There is another way in which unsolicited outside capital frequently has
lodged in the Southern mills. The conditions under which this would come
about are well described by a banker now in Richmond and formerly the
president of the Chamber of Commerce in Raleigh, North Carolina; "Usually
the people who made the spirit for cotton mills in this way (through
appeals to town pride and by town rivalry) were those least able to
participate financially. Many mills started without sufficient capital and
never did have enough till they failed in the hands of the original
promoters and were bought up by other people, those who had been
responsible for the enterprise losing out entirely."[338] Thus as far back
as 1882 Colonel Walter S. Gordon, one of the projectors of the Georgia
Pacific Railroad, purchased the Stansbury Cotton Mills, Carrollton,
Mississippi, which cost originally $210,000. "The Georgia Pacific
Railroad", says the notice of the purchase, "will run almost by its doors,
and will give competition in freights."[339] Evidently here was a mill
which was commenced by local effort and had declined until it could be
bought at a lower figure than its cost and held out the prospect of
becoming profitable by the coming of new transportation facilities.
The Kessler Mill, the third built at Salisbury, North Carolina, offers a
case in point. The first mill built in the place was a produce of the most
whole-hearted local support centering about community pride; the second
mill was an outgrowth of the success of the first, and was advantaged by
the spirit aroused by the first mill, not too far spent. The Kessler Mill
was organized by a faction which split off from the projectors of the
first enterprise; local capital already seriously depleted was not quick
in offering because of lack of interest in the project.[340] Under these
circumstances the mill ran an indifferent course until taken over by a
large manufacturer of a nearby town, who could command outside
capital.[341]
A mulatto started a cotton mill at Concord in the same State; no white
people of the place took shares; the negroes all over the State who
subscribed were allowed to pay in little instalments. The operatives were
negroes. The promoter was faithful to the enterprise, but came to be
heavily in debt, foreclosure followed on ill success, and the mill passed
to the hands of the same capitalist who took over the Kessler Mill of
Salisbury.[342]
CHAPTER VI
_FINANCING THE MILLS (Continued)_
An eminently successful mill president in Augusta was full of pessimism
toward all the problems broached to him, but three characteristic
sentences as to the capacity of Southern cotton manufacturers for
financial administration fit the case of too many mill officials,
undoubtedly: