Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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SUPPLMN TO"' ~~ THE MANNING TIMES MANNING, S. C., .WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1901. THE OLYIPI ILL Tna Las olmNtr DIU Doe Roul More than a Million Dollars Invested in a Great Enterprise-One Plant Operating More than 100,000 Spindles - The Opportunities Offered Unskilled and Un trained Help. l - A UP-ODTE IM PA T Tl COUITRY. Every Convenience - and Comfort Offered Mill Help-A Happy and Contented Family. The clima of cotton mill, development in this State for the century just closed was reached In the Olympia Cotton Mill It stands out conspicuously as the highest type of mill construction in this country, and is pronounced by competent mill peo ple to be the most complete. up-to-date and promising cotton manufacturing plant In the country. It represents the type of Whaley mills, all of which are successful. 4 It'Is wbiout doubt the .largest cotton mill under a single-roof In the entire South era States, -and competent Judges announce that It is the most complete mill plant in this conftry, and no 'nation is* ahead of this contry in the. cotton mill business. People hear- and know that the Olympia -M1 is the largest In the South, but they may not know, nor do they think of what combinations go to make this magnificent structure what It is. Think of a single cotton mill consuming 15,000 ales of cotton. .It will employ, when all atachinery Is In stalled and in operation, more'than 1,200 abl-bodied operatives AN AVENUE OF OP] it has the most modern and Improved machinery and, with the new and up-to date machinery, operatives can readily -earn more than they would in old plants with antiquated equipment. It has the best class and most up-to-date homes for its operatives. - t ls on the direct line of the Columb~a Electric Street Railway, and within a few :,~minutes' ride of the heart of the city. It is near enough to the city to give all the advantages and pleasures of the city of Columbia. It will build a 320,000 school building for the children of its opera:lves and support the school of its own accord and 'out of Its own funds. * It offers the besf school and church op portunities to its he-1p. 4 It Is a mill operated, owned and man aged by South Carolinians, who have the same sentiments, purposes and feelings as those who do the work. It has lavished money In installing the most taorough sanitary arrangements in the mill and its village. It employs a mill physician, whose ser vices are at the call of employees without cost. The wages are full and the piece work as anl other classes permit better incomes than usual, because of the improved facil mte an new machinery. The plant is operated throughout with electricity. The expectatlon is to soon offer electric lights to all of the operatives for their homes. The pictures Indicate the neat and at tractive homes that are provided for the help. ABOUT THE MILL BUILDING. Something of the giant mill Itself: The mill building of the Olympia Mill is 553 feet 2 inches long and 151 feet 2 inches wide, and contains four floors and a base ment, each story being 18 -feet-.hgh. . There are two towers about 24 by. 22 feet and 139 feet 6 inches high, corrtaining -the stairways and the tanks for the sprinkler system. Adjoining the rear wa.11 of the mill at the middle is a machine shop and in the rear of this is the engine and boiler rooms. The engine room being- 20 by 50 feet, and the boiler house 140 by 40 feet in pl:.n. In the rear of the latter is the buildlng for the mechanical draft plant. The first floor of the building is devoted to opening bales and wea*ving; the second floor to weaving, slarhing, spooling and warping; the third to carding, drawing and lapping, and the ~ATIES' HOMES. forth -floor to spinning. Communication between the floors is also afforded by two tis electric elevators driven by al :ernat Ing-current motors. The mill will operate 14000 spindles and he latest Draper looms have been pu: into the mill. The total number of looms to be perated will be 2,400 40-Inch looms. The electric equipment at the mill com poses everything that has been construct d by electrical or mill engineers. It is 'by dds the most thorough that has yet been udertaken. By using electricity the cost of -+he mill uildings was reduced 'by 10 per cent on ccount of the absence of heavy -transverse walls through the mill, necessary for the ead shafts at the beltway, with the belt nd shafting sys:em-. Sirty-one per cent i f the shafting cost was saved by the use f electricty. Three-inch shafting is the largest in the building. Sixty-six per cent f the cost of the bets an.d ropes was saved with the electrical system. The sav ing due to these thr e itents was sufficient, t s said, -to more than pay for the cost f the electrical equipment of the mml. Part of the electrical generating plant is 2se t lihtthe town and also to run a street railway.Th maiu poer uired by the niill is about 3,600-horse TE The generating plant consists of three McIntosh & Seymour engines, each of a normal rating of .1,600-horse power, capable of developing a maximum of 2,000-horse power, directly connected to alternating current generators. The engines are 'of the vertical cross compound condensing type, with cylinders 20 and 48 inches in diameter, and a stroke of 42 inches. The cylinders are steam Jacketed, and a reheating receiver Is placed between them. PLENTY OF PURE WATER. The water supply for the mill comes from a spring-fed reservoir of some 800,000 gallons' capacity, which also supplies the mill village with its drinking water. The mill is heated by two 1'-foot electri cally driven Sturtevant fans, blowing air through horizontal ducts aloag the front and rear walls of the mill, as shown in the half plan and section of the mill build ing. The mill architecture is imposing and the structure is beautiful. Considerable money was expended in beautifying the building and every possible convenience is provided in and around tl' e mil. The closets and wash rooms are finished in marble and mosaics, and elevators are at hand for the operatives. A 5,000-pound Schane bell is in one of th: towers and with beautiful tone strikes tihe hours, and in the second tower there is a standard time clock. The officers of the mill company are: President, W. B. Smith Whaley. Vice president. W. A. Clark. General- manager, J. S. Moore. Secretary and treasurer, W. H. Rose. Superintendent. F. S. Barnes. A SUBJECT OF PRIDE The mill was constructed on the planr of W. B. Smith Whaley & Co, the most successful mill engineers in the South. This firm has left Its deep imprint on the industrial development of the Soqth, and especially in South Carolina. In a recent article it was stated that: "The record of the firm is that of 539,676 spindles, 14,560 looms and $8,500,000 capital in a working Iperiod of. seven years,. unapproached by -any mill engineering firm in the South, and should be a subject of pride to South Carolina and to Columbia, as well as to the members of- the firm." When we consider that in 1880 the entire Starte of South Carolina contained onl~ 26 cotton mills, with 181.742 spindles, 13,418 looms and $4,084,000 capital, against this aggregate for one young South Carolina firm of 539,676 spindles, 14,560 looms and -7: OLYMPIA COTTON tLL. COLUMdBIA, $8500,000 capital, the *tent of Its con structive achievements may be better realized. - THE- GENIUS OF W. B. SMITH In. Columbis alone it has planted 197,000 spindles and 4,840 looms, or more than the whole State had' twenty years ago, and the capital employed in these mills-3,100, 000-is Jonly less tban that required for the smaller number' of. looms and spindles in '1880,. because of; the greater economy Joable-nowin );alingtine beast mi3i It is proper to add that Mr Whaley is the president of all but the smallest of these four Columbia mills which he ha.s plan'nied, and:which, with 191,000 spindles, 4,620looms and $3,000,000 capital, represen:s the largest cotton manufacturing invest ment in the South and one of the largest in the United States. An example of his far-sightednesi and quick business perception may be noted in connection with the electrical installa I ion of the Olympia Mills. As soon as the electrical transmission of power had been definitely determined upo-n for that mnill and its location determIrned, he at once purchased- the existing eleetric car lines of the city, nlso the electrical lighting business, and will furnish the power and current from the Olymnpi3; also provide ele-ctricity for the other mills. The re sultant economies will not only be facters in the net earnings of the railway a:7. lighting systems, '-but will also add .r appreciable, net income to credit of the mill.' OLY)MPIA'S GREATNES3S ACKNOWLr -EDGED. Last .April, Wh 'e great Olympia Mil was started up, it was excarnned bya number of the' leading cotton mill officern In the country; men who lead in the cottor: lndgzstrial movement. One of these was Capt Manning,. of the Amoskeag Company who, said: "The Olympia was the finest struicture of the sort he had ever seen. He 1Ias glad the Olympia. was not a com. petit'or of the .Amoskeag Company." Mr Richardson, of Massachusetts, said that the Olympia Mill was, in his opinion, the -finest cotton mill in the world-the finest -in architecture and equipment-and he said this with a full real'.zation of what he was saying, as he was connected with New England mills. Not long ago Mr H. E. C. Bryant made a trip through the miii territory and made disinterested and 'Impartial in quiries and wrote a. series of articles on the result of his inquiries in the various mills In this State and North Carolina, L ONE OF THE OLYMFIA HOMES. 6il S. C. and here is -an interesting summary in one of his letters: "In passing through a mill settlement some weeks ago * I stopped at the home of a middle-aged man who hadfive children working in the mill. He lives in a. six room, two-story house. I met him some dstance from his hoase; I said: 'I want to see how you people live. I would like to gc In some home where several children live.' He started -in a jiffy- and said as walked: ~ 'Come and go In my house. I have five children, but they are in the mill.' Entering the house. from the -rear we went through the dining room into a bed room, and then Into the parlor. The old gentleman was proud of the parlor. He threw back the window curtains and pointed to the large pictures on the wall. They were paintings from photographs of his children. The floor of the room was carpeted and in one corner was an organ. From kitchen to garret the house was clean. When mine host had seen me to the door he said: 'I farmed on rented land before I came here, but I could not feed my family there now. I like the lifa here. I like my employers. They treat us well if we behave in like manner to ward them. If we mishehave they turn us out and get others In our stead. When I moved here the superintendent warned me against drinking. He said that he would have none but sober help. He meant what he said, for I have not seen a drunken man on the bill since I came here two years ago. My children are in good health and seem satisfied. We are all contented. All of us belong to the Church and attend regularly.' "I went from house to house and heard the same story. Indeed, there Is no prob em at the best mills between capital and labor, for the mill owners and operatives dwell in harmony. The various religious denominations in athe mill sections are doing a great deal for the factory element in the South. Preachers call on thc operatives and their families at their homes. Churches are built and preaching and Sunday-school conducted at nearly every mill. Within the last five years In the South much has been done for the betterment of thae conditi'on of the cotton mill help. The work is tilI going 'Xo one who knows the facts, as any one can learn by going to the mills, can doubt that the people who work in the coton mills of the South are far better off in every way than ever before. "Such are the conditions in all the Caro lina mills." Mr E. G. Dunnell, an experIenced news paper man on the editorial staff 'of t New York Times, visited the South. and made a careful study of the mill situation, and in one of his letters recently to his paper this hew York writer had this to ay, among -other things: ,"hle the owners and stockholders are making money they are conferring per manent-blessings upon the people. AS in other towns where new mills have de manded increasing. numbers of opdratives :Shp have started to supply the needs of oeaivor those who swere employed In ew industries called forth because of the coming. of a laboring population.. Stores have been obliged to carry large and -more varied stocks. There Is more travelling by rail. It Is a matter of daily occurrence that among the passengers who overcrowd the trains of the Southern Railway there are inquirers arriving at various points to look over the land with the view of set tling, either as persons already concerned in cotton manufacturing or hoping, to be, or tradesmen seeking. a new market. The country Is beautiful. It Is charm ng to the eye; It is naturally healthful, and in the towns will be morV healthful with a little criticism and sanitation. The umers are long and the winters brief I dunusually mild. HOME OFFERED "But it is not alone in the coming of the1 trlley, the expansion of the shops, the pving of streets in towns, the sanitation ofall places of large population, the sen stion of earning money with a regularity ad cartanty never before enjoyed In the section, that occasion for rejoicing Is fund in South Carolina. Attention was drected by a thoughtful and observant itzen to a sociological phase of the in dustrial development that is most satis fctory, and that it seems a pity could not be extended In some way to the State of ~entucky. When Columbia began to build mills, and the ojperation of the mills had. made a perceptible drain upon the most conven int and willing class of thc population that was fitted to work In the mills, that drain was felt a lilttle at points more or lss remote from Columbia. Men and wo men who had yearned zor opportunity to gt money withfout digging or hoeing for -moved from the foothills into town, ist into plac~es vacated by the people who moved earliest, and afterward, as the mills began to rise nearer to the hills, into te manufactories elsewhere. EFFECT OF PROSPERITY. "Most of these people were of the real hardy mountaineer sort, with the sam'e sft, deliberate courteous address that is characteristic of all the mountaineers In the Virginias, the Carolinas, Tennessee or eentucky'. They brought with them stal wart frames, simple appetites and igno rance of letters. But they were not al toether at fault for that. They had not ben treated as wards of the State. There was a moving down from the mountain ditricts into a region where- there were shools and stores and churches of a produte arnet and ambitious multi tude that had gotten along without these things simply because all their neighbors bad done likewise for years. But the >ride that had been satisfied in the moun tains and back country made them ambi Lious to keep up with the order of- things n the region to which they had migrated.. he children must be clothed like other :hildren; the wife must not be compeUd to live in a sun bonnet. - I SCHOOLS FOR ALL. "The ptiblic schools were at once patron zed by, children who might have devel >ped like their parents If it had not been for the building of new cotton mills. New needs.demanded money to gratify them. The sun of civilization was rising. "In many respects this is the very best result of the industrial awakening In South Carolina. The mill towns are bound to become centres et intelligence, taste, de veloping appetite for necessary and Tuxu ious surr-undings, and, with, the passing f years and the accumulation of means, groups of the 'owned homes of thousands who came to the towns penniless and Igno rant, and have been by Industry and thrift converted Into -aw-abiding, temperate, In dependent and self-respecting Americas." All that Mr Dunnell has to say Is correct, but more so here; as the mill owners real ze that the best help is that which is best, aid and given the greatest of home com forts, and that Is the purpose of the Olym pa's management. WORK ALL THE YAR ROUND,. Operatives in the South can and do work all the year round if they wish to and it Ii not here as It is up in the New-England States, that the cold' weather Interferes with work for several months in each year. THE BEST OF OFFICERS. The Olympia Cotton Mill has collected all the best things that are to be had. It has the finest mill building, the finest ma chinery, the latest looms, spindles and other machinery, but the policy of the ml has been and is to put the -most expe rienced men at the head of the various de partments. President W.' B. Smith Whaley knows the mill business from the groutyd floor up. He worked his way from the bot tom ta the topmost rung of the ladjer, and so-General Manager J. . Moore has been brought up in.the-mill busines and knows its every detail, and so on down the line, -and: that is why .its managements. anxious to secure unskilled help andtraln the workers with the skilled and compe-, tent help now used. -It is a matter of'but a. short time-a very short time-befo the new -help can and does earn as much as any in the =mll& At Olympia there wil be room for all. THE BEST gEOPLE AT:WORK, Theie are'to-day thousands of the best people. in South Carolina who are working In the mills, and who are delighted tia ' they. change. Families who had .bee mere toilers and ekediout an-ezstence- are to-day living comfortably In mill crwnnt ties; their children have theobestof schoil faclities; they have the best of churchepi portunities, and when pay-day cos around they and their working fainil re elve tbeit pay and can and do put aiMe money. - Families whol worke4 under -1t lin system and*were constantly in edb4, and that debt growlng month by mon'th and year by year, finally abandoned farm ing and the debt basis, and went into the mills with their griown children and .*so enjoyed comfortable and regular Incomes. It ~ the constant aim of such corpora tions as -the Olympia to have competent and happy help, and to have a healthy-and satisfied community, and to that end ev erything possible has been, and is beiig, done for the health and pleasure of 'the operatives. There is no healthier community than that at the Olympia Will. The company hs an'exceptional sewerage and drainage system ail garbage Is carted away by the garbage carts owned by the miIL -.1e company has employed a competent, well known physician, whose .businless and )LYMPIA'S HELP. pleasure it is to attend to every medical want of the operatives at the exspense of the mill company. The management is desirlous of having the very bp t class of operatives to live In ther village and to work in the mill. As the mill is just starting up this enormous plant, the company will require several hundred families to give it the full num ber of operatives. The mill, therefore, Is offering to receive "green" help and to teach them to work In the fac'tors. Anyone desiring , to mnvesrigate with a view of accepting this offer, can get all the info aion, such as regards to wages of the ifferent kinds of work. etc, by writ ing to the superintendent of the Olympia Mills, or any of the mill officials, at Colum bia, S. C. Columbia offers a great many advantages -to people moving into the city. Its fine churches and fine schools give to those persons 'living in Columbia advantages not pose~sed by a good many other localities. The mills are all located on the street car line, mak:tg them very accessible to any part of the city. A good many families in the past have moved In from their farms to work in the factories here. They senn to be perfectly satised and in many instances have bet tered .their condition considerably. . The mill officials will be glad to commu nicate with any parties desiring to come to the mills for the purpose of working In them, and are sa:is'led that the opportuni ties are such as to satisfy them. The story of the Olympia Cotton Mill is one of intense interest to every Carolinian, tnd when one thinks it will be realized 'ow very intimately the cotton mills of the State are asociated with the industrial develoment of the State.