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SUPPLEMENT TO THE COUNTY RECORD KINGSTREE, 8. C., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1901. giifKl gMORWg (ME/CTlIgT (BiTTiM BBDIUL. THE OLYMPJA ILL Hi Loral Coll Factory Mir Ok Bit aore man a .nuuon wonars invesieu in a Groat Enterprise?One Plant Operating More than 100,000 Spindles ?The Opportunities Offered Unskilled and Untrained Help. MOST MODERN AND UP-TO-DATE MILL PLANT IN THE CODNTRT. Every Convenience and Comfort Offered Mill Help-A Happy and Contented Family. The climax 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, j and is pronounced by csippetent mill people to be the most comj^sre, up-to-date and promising cotton manufacturing plant in It is without doubt the largest cotton mill under a single roof In the entire Southem States, and competent judges announce that it Is the most d^feete mill plant in this country, and no nation is ahead of this country in the cotton mill business. People hear and know that the Olympia Mill 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 bales of cotton. It will employ, when all machinery is installed and in operation, more than 1,200 able-bodied operatives. AX AVENUE OF OP1 It has the most modern and improved machinery and, with the new and up-todate machinery, operatives can readfiy earn more than they would in old plants [ with antiquated equipment. I: hasf'tht best class and most up-to-date homes for its operatives. I: is on the direct line of the Columbia! Electric Street Railway, and within a few ; minutes' ride of the heart of the city. j It is near enough to the city to give alll the advantages and pleasures of the city | of Columbia. It will butld a '?jO school building for the children of its operatives and support i the school of its own accord and out of its ' own funds. It offers the best school and church opportunities to its help. It is a rr.11 operated, owned and manae'd 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 thorough sanitary arrangements in the mill an ! its villag-. It employs a mill physician, whose services are at the ia. employees without cost. The wages are full and the piece work as all otner clas?es p-rmit better incomes than usual, because of the improved facilities and new machinery rm iji Yi i, V The plant is operated throughout with electricity. The expectation is to soon offer electric lights to all of the operatives for their homes. The pictures indicate the neat and attractive homes that are provided for the help. ABOUT THE MILL BUILDING. Something of the giant mill itself: The i mill building of the Olympla Mill is 553 feet 2 inches long and 151 feet 2 inches ' wide, and contains four floors and a ba se'nftnt. each -story heing: 18 feet high. There are two towers about 24 by 22 feet and 139 feet 6 Inches high, containing the stairways and the tanks for the sprinkler system. Adjoining the rear wall 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 120 by 50 feet, and the boiler house 140 by 40 feet In plan. In the rear of the latter is the building for the mechanical draft plant. The first floor of the building is devoted to opfning bales I and weaving: the second floor to weaving, J slashing, spooling and warping; the third to carding, drawing and lapping, and the ~ NATIVES' HOMES. I fourth floor to spinning. Communication between the floors is also afforded by two I Otis electric elevators driven by aiternat- | j ing-current motors. The miil will operate 104,^10 spindles and I the latest Draper looms have been put into the mill. The total number of looms to b? 1 operated will be 2.400 40-inch looms. The electric equipment at the mill composes everything that has been constructed by electrical or mill engineers. I: is by odds the most thorough that has yet been undertaken. By using electricity the cost of the mill buildings was reduced by 10 per cent on account of the absence of heavy transverse walls through the m:!!. necessary for the heal shafts at the belt way. with the belt and shafting system. Sixty-one per cent of the shafting cost was sav-d by the use of electrictv. Three-inch shafting is the largest in the building. Sixty-six per cent of the- cost of the brrlts and ropes was saved with the electrical system. The saving due to these three items was sufficient, it is said, to more than pay for the cost of the electrical equipment of th mill. Part of the electrical generating plant is used to light the town and also to run a street railway. The maximum power required by the mill is about 3,600-horse , power; ' j' * ' .-.' ? -' .7.*: , '* " ? V ' v, > '- . v V 4 ' ' -I- ' ; \ f:- tm V- 'p -J, ;, f - ' .' , i ' .>: .. * ' ; . ..... . v,:. . ? mi niwiMiii- ' - i hL* ! . U-r - ... . *1.-;-j?v ??C ^ . \i- : ?;.-V " THE ( The generating plant*consists of* three $8 Mcintosh & Seymour engines, each of a st normal rating of 1,600-horse power, capable r< of developing a maximum of 2,000-horse power, directly connected to alternatingcurrent generators. The engines are of the vertical cross- s, compound condensing type, with cylinders w 2u and 4$ inches in diameter, and a stroke u of 42 inches. The cylinders are steam- ^ jacketed, and a reheating receiver is placed t between them. jj PLENTY OF PURE WATER. p The water supply for the mill comes from a spring-fed reservoir of some 800,000 1 gallons' capacity, which also supplies the i 1 mill village with its drinking water. ; F The mill is heated by two 14-foot electri- 4 cally driven Sturtevant fans, blowing a'r * through horizontal ducts along the front r and rear walls of the mill, as shown in the ' half plan and section of the mill build-' ing. Ic The mill architecture is imposing and ' the structure is beautiful. Considerable 1 money was expended in beautifying the t building and every possible convenience is c provided in and around the mil. The * closets ana wash rooms are nnisneu in marble and mosaics, and elevators are at hand for the operatives. A 5,000-pound Schane bell is in one of the towers and with beautiful tone strikes the 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. \V. A. Clark. General manager, J. S. Moore. Secretary and treasurer. \V. H. Rose. Superintendent, F. S. Barnes. A SUBJECT OF PRIDE. The mill was constructed on the plars of \V. B. Smith Whaley & Co, the most successful mill engineers in the South. This tirm has left its deep imprint on the industrial development of the South, 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 }*,500,'?X> capital in a work.ng period of srven 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 ihe members of the firm.'' When wo consider that in 1850 the entire State of South Carolina contained only x 26 cotton mills, with 181,743 sp.ndles. 13.418 ? looms and 34,084,000 capital, against this ( ( aggregate for one young South Carolina i t firm of oOD.GTC spindles, 14,560 looms and | r * ,i' " at i -* < ' I ' * ' " . ? . ' \ y' - it* ' ' ' " ' ,/<V ; ; .' V ' -*- ~>> '*. * ?; <..; ^?" I'&Zt-t' ' '*' '&%' ' ' ??*, %N'?; ; , DLTMPIA COTTON MILL, COLUMBIA. S ,500,000 capital, the extent of its conructive achievements may be better < :alized. THE GENIUS OF W. B. SMITH WHALEY. In Columbia alone it has planted 197,000 dndles and 4,s40 looms, or more than the hole State had twenty years ago, and te capital employed in these mills?$3,100,*?-is only less than that required for he smaller number of looms and spindles a 1SS0, because of the greater economy lossible now in building the best mills. It is proper to add that Mr Whaley is he president of all but? the ?nalles^_pf hese four Columbia mills which he has danned, and which, with 191,000 spindles, .620 looms and $3,o00,000 capital, represents largest cotton manufacturing lnvestnent in the South and one of the largest n the United States. An example of his far-sightedness and iuick business perception may be noted | n connection with the electrical installa- j ion of the Olympia Mills. As soon as the j .eciricai traiis<iii?Muu puwci uau ucc? ? icflnitely determined upon for that mill I tnd its location determined, he at once jurchased the existing electric car lines >f the city, also the electrical lighting iusiness, and will furnish the power and urrent from the Olympia; also provide electricity for the other mills. The resultant economies will not only be factors n the net earnings of the railway and ighting systems, but will also add an ippreciable net income to credit of the mill. 5LYMPI.VS GREATNESS ACKNOWL c.uur<f. Last April, when the great Olympia Mill was started up, it was examined by a lumber of the leading cotton mill officers n th^eountry, men who lead in'the cotton industrial movement. One of these was rapt Manning, of the Amoskeag Company, who said: "The Olympia was the finest structure of the sort he had ever seen. He was glad the Olympia was not a comictitor of the Amoskeag Company." Mr Richardson, of Massachusetts, said :hat the Olympia Mill was, In his opinion, ;he finest cotton mill in the world?the inest in architecture and equipment?and ' le said this wltn a full realization of what if was saying, as he was connected with S'ew England mills. Not long ago Mr H. E. C. Bryant nade a trip through the mill territory ind made disinterested and impartial inluiries and wrote a series of articles on he result of his inquiries in the various nills in this State and North Carolina, j I " ._ v.- . ONE OF THE OLTMPIA HOMES. \ :tV "r ' ' '' . * /p. . c. and here is an interesting summary in one of his letters: ' "In passing through a mill settlement some weel^? ago I stopped at the home of i a middle-aged man who had five children i working in the mill. He lives in a six- i room, two-story house. I met him some distance from his house; I said: 'I want : to see how you people live. I would like to go In some home where several children live.' He started in a Jiffy and said as he walked: Tome and go in my house, i 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 mina Virtet haft sppn me to licau. ?* iivrn uiinv iiv?k ? 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 ltf> j here. I like my employers. They treat us well If we behave In like manner toward them. If we misbehave 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 hill 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. Tndeed, there is no problem at the best mills between capital and labor, for the mill owners and operatives dwell in harmony. The various religious denominations in the mill sections are doing a great deal for the factory element intheSouth. Preachers call on the 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 the condition of the cotton mill help. The work is till going on. "So 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 Carolina mills." Mr E. G. Dunnell, an experienced news3ft V % ir iik ^ I ' ''' ^ i ? jEJ paper man on the editorial staff of the N'ew York Times, visited the South and made a careful study of the mill situation, ind In one of his letters recently to his >ape? this New York writer had this to say, among other things: "While the owners and stockholders are naking money they are conferring permanent blessings upon the people. As In other towns where new mills have demanded Increasing numbers of operatives shops have started to supply needs of operatives or those who were employed In new Industries called forth because of the coming of a laboring population. Stores have been obliged to carry large and more varied stocks. There is mace travelling by rail. It Is a matter of dally 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 settling. either as persons already concerned In cotton manufacturing or hoping to be, or tradesmen seeking a new market. "The country is beautif&l. It is charming to the eye; it is naturally healthful, and in the towns will be more healthful with a little criticism and sanitation. The summers are long and the winters brief and unusually mild. . ^ : | v v - v v. * "i':. 'vS< 'a* v JM; HOME OFFERED 1 fVl. "iiUt 11 IS not atone in me i.uiuui9 ...9 trolley, the expansion of the shops, the paving of streets In towns, the sanitation of all places of large population, the sensation of earning money with a regularity and certainty never before enjoyed in the section, that occasion for rejoicing is found in South Carolina. Attention was directed by a thoughtful and observant citizen to a sociological phase of the industrial development that is most satisfactory. and that it seems a pity could not be extended in some way to the State ol Kentucky. "When Columbia began to build mills and the operation of the mills had made a perceptible drain upon the most convenient and willing class of the population that was fitted to work in the mills, that drain was felt a little at points more or less remote from Columbia. Men and women who had yearned fy. opportunity tc get money without digging or hoeing for it moved from the foothills into town first into places vacated by the people wn< moved earliest, and afterward, as the mills began to rise rearer to the hills, into the manufactories il.-ewhere. KFPEi'T OF PROSPERITY". "Most of these people wore of the real hardy mountaineer sort, with the same soft, deliberate courteous address that i; characteristic "f all the mountaineers in trie Virginias, the Carolina.*. Tennessee or Kentucky. Ttuv brought with them stalwart frames, simple appetites and igno| ranee of I tiers. Hut they were not alj together at fault for that. They had not been treated as wards of the State. There was a moving down from the mountain districts into a region wnere there were j schools and stores and churches of a proud but earnest and ambitious niuiti tu<le that hud gotten along without these things simply because all their neighbors had done likewise for years. But the pride that had been satistied in the mountains an<l back country made them ambitious to keep up with the order of things in the region to which they had migrated. The children must be clothed like other children; the wife must not be compelled to live in a sun bonnet. SCHOOLS FOR ALL. "The public schools were at once patronized by children who might have developed 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 a hoaAmo /> nt nau /a f intilHtrATiAO f jafp veloping appetite for necessary ami luxurious surroundings, and, with the passing of years and the accumulation of means, groups of the owned homes of thousand# who came to the towns p.nniless and ignorant, and have been by industry and thrift converted into law-abiding, temperate, independent and self-respecting Americans." All that Mr Dunn?il has to say Is correct, but more so here, as the mill owners realize that the b st help Is that which is best paid and given the greatest of home comforts, and that is the purpose of the- Olympiad management. WORK ALL THK YEAR ROUND. Operatives in the South can and do work ail the >\ar round if they wish to and it is 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 Olympla Cotton Mill has collected all the best things that are to be had. It has the finest mill building, the finest machinery, the latest looms, spindles and other machinery, but the policy of the mill has b:en and is to put the most experienced men at the head of the various departments. President \V. B. Smith Whaley knows the mill business from the ground floor up. He worked his way from the bottom to the topmost rung of the ladder, and so General Manager J. S. Moore has been brought up in the mill business, and knows its every detail, and so on down the line, and that is why its management is anxious to secure unskilled help and train the workers with the skilled and competent hip now used. It is a matter of but a short time?a v<ry short time?before the new help can and does earn as much as any in the mills. At Olympia there will be room for all. THE BEST PEOPLE AT WORK. t There are to-day thousands of the best people in South Carolina who are working in the mills, and who are delighted that they change. Families who had been mere toilers and eked out an existence ara to-day living comfortably in mill communities; their children have the best of school facilities; they have the best of church opportunities, and when pay-day com?# around they and their working family receive their pay and can and do put aside money. Families who worked under the lien systeS* and were constantly in debt, and that debt growing month by month and year by year, Anally abandoned farm'? ?3 -I- i'Qn' intrt fh? tng ana me ucui uuu, auu ?? mills with their grown children and soon enjoyed coinfortable and regular incomes. It Is the constant aim of such corpora- ^ tlons as the Olympia to have competent and happy help, and to have a healthy and satisfied community, and to that end everythin^Avsible has been, and Is being, done health and pleasure of the operatives. There is no healthier community than that at the Olympia Mill. The company has an exceptional sewerage and drainage system; all garbage is carted away by the garbage carts owned by the mill. The rrvmnany has employed a competent, well1 known physician, whose business and ?7? 1 - ' 'J 1 OLYMPIA'S HELP. | pleasure it is to atrnd to every medical want of the operatives at the expense of the mill eompany. The management is desirious of having the very best class of operatives to live in ' their village and to work in the mill. As 1 the mill is just starting up this enormous 1 plant, the company will require several ' i hundred families to g;v< it the full num' b r of operatives. The mill, therefore, : ' offering to ree ive "green" help and to ; teaeh them to work in the famorv. Anyone desiring to invesagate with a view of accepting this offer, can get ail th information, such as regards to wages of 1 the different kinds of work, etc, by writing to th- superintendent of the Olynipia 1 Mills, or any of th. niiil officials, at I'oium; bia. S. O. Columbia offers a great many advantages ( to people moving into the eirv. Its rtne J churches and tine schools give to those ' person? living in Columbia advantages not I possessed by a g<>o.l many other localities. |j The mills are all located on tbe street j car line, m.ikng them very accessible to i any part of the city. A good many families in the past have moved in from their farm? t > work in the factories here. They >. ni to be perfectly I satisfied anil ::i many instance? have b(U ; tend their condition considerably. ! The mill offl : tls will he glad to commit| n.site with any parties desiring to come to : the mil's for th.- purpose- of working In T thi m. and arc satisfied that tbt opportuai'J ties are such as : i satisfy them. Tiie story of the Olympia Co:t->n .Mill is .; one or miraw ui. - w mi-ij .u .. ...i... ! and win a thinks will i> J fhow wry Intimately me c ? r tt mills of the Su:. arc a * .ateJ with the industrial develoi>m ut yf the State.