The South at Work: Observations from 1904

In the Mill Region of South Carolina

In the Mill Region of South Carolina Immigration Sought by Systematic Methods One ex-Maine Man Who Is Superintendent of a Mill Wants a Colony of French-Canadians—Folks from the Far North-west Think of Coming— Why Do Cotton Mills Flourish Only in the Interior?—The Charleston Failure—The Constantly Recurring Problem of Negro Labor— Is the Black Man Actually Deteriorating? [Special Correspondence of the Transcript] • Colombia S.C., March 14. All South Carolina is divided into three parts. That is to say, there are two parts which are very distinctly different and dissimilar, while between them lies a region which cannot be assigned to either. Up country and low country, the hills and the tide-water—these are the two divisions that could never be confounded. But the middle ground, of which Columbia is the center, is a debatable land. Perhaps, if we let the factories stand for what lies westward , and South Carolina College for what lies eastward, we shall make a fair appraisal of the two sets of values in the place.1 Published in Boston Evening Transcript, March 19, 1904. In the Mill Region of South Carolina 37 I am bound to admit, however, that one hears much more of the factories now-a-days than of the College. One of the factories is said to be the largest in the country. A forenoon spent there sends one away deeply impressed with the change which the mills have already made in the life of this frontier State.2 Child Labor’s Bright Side Let me say at once that if this particular mill is at all representative it is hard to make any gloomy contrasts between the state of the mill-hand in the South under very loose labor laws and that of his fellows in New England. It is true that there is no eight-hour law and that children twelve years old may be employed. If the common talk may be believed, still younger children are frequently offered by their parents with legally recorded statements that they have reached the age required by law. I myself am inclined to favor a higher limit. But I cannot testify that the children in the mill looked unhealthy or unhappy. Neither did their elders. On the whole, they seem as wellconditioned a body of mill people as I have seen anywhere. A spindle-room a block or two long,roaring and throbbing and rather too hot,is never precisely a pleasure resort for people of any age—certainly not the sort of nursery or playground one would choose for one’s children.The children I saw there this morning were fairly cheerful—that is all. When they came out at noon they emerged into sunshine and warmth.In several of the tiny yards in front of the factory cottages violets and a few other flowers were in bloom. In this matter of climate the mill hand in South Carolina has the advantage over the New England operative. Children too young to work may go to kindergarten. If their parents so decide, they can remain in school even after the age limit is passed.The company adds enough to the county appropriations to maintain a school for the work people settled about each of the three mills it operates. There are three kindergartens, also. One of these I visited, and found the children there lively little tots, inquisitive and unafraid. Their teacher, a brown-eyed little body “from Kentuckisir,” with the richest of Southern accents, was as busy and thoroughgoing as though she had come from somewhere in Maine. Growth of Southern Spindles One of the mill superintendents did come from Maine—twenty-three years ago—and has worked in cotton mills pretty nearly everywhere and in pretty nearly in every capacity.3 He talked about Eastern and Southern mills in a 38 In the Mill Region of South Carolina way I found very interesting indeed—and about Negroes also, in a way that might be highly instructive to some of his former neighbors; but he asked me not to put that part of his talk “in the papers.” These impressions of the laborers and the labor conditions in South Carolina cotton mills, if they are right, may be as well worth recording as any I have anywhere received; for the labor question in South Carolina is an extremely interesting phase. Yesterday, in Charleston, I...