Some mills to continue Mr. Thackston's statement, cost in plant, he said four times their total capital. A man would build a 10,000-spindle mill and add to it greatly, not increasing the capital at all; he trusted to earnings to care for the debt, and delayed payments on common stock.
A remark of Mr. Goldsmith, though he unfortunately does not give the source of his information, confirms this calculation. He says: "The average South Carolina weaving mill costs about $20 to $21 per spindle; it is capitalized at about $12 per spindle, and earns from $2 to $4 per annum per spindle."[420]
A statement covering five years for average well-managed mill properties in and around Greenville, South Carolina, shows, he said:
| Average earnings on plant cost | 13.47 | per cent. | |
| ""per spindle | $ 2.94 | ||
| "cost"" | 21.08 | ||
| Capitalized at"" | 12.72 |
His conclusion was that "In general, the dividends on the actual cost of the plants have not been over 12 per cent."[421]
As to the development, nature and persistence of a market in the South for cotton mill securities, the principal partner in a firm dealing in stocks, bonds, real estate loans, and fire insurance, who has besides long been identified with the cotton manufacturing industry in the Piedmont region, said: "... as far as I am able to recall, the stock market began to develop in this section about 1898 to 1901; and referring to some old records, as of March, 1901, I find such entries as this:
| "5 Monaghan | at 95 |
| 3 Brandon | at 90" |
with other entries of the same kind.
"About this date, in the up-country there were several young men who began trading in these stocks largely on a brokerage proposition. I recall the names of:
| A. M. Law & Co | Spartanburg, S.C. | |
| W. D. Glenn | Spartanburg, S.C. | |
| F. C. Abbott & Co | Charlotte, N.C. | |
| George E. Gibbon | Charleston, S.C. |