INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
Though the Old South was in the main agricultural, it was not entirely
destitute of industrial skill. The recent industrial development is
really a revival, not a revolution, in some parts of the South. In 1810,
according to Tench Coxe's semi-official _Statement of Arts and
Manufactures_, the value of the textile products of North Carolina was
greater than that of Massachusetts. Every farmhouse had spinning-wheels
and one loom or several on which the women of the family spun yarn and
wove cloth for the family wardrobe. On the large plantations negro women
produced much of the cloth for both slaves and family. Except on special
occasions, a very large proportion of the clothing worn by the average
Southern community was of household or local manufacture. Hats were made
of fur, wool, or plaited straw. Hides were tanned on the plantations or
more commonly at a local tannery and were made into shoes by local
cobblers, white or black.
Local cabinet-makers made furniture, all of it strong, and some of it
good in line and finish. Many of the pieces sold by dealers in antiques
in the great cities as coming from Europe by way of the South were made
by cabinet-makers in Southern villages in the first half of the
nineteenth century. Farm wagons as well as carriages with some
pretensions to elegance were made in local shops. In fact, up to 1810 or
1820 it seemed that the logical development of one or two of the South
Atlantic States would be into frugal manufacturing commonwealths. Few of
the thousands of small shops developed into real manufacturing
establishments, however, though many continued to exist. The belief in
the profits apparently to be made from the cultivation of cotton and
tobacco changed the ideals of the people. To own a plantation on which
he might lead a patriarchal existence became the ambition of the
successful man. Even the lawyer, the doctor, or the merchant was likely
to own a plantation to which he expected to retire, if indeed he did not
already live on it while he engaged in his other occupation. As the
century went on, the section began to depend more and more upon other
parts of the country or upon Europe to supply its wants, and general
interest in Southern industries began to wane.
Textile establishments had appeared early in the century. The first
cotton mill in North Carolina was built in 1810 and one in Georgia about
the same time. Much of the machinery for the former was built by local
workmen. Other mills were built in the succeeding years until in 1860
there were about 160 in the Southern States, with 300,000 spindles, and
a yearly product worth more than $8,000,000. The establishments were
small, less than one-third the average size of the mills in New England,
and few attempted to supply more than the local demand for coarse yarn
which the country women knit into socks or wove into cloth. The surplus
was peddled from wagons in adjoining counties or even in a neighboring
State. Little attempt was made to seek a wider outlet, and many of these
mills could supply the small local demand by running only a few months
in the year.
During the Civil War, however, these mills were worked to their full
capacity. At the cessation of hostilities many mills were literally worn
out; others were destroyed by the invading armies; and fewer were in
operation in 1870 than before the War. During the next decade, hope of
industrial success began to return to the South. The mills in operation
were making some money; the high price of cotton had brought money into
the section; and a few men had saved enough to revive the industry. Old
mills were enlarged, and new mills were built. The number in operation
in 1880 was about the same as in 1860, but the number of spindles was
nearly twice as great.
The Cotton Exposition at Atlanta in 1881 and the New Orleans Exposition
in 1884 gave an impetus to the construction of mills. There were
prophecies of future success in the industry, though some self-appointed
guardians of the South proved, to their own satisfaction at least, that
neither the section nor the people were adapted to the manufacture of
cotton and that all their efforts should be devoted to the production of
raw material for the mills of New England. Difficulties were magnified
and advantages were minimized by those whose interests were opposed to
Southern industrial development, but the movement had now gained
momentum and was not to be stopped. Timidly and hesitantly, capital for
building mills was scraped together in dozens of Southern communities,
and the number of spindles was doubled between 1880 and 1885 and continued
to increase.
In developing this Southern industry there were many difficulties to be
overcome, and mistakes were sometimes made. Seduced by apparent
cheapness, many of the new mills bought machinery which the New England
mills had discarded for better patterns, or because of a change of
product. Operatives had to be drawn from the farms and needed to be
trained not only to work in the mills but also to habits of regularity
and punctuality. The New England overseers who were imported for this
purpose sometimes failed in dealing with these new recruits to
industrialism because of inability to make due allowance for their
limitations. Accustomed to the truck system in agriculture, the managers
often paid wages in scrip always good for supplies at the company store
but redeemable in cash only at infrequent intervals. The operatives
therefore sometimes found that they had exchanged one sort of economic
dependence for another. Another difficulty was that a place for Southern
yarn and Southern cloth had to be gained in the market, and this was
difficult of accomplishment for the product was often not up to the
Northern standard.
Managing ability, however, was found not to be so rare in the South as
had been supposed. Some of the managers, drawn perhaps from the village
store, the small town bank, or the farm, succeeded so well in the
broader field that others were encouraged to seek similar industrial
success. As the construction of new mills went on, the temper of the
South Atlantic States began to change. The people began to believe in
Southern industrial development and to be eager to invest their savings
in something other than a land mortgage. An instalment plan by which the
savings of the people, small individually but large in the aggregate,
were united, furnished capital for mills in scores of towns and
villages. In 1890 there were nearly a million and three-quarters
spindles in the South compared with less than six hundred thousand ten
years before.
It seemed as though nearly every mill was profitable, and the occasional
failures did not seriously check the movement, which developed about
1900 almost into a craze in some parts of the South. In these sections
every town talked of building one mill or more. The machine shops of the
North, which had been cold or at least indifferent to Southern
development, woke up, as Southern mills began to double or triple their
equipment out of their profits. Agents were sent to the South to
encourage the building of new mills, and to give advice and aid in
planning them. The new mill-owners were good customers. They had learned
wisdom by the mistakes of the pioneers, and they demanded the best
machinery with all the latest devices. Long credit was now freely
offered by Northern manufacturers of machinery, and some of them even
subscribed for stock--to be paid, of course, in machinery.
The Northern textile manufacturers also woke up. They found that in
coarse yarns the Southern mills were successfully competing with their
products. Some pessimistic representatives of the industry in the North
prophesied that the Southern mills would soon control the market. Some
New England mills built branch mills in the South; some turned to the
finer yarns; and some sought to throw obstacles in the way of their
competitors. It has been freely charged by many Southerners that New
England manufacturers bore the expense of labor organizers in an
unsuccessful attempt to unionize the Southern mill operatives. It has
also been charged that the propaganda for legislation restricting the
hours of labor and the age of operatives in Southern mills was financed
to some extent by New England manufacturers, and that the writers of
the many lurid accounts purporting to describe conditions in Southern
mills received pay from the same source.
The system of paying for stock on the instalment plan permitted the
construction of many mills for which capital could not have been raised
otherwise and had also certain distinct social consequences. According
to this plan, the subscriptions to the stock were made payable in weekly
instalments of 50 cents or $1.00 a share, thus requiring approximately
two or four years to complete payment. Those having money in hand might
pay in full, less six per cent discount for the average time. Since
almost or quite a year was usually necessary to build the mill and the
necessary tenements for the hands, the instalments more than paid this
item of expense. The weekly receipts and the payments in full were kept
in a local bank, which also expected future business and was therefore
likely to be liberal when credit was demanded. Often the officers and
directors of the bank were also personally interested in the new
enterprise. The machinery manufacturers gave long credit and often took
stock in the mill. Commission houses which sold yarns and cloth also
took stock with the expectation of controlling the marketing of the
product.
Many mills built on this plan were so profitable that they were able to
pay for a considerable part of the machinery from the profits long
before the last instalment was paid, and some even paid a dividend or
two in addition. Such mills started operations with many things in their
favor. The ownership was widely distributed, since it was not at all
uncommon for a hundred thousand dollar mill to have a hundred or more
stockholders, some of whom held only one or two shares. Further, since
the amount of money paid in the immediate neighborhood for wages, fuel,
and raw material was large, every one was disposed to aid the enterprise
in every way possible. Town limits were often changed almost by common
consent in order to throw a mill outside so that it would not be subject
to town taxes. Where the state constitutions permitted, taxes on the
mill were even remitted for a term of years. Where this could not be
done, assessors were lenient and usually assessed mill property at much
less than its real value.
Not only did some Northern corporations build branch mills in the South,
but a considerable amount of Northern capital was invested in mills
under the management of Southern men. It is of course impossible to
discover the residence of every stockholder, but enough is known to
support the assertion that the proportion of Northern capital is
comparatively small. The greater part of the investment in Southern
mills has come from the savings of Southern people or has been earned by
the mills themselves. Lately several successful mills have been bought
by large department stores and mail-order houses, in order to supply
them with goods either for the counter directly or else for the
manufacture of sheets, pillowcases, underwear, and the like. Marshall
Field and Company of Chicago, for example, own several mills in North
Carolina.
The mills of the South have continued to increase until they are now
much more numerous than in the North. They are smaller in size, however,
for in 1915 the number of spindles in the cotton-growing States was
12,711,000 compared with 19,396,000 in all other States. The consumption
of cotton was nevertheless much greater in the South and amounted to
3,414,000 bales, compared with 2,770,000 bales in the other States. This
difference is explained by the fact that Southern mills generally spin
coarser yarn and may therefore easily consume twice or even three times
as much cotton as mills of the same number of spindles engaged in
spinning finer yarn. Some Southern mills, however, spin very fine yarn
from either Egyptian or sea-island cotton, but time is required to
educate a considerable body of operatives competent to do the more
delicate tasks, while less skillful workers are able to produce the
coarser numbers.
Southern mills have paid high dividends in the past and have also
greatly enlarged their plants from their earnings. They had, years ago,
several advantages, some of which persist to the present day. The cost
of the raw material was less where a local supply of cotton could be
obtained, since freight charges were saved by purchase in the
neighborhood; land and buildings for plant and tenements cost less than
in the North; fuel was cheaper; water power was often utilized, though
sometimes this saving was offset by the cost of transportation; taxes
were lower; the rate of wages was lower; there was little or no
restriction of the conditions of employment; and there were
comparatively few labor troubles.
With the great growth of the industry, however, some of these early
advantages have disappeared. Many mills can no longer depend upon the
local supply of cotton, and the freight charge from the Lower South is
as high as the rate by water to New England or even higher; the
transportation of the finished product to Northern markets is an
additional expense; wages have risen with the growth of the industry and
are approaching closely, if they have not reached, the rate per unit of
product paid in other sections. The cost of fuel has increased, although
in some localities the development of hydro-electric power has reduced
this item. All the States have imposed restrictions upon the employment
of women and children in the mills, particularly at night. On the other
hand, taxes remain lower, the cost of building is less, and strikes and
other forms of industrial friction are still uncommon. When well
managed, the Southern mills are still extremely profitable, but margin
for error in management has become less.
The Southern mills are chiefly to be found in four States, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, and in the hill country
of these States, though a few large mills are situated in the lowlands.
North Carolina, with over three hundred mills, has more than any other
State, North or South, and consumes more cotton than any other Southern
State--over a million bales.
South Carolina, however, has more spindles, the average size of its
mills is larger, and it spins more fine yarn. North Carolina is second
only to Massachusetts in the value of its cotton products, South
Carolina comes third, Georgia fourth, and Alabama eighth. Virginia and
Tennessee are lower on the list. In quantity of cotton consumed, the
cotton growing States passed all others in 1905; and in 1916 the
consumption was twenty-five per cent greater, in spite of the fact that
New England had been increasing her spindles. Some Southern mills are
built in cities, but usually they are in the smaller towns and in little
villages which have grown up around the mills and owe their existence to
them. There is some localization of industry: a very large number of
mills, for instance, may be found in a radius of one hundred miles from
Charlotte, North Carolina, and one North Carolina county has more than
fifty mills, though the total number of spindles in that county is not
much greater than in some single New England establishment.
In the allied knitting industry the production of the South is
increasing in importance. North Carolina led the South in 1914, with
Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, following in the order named. Though most
of the establishments are small, some are important and are
establishing a wide reputation for their product. Generally they are
situated in the towns where cotton mills have already been located.
The textile industry, though it is the most important, is not the only
great industrial enterprise in the New South. Two others, both in a way
the by-products of cotton, deserve attention. Only a few years ago
cotton seed was considered a nuisance. A small quantity was fed to
stock; a somewhat larger quantity was composted with stable manure and
used for fertilizer; but the greater part was left to rot or was even
dumped into the streams which ran the gins. Since the discovery of the
value of cottonseed products, the industry has grown rapidly. The oil is
now used in cooking, is mixed with olive oil, is sold pure for salad
oil, and is an important constituent of oleomargarine, lard substitutes,
and soap, to name only a few of the uses to which it is put. The cake,
or meal from which the oil has been pressed, is rich in nitrogen and is
therefore valuable as fertilizer; it is also a standard food for cattle,
and tentative experiments with it have even been made as a food for
human beings. The hulls have also considerable value as cattle food, and
from them are obtained annually nearly a million bales of "linters,"
that is, short fibers of cotton which escaped the gin. Since the seed is
bulky and the cost of transportation is correspondingly high, there are
many small cottonseed oil mills rather than a few large ones. Texas is
the leader in this industry, with Georgia next, though oil mills are to
be found in all the cotton States, and the value of the seed adds
considerably to the income of every cotton grower. In 1914 the value of
cottonseed products was $212,000,000.
The industry of making fertilizer depends largely upon cottonseed meal.
More than a hundred oil mills have fertilizer departments. The phosphate
deposits of the South Atlantic States are also important, and the
fertilizer industry is showing more and more a tendency to become
sectional. Georgia easily leads, Maryland is second, and no Northern
State ranks higher than seventh.
From the standpoint of values lumbering is a more important industry
than the manufacture of fertilizers. In this respect Louisiana is the
second State in value of products, and the industry is important in
Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Carolina. The South furnishes nearly
half of the lumber produced in the United States. This industry is, of
course, only one step from the raw material. The manufacture of wood
into finished articles is, however, increasing in some of the Southern
States. The vehicle industry is considerable, and the same may be said
of agricultural machinery, railway and street cars, and coffins. North
Carolina especially is taking rank in the manufacture of furniture, most
of it cheap but some of it of high grade. So far, ambition has in few
cases gone beyond utilization of the native woods, some of which are
surprisingly beautiful. Many small establishments in different States
make such special products as spokes, shuttle blocks, pails, broom
handles, containers for fruits and vegetables, and the like, but the
total value of these products is small compared with the value of the
crude lumber which is sent out of the South.
The iron industry is important chiefly in Alabama, of the purely
Southern States. This State is fourth in the product of its blast
furnaces but supplied in 1914 only a little more than six per cent of
the total for the United States. Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia
produce appreciable quantities of pig iron; no Southern State plays a
really important part in the steel industry, though Maryland, Alabama,
and West Virginia are all represented. Birmingham, Alabama, is the
center of steel manufacture and has been called the Pittsburgh of
the South, but though the industry has grown rapidly in Birmingham, it
has also grown in Pittsburgh, and the Southern city is gaining very
slowly. There are great beds of bituminous coal in the South, but only
in West Virginia and Alabama is the production really important, though
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia produce appreciable quantities.
In the total value of the products of mines of all sorts, West Virginia
and Oklahoma are among the leaders, owing to their iron, coal, and
petroleum output. Other Southern States follow in the rear. Alabama,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Florida, and Louisiana all have a
mineral output which is large in the aggregate but a small part of the
total. The sulphur mines of Louisiana are growing increasingly
important. North Carolina produces a little of almost everything, but
its mineral production, except of mica, is not important. In this State
large aluminum works have been constructed and the quantity of precious
and semiprecious stones found there is a large part of the production
for the United States.
The tobacco industry is growing rapidly in the South. There have always
been small establishments for the manufacture of tobacco, and many of
these during the last three decades have grown to large proportions. New
establishments have been opened, some of which are among the largest in
the world. The development of the American Tobacco Company and its
affiliated and subsidiary organizations has greatly reduced the number
of separate establishments. Many were bought by the combination; their
brands were transferred to another factory; and the original
establishments were closed as uneconomical. Many other small factories,
feeling or fearing the competition, closed voluntarily. But the total
production of tobacco has steadily increased. Plug and smoking tobacco
are largely confined to the Upper South. North Carolina easily leads,
while Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri (if it be classed as a Southern
State) also have factories which are known all over the world. Richmond,
St. Louis, Louisville, and New Orleans, and Winston-Salem and Durham in
North Carolina are the cities which lead in this industry. Winston-Salem
probably now makes more plug, and Durham more smoking tobacco, than any
other cities in the United States, and the cigarette production of the
former is increasing enormously. Some factories supply export trade
almost exclusively. There has been little development of the fine cigar
industry except in Louisiana and Florida, though in all cities of the
Lower South there are local establishments for the manufacture of cigars
from Cuban leaf. Richmond is a center for the manufacture of domestic
cigars and cheroots and has one mammoth establishment.
Twenty years or thirty years ago scattered over the South there were
thousands of small grist mills which ground the farmer's wheat or corn
between stones in the old-fashioned way. These are being superseded by
roller mills, some of them quite large, which handle all the local wheat
and even import some from the West. However, as the annual production of
wheat in the South has decreased rather than increased since 1880, it is
obvious that the industry has changed in form rather than increased in
importance.
There are other less important manufacturing enterprises in the South.
The census shows about two hundred and fifty distinct industries pursued
to a greater or less extent. Maryland ranked fourteenth in the total
value of manufactured products in 1914. Only seven Southern States were
found in the first twenty-five, while Minnesota, which is generally
considered an agricultural State, ranked higher in manufactures than any
of the Southern group in 1914. The next census will undoubtedly give
some Southern States high rank, though the section as a whole is not yet
industrial. The manufacturing output is increasing with marvelous
rapidity, but it is increasing in other sections of the country as well.
Although the South was credited in 1914 with an increase of nearly 72
per cent in the value of its products during the decade, its proportion
of the total value of products in the United States as a whole increased
only from 12.8 per cent in 1904 to 13.1 per cent in 1914. The section is
still far from equaling or surpassing other sections except in the
manufacture of textiles.