The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-06
SOUTHERN COTTON
MILLS AND LABOR

visits of the insurance man VINO KNOCKS from
door to door, collecting the ten cents week
insurance and carrying the latest gossip, and
the loan sharks who come either to furnish
your home complete" on the five dollars down,
one dollar a week plan, or to take back the
furniture from somebody who hasn't the dollar
this week.
Every Friday and Monday, there're the NOV
in vans Then the disconnected or rowing
ones pack their few belongings and HE them
to the next village, while others come in to
take their places, stay few weeks months
and then move on. When you ask "Why do
you move so much?" nobody seems quite GER
tain. One family said they had left their last
place because of mean super, another had
heard wages might be better here, and ma ~
said they reckon they jes' had the habit AID
coulden stay still long at a time. Sally, m ii
worker since childhood, gave her version of it.
eve been here goin' on seven year now.
It's time we wuz movin' on. Uh? Why?
No, nuthin's wrong only it's bes not ia stay
so long in one place. The company GIGS to
thinkin' they owns you N body gifts tired
to the same faces
For those who chose to take them, there are
two other breaks in the monotouy: window
shopping in the city Saturday afternoons, and
church meetings. But Greenville is a car-fare
or a hot walk of two miles away. Window
shopping is exciting, but it makes you envious,
and the way those city folks look at mill
hands make your face burn. They're thaA
stuck up, when everybody knows there amt
better blood or Character to be found in South
Carolina than on the hills. The older folks
generally stay at home but the young ones
must go to the bewildering city, even if they
have to walk, so as to have the dime for that
forbidden sin, the movie. Movies novels, SWIM
ming pools and evolution all immoral ac-
cording to Hutchins folk. But the young'uns
are fast taking to the first three sins, even.
though they are not sure but that they are
playing into the hands of the Devil Himself.
Il had been at Mrs. Crenshaw's three weeks
now, and we had become fast friends. She and
the others had long ago forgiven me that !
was born out of the state. At least l wasenIa
dam Yankee but came from Virginy. It wash
hot August evening, and Mrs. Crenshaw w
sweating over her ironing while | sat by, re-
shortening dress. All Of the children and
boarders had gone to a funeral directors party,
so only the two of us were at home. We were
in the midst of one of our confidential chats.
"Yes'm," she was saying "a southerner says
yesm or yessir to every one he considers his
equal or his better, which among mill hands
means everybody but "niggers'). "Yesm, it's
not so easy as it might be. Seems like us mill
hands es work harder and git poorer year by
year. But then, as our parson says, the Lord
chastiseth those He loveth."
The iron spat vigorously as big drops of
sweat hit its side and slid to the board. Mrs.
Crenshaw was also devout christian, as I
learned, and an old woman at forty-nine. She
halted a minute to rub her dripping face and
twitching mouth with arms that trembled with
the palsey. Her muscles had worked without
halt for forty-two years until now they had
forgotten how to stop.
"Say, Mrs. Crenshaw, less call it day. It's
nine thirty and you've bin working since foul
thirty since morning" l knew, for / slept I'll
a feather bed) in the same room with her am
her two daughters who worked in Hutchins
MILL Each day of the three weeks l had spent
there had been like the last
Since early childhood, Mrs. Crenshaw had
worked in the mill. After her marriage to
mill hand, she worked on, as usual. The seven
children she had raised out of the thirteen she
brought forth, all worked in the mill-except
one boy, who had run away to sea and less
strenuous life! Then her husband died with
cotton mill tuberculosis, and she changed over
to running a boarding house for mill hands.
For ten years she had cooked, swept, and done
the washing in this double-sized company dwell
ling for her children and seven other boarders.
All told, there were fourteen of us sleeping in
the four bedrooms.
Besides her potted plants her sole diversion
was Sunday preaching and Wednesday prayer
meetings, where she could just sit for while
and join in the sad sweet hymns, and hear
about the Blessed Beyond, where all is Res
And she would weep for joy or sorrow, she
never knew which.
"For myself l am willin'," Mrs. Crenshaw
spread out pair of worn overalls on the board.
"But for tn chien I'd a-hoped it cid be diff
fernt. / have never went to school, but / did
wanem to. Well" and her voice rank with
pride "All of em kin read n write! But
with wages so low, no matter how l saved and
worked nights, had to take 'em out of scho4
sooner thin I'd a-panned on. Each one, ma
aged to keep in little longer, It'll my youngeN
gal, she finished grammar school, She was so
ambitous-like, Doris was"
(To Be COntinued0