•" ¥,
Fifty Years Os Textile Progress In State |
BY BEN E. DOUGLAS j
Director, North Carolina Department
of Conservation and Development ,
In away the cotton textile indus
try had its beginning in North Caro
lina as far back as 1775, a year or
more before the adoption of the Decla
ration of Independence at Philadel
phia.
It was in 1776 that the Safety Com- _
mittee of Chowan County raised a
fund of 80 pounds sterling to encour
age a British textile mechanic to come
to North Carolina and start a cotton
manufacturing business. But the Rev
olutionary War interfered and the pro
ject was abandoned.
Later on, in 1789, the North Caro
lina General Assembly authorized
Christopher Taylor to raise by lot
tery $5,000 a year for seven years to
establish a factory that would spin,
weave and dye cotton. But the mill
was never built.
All this is somewhat of a prelude
to what later occurred in North Caro
lina as the Tar Heel State began its
march onward and upward as a cotton
textile manufacturing center and to
where during the first half of this
century it reached the very top as the
nation’s premier textile state.
According to the records, the first
successful cotton mill established in
North Carolina was the one construct
ed and operated near Lincolnton in
1813 by Michael Schenck and Absalom
Warlick. About the same time tlyit
Messrs. Schenck and Warlick were
establishing their mill near Lincolnton,
Joel Battle, a large plantation owner
living near Rocky Mount, began to
envision a cotton manufacturing plant
of his own.
He and a brother-in-law, Peter Ev-|
ans, and Henry A. Donaldson, who,
had had some cotton mill experience
and whom Messrs. Battle and Evans
had persuaded to come to North Caro- 1
lina, founded a mill at the shoals of,
the Tar River near Rocky Mount. That!
mill continues today under the man-|
agement of the same family and is the
oldest mill in the South.
Shortly before the turn of the pres-|
ent century, the Dukes, the Cones, the'
Erwins, the Harts, the Holts, and nu
merous other industry builders of that'
era really began to develop the tex-.
tile industry in North Carolina.
Washington Duke, his sons,
B. and Benjamin, and William A. Er
win constructed mills at Durham and
a little later expanded their opera-j
tions to include mills at what is now :
Erwin in Harnett County and at Coo-!
leemee in Davie County. The Cone'
brothers, Moses and Caesar, reported- 1
ly borrowed all they could and with j
what money they had of their own
they started a cotton textile manufac-'
turing plant in Greensboro in 1894.
They named this mill the Proximity,
reputedly because of its nearness to
the cotton fields that dotted North
Carolina then as they do now.
The Harts and Battles and others
continued to develop textile plants in
Eastern North Carolina, hut it was j
in the Piedmont, especially in the Gas- j
ton County area, that the cotton tex- j
tile business - began, early in this cen
tury to flourish so greatly and mean j
so much to the economy of North Car- j
olina. And much of the credit for
making the textile industry what it I
is today in the State’s great Piedmont
area is due such people as the I.ine
-000
p .,«
on—r
- sSff *****
__ dentist* P* efet '
NOTICE!
Singer Representative
Now Living In Edenton
For all your SINGER Service, Repairs and new
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PHONE 589-W-5 EDENTON, N. C.
Ibergers, Loves, Grays, Armstrongs, j
Stowes, Rankins, and numerous oth- .
ers.
i
“Fifty Years of Textile Progress in
North Carolina” is truly an interest
ing topic on which to write.
What has been accomplished in mak
ing North Carolina the premier state
that it is in cotton textile manufactur
ing is something that is little short
' of being miraculous.
In the promotion of industry in
North Carolina, a State dependent in
the main for generations on agricul
ture as its basic—and, in many ways,
its main—economy, the industrialists
were largely on their own. It must
be admitted that they did not get too
much help in planning from the State
level until the business-minded Angus
Wilson McLean of Lumberton was
elected Governor of North Carolina
! in 1924.
Governor McLean saw the need of
gathering the various State agencies
engaged in developing and conserving
of North Carolina’s vast natural re
sources into one department. He had
for some time envisioned what he per
suaded the 1925 General Assembly to
create —namely the North Carolina
Department of Conservation and De
velopment.
This is not the time nor is it the
place to go into detail and tell what
the Department of Conservation and
Development and its various divisions
are doing to help conserve and de
velop the State’s natural resources
and to bring about a better balance
between agriculture and industry.
Suffice to say, then, that here in
North Carolina we have a population
i of about four and one-quarter millions
iof people. Sad to relate, we rank 45th
' in per capita income and that is some
thing all of us must do something
about And we are, too.
i The textile industry has for genera
tions provided thousands of jobs for
| North Carolinians. It still is, and it
| is to the great credit of this industry
that it continues by reason of the
iwide variety of products it manufac
tures here in North Carolina that it
| helps the Tar Heel State to rank so
high industrially in the nation.
Big Factor in Economy
Textile employment in North Caro
j lina is said to be a weighty indica-
I tor used for measuring the trends in
i the economy of the State. There is
no doubt about this as records of the
I Employment Security Commission of
I North Carolina reveal that more than
; one-third of all workers engaged in
j manufacturing jobs in the State are
I covered by the Employment Security
i Program are employed in textile
I iilnnts. Textile employment in the
; State actually accounts for more than
, 50 per cent of all manufacturing em
ployment covered by the social se
curity program.
While North Carolina is intensify
ing its successful efforts to diversify
its manufacturing activities, it must
! not he forgotten that there is no oth
|or State in the union to which tex
i t ib>s arc so important to the economy
I than they are here in the Tar Heel
| State. Textile industry records a short
while ago revealed that two out of
j every three industrial employees in
! North Carolina is a textile operator.
Great Value Rise
Some idea of the growth of textile
IR. Elton Forehand, Jr. I
Handle Your H
FIRE AUTO —CASUALTY—BONDS
INSURANCE
REAL ESTATE I
305 Citizens Bank Building
PHONE 607
THE CHOWAN HERALD, EDENTON. N. C, THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 1954.
manufacturing in North Carolina from
1900 to 1950 may be seen by a look
at some figures. In 1900, for exam-,
pie, the value of textile products man- ’
ufactured in North Carolina was (
placed at $28,372,798; in 1962 they
had a value of $2,870,000,000, or al-j
most a gain of three billion dollars. |
This was almost one-half of the to
tal value of all products manufactur
ed in the State during 1952. Actual-'
ly, the value of all manufactured goods
in the State that year was put at
$6,426,000,000. - j
1,100 Plants
These textile products valued at al
most three billions of dollars were)
manufactured in some 1,100 textile
plants in North Carolina in 1952, last
year for which complete figures are
available at this time. The products,
were produced by approximately 234,-1
000 workers. They had a capital ofl
$33,011,516, a total of 30,273 em- 1
ployees, paid out a total of $5,127,087
in wages, and value of products was
put at $28,372,798.
It is interesting to note that in
1900 these 177 textile establishments
gave work to 42.9 per cent of the
, wage earners employed at that time
in the State. The products valued at
$28,372,798, or 29.9 per cent of the to
tal value of products manufactured in
the State.
Rank In 1900
The increase in the value of pro
ducts from 1890 to 1900 was 196.7
, per cent. In 1900 North Carolina
ranked third in the nation in the man
| ufacturing of cotton goods. In the
, South it ranked second in value of
. products, first in the number of estab
i lishments, first in average number of
. employees, and first in total wages
paid.
i The amount of cotton consumed
i yearly by the spindles running in
s 11900 was almost equivalent to the an
i nual cotton crop of the State, which
• in 1899 was 473,155 commercial bales.
; In addition to cotton goods, there
were listed in the 1900 Census 90 ap
■ parel manufacturers employing 1,107
• workers, with products valued at sl,-
t 291.382. There were also 14 dyeing
r j or finishing plants and 24 hosiery and
> knit goods plants.
Fifty years later—in 1950—there
t were 213,424 textile workers employ
> ed in North Carolina. Value added by
manufacture was $862,480,000. (The
U. S. Department of Commerce defines
. “value added” as something approxi
• mating the value created in the manu
i facturing process, and is derived by
i subtracting the cost of materials, sup
> plies, etc., from the total value of
f products shipped.)
i In 1952 there were 218,993 persons
i employed in North Carolina textile
> plants. They earned $498,979,000, and
j the value added by manufacture of
> products was put at $868,939,000.
Big Gains
i From 1900 through 1952 there was
-a 623 per cent gain in the number of
- wage earners employed in the textile
industry, while value of products in
- creased in excess of 10,000 per cent.
j Home city pride naturally accentu
t ates a personal desire to point out in
. this article that the American Cottov
- Manufacturers Institute, Inc., which
t represents over 85 per cent of the
I spindleage of the American textile in
t dustry, both Southern and New Kng
t land, has its main offices in Char
i lotte, North Carolina.
In fact, according to an excellent ar
ticle written some time ago by Henry
V Lesesne, roving editor, Textile Infor-
jmation Service, there is such a great '
concentration of the industry in and
.around Charlotte and Gastonia that
’only two other areas in the world can
, even compare with it on a textile
poundage basis. These are Lancashire, |
| England and Osaka, Japan. j
! Within a 50-mile radius of Char
i lotte, Mr. Lesesne wrote, there are j
■ more spindles—the industry’s measure ,
of productive capacity—than there are ]
in all the New England states put to
gether. North Carolina leads the ,
j country in number of spindles in place ;
with 6.1 million. South Carolina is
second with 5.9 million.
| It has been said that North Caro
lina and textiles have “sort of group
.up together.” There is something tc
| that statement, because textiles were
j North Carolina’s first manufacturing
t industry.
j The Department of Conservation and
; I Development is charged by law among
other things with (1) promotion of the
1 conservation and development of the
natural resources of the State, (2)
i promoting the development of com
! merce and industry, and (3) promot
! ing a more profitable use of lands,
s forests, and waters.
• more industrial payrolls into North
'Carolina, a State truly blessed with
native labor easy to train and willing
Ito work, as well as with numerous
- other natural advantages, the estab
l lished industries, which have done so
i much to give North Carolina the place
- it holds in the industrial sun, are not
a by any means being overlooked or for
f gotten. To these old, established in
- dustries the State and its people owe
f a lasting debt.
“EVERY TIME BELL RINGS
i I PRAY!”
i
Mrs. Rocky Marciano tells what it’s
' like to be married to the heavyweight
“ champion, how it feels watching him
get hit and what their home life is
7 like. Read this revealing story in the
June 13th issue of
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d Magazine in Colorgravure with the
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X -
New Peanut Tested
In Demonstrations
i
In order to keep a close check on
the yielding abilities of the two new
ly released peanut varieties, N. C. No.
1 and No. 2, eight demonstrations!
have been set up on farms in the eight
major peanut producing counties of
North Carolina. •
This series of demonstrations will
also check a newer peanut variety,'
known only as c-42, according to As
tor Perry, peanut specialist for the
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fingertips. If. the CUssified ptges of your Telephone
■ j Directory! Here is . listing of every service, product and
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•6 PROOF. THE STAGG BIST. CO.. FRANKFORT. KY. /
Page Nine
| State College Extension Service.
' In the tests, N. C. No. 1 and No. 2
.will be tested for yield against farm
stock nuts and the c-42 variety. Per
ry says each demonstration consists
of five pounds of N. C. No. 1, No. 2,
c-42 and farm stock nuts.
| In tests by the North Carolina Ag
ricultural Experiment Station the c-42
has shown up well, says Perry. If
!it continues to do so, it will very
likely be released within the next two
' years as a third new hybrid variety
resulting from the breeding program
under way at State College since 1944.