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15 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1900)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry15 and id is 1 raw text is: VAlarch, ioo. POLITICAL SCIENCE OUARTERLY. LIFE IN A SOUTHERN MILL TOWN. T HERE is not yet a cotton-mill type in the people of the South, but many different stages in the development of an operative class are represented among the individuals whom this paper attempts to describe. Because of this lack of uni- formity, statistics cannot aid in the work here undertaken. It is based merely on the observation of numerous cases - the only method through which an understanding of these people can be obtained. C- is a town of Sooo people in the west-central section of North Carolina. Though the town is more than a hundred years old, most of the population has come since i88o. Before that it was a sleepy country town, deriving its chief importance from the presence of the county courthouse. Now many towns of twice the size could not boast an equal volume of business. The principal industry is the manufacture and sale of cotton. Few towns in the South are so identified in the public mind with cotton manufacturing. This is not so much on account of the size of the mills as on account of their success. During the years of the panic and the depression following, when the margin on goods was narrow and the business unprofitable in many sections, the mills of C- paid promptly either four or five per cent semi-annually. Moreover, the machinery has been kept up to the highest stage of efficiency, and large surplus funds have been accumulated. Years ago the dividends were even larger. [Number I. Voh111ne X V.]