
up his factories in England for his I
new inventions OF spinning and card
ing machines and 10 has been making
more OF less cotton cloth from that
time until now.
me first mill was established when I
Thomas Jefferson was president OF Z
the United States, and the present 3
company had its origin when Andrew
Jackson held the office which Wood
row wilson holds now.
There IS a tradition here that An
drew Jackson rode through Manches-
ter IN a beautiful barouche drawn by /
four milk white horses and that he
visited the cotton factory and rode
for a nile between two rows OF mill
girls, who greeted him with songs and
flowers As he looked at the mills
Mr. Slater, one OF the officials OF the
company was among his entertainers.
Factories Grow Steadily.
He called Slater the father OF
American manufacturers and said
Il understand that you showed US
h1= TO spin as wen as they DO in
Great Britain and that by the eternal
in spite Of all the British could do
You started these spindles to work,
which are giving employment TO thou
sands and which VIII make US an in
dustrial peoplel"
To this Mr.. Slater replied:
T. suppose I did give on the psalm,
but our Workmen have been singing
TO the tune ever since"
The factories steadily grew They
were making goods for the soldiers
az the time Of the Mexican war. and
ten years later were turning out
"a. 900 yards Of cloth for every work
ing day. They made a large part
OF the cotton used in the civil war
and they have been steadily fncreas-
ing in size and output from that time
until now.
Factories First Based on Falls.
The industry was first based on the
falls Of Ele Merrimac river which
here have a drop about One-third that
1f Niagara The first mill used the
Waterpower only, and the great build
.ngs are now scattered along the river
IL different levels 20 take advantage
o. IT. Later on electricity was gener-
zted by turbine wheels but the busi-
ness soon surpassed the strength OF
the stream, and now three-fourths Of
the power used in the mills comes
from steam generated by coal
Indeed, the business depends so
much upon coal that it is a question
il could not have been more
adTauraE eously located at the sea-
board, where The freight rates for fuel
and raw materials would be much
cheaper and also those for some OF
the export Of its product