New England As Home
Of American Spinning
The cotton mill, as we have seen, early chose New England as its domicile. Mills are scattered more or less throughout the entire region, but there are several localities which stand out beyond all others, and almost deserve the title they have acquired as the centers of the industry. Premier place for a long time was held by Fall River, and even now the race between that city and New Bedford is strong, with the lead slightly in favor of the former city.
Bristol County, Mass., in which these two centers, and Taunton, are located, Providence, R. I., and Middlesex County, Mass., together contained 10,086,686 spindles in 1917, or 29.5% of the country’s total of 34,221,252.
The growth in this one locality is due probably to the advantages which come with centralization, as well as to the natural advantages they possessed. These latter, which include particularly water power and a moist climate, are not as important now, With steam power and mechanical humidifiers as they were a generation ago.
In the Middle Atlantic States, the number of plants and the spindlage have remained about stationary over a long period of years, and are even showing a tendency to decrease. Small weaving establishments which buy their yarn are particularly numerous around Philadelphia, and there are large cotton duck mills in and near Baltimore.
Mills in the Midst of
Cotton Plantations
It has been in the South, however, that the growth of the cotton manufacturing industry in the last few decades has been most phenomenal. In 1860 there were 324,052 spindles in the cotton growing States compared with 8,632,087 in New England. In 1917, the figures were: Northern 15 States (including Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont), 19,835,662 spindles devoted to the spinning of cotton exclusively; Southern States (including Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), 14,292,918 spindles devoted to cotton exclusively.
The census figures do not give the number of spindles in each city except when the confines of the city and of the county happen to coincide. But the appended table is presented as showing the spindlage of counties having more than 100,000 spindles devoted to the spinning of cotton.
About 1880, the Southerner saw the opportunity that awaited him when he should manufacture his own cotton. At that time he was consuming only 188,748 bales, while New England took 1,129,498. In ten years, he was utilizing more than half a million bales, while New England had just passed the million and a half figure. In 1905, the South consumed 2,140,151 bales, while New England had climbed to only 1,753,282. The figures are Scherer’s, who points out that the race was won in twenty-five years. However, as competition with the South increased, 16 New England, following the earlier lead of Old England, has tended always to produce a finer and finer quality of cloth, leaving the coarser grades of sheeting, drills and ducks to the Southern mills. Thus, while the South is consuming an ever larger proportion of the cotton crop, she is still far from receiving for her product the money that comes to the New Englander, who with a higher grade of labor and greater variation of output is constantly catering, with dress fabrics and fine stuffs of various kinds, to a discriminating well-to-do patronage.
| County |
Spindles (Number) |
| Bristol, Mass. | 7,294,221 |
| Providence, R. I. | 1,709,713 |
| Middlesex, Mass. | 1,082,752 |
| Hillsborough, N. H. | 907,245 |
| Spartanburg, S. C. | 831,476 |
| Windham, Conn. | 780,232 |
| Worcester, Mass. | 766,110 |
| Greenville, S. C. | 758,144 |
| Essex, Mass. | 645,020 |
| Hampden, Mass. | 642,096 |
| Gaston, N. C. | 603,102 |
| Kent, R.I. | 594,380 |
| Anderson, S. C. | 582,464 |
| Berkshire, Mass. | 521,408 |
| New London, Conn. | 512,170 |
| Oneida, N. Y. | 419,255 |
| York, Me. | 408,600 |
| Androscoggin, Me. | 402,471 |
| Muscogee, Ga. | 346,740 |
| Pittsylvania, Va. | 346,320 |
| Union, S. C. | 330,656 |
| Strafford, N. H. | 318,160 |
| Cabarrus, N. C. | 315,810 |
| Mecklenburg, N. C. | 272,198 |
| Guilford, N. C. | 262,862 |
| Richland, S. C. | 244,660 |
| Essex, N. J. | 232,291 |
| Albany, N. Y. | 226,564 |
| Madison, Ala. | 225,168 |
| Greenwood, S. C. | 217,744 |
| Pickens, S. C. | 211,320 |
| Bristol, R. I. | 210,488 |
| Hampshire, Mass. | 198,792 |
| York, S. C. | 198,404 |
| Fulton, Ga. | 198,016 |
| Aiken, S. C. | 193,989 |
| Laurens, S. C. | 193,312 |
| Richmond, Ga. | 192,914 |
| Rockingham, N. C. | 191,810 |
| Durham, N. C. | 172,532 |
| Newberry, S. C. | 168,040 |
| Chambers, Ala. | 164,000 |
| Cherokee, S. C. | 163,820 |
| Kennebec, Me. | 163,815 |
| Alamance, N. C. | 153,176 |
| Knox, Tenn. | 152,100 |
| Lancaster, S. C. | 151,768 |
| Richmond, N. C. | 149,748 |
| Chester, S. C. | 146,692 |
| Stanley, N. C. | 146,000 |
| Rutherford, N. C. | 143,400 |
| Calhoun, Ala. | 138,048 |
| Troup, Ga. | 136,204 |
| Floyd, Ga. | 126,264 |
| Cleveland, N. C. | 125,182 |
| Cumberland, Me. | 124,392 |
| Spalding, Ga. | 121,252 |
| Talladega, Ala. | 115,448 |
| Philadelphia, Pa. | 114,547 |
| Merrimack, N. H. | 113,316 |
| Davidson, N. C. | 110,564 |
| Baltimore City. | 106,008 |
| Halifax, N. C. | 104,116 |
| Hall, Ga. | 102,588 |