The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-06
By MYRA PAGE.

IVA ing, was the best boarding house for mill
hands on the hill. 1.-The hill"-the term which
these ex-mountaineers apply to every mill vii
lage-is in this case a flat stretch of yellow
dirt spotted with two hundred frame dwell
ings. The August sun rebounds from the sand
in little balls of fire all over your body while
hot drumsticks beat jazz rhythm up your
spine.
At one end of the cluster of shacks stands
the mill, if on guard, ungainly in its three
shades of red brick, and rumbling day and
night like some restless, driven beast. Each of
it's sections marks stage in the owners career.
As his profits swelled Mr.. Hutchins added a
section, moved into a bigger house in town,
built few more frame houses, and brought in
more poor whites from the Blue Ridge hills
and FARMS
Next to the mill stands the company store,
not only the buying mart but also the social
center Of Hutchins village. Here everything
from tobacco and snuff to colored ginghams
and hogs meat is exhibited in true cubst
fashion. On the farther edge of the village,
four blocks away stands the Methodist and
Baptist churches, and nearby, the grammar
school, recent addition.
This is Hutchins Hill (this is a literal de-
scription of Southern mill village, only names
of persons and the name of the village are
disguised) one of the nine mill villages, form
ing crescent around the city of Greenville
South Carolina. More than fourscore cities in
the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee
and Virginia can boast such cluster. And
each mill village in all these clusters is similar
to Hutchins Hill.
Mr.. Hutchins is king of the village and all
he surveys.
The land, the mill, the churches, the store,
the houses and the people all belong to him.
The school which was his now belongs to the
state, but it stands on company ground, is
run by his taxes, and its five teachers are
near-relatives of friends of the family" or
management
Mr.. Hutchins is paternalist and devout
christian. He says he began his mill, as did
all the other Southern mill owners, soon after
the black slaves were freed, to furnish en-
ployment to the poor whites who were starv-
ing on the farms or in the hills He furnishes
his mill people with houses at the low rate OF
twenty-five cents per room per week, free
electricity, and one water pump in each block
True, the houses are built Of thin boards, four
rooms each, with no plastering paper, sewer
age or means of heating, but what can you
expect for your money? 1t is much better
than these folks were ever accustomed to, back
in the hills. At the company store, Mr.. Hut
chlnS continues, mill ndHuS cdll Duy o1 tIeult
ever up to the limit of next weeks wages
CAS- the average wage for men is around $12,
and for women SO, most families use this
privilege, which tends to cut down the high
labor turnover, because how can you move on
as long as you're in debtD
The second week | was on the hill, the local
sheriff frightened our household by paying me
a visit.
"Mr. Wheeler, the s.per, sent me down here
to be sure you amt don harm. We're
keerfu of strangers. You amt here to stir
up labor troubles, or aspying for them North
ern mill owners? You know, Hutchins Com
pany owns this here town and nobody kin
set foot inside without its permission. Pm the
town sheriff and Hutchins mill pays my sal
airy" quote his own words-"to see no one
stays home sick who should be at work, and
nobody commits murder or adultery, and that
no labor agitators gifts in.
After learning I wasn't damn Yankee but
came from Virginia, he was easily treasured
"Why, last year they war woman here
talking this monkey business, evylution she
called it. Believe me, chased her out in
no time Looks like folksd think more OF
themselves than believe they come from mon
keys don't it," Since l was not in the village
to educate sheriffs, l kept my peace.
Mr. Hutchns serves with the other mill pres
dents on the school board "to represent his
people" and see that they are given one hun
dred per cent, Anglo-Saxon, American educa-
ton He pays three-fourths of the two preach
ers salaries, so that the souls of his employees
may be saved On his staff The has placed
welfare worker whose duties are to a social
club for the girls to keep them pure, and to
tend the sick and help the sheriff keep people
from staying out when they should be at the
mill at work, for "these people a shiftless
lot, but they come from the best stock-pure-
blood Anglo-Saxon."
Hutchins, like the other mill villages, is not
Incorporated. Mr.. Hutchins and the other
owners feel that these people, who are "mere
children" should be relieved of the response
bities of corporate life.
At quarter to six in the morning the mill
whistle blows. Men and boys in shabby blue
overalls, girls in faded pink, ginghams, moth
ers in black and white checks and carrying
sunbonnets, troop out of the houses and hurry
down the dirt paths to the mill. At five in
the afternoon the figures drag home. Only
the teen age girls and boys have the pep
streets, to greet their Mas and Pas, stretching
up their arms as they run, and tired parents
take them on their shoulders or lug them on
their backs.
For few hours the beast ceases to growl
With the growing hard times and the mills
slowing down, Hutchins Mill has left off night
work. In all the neighboring villages, as the
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