The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1920-01-14
MEMORIAL FUND

whom volunteered and were drafted
Into the armed service Of the nation
during the World War; and many of
whom made the Supreme Sacrifice,
textile managements of South Caro-
lima are literally subscribing to the
100000 fund for the erection of Il
memorial building commcmorating
those South Carolinians participant
ing in the World War, according to
the headquarters of thc> South Caro-
, lima Memorial Commission in this
city.
The mill managcmcnts, according
to the commission, taking the initia-
! tive in this matter are the Granite
vile Manufacturing Company, Of
Granitevillc, the Langley 'Manufac-
turing Company, of Langley, and the
Aiken Manufacturing Company, Of
Bath, which subscribed 5000 between
them, 5000 for each enterprise. All
these corporations arc in the "Horsc
Creek" valley, of Aiken County, which
sent many sons to the war.
it has Information that many other
mill managcmcnts intend to literally
subscribe to the fund.
Relative to the participation of
mill boys in the war, Commissioner
Harris, of the State Department Of
Agriculture, Commerce and Indus
tries, in his annual report to the
! General Assembly, has the following
to say:
"In South Carolina 307,35O men
were examined for the draft. Of this
number 100000 were found fit for
military service, Il percentage of IT'S
l am told that in the early days of the
war some were rejected because Of
the literary test, rather than for ply
steal reasons. The average for the
| United States was 1876 per cent or
per cent above South Carolina's aver
age. The highest in the United
States was in Wyoming, where the
physically fit average S7.2. There
fore, in man power resources South
Carolina ranks high among the
States.
at might surprise detractors Of
The South, especially those who frc-
qucntly refer with great aspcrity to
the domestic conditions in our mill
towns, to tell them that some Of the
| best fighting men of America went
! from the cotton mills Of South Caro-
! lima. They were boys who had grown
up in the mill work. Far from being
| unacrnourishcI, unGcHSizcd, or "un-
! der" anything else, they were excel
! lent soldiers and served faithfully and
couragcously on the Mexican border
and in France
! among the mill towns that sen
! National Guard units into the service
are Prlzcr, Williamston, Anderson,
. Olympia, Brookland, and the units
from Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Union,
/ SrartanbEr& ana Grecnvillc had Il
large percentage of mill boys.
"That they discharged their duty
fully, and honor; bly,, is proved by the
fact that the First South Carolina
Regiment, more than 500 mill boys
did the heavy preparatory work which
. resulted Immediately in the breaking
Of the lIindenburg line, at Bclicourt
and the freezing Of Belgium from the
murdcrouS grasp Of the invader. That
they discharged their duty well is
shown by the fact that in Flanders
there are white crosses over graves
! where cotton mill boys, heroes all. are
asleep. There were some mill boys
who came home to get the most priZ-
ed decoration of the whole war-the
! congressional medal Of honor, in adj
dition to numerous citations from Am
crican and British officers and crosses
from the French government.
"Then there were the mill bows
drafted into the 8lst Division and in
to numerous other units that went
away. They made good soldiers, all
of them, and the service flags of the
mill towns at home had many stars,
occasionally one of gold. but never a
star that was not bright in honor and
courage"