A very usual occasion for increase in the capital stock of a mill company has been the enlargement of the plant. Thus the Enterprise Factory, Augusta, Georgia, declared a 10 per cent. dividend and decided to increase its capacity by 125 per cent. or more.[258] In this case the entire $350,000 extra capital stock was being negotiated for by M. J. Verdery & Co., brokers of Augusta; it was understood that one man and his friends would take stock to the amount of $140,000.[259] If the statement of a rather flambuoyant trade review of three years later may be trusted, the entire stock of this mill after enlargement was $500,000 which would make the increase in stock $200,000 greater than the original capital.[260] It is probable that the stock was doubled to bring it up to $500,000;[261] three months after the decision to increase the stock, it appears, all but $50,000 had been secured, and this would be placed within the week. The directors of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad took $95,000 of the stock--"of course as individuals."[262] Evidently, the plan of the brokers did not carry through, and the mill corporation put its stock regularly up for subscription. The mill projected by Walker, Fleming & Co., already mentioned, was intended to have $100,000 capital as a beginning, this later to be increased to $200,000. At a meeting of the organizers of the Salisbury Cotton Mills, held in November of 1887, "The capital stock was upon motion fixed at not less than $50,000, and not exceeding $100,000."[263] A month later at a meeting of the subscribers, it appeared that $66,400 had been subscribed.[264] Later the stock was increased; those soliciting subscriptions to the original stock experienced no difficulty in securing increase of these subscriptions. By March, 1893, the capital stock of the company had reached $250,000.[265] This last instance accords with what was told me by a gentleman of wide experience in the business, that the plants now having a stock of $100,000, etc., got their large capitalization by selling additional stock to the original subscribers at a reduction--say at 75 or 80 when the par was 100. The ventures were profitable generally, and the stock was maintained at its par value.[266] The character of the promoters of a venture always carries weight, but this was peculiarly true in the establishment of cotton mills in the South. Today, truly prominent men are known all over this State, and all over the section. Thirty-five years ago this was the fact even more than at present; the signatures to prospectuses were important through personal qualities as well as through business reputation. When it was said that those back of the scheme to build a factory in York County, South Carolina, were "among the most reliable and responsible men" in the county, the statement probably carried as much earnest of good faith as the accompanying notice that $25,000 toward $75,000 had already been taken.[267]