Evening star., 1939-08-06
Wedding Out of Small Mills
Seen as Real Gain for South:
Worker Would Be Able to Secure EMPLOYMENT in
Other and Better Lines of Endeavor,
According to Writer.
BY Richard p. Carter.

There is much loose talk among large
and small Dixie cotton mill operators
about reducing personnel and production
and about shutting up shop altogether.
You hear 1t everywhere. Some of it is
taken quite seriously, some of it lightly.
All Of it is disturbing to those seeking
to restore the prosperity Of the South.
The bone of contention about which
this talk centers is the 32i2 -cent-an-
hour minimum wage recommended for
the textile workers to Wage Hour Ad-
ministrator Elmer F. Andrews. The
Southern textile manufacturers, on the
whole, have been fatalistic ever since
the minimum was set up by an advisory
committee, supposedly representative of
employers, employees and the public.
Unanimously, the manufacturers say
they cannot pay that wage and keep
going.
Unfortunately, these tribulations of
the ailing and moaning cotton industry
come at a time when the South desper-
ately needs complete level-headed man
agement of what industry she has, and
also needs more industry to help con-
sumo her stable slack in employment.
But with SO many of the small Dixie
cotton mills SO very bad of economically
and physically, it might be good thing
In the long run If they would shut down.
Radical as that statement may seem, it
is neither poor economics nor poor So
ciology.
Spotted With Small Mills.
Dixie is spotted literally with these
small mills, which somehow manage to
keep going-no one knows just how.
They are little more than country sweat
shops in which men and women make
such small wages they cannot hope for
anything approximating q decent living.
In the last few weeks l have heard
cotton mill operators from scattered and
representative sections of the South re-
iterate emphatically that their equip
ment is old and worn, their wages low,
and their profits either negligible, nil or
below nil 1 have seen these rundown
outfits by the dozen.
These tottering mills with their ridic-
ulously low wages have kept many
Southern workers in form of servitude,
sans hope Of advancement, sans most
of the comforts of life, sans benefit Of
education. Many of these plants were
set up in the South to take advantage
of the Southern workers habit of grab
bing what employment he could, and to
take advantage Of the traditionally
cheap and plentiful Southern labor
supply.
Buying Power Kept Down.
On first thought, it may seem like
folly to advocate closing down any form
of industry in a land that cries for in
dustrial employment. But 1t is these
sweat-shop wages that have helped to
keep Southern buying power at its pres
ent low level. The average small cot
ton mill operator doesn't seem to care
they have-there are a few natural ex-
ceptions-despite the show put on by
some of them to portray the employees
as happy and contented people.
The obvious problem is what to do
with these men and women if the mills
actually do close. Let the Government
take care of them has been an ex-
pressed and recorded consensus. That
attitude alone represents an admission
of fault and shows in effect the COM
paratively slight interest the average
operator of the marginal" cotton mill
has had in the people who work for
him.
Just how much worse of would these
workers be If the sweat-shop mills were
to close their doors? Not as much as
one might think. Neither would as many
of them become w. P. A. charges as
may be thought.
Life Of Drudgery.
Working under present conditions, the
ew-dollars-a- a-week textile employe
has no opportunity Of bettering himself
simply because most of his time Is con-
sumed In earning his dollar or so per
day. His is life Of drudgery rather
than one OF accomplishment. Since the
South has begun to stir from its leth-
argy, isn't 1t reasonable to assume that
many OF these people will find occupa-
ton under a program for agricultural
and industrial upbuilding in Dixie? One
OF Dixie's major needs is new industry
run on basis that will give the worker
something in return for his labor. An
indication Of the trend in this direction
lies In the fight to adjust the freight
rate diherentials-once that is done, in
dustry can show more interest in the
South. and the South, In turn, can show
more Interest in industry.
Closing down the worst small textile
plants also would mean increased busi-
ness for the larger and better managed
mills. which are more or less concen-
trated rather than strewn about the
countryside. This, it is said. would step
up demand and production in the large
mills and would call for more trained
employees. It would be advantageous to
draw the new workers from those
trained to perform the tasks. Such in
creased concentration of the cotton tex
tile industry inevitably would brinr