[345] J. H. Meaus Beattie, interview, Columbia, S.C., Jan. 3, 1917.
[346] W. W. Ball, interview, Columbia, S.C., Jan. 3, 1917.
[347] Thompson, pp. 82 ff.
[348] W. W. Ball, interview, Columbia, S.C., Jan. 3, 1917. A minor episode partaking of the character of both of the above may be worth mentioning. Mrs. M. Putnam Gridley, who, until her retirement from the presidency of the Batesville, S.C. Mill, was the only woman cotton mill president in America, said that the Boston commission house which owned and operated the factory under her father's control, was "about to commit a wrong" when the enterprise failed of its own accord. (Mrs. M. Putnam Gridley, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 9, 1916.)
[349] Thackston, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12, 1916.
[350] Jas. D. Hammett, interview, Anderson, S.C., Sept. 11, 1916.
[351] Marshall Orr, interview, Anderson, S.C., Sept. 10, 1916.
[352] Charles Estes, interview, Augusta, Ga., Dec. 29, 1916. "When I was mayor of Augusta and Black was City Attorney, we ran the city on the commission plan and didn't know it. I used to draft ordinances in my own handwriting, show them to Black to see whether they were legal, and to Blum to see if they were grammatical, and that was all there was to it!"
[353] David, interview, Salisbury, N.C., Sept. 1, 1916. The financial administration of this mill is attributable in its form to the conservatism of the company, and to the peculiar conditions of its inception. One director has nervous prostration, and another is too aged to attend meetings, but none have been elected in their places.
[354] Samuel Stradley, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12, 1916.