Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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A VOL. 14—NO. 22 NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1951 STILL IN WORKING ORDER, this Model A loom is an ork inal version of the first automatic loom. Few others are known to be in existence; one is on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Washington, and a companion loom to the machine pictured above has been donated by the Henrietta Mills of raroh ^n. X r 1 t-» *> museum beini; assembled in the Old Slater Mill at I’au tucket, K. i. Machine Which Brought Prosperity To The South’s Textile Industry Is Museum Piece ASHEVILLE, N. C.,—A “Model RESEARCH CREATES NEW PRODUCTS, WINS MORE BUSINESS, MAKES JOBS COMPETITION— rivalry among companies for customers and business—is a powerful sparkplug for textile research into raw ma terials, better processing methods and new or improved products. This was brought out in a talk by Mr. Robert C. Jackson, vice- president of the American Cot ton Manufacturers Institute, be fore the Cotton Research Con gress at Texas A. and M. College, as he told how the entire industry is carying an thousands of re search projects in mill laborator ies, textile colleges and public scientific centers. The goal of every forward- moving, competitive industry is to create new wants among the buying public and to make yes terday's wants out of date, he said, and this is one reason why research is vital to many mills. No company can afford to rest on its oars these days, Mr. Jack- son said, “and any industry j which settles down to the com fortable occupation of supplying the public what it thinks it ‘wants’ doesn't last long. Onward and Upward “When industry produced an automobile with an internal com bustion engine, it couldn’t stop there. The airplane had to fol low. When the telephone was produced, science couldn’t stop there. The radio hod to follow. After radio, television was in evitable. When the field of nu clear physics was opened up. “The textile business is part ol this parade of unending change/' the ACM1 executive said, "it is constantly twisting and turning into strange and unex pected paths and byways, but al ways with the purpose of find ing something new, more useful and appealing. This is in the likeness of human nature itself and will last just as long. The challenge is never ending and the rewards of meeting it will never cease.” A“ loom., original version of the first automatic weaving machine to revolutionize the textile in dustry, has been shipped back to its native New England to be preserved in the Old Slater Mill at i’uwtucket, R. L The ancient Model A and a companion loom of the same vint age, both in working order, turn ed up in North Carolina a few > ears ago. Recently traced rec- oids show that both machines were built in 18J6 by Draper Corporation of Hopedale, Mass., and were shipped that year to i lie Henrietta Mills, Caroleen, N. C. They were part of Draper’s order No. 3o calling for 100 ouch looms, hence were among the earliest automatics ever made. As years passed and newer millionth stockholder the other day an automobile salesman fioin Saginaw, Michigan — the company made <iuile a celebration of the event and entertained the The fact that this great com pany has one million owners and fnuL the majority of them are average citizens of modest means, is important not merely to the lelepnone company but to the world at large. This fact points up one of the ways the benefits of American business are spread, it exposes the lie in the commu nist theme song that “big busi ness” in the U. S. is an evil con spired in by “the privileged few” *o squeeze and “exploit the mass- models came out, it w r as Draper’s practice to take in old looms at a substantial credit. For this reason most Model A’s disappear ed, but these two managed to escape the scrap pile. They were also due to have been scrapped in 1915 when Henrietta Mills bought new looms, but again were left intact. In 1948 they were resurrected and repaired. Realizing their his toric value, the late G. Ellsworth Huggins, former president of Hen rietta Mills, decided they should be preserved. One, in accordance with wishes, has been donated by Henrietta Mills to the Old Slater Mill As sociation, a group currently en gaged in setting up a textile museum. The Old Slater Mill, built in The telephone company is big business when measured by its 35,000,OuO telephones and the big financing that is necessary to keep it operating. But the vital services that it performs lor us in our personal lives, in business and industry, and for the entire nation in peace or war, add up to vast benefits for millions of people in terms of convenience, business opportunities, jobs and wages and investment. Cotton textile manufacturing is big business, too, when measured by its 500,000 employees, six and one-half billion dolar annual out put, its annual payroll of well over a billion dollars, its huge plant investment. It is, in fact, America’s third largest industry. But, the cotton textile industry 1793 by Samuel Slater, ‘ father of American manufacturing,” is pre served as a memorial to Slater. According to plans of the Old Slater Mill Association, the structure will house a collection of original working models of textile machines, as well as records, photographs and other ex- hibts depicting the historical de velopment of textile manufactur ing in the United States, which eventually will be open for study and inspection by the public. James H. Northrop, a Draper mechanic, is credited with having nvented the first automatic loom in 1894, a step forward ranking with Kay’s flying shuttle and Arkwright's power spinning among the major textile inven tions of all times. The Model A loom was the first weaving FOR ALL also has many owners. Actually it is a collection of many small business. Its great magnitude does not imply giant corporations, but a number of relatively small units, a thousand or more, no one of which makes up more than four percent of the total. The average unit accounts for only a minor fraction of one percent of the in dustry s business. Whenever we are adding up the benefits of the American business system, we would be wise to re member what makes it go. If we want it to keep on producing and multiplying its benefits, we must protect it from the socialis tic trends that would destroy the source of its energy. We need to remember that profits are the spark plug of the American sys tem. machine capable of reloading its shuttle without stopping. Draper Corporation brought the loom out at the time when hun dreds of new mills were being built in the South, and historical authorities agree it was the wide spread adoption of this modern, massproduction machine w’hich gave impetus to the rapid rise of southern textile operations to national prominence. Northern manufacturers, with their heavy investments in thousands of com mon pow^r looms, were forced lo change over to automatic weav ing more gradually, although this type of loom is now in general use throughout America and many other countries. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington possesses a Model A loom, • • • • Before we swallow the com munist line that profits are evil, we should note that almost any one in this country, whether he happens to own any stock or not, can make quite a list of both things and rights which are his and His family’s which have re sulted from the profit system. The “things” are self-evident in the material possessions we en joy—the radios, the automobile, the refrigerators; the rights are the freedoms we have in so many forms which also rest upon our industrial democracy. Another word for profit is in centive, and it's a basic fact of human behavior that men must have an incentive to invest mon ey, found business, expand them, invent new products and process es, and do any of the things that there hud to be an alum bomb.” new Stockholder and his family in New York. . . . . PROFITS When the American Telephone es.” nnd Telegraph Co. gained its one + $1.50 PER YEAR Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket, R.I. Americanism is not an accident cf birth but an achievement in terms of worth. Government does not create Americanism, but Americanism creates Government. Americanism is not a race, but a vision, a hope and an ideal.—Dr. Louis Mann. Seems like too many folks are conducting their lives on the cafeteria plan—self-service only. have built the American system and created jobs, wages and op portunity. A stockholder, or a wage earn er, a company or an industry must be able to make a fair re turn or the spark plug will fail to proauce the necessary spark. This is a vital fact which more Americans need to recognize, not as a favor to someone else, but for their own personal welfare. They need to understand what makes the system go, or it will begin to run down and everybody will lose. From The Textile Neighbor Good resolutions and babies crying in church are a lot alike— both should be carried out Im mediately. A MA1CH TIP! MY HEAD 15 SAFE, BUT I CAN'T THINK— SO USE YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU USE MINE I PLAY SAFE I ALWAYS JttSJYCT Congratulations, Kendall Company upon the completion of your PLANT. todern OAKLAND May your continued service to the nation s business bring nol but wide opportunity of even greater achievement. Our interesl continued success, linked with yours. You are a vital part of our community. Again, our very best wishes! Fairfield Forest Products Company Subslduary of Champion Paper and Fibre Co.