Cfie LitJtarp ofti)t (anit)et0itg of jQortfi Carolina Collection ot jRottfi Catolmiana trom tSc Iliticatp ot R.D.1\\ Connor ce 73 ^^^.e^ .^^ ^2-fV/^t^_ \ A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Daniel Augustus Tompkins A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH BEING THE STORY OF THE LIFE WORK OF DANIEL AUGUSTUS TOMPKINS BY GEORGE TAYLOE WINSTON LITT. B. (CORNELL), A. M., LL.D. Sometime President of the University of North Carolina, the University of Texas, and the North Carolina College of Agri- culture and Engineering GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1920 .^ COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDFNG THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN TO THE YOUNG MEN OF THE SOUTH THIS STORY OF A LIFE DEVOTED TO THE UPBUILDING OF THEIR NATIVE LAND AFTER ITS OVERTHROW AND IMPOVERISHMENT BY CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED BY A LIFELONG TEACHER OF SOUTHERN YOUTH FOREWORD THE rebuilding of the Southern States after the Civil War was an achievement of no less magnitude than the War itself. The over- throw of the South was accomplished in four years; its rebuilding was the work of half a century. Strip- ped of men and wealth, its industrial system shat- tered, its very civilization threatened with radical reconstruction, the South lay stricken and prostrate, while the victorious North was growing and waxing strong. A new generation was born and grown to middle age before the wealth of the South was equal to what it had been at the beginning of the Civil War. But a new South was born at last, begotten of in- dustrial forces. This achievement, which had been attempted in vain by educational and religious missionaries, by authors, editors, statesmen, and orators, was wrought at last by silent workers in field, forest, mill, and mine. They built a new South, not with sword and gun, nor with voice and pen, but with steam and electricity with skilled labor and machinery, with new roads and a new agricul- ture, with thrift and economy, with community spirit and cooperation, with democratic government and democratic ideals. Their achievement was characterized by largeness of vision, by mastery over men, and by capacity for work. Their toil and their endurance in peace were no less heroic than the courage and fortitude of Southern soldiers on fields of battle. vii viii FOREWORD Among the foremost of these commonwealth builders was Daniel Augustus Tompkins, industrial worker, promoter, and missionary. He was fitted for the work by heredity and early environment, by character, talents and education. Born and brought up on a southern plantation, educated and trained in Northern technical schools, mills, and machine shops, inventive and receptive of new ideas, strong and ener- getic in body and mind, interested in everything pertaining to man, and full of zeal to help mankind by teaching men to help themselves, he was a rare combination of worker and philosopher, of student and teacher, of economist and philanthropist; a Southern Franklin, growing in poor soil and enriching the soil he grew in. The story of his life is the story of the New South. It will be told in the following pages, as far as possible, by himself and in his own words. CONTENTS Pace Foreword vii CHAPTER I. Early Life on the Southern Plantation 3 II. Education in South Carolina and New York 18 III. Apprenticeship in the Bethlehem Iron Works 33 IV. Working in Germany 53 V. The Old Industrial South. ... 68 VI. The Beginnings of the New South . 77 VII. Builder of Cotton Oil Mills ... 95 VIII. Builder of Cotton Mills .... 115 IX. Builder of Machinery for Cotton In- dustries 132 X. A Plan to Raise Capital for Manufac- turing 147 XI. Promoter of Industrial and Technical Education 156 XII. Builder of Textile Schools .... 187 Xni, Author of Books on Cotton Industries 219 CONTENTS CHAPTER XIV. Independent and Industrial Jour- nalist 230 XV. Member of U. S. Industrial Commis- sion 256 XVI. Apostle of Patriotism 284 XVII. A Plan for Marketing Cotton ... 309 XVIII. Promoter of Building and Loan Asso- ciations 329 XIX. Various Activities — Charlotte and Edgefield 349 XX. Personal Characteristics — ^Lessons of Life — Summary 368 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH A Builder of the New South CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING — THE OLD SOUTHERN PLANTATION — HEREDITY I WAS born," said Daniel Augustus Tompkins in "Cotton and Cotton Oil/' "on my father's cot- ton plantation in Edgefield County, South Carolina, October 12, 1851. My boyhood and early youth, extending through the Civil War and the dec- ade preceding, was spent on the plantation. I was a child of the Old South." The Southern plantation is described by Tompkins with unwearied and affectionate fidelity in various speeches and writings. He gives us a picture of its daily life — its work and pleasures, its useful lessons and fine training. It had laid the foundations of his great career. "The plantation," he wrote," was a little world of itself. Some plantations comprised as high as ten to twenty thousand acres of land and one thousand slaves; but these were comparatively few. The entire investment in such a plantation would have been about one million dollars. On the other hand, there were a great many instances of small cotton planters owning ten or less slaves and three hundred or less acres of land. The capital in such cases would not exceed eight to ten thousand dollars. The great 3 4 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH bulk of the Southern cotton crop was produced by planters who owned from fifty to one hundred and fifty slaves and two thousand to five thousand acres of land. It was this great class that made their plantation supplies on the plantation and made cotton growing a great institution." Taking the average plantation of this type at 100 slaves and 3,000 acres of land, the equipment would be as follows: 25 plow hands, 25 miscellaneous hands, 50 women and children, non-producers, 25 mules, 4 horses for family and general use, 600 hogs, 25 head of cattle, 100 sheep, 10 goats, 15 dogs, chickens, guineas, peafowls, turkeys, geese, ducks, etc, blacksmith shop, wheelwright and other wood- working shops, 20 to 25 negro houses, gin house and screw, stables, barn, carriage houses and wagon sheds, and in many instances a grist and flour mill and a store. Such an average plantation of 100 slaves and 3,000 acres of land, with its equipment, would be worth on an average about $100,000. It would produce about 100 bales of cotton besides all supplies. Such a plantation conducted with energy and good judg- ment would easily make $10,000 to $20,000 a year according to management and the price of cotton. Some planters were thrifty and economical and grew rich with great rapidity, while many employed over- seers to look after their estates, and spent the in- comes in travel or local extravagance. The successful management of a large plantation required both energy and talent. The idea that the ante-bellum cotton planter was indolent, or an in- different business man, or that he was always a spend- thrift, is totally wrong. On the contrary he was, ever on the alert. He was judicial minded, energetic. EARLY LIFE AND TRAINLNG 5 usually well educated, always well trained in every operation connected with the production of standard crops. He succeeded by the same means that are necessary for success now, viz., by better education, better training, more energy and steadiness of pur- pose than the average of the people who do not succeed so well. The average well-regulated planta- tion was almost always in the immediate charge of the owner. If the owner was a professional man, lawyer, doctor, or preacher, there was generally an overseer. Many planters who were not professional men, also had overseers. These overseers had gen- eral charge of the labor. They blew a horn, or rang a bell, in the morning to call out the negroes to work, and otherwise looked after their labors in detail. It was the overseer who flogged the slaves when this was considered necessary. To aid the overseer or the planter in supervising and forwarding the work, negro foremen were selected, who led and directed their fellow slaves. At the noon-day rest and at the close of each day's work the foremen looked after the watering and feeding of animals and the care of tools and implements. The planter usually rode over the plantation once a day, giving directions to the overseer, greeting and cheering the workers, inquiring after the absent, and in various ways manifesting his interest not only in the work but also in the workers and their families. The planter's son frequently accompanied him on these rounds; and in his father's absence the son would take his place. The young master was always an object of especial interest to the negroes. In a sense he was one of them. They had all ^helped raise him ' ; and the younger set had frolicked, sported, and escapaded with him. He was now grown be- 6 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH yond them, was in authority over them, but the same kindly sympathy remained. They now accepted the mastery of their former companion, or nursling, not merely from necessity but from affection, admira- tion, and respect for his superior intellectual and moral power. " The white boy or white girl of slave holding families," says "Cotton and Oil," "was to them something just a little more than ordinary humanity, and thus they could exercise an authority and an influence almost incomprehensible. These peculiar relations were not without influence on the white race. The control was not alone by force. The example of perfect conduct was import- ant in two particulars. These were physical courage and the keeping of one's word. The negroes admired the man who was afraid of nothing and who never failed in his promises. Therefore the qualities of courage and truthfulness became highly developed; and to question either of these in any planter meant mortal combat or disgrace. Thus came the fre- quency of the duel in the South, though it never was so frequent as has been supposed." Memories of sports and amusements on the planta- tion were with Tompkins a fountain of delight, bubbling over in his books and speeches. "The amusements on the plantation," he wrote in "Cotton and Cotton Oil," "were very numerous. In all of these the negroes took an interest, and in many participated. Fox hunting was very popular. Many planters kept fox hounds, some as many as twenty- five or thirty. It was not uncommon for ladies to ride after the hounds; and occasionally a privileged negro would be allowed to go. Almost every planter kept pointer or setter dogs, and hunted partridges. The planter's sons and negroes kept up usually a EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 7 miscellanous collection of rabbit dogs, coon dogs, and 'possum dogs. Horse racing, chicken fighting, wrestling, and boxing were all popular and perfectly respectable. These sports were conducted with per- fect decorum; and as a rule there was little or no bet- ting. Betting was not unusual, however, and some- times it would run high. House parties and picnics with dancing were frequent amongst the young white people, while barbecues, with political speaking or miscellaneous oratory, were indulged in by the older people. The negroes fiddled and danced much. The white boys and negroes hunted rabbits in day- time and coons and opossums at night. The life of the planter and his sons was hardy; and they loved hardy sports. These amusements, both in- doors and outdoors, never interfered with the duties or domestic economies of the household or planta- tion." "My brother was a great hunter," writes Hon. A. S. Tompkins, "rabbits in the daytime and opossums at night. He and the negro boys would often stay out till nearly day, with a few hounds on the place. He was fond of dogs and horses, a fine rider; was ac- tive and self-reliant from boyhood; was fond of bird hunting and a good shot on the wing when a boy. He was also a great swimmer. I remember his mak- ing a splendid bateau of wood and caulking it with cotton and tar; in this boat we would fish, often en- tirely nude. On one occasion our mother, going away from home on a visit, told us not to go in swim- ming during her absence more than once a day. He laughingly said to me, * Let's stay in the creek all day,' which we did. We had much fun in this boat, and jumping off a spring board, diving often with a dozen black negro boy companions." 8 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Day by day plantation life was developing for young Tompkins a sound mind in a sound body, a spirit of self-reliance, capacity for organization and leadership, knowledge of and sympathy with negro character, besides familiarity with agriculture and agricultural problems. His debt to the old planta- tion was acknowledged by Tompkins in books and speeches. "The Southern planter before the Civil War," said he, *' trained his sons to the responsibil- ities of life better than is done now. In the old plantation situation wealth seems to have been no hindrance to the production of a whole man. The plantation rarely produced a snob or an incompetent. Perhaps the wholesome country air, proximity to the soil, and abundant exercise had their influence. There can be little doubt that these did have power- ful influence. But the proximity to humanity and the development of friendly, even loving, sympathy for all kinds of humanity, and the practical appren- ticeship in every kind of work done on the farm, did as much as the soil, climate, and exercise. "The ante-bellum planter's son was not only in close personal association with the labor and the negroes on the place, but this relation with all about him was one of sound, practical human interest on both sides. By force of surrounding circumstances he was serving an apprenticeship for leadership. Whether required to work or not, no boy of sound mind and body could well grow up on a plantation without learning to plow, to ride a mule, to do all the operations of a plantation." "My brother took an interest in the entire planta- tion," writes A. S. Tompkins, "and loved to do, as well as to see, every kind of work that was going on. He would often voluntarily plow all day, cut EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 9 and shock oats and wheat, feed the cotton into the gin, or drive the mules around the big upright wheel under the gin." The supervision of his father's plantation was often entrusted to young Tompkins, who quickly mastered the details of its work and management. But his chief delight was in the blacksmith shop and the shops for woodworking, where his constructive talent and his aptness with tools found opportunity for practical exercise. *'In the carpenter shop my brother worked on everything from fixing an old gun or clock to making a complete wagon," says A. S. Tompkins. "He was fond of helping make the water wheels and trunks for our father's grist mill, a difficult task, and took great interest in the mill, working on the dam when needing repau-s. I well remember when he took a notion to make a croquet set, balls, mallets, etc., and wore me out turning the old lathe for him. The balls were turned from walnut, and he made as good a set as you could buy. **My brother made enough money, mainly by carpenter work at home before he went to college, to cover his college expenses. When a mere boy, not yet in his teens, he built a neat picket fence all around the yard at home. He was constantly busy helping to build and repair barns, negro cabins, and other farm houses. Immediately after the war, when times were hard, he was especially helpful to our father by building two bridges, which father got under contract from the County Commissioners of Edgefield County. I remember one of the bridges was across Rocky Creek near home. In fact, one end of the bridge landed on our plantation. My brother was only sixteen years old, but he went 10 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH at that bridge with all the enthusiasm that Napoleon went at Lodi. He would wake up before day and lay restless w^aiting for day to break to go down to the creek and work on the bridge. He made a fine job of it; and the public said it was the best bridge ever put on that stream. All the logs and timbers for both bridges he got out with negro labor from V the woods of father's plantation; and by superintend- ing the work and planning the bridges himself, he made a profit of $2,000 on a $3,000 contract." In the home also the lad was growing and develop- ing under the guidance of a wise, capable, and rarely gifted mother. The women of the Old South have often been pictured as idle and self-indulgent, more energetic in the pursuit of pleasure than in the per- formance of domestic duties. Never was picture falser and more unreal. The typical Southern woman, the wife of the average planter, was a model of industry, efl5ciency, and unselfishness. Her do- mestic establishment was large, requiring for its management careful supervision with much physical labor. The household usually included, besides her husband, children, and domestic servants, a goodly number of visiting relatives, or other guests, with their retinue of children and servants. Passing strangers also were freely entertamed, oftentimes with servants and horses. Outside the family household also the planter's wife was burdened with responsibility for the health, conduct, and employment of all negroes who were not actively at work in the big fields. It was her daily task to inspect the negro cabins, to administer medi- cine, to give directions for work, health, and sanita- tion. When occasion required, as it frequently did, she performed the duties of midwife, nurse, physician, EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 11 or spiritual comforter. Upon her the burdens of slavery pressed more heavily than upon her husband. Her life was largely spent in trying to remedy its wastefulness and inefficiency. Her finer nature shrank from its immoralities and cruelties. To the negroes the planter's wife seemed scarcely less than an angel. Too often, alas! she was forced to become a protecting angel, standing between the overseer's lash and the cowering slave, between the weeping mother and the auction block. Her purity of life, sometimes in marked contrast to her husband's, her gentleness and firmness, her all-seeing eye and skilful hand, her tact, wisdom, and judgment, and especially her easy control over everybody, including even "old master," made her with the ignorant and emotional slaves an object not only of strong love, but of deep and superstitious reverence. Every negro on the plantation would have given his life in her protection. She was safe by night or by day in the remotest negro cabin, in the solitary woods, or alone and unattended on unfrequented roads. "The influence of the planter's family," wrote Tom- pkins in "Cotton and Cotton Oil," "was of greater importance than was ever appreciated in keeping the better natures of the negroes to the fore. A very generous and friendly kindness has an immense and far-reaching influence. During the Civil War the cotton plantations were practically in charge of the planters' wives, assisted by a few old and decrepit men and boys under sixteen years of age. It is the marvel of marvels that in this condition, lasting nearly four years, there was never an outbreak or a symptom of discontent among the slaves. The negro character itself, the very exact and practical knowl- edge by the planters' wives of the negro character 12 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH and the past training of the negro, all contributed to this result. The extent of the trust that was placed in the negro's keeping and the perfection of its keeping on his part during the Civil War can never be fully realized or appreciated." On some plantations, where the planter, being a lawyer or physician, was much absent from home because of professional duties, or was indifferent to all work and economies excepting the work of grow- ing cotton in the big fields, the planter's wife, be- sides her domestic duties, had the care and super- vision of the garden, the orchard, the dairy, the poul- try yard, and even the piggery. The work also of the loom and spinning wheel, where such industries existed, came usually under her direction, as well as the cutting out and making of clothing for the large plantation population. It was an endless task, full of labor, perplexity, and nervous strain; but the planter's wife performed it, usually with cheerfulness, intelligence, and efficiency. Trained in such a school, many women developed ability and experience adequate to the management of the entire plantation. During the four years of civil war the women of the South, aided by half -grown sons, successfully managed the farms and plantations, sup- plying food and clothing not only for the entire civil population but also for the armies in the field. Such a woman of the finest type was Hannah Virginia Smyly, the mother of Daniel A. Tompkins. "Our mother was of Scotch-Irish stock," writes A. S. Tompkins, "a cousin of John C. Calhoun, whom she much resembled in her pale, firm, clear-cut features. Her complexion was fair with light blue eyes and mild golden-hued hair, not red, but light brown bathed in sunshine. She was five feet six EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 13 inches tall, rather slender in stature, weighing about one hundred and thirty pounds. Her health was usually good, although delicate, especially after living through the great strain of the Civil War. She was educated in the country schools and the village academy, and was graduated from the cele- brated Moravian Academy at Salem, N. C, whose excellent training in handiwork and domestic scientie and arts, as well as in books and music, had attracted planters' daughters from all the Southern States. Our mother was a perfect complement to our father in person, character, and ability. He was large, stout, and ruddy, weighing over two hundred pounds, with coal-black eyes and hair, a brilliant man of great imagination, a ready and fluent speaker, fond of anecdotes and society, attractive and brilliant in conversation and social life, amiable and easy- going, more devoted to the practice of medicine and to scientific and philosophical study than to the details of plantation management. He owned a fine library, and was a diligent student of human history and human nature, delighting to search out the secret springs and motives of human conduct. Our mother was firm, with great decision of character, kind and sympathetic, full of religious faith which supported a strong sense of duty. She was an active member of the Baptist Church, and zealously in- structed the negro children, as well as her own, in the Bible catechism, taking us all regularly to church and Sunday-school. Her words were few, clear-cut, and potent. The slaves loved, revered, and obeyed her. She was opposite to father in every way, matter of fact, industrious, and rigidly economical. She dominated him by superior will power and ex- ecutive ability. During his absence in the army she 14 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH was reputed to have made better crops and managed things better generally than he did when at home. Her talent for business, her energetic nature, and her strong sense of duty made her a perfect realization of the virtuous woman portrayed by King Lemuel, *The prophecy that his mother taught him,' in Proverbs, Chapter 31, verses 10 to 31. She was just such a woman. I can see her now in my mind's eye as she sat by the fireside at night, during father's absence in the war, listening to the old overseer as he gave her the account of the day's work on the planta- tion. She knew every field, in what it was planted, its proper culture, and the quantity of daily work that should be performed. She kept track of all the cows and calves, of the sows and pigs, the flock of sheep, the mules and horses. Under her watch- ful eye the crops of corn, oats, wheat, and cotton were most carefully husbanded. She saw to the harvest- ing and grinding of the sugar cane and the boiling of the sorghum molasses, to the curing of the pork and bacon. Her vigilant eyes scrutinized the daily work and daily feeding of man and beast. Owing to non-intercourse with the North and blockade of our seaports all food and clothing had to be made on the plantation. We had a corn and flour mill run by water, a gin house with mule power, a molasses mill and boiler. My mother also fixed up a boiler to cook cottonseed and peas for cow feed. She raised plenty of chickens, turkeys, guineas, and ducks for the table, geese for feathers, and wool for clothes. The wool she packed and sent to Chatham Manufac- turing Company at Elkins Valley, N. C, whence it came back in cloth for us and the slaves. She ship- ped hides to the tannery, and got in exchange shoes for the whole plantation. Toward the end of the EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 15 war, when salt was very scarce, she dug up the salty earth in the smoke house, ran it through the hopper, and extracted the salt for table use. "She was fond of bees and kept a lot of some twenty hives. It was amusing to see how my father, who was afraid of the bees, always got stung when he went about the hives; but she could walk up amongst the bees, who seemed to know her, and without alarm but with quiet ease could handle them with impunity. She always had plenty of honey. All the year round she kept up a most excel- lent vegetable garden, also a fine fruit orchard, es- pecially apples and peaches, which she would dry for winter use. She was a good cook, too; and her negro cooks, although willing and capable, always did the kitchen work under my mother's personal direction. "My mother wasted nothing, not even time; for she was always an early riser. Her capacity for details was truly wonderful. What with looking after the feeding and clothing of all these slaves and her own family, the farm work, the feeding of stock, chickens, etc., the care of the sick, the garden, the making of soap and candles, having the crops housed, grinding the grain, having the cotton picked, ginned, and packed, killing the hogs and trying out the lard, making sausage and liver puddings, etc., her dairy, her bees, smoking the meat, shearing the sheep, send- ing off the wool, seeing that we children went off to school well clad and with a bucket of bountiful dinner for the noon recess — I say, what with all these many duties filling each day, as the queen bee, on her well-equipped farm, it is amazing to me, when I think of it, how she ever did it. "When the negroes were freed, she did not cower 16 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH nor sit discouraged. Her fortitude rose nobly to the occasion, and she met it with undaunted courage and self-reliance. She was a daily inspiration to my brother. He would look up into her bright, clear eyes and catch the light of her conquered but un- dismayed spirit, and was ever ready to stand by her and help her amid adversity and sorrow. He loved his mother with wonderful devotion, because, I reckon, he was so much like her himself. They were both firm and self-reliant, strongly marked by de- cision of character. It was to her that he was in- debted for those deep forces that beget genius." At the close of the Civil War the South was bank- rupt. Most of the planters were overwhelmed and ruined. The loss of slaves, the payment of old debts, the meeting of new obligations, the disorganization of labor, the general despondency and lack of enter- prise were burdens under which even the strongest staggered and fell. Amid this general ruin a few survived by reason of exceptional wisdom, foresight, and thrift. Among these few was the family of Doc- tor Tompkins. " The fortunes of our family, at the end of the war," writes A. S. Tompkins, "were saved by my mother, my father, of course, cooperating when- ever at home. Every year during the war my mother packed up, as a surplus, and stored away, about thirty- five bales of cotton. So, when the war ended, there wajs some hundred and thirty bales of cotton, which my faiher sold at over thirty cents a pound in gold, making about $20,000. I well remember seeing my parents together counting it. It was in shot bags, and as it lay in glittering piles on the bed it was a most fajscinating sight. My mother had looked forward to this with that high degree of resourcefulness which characterized my brother. This money made my EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 17 father comparatively easy, although he had to pay some rather heavy security debts." At an early age the character of Tompkins, in its broad outlines, was clearly manifest. Those who attribute character chiefly to maternal influence will see his mother reproduced in the practical talents of her son : in love of work, executive ability , thrift, and economy, patience, persistence, and fortitude. His intellect was developing more slowly, but al- ready was following the lines of paternal inheritance. **My father often urged me to keep a diary,*' he wrote in his memoirs. "I asked him what there was to fill up a diary in the life of a remote plantation worked by negroes, with no white person present excepting our family. He said in reply: *You are living in the greatest era of the world's history. You have seen the emancipation of four million negro slaves and the preservation of the American Union. Our age is wonderful also for scientific discoveries and inventions. Some day you will be an actor in this age; and it behooves you to keep your eyes open, mind alert, vision clear, and spirit sympathetic to all the movements of humanity, whether they happen in your neighborhood, or far away in the distant parts of the earth.' " Father and mother were happily blended in their oldest son. His intellect was his father's, his char- acter was his mother's. His talents for leadership and mastery were early developed through the train- ing of plantation life. With his father's imagination and mental grasp he was to conceive great enter- prises; he was to execute them with his mother's patience, accuracy, and thoroughness. CHAPTER II EARLY EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA — SOUTHERN IDEALS — LATER EDUCATION IN RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE A T THE age of sixteen young Tompkins was L\ ready for the university. He had gone JL JL through the training of the old field schools and the Edgefield Academy, had received the usual instruction in Latin, Greek, English, and mathe- matics, had shown especial fondness for mathematics, indifference to the languages, and marked aversion to the weekly Friday afternoon exercises in declama- tion, debate, and oratory. These exercises were public, and were the most prominent and popular features of Southern schools. They were the nur- series of Southern oratory. The popular fondness for oratory in the Old South amounted almost to a passion. Not only the hust- ings, but the bench, the bar, and the pulpit were arenas for the constant display of oratorical power. Every court week was a holiday, during which people flocked daily to the courthouse from the four quar- ters of the county, to hear the judge's charge and the lawyers' speeches. One day of each court week, even in years when there were no elections or political campaigns, was given over to political speaking. Regular political campaigns lasted five or six months, with daily combats of oratory between all the rival candidates. On Sundays the entire population, at- 18 EARLY EDUCATION 19 traded by pulpit oratory, flocked to church. In rural churches service lasted all day, with two or more sermons each an hour long and delivered with vigor, zeal, and occasional eloquence. *Forty- parson power ' was no figure of speech in a Southern rural pulpit. The demand for orators in the Old South was unlimited, and the supply was equal to the demand. It was furnished by the educational system, which made the South a land of talkers, debaters, orators, and statesmen, of high and low degree. The elementary schools had given Tompkins a surfeit of debate and oratory. His joy was the joy of work, his chief abhorrence was a war of words. And now in a select company of youth who sought higher education, not as preparation for life but as the equipment of a gentleman, he entered the Uni- versity of South Carolina. He found a noble nur- sery of character and manhood, a perfect fruition of Southern ideals. There was an air of freedom about the university that nurtured men. Its presi- dents had all been marked by strong individuality and breadth of view. They represented the most divergent and extreme views of life : Jonathan Maxcy , Baptist preacher; Thomas Cooper, English radical and free thinker; Thornwell, rigid Calvinist; Barnwell, low church Episcopalian; Longstreet, Methodist preacher and author of "Georgia Scenes," and later James Woodrow, modern Calvinist and Darwinian. It may be doubted whether toleration of opinion in a state educational institution was ever carried further than in the University of South Carolina. The students of the university were greatly influenced by this spirit of freedom, not toward belief or disbelief but toward manliness and inde- 20 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH pendence of belief and of character. Professor Joseph Le Conte, whose experience as college pro- fessor in South Carolina and elsewhere extends through half a century, was filled with admiration for the South Carolina students. He writes of them as follows in his delightful autobiography: "I have said that the students of the South Carolina College were high-spirited though turbulent. I should add that I had never previously seen (nor have I since) so high a sense of honor among students in their relation to one another and to the faculty. No form of untruthfulness among themselves or toward the faculty (such, for example, as cheating at examina- tions) was for a moment tolerated. Any student suspected of such practices was cut by his fellow students and compelled to leave. When a student was brought up before the faculty for any offence, no other question was asked but, *Did you have any- thing to do with this affair?' The answer was *Yes' or *No'; and he was condemned or acquitted on his own statement. Sometimes a student might, on some technical ground, refuse to answer, but no one ever lied.** The spirit of freedom and manliness thus highly developed in the University of South Carolina was characteristic of Southern life. It was the pride of the South and the admiration of her critics. One of the ablest of Northern statesmen, Hon. George Francis Hoar, an early abolitionist and a lifelong political foe of the South, bore generous testimony to the virtues begotten of this spirit: "Southern men were unsurpassed among the nations of the earth in courage, spirit, hospitality, and generosity to their equals. They were apt to command and apt to succeed. They were able politicians. With the EARLY EDUCATION 21 love and habit of truth, which becomes brave men in all common concerns, they were subtle and skilful diplomatists when diplomacy was needed to accom- plish any political end." Twenty -five years later, in his delightful autobiography, after longer and fuller experience, he repeats and strengthens this testimony : "My long conflict with their leaders has impressed me with an ever-increasing admiration of the great and high qualities of our Southern people. Their love of home; their chivalrous respect for woman; their courage; their delicate sense of honor, their constancy, which can abide by an opinion, or a pur- pose, or an interest of their states, through adversity and through prosperity, through the years and through the generations, are things by which the people of the more mercurial North may take a lesson. And there is another thing — covetousness, corrup- tion, the low temptation of money has not yet found any place in our Southern politics." The leaders of the Old South were indeed men of courage and character. Many of them were nur- tured in the University of South Carolina, for South Carolina was the heart of the South. Its strength and its weakness was individualism. Like ancient Attica, South Carolina cultivated and honored to the highest degree her favorite sons of genius, while neglecting the great mass of toiling humanity. The result was a constellation of stars that shone with rare brilliance in the political firmament and long guided the destinies of the South, but set finally in the dark and stormy sea of social and political revolution. In the University of South Carolina Tompkins re- ceived excellent training from accomplished and 22 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH gifted teachers. He was interested in several studies and proficient in all. He preserved for forty years among his private papers as valued treasures his lecture notes on geology under Joseph Le Conte, on natural philosophy under John Le Conte, on polit- ical econom}^ and history under President Barnwell, on mathematics and engineering under General Alexander. He faithfully utilized all the opportun- ities of the university, not only in classrooms but in college life, taking an active part in social pleasures, athletic sports, college politics, and even in the much- abhorred literary society exercises. But his heart was not in the work of the university. He longed for knowledge of life, for active participa- tion in the stirring, striving life of the world around him. He saw his native State stricken and im- poverished, its wealth destroyed, its industrial sys- tem disorganized, its future dark and uncertain. With fine penetration and rare vision he perceived that the need of his beloved South was not oratory and debate, but skilled labor and machinery, not political power, but the development of material resources. In these views and feelings he was cheered and encouraged by his professor of engineer- ing and mathematics. General E. P. Alexander, a son of the Old South, a veteran of the Civil War, and a prophet of the New South. "The first important influence in directing my life," he writes in his memoirs, "came from General E. P. Alexander, while I was a student in the South Carolina University. He was the professor in mathe- matics and engineering; and, while I was under his instruction, our personal relations became closer than that of professor and student, by a sort of grav- ity, as it were. I had a bent for industrial develop- EARLY EDUCATION 23 ment, and he was the first person I had ever met who had any sympathy with my aspirations. I was very fond of construction; and he, as a graduate of West Point, had been an important constructing engineer before and during the war. In talking over with me my hopes and expectations, he advised me to seek a technical education as a civil engineer, and to learn a trade also while studying to be an engineer. He recommended to me the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, New York." General Alexander was a man of marked ability and versatility. His colleague, Joseph Le Conte, says of him in his charming autobiography: "Pro- fessor Alexander, who had been Chief Engineer in Lee's Army, was a hearty, whole-souled, enthusiastic friend and companion and a kind of genius in math- ematics and especially in engineering." He was not only a mathematician and engineer but also an Eng- lish scholar and versatile writer. Above all, he was a capable man of affairs with fine executive talents. He was soon called from the university into the ac- tive life of the business world. General Alexander found a congenial spirit in Daniel A. Tompkins, and loved him as a brother. "If you get down as far South as this," he wrote Tompkins from Alabama in 1878, "be sure and stop and see me — for you are one of the scholars I was proud of, and I always re- member you with very great pleasure." Their friendship was kept up by correspondence until Alexander's death. Following the advice of General Alexander, Tompkins was enrolled in the summer of 1869 as a student in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. It was a long step from a South- ern literary college to a Northern school of technology, 24 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH from a South Carolina cotton plantation to a New York manufacturing city. But the spirit of the institute and the spirit of the city was also the spirit of Tompkins. He rejoiced to find halls for draft- ing and designing instead of literary societies for de- bate and oratory ; to see displayed on the college walls not portraits of politicians but sketches of bridges, engines, and buildings; to hear discussions about power and machinery instead of debates on secession and state's rights. Not a student in the institute was expecting to be an orator or a statesman. No- body was there from fashion nor for gentility. Every- one had come for work. The Lares and Penates of the institute were not Calhoun, Hayne, andMcDuffie, but Newton, Watt, Stevenson, Franklin, and Roeb- ling. From the very start Tompkins took rank among the best students. He not only did the work but enjoyed it; and by his character, conduct, and super- ior work made impressions upon his college mates which remained fresh and strong for half a century. "As I recall the long-ago days at Troy," writes one of his classmates, "I see Tompkins as a bright and clean fellow, for whom we had always high re- spect. He was among the best scholars in the class, his percentage ranking among the highest. As a draftsman he excelled all his classmates. Al- though quiet and reserved in his manners, he displayed a strong character, having his likes and dislikes, but was always gentlemanly and courteous. Being older than I, he advised and assisted me in my studies, for which I have never forgotten him." "I was Tompkins* roommate a couple of years at Troy," writes another. "While cordial and consider- ate, he was generally quite reserved. His self- EARLY EDUCATION 25 reliance was unusual for his age. He was absolutely honest in his conversation, without fear of any kind, and very independent, so far as the usual student customs and traditions were concerned. He be- longed to no secret society, but was elected Grand Marshal in his junior year, an honor always before carried off by secret society men. His means were apparently limited, but he always kept up his end whenever he joined in any student frolics. I do not remember his using tobacco, and he was very sparing of intoxicants, a little beer being his limit. He showed strong, determined, honest character, a little high strung and sensitive. He was generally fair in his judgments, but with little patience for what we now call dudes, and none for mollycoddles. He was a clean, high-toned fellow, of strong, manly character. I recall his punching a masher who tried to flirt with a lady friend, who resented the liberty and told Tommy of it." "We lived in the same boarding house and on the same floor,'* writes H. B. Binsse. "I saw him nearly every day for three years. We became fast friends, as I was greatly drawn by his manly, dignified, up- right character. His character was unusually at- tractive. He was straightforward and frank, but never offered opinions which he knew would be dis- agreeable. His conversation was always delightful, for he was full of original points of view. He was a born leader. He had perfect self-confidence with a clear, well-poised mind, very keen perception of character, and great breadth of view. When he was graduated, he was regarded as the most promising man in his class." The instruction in the Rensselaer Polytechnic In- stitute did not at that time include practical work in ?6 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH mechanical and electrical engineering. These depart- ments were not equipped with shops or laboratories. The instruction was not satisfactory to Tomp- kins, who thought that a complete education should combine practice and theory. On his father's plan- tation he had learned the value of practical work in the blacksmith and carpenter shops, in the gin and compress houses, as well as in the planting and har- vesting of the cotton crop. He had always been a practical worker; and now, as a student of the in- stitute, he was not content with theoretical knowledge of mechanical engineering. With fine resolution and wisdom he obtained for himself in the city the practical instruction which he could not get in the college. During his entire college course of four years he was at work every Saturday and all the vacations in the mills and machine shops of Troy. ** During the long summer vacation of 1870," writes his college mate, N. B. Kellogg, "Tompkins and I were the only students of the institute who remained in Troy for the summer, except resident pupils. He secured employment in the Bessemer Iron Works, while I was assistant to one of the professors in his city work. Tompkins did this work, not for the purpose of getting money, but more for practical experience. He went in as a working hand to be- come familiar with the operating of the Bessemer plants. I remember hearing that he then developed the plates for a *converter' for the first time, they having been cut by trying and fitting until then, especially the curve of intersection of cylinder and oblique cone at the top. This was no great engin- eering achievement, of course; but no one had thought of doing it before, and no one thought of doing any- thing else afterward." EARLY EDUCATION 27 Although busy with books and work, Tompkins found time for enjoying the usual pleasures of college life. He was one of the editors of the Tripod and member of the boat club. His personality was quiet but attractive, and secured for him the highest honor within the gift of his fellow students, election as Grand Marshal of the college. "I have a special reason to remember Tompkins,'' writes his class- mate, Charles Campbell, "for he defeated me for Grand Marshal, an oflfice in which he represented the whole student body, the highest office within their gift. He represented them in all conferences with the President or Faculty, or with the Mayor of the City, in organizing and leading processions and festivities on public occasions, and by presiding at all meetings of the entire student body. He de- serves great credit for the honor. I coveted the office with a youthful ambition from the day of my registration. Tompkins was a calm and judicial- minded man, an unpretentious and hardworking student, plain in dress and address, not taking a prominent part in athletics. His recreations were of the best and simplest nature. He was there for business and not for pleasure." There is something picturesque, almost pathetic, in this incident of a Northern student body selecting for their leader the son of a Confederate soldier and slaveholder. The students gave it especial emphasis by presenting Tompkins with a gold-headed cane, inscribed, "R. P. I. — To D. Augustus Tompkins, from the Students— Grand Marshal— May 30, 1873." He preserved the cane, and bequeathed it as an heirloom to his brother. While engaged in vacation work Tompkins made the acquaintance of Augustus L. Holley, an engineer 28 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH of rare talents and character. For the second time in his career he was brought into close contact with a large-minded friend, capable of recognizing talent and generous in inspiring youthful ambition. "Before my course was finished in the institute," he says in his memoirs, "I fell in with Mr. A. L. Holley. He was a young engineer who was introducing the Bessemer process into this country. Youthful as I was, I recognized in him a man of ability. I did considerable work for him tracing drawings during my vacations. He also gave me work to do in my room while I was attending the institute. Through his influence, too, I secured work during my spare time at Toly' in the John A. Griswold & Company's Steel Works of Troy, where I took a course of ap- prentice and machine shop." Mr. Holley was at this time and until his death a trustee of the in- stitute. In 1875 he became president of the Amer- ican Institute of Mining Engineers and member of the Government Board for testing structural material. Upon graduation from the institute Tompkins was invited by Holley to become draftsman and private secretary in his office in Brooklyn, New York. The invitation was accepted, and the friendly rela- tionship formed during college days was continued a year longer, with satisfaction to Holley and inspira- tion for Tompkins. "My service under Holley has always been of immense value to me," says Tompkins in his memoirs. "He was a man of remarkable ability and extraordinary amiability." The follow- ing testimonial, written at this time by Holley, was carefully preserved by Tompkins among the treas- ures of his early life: "Mr. D. A. Tompkins, a grad- uate of the Rensselaer Institute, has been employed EARLY EDUCATION 29 by me as draftsman, and in working up machinery designs, for more than a year; and I part with his services now only on account of my proposed ab- sence from the country. I take pleasure in stating that Mr. Tompkins has proved himself to be an accurate and a remarkably rapid draftsman; and that his industry and fidelity, as well as his technical knowledge, fit him to be a valuable assistant in any engineering work." Before leaving America Mr. HoUey interested him- self to secure for Tompkins employment in the Bethlehem Iron Works under John Fritz. It was time for a change. Although pleasantly situated, Tompkins was getting restless under the monotony of the drawing room, was eager for active work, was anxious to be making, producing, creating something real and tangible. In a letter to his friend and class- mate, Walbridge, written near the end of his year in Brooklyn, he says: "My work here is pleasant, but not in the right direction. I am fixed in my deter- mination to work out a career in iron; and I shall do this, even if I have to renounce all claims upon the men who have already succeeded, and work my own way up from a one-horse blacksmith shop." With this purpose he was glad to leave Brooklyn and to be enrolled as a workman under John Fritz with the Bethlehem Iron Company. But this year in Brooklyn was not given entirely to work. Social life attracted him very strongly. Invitations were frequent, to and from college mates and other friends, for dinner, theatres, excursions, and other pleasures. His social instincts were strong and well developed. The hospitality of his father's home had always been large and generous. It had become a part of his nature. "Come over 30 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOI TIT to-morrow about five o'clock. We will see Mr. Holley, dine at my house, and go to theatre," he writes Binsse. "I would be glad to have you come over some evening, and go to the theatre with me, and spend the night, if possible. I think I might be able to make it a pleasant evening for you; and it certainly would be a great pleasure for me to have you" — to another classmate. He takes Christmas dinner with Frith, spends Sunday with Binsse at Long Branch, goes to churches, theatres, museums, art exhibits, and libraries, as well as shops, mills, and factories. Everywhere he is observant and thoughtful. His faculties are alert; his mind open and receptive. His letters to home folks are readable and suggestive, clear-cut and natural in style, as well as instructive and entertaining. The following illustrates his mental habits: "New York is all ablaze with Christmas presents and preparations for the usual festivities on New Year's. Everybody gives and everybody expects to receive presents; and there is a sort of general rejoicing and calculating whether the sum total of presents received is greater than that of presents given. I am, of course, a silent and watchful observer, expecting neither to give nor to re- ceive. I have lately been to an artists' reception. Before telling about it, I will tell what an artists' reception is. There is an association of the artists in Brooklyn, and amongst the number are many who make good pictures. Once a year they collect together all their pictures and have an exhibition and reception, allowing in the meantime enough rich people, who are not artists to join and pay the expenses. They have the Academy of Music floored above the chairs and richly carpeted, in order to make a nice promenade. A door has been cut be- EARLY EDUCATION 31 tween the Academy and the art room, which is the next building to the Academy, so that it is all made into one grand suite of rooms. The art rooms are lined with pictures, the Academy richly ornamented with flowers, and everybody who can possibly get a ticket, goes. The tickets are given away only by the artists. I was given two by an artist who was pleased with having heard that I had spoken very highly of some of his pictures in New York. I am much delighted that I went. I looked at the pic- tures and saw the promenaders from the gallery of the theatre. I never saw such magnificently dressed women, fine music, and beautiful flowers and pictures in my life. It was a sort of realization of an artist's dream of life. But the greatest of all the New York wonders is Henry Ward Beecher. The originality of his sermons is something I have been more sur- prised at than anything I have heard since I came here." While employed by Holley and residing in Brook- lyn Tompkins formed the acquaintance and friend- ship of a refined, cultured, and once wealthy family, whom he delighted to visit. His amusing tales of boarding-house discomforts, his manifest love of home life, his strong character and marked personal- ity induced them to accept him as a member of their household. Here began a friendship of two congenial souls, ripening into the deepest love, whose fruition was prevented by the early invalidism and un- timely death of his beloved. For ten years he poured out his soul to her in letters that mirrored his daily life and thoughts. After her death these letters were returned to him; and after his death they were found among his private papers, folded and sealed with hers, witnesses of hopes and longings that were never 32 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH realized. Extracts from those letters are given in the following pages, revealing in distant glimpses the warm and tender heart of a man apparently cold and reserved, unlocking the inner doors of a life through which, thereafter, few if any ever entered. CHAPTER III APPRENTICESHIP IN THE BETHLEHEM IRON WORKS — ^JOHN FRITZ CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT HIS life with the Bethlehem Iron Works is mirrored by Tompkins in letters to his be- loved, which present not only a record of his work but an interesting picture of character devel- opment. The Bethlehem Iron Works was at this time the chief steelmaking plant in America. It was under the management of John Fritz, America's foremost iron master, a sturdy, rugged, inventive, self-made German. As a young apprentice Tompkins came to Fritz almost with reverence, presently he inspected hun and examined him with cool and critical independ- ence, finally he estimated and valued hun with just judgment and grateful appreciation. His appren- ticeship in the mills was spent during a long period of commercial and financial depression throughout the business world, a period wherein many businesses perished and few expanded. "I arrived in Bethlehem yesterday and saw Mr Fritz. He has given me employment at $75.00 a month." **I am very fairly started at my work, which so far has pleased me very much. Mr. Fritz 33 34 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH has me working on a design for some new engines." "I have a feeling that I ought to persist in being absolutely punctual at my work, until I shall have something to identify me with the work. For in- stance, since I have been here I have been working a good deal on the design of some new engines which Mr. Fritz speaks of building; and, if he should con- clude to build them, having had most to do with the design, I would naturally be depended upon to keep everything straight ; and that dependence would make for me a sort of tie. I want to have it so that when I am away they will miss me; and it seems to me the best way to get a start in that direction is by punctuality and a willingness always to accept re- sponsibilities." "I have been reading the last two nights a book that has afforded me the sort of satisfaction that religious persons receive from the Bible. The book is by Philip Gilbert Hamerton, and is called *The Intellectual Life.* He calls disinterestedness the highest quality of a fine character." " Last night I went to see Davenport in "Othello" at Allentown. I walked back after the play, having Frith with me for company. It is six miles." "Acting upon your suggestion to discard my old clothes altogether and buy some that are plain and neat for the works, I have purchased the cloth for a APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 35 pair of pants, the sum total of cost will not exceed $3.50; and they are better than you would infer from the price. The necessity of economy will not allow me to get an outfit at once. The most I can do is to look the best I can afford. "Upon examination of my feelings in the matter of dress in social life I am come to the conclusion that my contentment with being ill dressed is not so much indifference, after all. The being without a competency for reasonably good living I have fre- quently lamented, not with thinking of the pleasures money would afford but of the embarrassments and privations it would free me from. Of course to be able to buy a book I want and to be able to visit and entertain my friends would be after all pleasures by money ; but the pleasure I should have would be from the company of the friends, and not the ability to entertain them. But the being poorly dressed has rarely, under any circumstance, been a source of any embarrassment to me; but, on the contrary, has at times been a source of great satisfaction. " The satisfaction has come from my having in the first place very little money to spend for clothes. I knew it was either be content with bad ones, or be very much cramped — sometimes not even having this last alternative. Secondly, my bad clothes have been for me a thermometer, as it were, by which I have been able to arrive at a more just estimate of the characters of various persons I have met. I desire the opinion that is held of me to be on account of the permanent part of myself and not on account of temporary qualities, such as (the good one) of being well dressed. That is to say, I want to form friends upon whose permanence I could rely under any circumstance; and therefore I feel that I must S6 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH gain them by such qualities as circumstances cannot affect. Such a quaHty is self-respect, such an one is disinterestedness, such is fidelity to friends — and all that compose the virtues of a noble and honor- able man." "I told you that Mr. Fritz had me working on a design for some new engines. It is now determined to build them, and yesterday the work was fairly begun. The first thing to be done is to have wooden * patterns' made of all the parts that are to be made of cast iron. These wooden patterns are used to make the molds in sand in which molten cast iron is poured to make the castings. "If you are at all interested in such things, I will explain something of the different sorts of work neces- sary to construct a machine. Most machines are composed principally of cast iron and wrought iron. Your stove is cast iron. The shovel and tongs are probably wrought iron. The first is made by being molten and poured in a mold formed in the sand. The second is made by a blacksmith. The first is called a * casting', and the shop and appurtenances where it is made is a * foundry'. The second is a 'forging' and is made in the * blacksmith shop.' "The *molder' (a man who works in the foundry) must have a model or * pattern ' of what he intends to mold in order to make the impression in the sand. This 'pattern' is made of wood and frequently re- quires great skill. The pattern for a very orna- mental stove would require to be made by a very skilled workman. Therefore, to be able to make a machine, a * pattern maker' is necessary and a shop for him to work in. APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 37 "Neither the blacksmith nor molder can make their work look polished and smooth, the one using only a hammer and anvil, and the other making his mold in such material as sand. Neither can they be very accurate. To make all the pieces accurate and well fitting, they are given into still another shop — the ^machine shop,' where the machinist with lathes and planers and drill presses and slotters planes this and that side smooth— turns this piece perfectly round, drills a hole at this place and that, and files and chips and whits away until all the pieces are exactly what is wanted, and then the machine is put together. "Thus, the castings commence with the pattern maker— then go to the molder and then to the machinist. The forgings come from the blacksmith shop and go to the machinist, also. With the ma- chinist, they are all finished and put together. "The parts of the engine I have designed are now in the hands of the pattern makers and blacksmiths. It is gratifying, because it is the first work of very considerable importance I have been given to do. They are what are called compound engines and have not been much built, so it is a sort of new thing. I will not bore you with a scientific explanation of the engine unless you show sufficient interest. Some of the patterns for the engine are nearly done and to-morrow will be carried to the foundry, where the molds for the castings are made." "My room affords me more and more pleasure with each dav. You can't magine what an improvement 38 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH it is over the ordinary house to have a nice room with one's own things in it, and it really makes quite a homelike sort of place for me. I haven't that feeling of living nowhere; and it is particularly de- sirable now; for I was forever spoiled in Brooklyn about living in boarding houses. Before I came with you, I knew nothing better, I was hardened to it. And it is wonderful what pleasure I have from the auxiliary nice things sent with the furniture." " I have invited Walbridge to visit me, and I have heard that he intends to accept the invitation very soon. Should he do so, the visit will be a great pleas- ure to mer and my nice double bed will make me able to keep him in my room instead of having to send him to the hotel. And to be able to entertain him myself will be very nice. I felt mortified when Binsse came to see me that I couldn't entertain him entirely myself." "Walbridge is here visiting me, and I am much pleased. Yesterday (Sunday) morning I took him to the works, stopping on the way at a little flower garden, the owner of which I have made an acquaint- ance with." "To-day nearly all the officers wanted to go to the State and County Fairs holding respectively at Easton and Allentown. On such occasions my ad- herence to work is always more pleasure to me than a country fair could possibly be." APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 89 "You mustn't imagine I am working and overtax- ing myself. This voluntary work I have been doing, for example, is the working out theoretically what was intended to be done practically; and it is there- fore of no special use, except that it is pleasant to be able to answer questions about the result. It pleases Mr. Fritz to see that I am taking an interest in this work, and it is easy to keep up an interest in my work when I keep it up at the same time as a study." I am reading George Eliot's * Silas Marner'." "I spent the evening doing some work for Mr. Holley. He had written me to send him a drawing of a small piece of machinery; and I made the draw- ing in the evenings. Extra work I want to do — like reading this or that book, getting a drawing of this or that to keep for reference — usually fills up my evenings. The time seems fairly to fly by." "So despicably poor is the iron trade come that these works are speaking of making another reduc- tion of ten per cent, upon all wages and salaries. This is exceedingly disheartening, but to think of giving up would be the worst possible thing now. But I have foregone all immediate prospects so long that it seems sort of hard fortune to have the prospects decline in my own path, just as I was beginning to reach a fair starting point." *' Because I tell you so much I want to be economi- cal, do not believe that I love the money or in any 40 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH way love to keep it. I don't expect to become inde- pendent by saving money out of my present pay, but I must learn the habit of economy now. More- over, I do not desire to have money for the purpose of keeping it, but for the purpose of using it for com- fort's sake." "You are to my better self an invaluable mine from which jewel after jewel is added to my refinement and my feeling and my mode of thought, to make them delightful to myself and pleasant to all who know me. You are to me what the sun is to a flower, that lights it up and makes it beautiful and fragrant. My life until I knew you was but as the seedling of a flower that could become nothing beautiful so long as it remains away from the nourishing light. You have already nourished this life and given it suflBcient strength to weather quite a stormy night, but it needs your goodly rays on the morrow to regain new strength and keep it well, alive, and prosperous. And to continue our metaphor still further, as the shades and tints of a flower can never be seen by any light so well as by that which makes it, so the refinement you have lent me could never be appreciated so well as when I am under your immediate influence." "I will go into the drawing office to-morrow. I objected to it, but did it principally for appearances, since I had as leave stay there three months as not. But I did not want them to think I liked it, so they would not wonder, when I insist upon having other duties after the cold weather is over. Mr. Fritz said he wanted me to go and get the plans ready APPRENTICESfflP WITH JOHN FRITZ 41 for the work for next spring and summer, while it was cold and the men cannot work out of doors. That seemed to hold out the idea I should have some- thing to do with the work when it was commenced outside. It is two new furnaces he is building." "The coal miners are on a strike and half our works are stopped on account of having no coal. Very many workmen in this region have no work, and many of them go about like vagrants. There is a vacant room at the works here, under some furnaces (which make it warm), and in this there are tenanted about fifty that have collected from the country around. They live there and buy what they eat. One would imagine them to be a very forlorn and and disconsolate looking set, but on the contrary there is no crowd more jovial. They make speeches, have dances, play cards for imaginary wages, and drink imaginary whiskey from imaginary glasses with such toasts as, * Here's to the rich man that won't give us work — may he get sick on Monday — get worse on Tuesday — die on Wednesday — be buried on Thursday — go to h on Friday — and burn on Saturday.' They are very much the same sort of people as the beggars in a city, low, shiftless, vulgar, and brutal, who ask for alms with a mean scowl on the face. Of course, it is the worst type of workman without work." "I think if we could get coal, things would really begin to brighten up. The coal trouble is attributed by some to the operators and by some to the miners; but in my mind it is principally due to the fact that 4« A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH many of the rich and controlhng men at present are not fit to control." "I don't like the drawing room (where I am now at work). I shall ask Mr. Fritz to change me to some sort of other work in the spring, about the first of April, and will not stay where I am, even if he makes serious objections. I had rather be idle. Not be- cause I mind work, but because I don't like sedentary and confining occupation. I hoped when I first came here he would take some interest in me and ad- vance me when he could and advise me what I should do to qualify myself for advancement; but I learn he has always been close with everyone and will yield nothing except what is positively demanded. I am not very sorry for this, because after all I had rather feel responsible to make an effort myself for what I want, than to have to wait for the action of Mr. Fritz. If he had taken a positive interest in me and shown it, I should not have felt responsible and would have left a good deal to him I had really rather have in my own hands. Don't under- stand that he don't allow me a fair chance. He gives me every advantage, but leaves me entirely to decide my own course of overcoming diflficulties." " The knowledge of a good reward at a certain time is one of the greatest stimulants to human energy and contentment. For instance, I am willing to soil my hands and do a great deal of unpleasant work and do it contentedly, too; but my contentment comes from the prospect that I shall some day be fixed so APPRENTICESHIP WLTR JOHN FRITZ 43 that the work I do is not only pleasant but fascinat- ing and useful." "I have been troubled in my dealings with Mr. Fritz. I was worried with the way he put me off, and when he refused to give me an audience at all, it made me exceedingly indignant, but I said nothing, of course. Next morning when I arrived at the works I found him standing on the office steps and when I passed up he said to me, he had not meant to give me a short answer the evening before, but that his manner was the result of his having been much worried during the afternoon. In my own mind, the truth of the matter is, he wants to make a draftsman of me. If 'tis true, he never undertook a more impossible task in his life. I don't know yet how I shall go to him again. I could let Mr. Holley see him, as he offered to do; but I think Fritz would imagine I was afraid of him, and therefore Holley shan't do it." "I have been trying of late to get together a sort of record of my work that I may keep for reference. Most of to-day (Sunday) has been employed with this work." "Most of my work is in connection with the new blast furnaces we are putting up. A blast furnace is simply a large furnace in which coal, iron ore, and limestone are put and kept ignited. The coal is put in, to make heat and to melt the iron ore and limestone. The limestone does for the pure iron contained in the ore what soap and water does for 44 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH the hands; that is, takes up and removes all impurities, then the iron, being heaviest, sinks to the bottom of the furnace, and the molten limestone, containing the impurities, floats on top. Then, by operating a hole, in or near the bottom of the furnace, the iron runs out. Of course you will understand this to be not anything of a scientific explanation, but only just something to give you an idea of what a blast furnace is. Such a general explanation makes it a very simple thing, and in reality there is nothing complex about it; but there are a great multiplicity of details that bring into requisition a very great number of mechanical devices and principles. "There must be a blowing engine, to blow air into the furnace to make it burn, and pumps, to furnish water to keep the parts near the intense heat cool — ■ there must be a large stove or oven, through which the air must pass to make it hot, so it won't cool the material outside — and boilers to generate steam for the pumps and engines. All these things are first put down on paper, and arranged and re-arranged until it is thought to be in the best shape. Then wherever any strain or force will come, it is necessary to calculate what size to make the part to bear the strain. The latter things are the ones I am princi- pally engaged in doing. Mr. Fritz tells me he wants a certain thing for a certain purpose. Then I go to work, and get up an engine on paper, and let him look at it." "Were you so bored with the engineering letter that you dread another.'^ Then you need only write me not to write about machinery and grease.'* APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 45 "During the week I have been remarkably social, having made two calls upon young ladies. The visits were not made with much expectation of en- joying myself, but I thought I needed to rouse myself from the monotony of working all day and reading all evening." "I am reading at odd times two books: one is Paley's * Evidences of Christianity' and the other, Plutarch's * Lives.' I haven't much interest in the characters from a historical point of view, but Plutarch enters very much into the motives that impelled men to action and also in the discipline to which many men subjected themselves to accom- plish any purpose; and from his accounts in this way I can draw many morals and good maxims to govern me. Of the biographies as history I don't expect to remember much, and don't know what use I would have for it if I did." "I have been out of doors all day hammering and pulling and measuring about some machinery that is being put in place. If I could just get enough to do outside to occupy me about three fourths of the time, so that I would have only a quarter to spend at drawing, it would be delightful. And by degrees I hope to get it just as I want it." "I had resolved upon trying to get Mr. Fritz to increase my pay; and to-day a notice was put upon the front of the office saying another reduction of from 5 to 20 per cent, would be made in all wages 46 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH and salaries the first of Sept. With this excuse to put me off I am sure it would be utterly useless to go, and would only weaken any future effort. While I feel fretful and despondent, I am not despondent in thinking of my work. Sadness or disappointment does not unman me, as I have seen it do in some in- stances. My resolution to push firmly forward, to help myself and help others where I can, is always firm. Perhaps I may lose some interest for a few days, but it comes back, and being of this tempera- ment is a great help to going through any disappoint- ment." "I have been reading for some time a history of the French Revolution, in which I have been much interested. When it is finished, I will take up Buckle, a liking for whom I already have from the accounts I have heard." "Almost all my time is spent at the works; and if I had an unrestrained license to do anything I pleased, 'twould be really fascinating. Every now and then I find myself forgetful of ambition and suc- cess and suchlike possessions in my interest in some work I sometimes find myself engaged in. For instance, the furnace, when it was being finished, when the gas was being prepared, the dampers put in, the valves adjusted, etc., etc., to get everything in readiness to make a certain principle operate, — makes the principle, itself, fill my mind — and the watchfulness to know whether all the conditions are fulfilled to make it succeed becomes altogether a sort of game or play that holds a man in excitement APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 47 until the time is reached when it is shown whether it will or will not work. This furnace was very like the old furnaces, so that, if anything had been omitted to make it work, there were men about who could have explained the difficulty. But it went, with very little trouble, and is now working all the time." "Last Sunday I went to Phila. to see the Centen- nial buildings, not from curiosity or fashion, but to see the manner in which the work on the buildings was put together. I could not have seen it after the painting and frescoing, etc., etc., were finished." "What a long journey life must be for people who spend most of it in idleness. I come to this con- clusion because of the quickness with which time passes when one is engaged. There is always so much that I want to do for myself, and I must do it in the evenings; and unless I determine beforehand what shall be done and in what order — otherwise rule out all matters of inclination — I find the time passes and nothing is done. I commenced with this thought, because it is the one that is in my mind and was recommended by the difficulty I have in finding time to read the Life of Theo. Parker." "The Society of Engineers in New York have an exhibit of working drawings of machinery in the west gallery of the Exhibition, main building. 48 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Amongst them is a set of drawings of the machinery here in the Bessemer Mill that I made while I was with Mr. Holley. I made all that are there from these works." "Iron works must run all the time when they run at all; and for a man to be of much available use it is necessary to be absent as little as possible, and particularly for any one desiring to grow more useful. Therefore, because I need the advantages that con- tinuous presence here will help me to, and because T don't feel the need of a rest, I wouldn't feel that I was doing right to take a holiday to-day. (July 4)." " The works here jog along about the same. There is now one species of comfort, and it is that iron and steel are lower in price than they have ever been before, and they can't possibly get much lower, so the only change must be for the better." "I have been for more than ten days strongly urging upon Mr. Fritz my desire for other work than that of drawing. It has proved so far useless; and hearing a few days since of a man in Phila., who in- tended to build a new machine shop, I went to that city for the purpose of undertaking to get the position of running it. I found, however, it was a mistake, and that instead of starting a shop, he intended to shut up and stop his foundry. " While, however, these things are lamentable, they do not worry me, for I feel quite sure that the very thing that acts as a sort of prejudice in my case is in APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 49 itself a source of strength, and will increase, until it brings the matter right some day. There is nat- urally a prejudice on the part of practical men to have educated men advanced; and since the prac- tical men have everything in their hands, the effect of this advantage must be felt by the pioneer of education, in which position I am unfortunate enough to be placed, if it is a misfortune; and since R's failure I have all the taunts to carry. "Mr. Fritz is away now and has been for a week; and in such times there is always more or less an- noyance, because he leaves no one definitely in charge and all of about ten subordinates vie with each other in carrying the air of most authority." "I have been very busy in the drawing room all day, and feel the need of some exercise. The seden- tary character of my work I very much abhor; and Mr. Fritz seems as stubborn as a mule in resisting any change in it. Not even with an offer to work for less will he give me any satisfaction, but avoids a decision with a sort of temporary excuse." " I have been for a long time wanting to get out of the drawing room. Mr. Fritz has always found an excuse to keep me from making any change. He started last week to Europe. I told him I would not stay in the drawing room while he was gone. He objected and offered many excuses, etc. He knew of nothing he could put me at. I offered to work as machinist at machinist's wage. To have refused my offer at reduced pay would have been too evident perversity; and so he was cornered with 50 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH my being determined to use a desperate remedy and bear the consequences. I have been now in the shop about ten days, and though of course I don't enjoy having less pay, I do feel a great satisfaction to have had the strength of will to succeed in what I wanted to do, even at a sacrifice. I don't know yet what my pay will be, but no matter what it will be, I am gaining an ex- perience I have felt the need of, and have the pleas- ure of feeling that nobody helped me to what I am getting, but I had to get it myself and at a sacrifice. After dreading to do it, I am surprised to find how much pleasure I take in it after it is done. I believe, however, that those other people lead the most tranquil lives. There is no use in philosophizing, however." "I am now fairly at work in the machine shop and like it very much — 1. Because, although it is harder work in one sense of the word, yet it is more in the way of advancement than the drawing room is. I never liked the draw- ing room. To be in the drawing room (without practical experience) is very like being surgeon in the army. An energetic private has a better chance of continuous advancement. 2. The work only seems harder, and is really not half so hard. It is more healthy, physically and mentally. 3. Because it gives me a foothold where I wanted it. They don't tell me what they will do about my pay; but that is of the least consequence, since when I acquire the practice I am working for I will be much better qualified for the place Mr. APPRENTICESHIP WITH JOHN FRITZ 51 Holle}^ offered me at Troy, which I could get at any time. "Mr. Holley and Mr. Fritz are both in Europe." "I am working in the machine shop on a roll lathe — turning the rolls through which the hot iron passes in the mills, to make it in the shape of rails. I like the work, and do not find it arduous or particularly tiresome. My pay is put at $2 per day, quite as much as I expected. I am more than satisfied that it is a good thing for me to do, and that I shall be well repaid in the end. The pay is quite sufficient for me to live on. "I have just learned that it was a matter of a hair's weight one way or the other with the higher officers of the Company whether I should go to Europe with Mr. Fritz or not. I am told he was anxious to have me go with him as private secretary. I am not sorry for having missed it; for in doing so I am now laying in a store of experience I always felt would be neces- sary before I could fairly enter the path I desired to beat; and it has always been an annoying thing to feel that the sacrifice, as it were, was yet before me." "I feel more and more satisfied with myself for having made the change of my work into the shop. Mr. Fritz is back again; but I have no idea what his state of mind is in regard to the matter, since he does not now even deign to speak to me. This neither disconcerts nor discourages me, however; for when I took the step in opposition to his advice and wishes I knew he would not heed any of those scruples of 52 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH conscience which might influence other men. But he had, on the other hand, done nothing positive in showing his displeasure, and is therefore open to adopt any course or opinion of me that my work may justify." "I am convinced more every day of the wisdom of my going into the shop. This place is considered a good one to come from; but I am afraid it is not a very good one to stay at, provided advancement is the desire of a young man. Therefore, I am sure I have done right in giving my time to those pur- suits that will give me strength and invest me with the capability to justify at another place what would be expected of a Bethlehem man." CHAPTER IV LAYING FOUNDATIONS — ^AT WORK IN GERMANY — GERMAN CHARACTERISTICS THE BROKEN BOLT DURING the years of his apprenticeship at Bethlehem, Tompkins was laying founda- tions for larger things, saving money, mak- ing investments, projecting enterprises, measuring his employers, looking beyond the mill. The second year of his apprenticeship he formed a partnership with a young merchant in Edgefield, S. C, for the sale of cotton ties, and invented a buckle to improve the tie. The ties and buckles were made by Tomp- kins in Bethlehem and shipped to his partner for sale in South Carolina. His surplus wages from the iron mill were invested regularly in building and loan stock. He soon became a director in the Build- ing and Loan Association; and, finding that it was badly managed, he threw it into bankruptcy, bought up the stock, and organized a new association, of which he was secretary and general manager. With fellow workmen he organized a cooperative company for buying land and building houses. This enter- prise, however, was not perfected nor well developed before he left Bethlehem. He made investments in railway stock. He built a residence on one of his lots in Bethlehem; and retained ownership of it until his death. In the midst of these varied activities he kept up his work in the mill, and nourished a lively ambition 53 54 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH for promotion. He longed to be an iron master like John Fritz — to build in the South a Bethlehem Iron Works. His non -promotion in the mills was a keen disappointment, which he bore with a brave spirit of patience and a clear consciousness of merit. He wrote to John Fritz the following letter, a model of dignified, manly, and modest appeal and remon- strance : "In behalf of a matter which seems to be of great concern to me, I wish to call your attention concisely to the following facts: My earnest desire, whilst I have been here, has been to get into practical work. Whenever I have spoken of this matter, the tendency of your replies has seemed to have been that you would keep the matter in your mind, etc. I am impatient now of nothing else than that after four years (within six wrecks) I am as much in the dark as to the possibility of such a change as I desire as at the beginning of that time. To continue in the same way, with no further knowledge of your disposition in the matter, might lead me to the end of four more years with the same result. "If it is impossible to gain confidence in my ability to conduct practical work by other means than begin- ning anew, it is essential to me that I should know it; for to wait much longer will put me beyond that period of life at which that can be done without great sacrifice. In the time that I have been here, I have done more practical work than is often found to be done by men in the same position, yet, withal, my present position has a constant tendency to constrain me from the way of it, and in itself gives no advance- ment, my pay having been $2.00 per day when I took it, and being now $2.87. With the large increase in machinery to be taken care of and the attention this LAYING FOUNDATIONS 55 will require of someone, it seems to me now that it would be easily practicable for you so to arrange the distribution of the work as to give me the oppor- tunity to enter into that system of habits I desire to improve, even if I continue to do the drawing at the same time, which I am perfectly willing to do. "I have heard you speak of having requested and been granted changes of work in your early life upon the same ground as that upon which I now place my request. A matter which I mention only to ask you to remember how important they were to you at that time, and that this request of mine has the same importance to me now, and is specially import- ant as being a part of a definite plan of life I have laid out to follow. "I have omitted any reference to the changes that have taken place, nor have I made any comparisons of the merit or pay, nor referred in any way to the large bit of minor matters to which I might call your attention to my advantage, and have refrained from putting anything forward before you, except that the time is come beyond which such a change as I de- sire to make becomes more and more diflficult to me, and cannot but fail to be of that advantage to me as if made whilst I am yet young enough to take a hand in all those duties of machine construction and repair so essentially necessary to make me usefnl to myself and a creditable pupil of yours. "I have made my desire, as expressed above, as simple as possible; and I ask as a favor a plain answer as to its accomplishment, assuring you that I am (for my own good) as anxious to advance your interest as mine." This letter caused no breach between them, for 56 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH they were genuine friends at heart. In disposition and character they much resembled each other. Clashes between them, though hard and obstinate, never struck fire. Their correspondence in after life continued through all the years, and was marked not only by mutual admiration and esteem but by deep affection. Fritz was constantly asking Tomp- kins' advice about the education of his nephew; and Tompkins was always sending Fritz affectionate greetings and tokens. WTien Fritz's eightieth birth- day was celebrated, twenty years later, at the Wal- dorf-Astoria in New York City by the four great American Societies of Engineers, Tompkins was se- lected among all the men whom Fritz had trained to make response at the banquet to the toast, "John Fritz's Old Boys." Tompkins was tied to the Bethlehem Mills for several years by an overmastering ambition to fit himself thoroughly for the career of an iron master as well as by a pleasant consciousness of being almost indispensable to John Fritz. There was no place in the mills, as then organized, for the full exercise of his talents; and mill expansion at that time was prevented by financial and industrial depression. Opportunity came for engineering work and expe- rience elsewhere. Newly invented machinery for rolling hoops was to be installed in the Schwerte Iron Works in Westphalia, Germany. The American manufacturers, B. Lauth & Son of Philadelphia, applied to Fritz for his most eflficient, reliable, and in- telligent machinist to go to Germany, set up the machinery, and train the German workmen to run it. The commission was offered to Tompkins and accepted. Without knowledge of the German lan- guage or acquaintance with the German people he LAYING FOUNDATIONS 57 did the work successfully amid great trials and per- plexing difficulties. A few extracts from letters to his beloved will make a picture of his life during this trip abroad. "I have spent a week in Philadelphia seeing the hoop mill packed to be sent to Germany." " With a very few exceptions the passengers on this ship are German, or at least German-speaking people, and although they all speak English, yet German like, they stick almost entirely to German in conver- sation. It is called by those who have crossed more than once an unsociable gathering of passengers. Still, it is marvelous how well we come to know one another's habits even though the knowledge of names is not so common. Sunday after leaving New York I was a little sick — just annoyingly sick. I would feel comfortable enough on deck, or even in my state- room, but at the table would soon begin to get uneasy about the stomach, and to perspire about the fore- head, and have to leave. It was while I waited for the steward to fetch what I ordered that I would get sick. Finally, I ordered a good meal put at my plate, and stayed on deck till it was done. Then I went down and fairly crammed myself full, and hurry- ing back on deck found the sailors hoisting a sail, and I took hold with them and tugged away with the best; and that was practically the last of my sick- ness. A N. Y. swell tried the same remedy, but with less success, in as much as he skinned his hands on the rope and was sicker than before. The way wine is drunk is a marvel to a temperate American. The 58 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH most inoffensive and harmless-looking men will drink a full bottle of claret at every meal. My vis-a-vis at table declares himself satisfied with one glass of sherry, one of port, and two bottles of claret. He is a braggart, however, I think. It seemed very queer to see German ladies, sick and trying to eat at table, turn pale with sickness trying to eat a little, then turn and drink off a glass of beer to keep the stomach settled." "I am now in Schwerte, having been here probably six hours. It is Sunday. Mr. Krieger, the super- intendent of the works, took me this p. m. to drive. We went to several towns adjacent. To-morrow I go to the works. "I reached Bremen yesterday morning at 10:30, spending the day and night there. During the day I strolled about and looked at the town, which is very attractive. In the evening I went to hear some music, Bilse Orchestra. I learned afterward that I had heard the orchestra of a man who excels Th. Thomas — in fact, the best orchestra in the world. Even to me, who understand little of music, it seemed superior, and that before I knew the man's reputation. "This morning I spent in Cologne enjoying the Cathedral, the grand sight of the city. Six hundred years it has been building, and will be finished next year. As Bilse is superior to Thomas, so that cathe- dral service was far superior to anything I have ever heard in America. Innumerable men loaf about the front and want to show strangers the church for anything that will be given. "Schwerte is a small town and the hotel I am at is LAYING FOUNDATIONS 59 not good, but is the best in the place. But mean little hotel as it is, the clerk wears a dress suit." "I am now keeping the hours of German workmen. The machine is in running order and for the last ten days I have been with one set of the men who will run it Next week I must take the other set and in- struct them, and then in the succeeding week we will run the machine night and day with the two sets of men I get up at 5i a. m. and get back home at 1^ P M. The first few days I had to do everythmg myself As a rule, Germans are hard workers and willing workers, but not particularly bright about comprehending a new idea. Of course, m this chaotic state of beginning I cannot say how long I must be here." "These people wish to use the machinery I brought over for a great variety of work; and to adapt it to this purpose has required of me a great deal of work. And because I do not understand the language, I must do a great deal that the workmen ought "The town is a dull little place, and now that all the novelty of the place is past it is rather a bore. "The German working hours annoy me much. The people are like the Germans in America. They are never done working and never get anythmg done —they spend thirteen hours at the works and do less than an American in three hours. "But I shall soon be done now and will see you agam. The Lauths say they will build one of these machines to make band iron in Alabama and have 60 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH promised to give me charge of it. If all goes well, then we will be at last all right, Httle girl." "In Germany and in Schwerte I have seen many things that pleased me, but taken all in all I shall not be sorry to turn my footsteps homeward. I shall, however, always look forward to another trip to this country when I can have time enough and leisure enough to learn to speak the language. "I now go to the works at 6 a. m. and come home at 7 p. M. As the men become used to my machine these hours will become less." "During the week just past I have been very busy finishing a vast number of small details necessary to try the mill, I have made one experimental trial and it went well. I am now still further completing the details, which will require ten days or so. But next week the iron works will not run on account of want- ing to make general repairs, and in that interim I will make a little trip on the Rhine." "I have just returned from up the Rhine, making the trip with Thurston and his wife who were passing this way. I have taken advantage of every oppor- tunity to see the towns around here and think I shall not have a desire to travel much when I leave. My present idea is to see Paris and London a day or two each, and perhaps one or two little excursions in France and England. *'My trip to Germany pleases me very much and I beUeve will have been just such a one as I could LAYING FOUNDATIONS 61 most have desired. I have lived here, and it now has to me the same familiar air that Troy and Bethlehem will always hereafter have to me. I was glad to meet the Thurston s, and spent a very pleasant day with them in Cologne and another on the Rhine." "I have had much to do here, and some of my work has been hard and tiresome. But I have learned much also, and have had the opportunity to pick up much valuable information. "I am a very poor student in the matter of German and cannot yet speak it at all." " They have a man here who is always with me and he now has a very good idea of the machine. But he is, as is the rule of Germans, sometimes stubborn and sometimes stupidly stubborn, as only Germans can be. "Mr. Lauth had represented to these people that the machine (which is a new invention) was able to do much more than has been heretofore possible. I have had to make many experiments and improve it in many respects to make it fulfill their require- ments. "The director of the company, a Mr. Dickerhoff, has been extremely kind and liberal in his bearing toward me, but some of the subordinate officers have annoyed me very much with telling lies. I have not deigned to take the least notice of them, but will review these things when I make my final report. 62 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Mr. Dickerhoff 's uniform civility and patience makes me admire him very much." "Here it is October, and I never dreamed of being here later than September 1st. The work has been done exceedingly slow. Work here is always done with a good deal of fuss, while very little is done. In fact, the main object in life with these people is com- fort and uniform comfort. They eat and drink from morning till night. They have more working hours, but lose so much time during work eating and drinking, that I am sure they do not half the work that an American would do in shorter hours. I thought this wasting of time was only amongst the workmen; but a few days since I had some drawing to do, and fixed up a board in a vacant room near by, and I was surprised to find that each clerk had a bottle of beer stuck in some hole in the room; and would slip in once or twice during the morning and drink a glass of beer and eat sandwiches. The head clerk himself w^as one of the crowd. Funny to see the bold face some of them would put on and the celerity with which they would slip the bottle in its hole when they heard footsteps. But while these things seem small, there are probably other ways in which the workmen are better than ours. The general manager is an excellent man." "I have been making a little trip through some of the important German cities, leaving the machine in the hands of the workmen. Although I have seen much that is interesting on this trip it has been a sort of bore. I am coming more and more to find LAYING FOUNDATIONS 63 no interest even in the most interesting things, unless I can have some company that would be interested with me. Leipzig, where I now am, is a great uni- versity town, as you probably know already, and is the publishing place for Germany and in fact, largely for Europe. The Tauchnitz edition of books is pub- lished here." "I am disappointed in Paris. All its finery and gorgeousness etc., etc., with a few exceptions, are of the ballet type. 'Tis unquestionably the city of vice, but vice without the coarseness it has m other cities. Of course I am often cheated, m con- sequence of not being able to speak French." "Since my arrival in London I have done nothing but order some clothes. My passage across the Channel made me very sick and I have slept nearly all day. I go to-morrow to Manchester to see ma- chinery, etc., and hope to sail the next day. In my anxiety to get off home I am almost constrained to leave undone things for which I know I should be afterward sorry." His trip was now ended. The work he had un- dertaken was very difficult, but he went at it bravely and put it through. He had learned much of life, had seen the Old World, and was glad to be back in America. An incident of his work in Germany was described by Tompkins twenty-five years later. It illustrates 64 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH his resourcefulness and skill as a workman at that early period and his tenacious memory in later years of events long past. The incident had not impressed him at the time as worth relating. THE BROKEN BOLT "Sometimes an incident which seems insignificant has a touch of something which particularly appeals to humanity, while again some of our best efforts seem to fall flat in the presence of humanity. "While I was in Germany setting up machinery for the Bethlehem Iron Company, or in which the Bethlehem Iron Company had patent interest, a little incident occurred upon which I laid no stress what- ever and which in reality was a very small matter, and yet the story of it seems to have travelled the world over. As all stories do when they travel, this one has been magnified, but the sentimental feature has always remained in it. "There was a big engine in the rolling mill in which I was working which operated considerable of the machinery in the mill. It was probably an engine of 1,000 or 2,000 H. P., possibly more. It was set up on a cut stone foundation. The foundation was about 10 feet deep, and there was a surrounding wall built to make a space down to the bottom of the foundation. The foundation bolts went through lugs on the two plates, then down through a hole which was about 4 inches round drilled into the stone. At the bottom there was a pocket through which the nut, or key, at the bottom of the bolt could be put in place. These foundation bolts were 8 or 10 feet long and 2| or 3 inches in diameter. One day one of them broke about the middle. The engine LAYING FOUNDATIONS 65 was a heavy one, and they were afraid to run it without this bolt. The top end, of course, was easily pulled out. The construction of the foundation with the pocket at the bottom had been made in a way to get the nut out easily, but when it came to lifting the 4 or 5 feet of 2j inch metal out of the hole, everybody was balked. Attempts were made to shove it up from below by putting short pieces of metal under it one after another, but they never could get it up more than one or two pieces of the metal high. They fished for it from above with nooses made of wire, they tried to make long-handled tongs to reach it from the top, but they could not make these hold. The management was getting im- patient and intolerant. The general manager rarely came into the mill, but he finally came to take a look at a trouble which had already kept the mill standing a day, causing a large number of men to be thrown out of employment. Coming by my mill, which was running, the manager chatted pleasantly, telling me about the difficulty they were having with the big engine. He started over toward it, but turned and came back to where I was working, and asked me to give my tongs to the helper and come and see if I could not suggest some way to get the bolt out of the hole. I told him he had good men there already, but he insisted, and I went over. When I got there, a happy idea came quickly to my mind. I asked if they had the top end of the bolt which they had already pulled out; they answered *Yes,' and I told them then to get a piece of ^ inch pipe and bring the top piece of the bolt and the pipe to the blacksmith shop. I heated the pipe, belled out the end of it a little, swaged it a little to make it a little too small to go on the bolt. Then every- 66 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH body saw what was going to be done. I took the pipe into the mill, stuck the end of it in a heating fur- nace, called for a bucket of water, let the pipe down through the hole, and drove it hard over the end of the bolt, then I poured the bucket of water on it. The shrinkage clamped the pipe so tightly on to the bolt that after the two had been pulled up together they could not be separated except by splitting the pipe. The thing that seemed to me at that time of more consequence than the operation was the prompt assumption of the credit of the whole thing by the general manager. He did not undertake to take any credit away from me, but he said and repeated and re-repeated that everybody was most stupid not to have gone for the American immediately; that he really believed, if he had not come out and thought of the American himself, that none of them ever would have thought about him. He said that everybody knew an American could do anything, and thought it was a strange thing that they wasted so much time, when an American was so available. "The story got into the papers in a maudlin sort of way, and it seemed to make a catchy story. It came to this country, and was circulated in the Northern States, where manufacturing at that time was mostly done. One paper had it that it had be- come necessary to get one of the anchorage bolts of the Brooklyn Bridge out of the foundation, and that I had done it, and got $10,000 for it, although it was only a few minutes' work. Of course this was a version made by the writer, to make the story more interesting and to make it locally applicable. "On a recent trip to New York a gentleman in the LAYING FOUNDATIONS 67 Waldorf-Astoria Hotel remarked that he had just heard a story about me, and related the story based upon the above incident. Thus after so many years the story seems to circulate, because people seem to like something about it which I don't see." CHAPTER V STUDYING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS THE OLD INDUSTRIAL SOUTH D. A. TOMPKINS, ENGINEER, CHARLOTTE, N. C. ON HIS return from Germany Tompkins was strongly tempted to remain in Bethlehem. Absence had intensified his popularity and magnified his usefulness. His return was a signal for universal manifestations of regard. The City Council chose him as a Burgess to fill a vacancy, the Democratic Club elected him President, Fritz urged him to accept his old position in the mills. To others his prospects seemed bright and full of promise, but not to him; for he felt within himself longings that could not be satisfied and powers that could not be developed in Bethlehem. His heart was in the South. Memories of early life, family love, devotion to the land of his birth, had been strengthened and intensified by absence and by work in new industries. His feelings were not dis- played in public but were known to liis intimate friends. "He was with all his heart devoted to the South," writes H. B. Binsse, a collegemate and fellow worker, "and from the first wished to work and live there. While at Bethlehem he determined to de- vote his life to development of the South, and he con- sistently aimed in that direction. He was offered to my knowledge an excellent position in Chicago, which he refused for this reason.'' STUDYING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 69 As soon as it was known that Tompkins would leave Bethlehem, offers of employment came to him from all quarters, from Holley and the Lauths, from former collegemates at the institute, from manufac- turing establishments in Philadelphia and Chicago, from engineering enterprises in Tennessee, Alabama, Kansas, and INIissouri. Everybody that knew him was desiring his services or recommending him to others. It is significant of his deep though silent emotional nature that he carefully filed and pre- served until his death all the correspondence of this period, precious testimony to the high esteem which had been earned by his life and work in Troy and Bethlehem. Resisting all temptations to live and work in the North, Tompkins now devoted himself for a year to the study of Southern industrial history and the inspection of Southern industrial conditions. He visited all the centres of new industrial activities in the South and carefully studied local conditions. Fifteen years before he had gone North to college with despondent feelings about the future of the South. He shared the prevailing belief that South- ern industrial inferiority was the natural result of climate, a belief which was not likely to be changed by residence in the North and work in Northern mills and shops and factories. Among thousands of Southern youths who after the Civil War sought education or employment or professional careers in Northern States, few returned to their native land. They saw everywhere in the North increasing wealth and power, while the stricken and impoverished South offered a vision of perpetual poverty. But the clearer insight of Tompkins looked through this dismal prospect, and discovered in the earlier 70 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH history of the South an industrial development which gave hope not only of future revival but possibly of greater expansion. His study of Southern in- dustrial conditions filled him with enthusiasm. "When I left South Carolina to go North," said he, "I thought I was leaving a country which had never had any important manufactures. Later, when I was in the middle of industrial life in the North, I conceived the idea of writing an industrial history of the United States. To my amazement I found that the agricultural South, from which I had come in a spirit of industrial despair, was the cradle of manufactures in the United States. "The industrial development of the South was as much advanced a hundred years ago as that of any other part of the Union. The census of 1810 shows that the manufactured products of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia exceeded in variety and value those of all the New England States taken together. There were more homespun cotton manufactures in Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia than in the thirteen other states and territories; more flax in Virginia than in any other state. Prior to 1812 Southern manufactures were in the line of household arts. These manufactures were generalized and dispersed, not localized and integrated; the aggregate was considerable. "In the Piedmont region of the Carolinas many charcoal blast furnaces were in operation a century ago. Cotton mills now operated by water power are on sites which were formerly occupied by Catlin forges, rolling mills, cotton factories, and other manu- facturing plants. At these forges and rolling mills were made bars, nails, plow^shares, and other products. One product was a special metal for rifle barrels. STUDYING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 71 There were notable gunmakers in the Piedmont region in the time of these forges and rolling mills; and they required an extra good quality of metal for their rifles. These gun-makers supplied to the home people and to the frontiersmen of Tennessee and Kentucky most of the rifles which played such a part in frontier life, and were such a factor in the early development of American civilization. I have seen a copy of a contract in accordance with which the entire machinery equipment for a cotton mill was constructed in a machine shop at Lincolnton, N. C, in 1813. "When the Union was formed and a nation was organized, the order of the states in population and wealth was, Virginia first, Pennsylvania second. North Carolina third. In enterprise and develop ment the South surpassed all other parts of the Union. The institution of slavery changed the rela- tive position of North and South, the institution of slavery — not the negro — but the institution. The negro has never been in the way of industrial prog- ress as much as the Indian was originally. But the institution of slavery had a tremendous adverse influence; and this would have been the same if the slaves had been white instead of colored. "The Southern States prospered before slavery became the dominant influence. The prosperity before that time was a prosperity of manufactures, commerce, and agriculture. As slavery grew in importance and influence, manufactures and com- merce declined. The invention of the cotton gin emphasized the importance and profit of cotton culture with slave labor. The South became a country exclusively devoted to the production of staple crops: tobacco, rice, cotton, and sugar — all 72 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH with slave labor. The free white mechanics were driven to the Northwest. My own grandfather owned and operated a carriage factory, which, for lack of white mechanics, he finally abandoned in favor of cotton production with negro slave labor. "Those who advocated slavery were interested in the extension of the system to the Southwest. The system founded upon agriculture with slave labor alone necessarily fell. From the time that slavery became the dominant influence the South made very little progress. From 1830 to 1860 South Carolina and North Carolina practically stood still ; then wealth fell into the hands of fewer people, general development ceased, resources were neg- lected, migration was large and constant both to the central Northwest by white laborers and to the Southwest by slave owners with their slaves. As far as the character of the people and the resources of the country were concerned, the industrial prog- ress of the Piedmont Carolinas should have been parallel with that of Pennsylvania." That the South was capable of industrial develop- ment was shown by its industrial activity during the Civil War. Cut off from the outside world and stirred by the stimulus of a great war it exhibited mechanical skill and inventions of a high order, great in number, variety, ingenuity, and utility. Every plantation, every farm, almost every cabin became a mill, a factory, or a little workshop. By the close of the war the South was producing not only its food supplies, clothing, house furnishings, farming tools, and machinery but also its military and naval weapons and equipment. The rebel ram was the forerunner of the modern battle ship. The subma- rine was a rebel invention. STUDYING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 73 But at the end of the war the high price of cotton and the ease of cotton culture again diverted the energies of the South from manufactures, and concen- trated them almost with magical quickness upon the sole business of cotton growing. Homespun industries, recently nourished by the necessities of war, now decayed like mushrooms. Forges, car- penter shops, tanneries, and the like small industries formerly existing on large plantations, were now in ruins, abandoned for cotton fields. Looms and spindles, recently humming in every cabin, were now idle rubbish, except in the cabins of poor whites where they lingered obstinately for another genera- tion. Even long-established agricultural industries fell into neglect and contempt. Horses and cattle, hogs and sheep, hay and oats, commeal and flour were no longer regarded as necessary products of the plantation. Nothing was grown on the plantation that could be purchased elsewhere. A big crop of cotton would buy whatever was needed. If the sale of the crop at the end of the year failed to pay the store accounts, it would at least start a new credit for the new year. Cotton was king — white cotton, shining in the big white fields. The passion for raising cotton became almost a craze. Its victims were not only the big planters but small farmers, poor white tenants, and ragged negro hirelings. Everything else was imported from the North: food, clothing, tools, machinery, horses, hay, oats, pork, beef, flour, meal, cheese, butter, condensed milk, even fried potatoes, in boxes and barrels, cooked and ready for the table. Com- mission merchants in the cities and retail merchants in the towns held in mortgage practically the entire South. Interest, compounded and recompounded. 74 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH rolled up an ever-increasing aggregrate of debt. Everybody was staggering under the load; and every- body^ kept on raising cotton — enormous crops of cotton, increasing in size but not in value. Prices were falling below the cost of production. Amid the general feeling of despair and the im- minence of bankruptcy there was a saving sense of humor. People smiled at their own follies and mis- fortunes. Popular orators and writers burlesqued the prevailing industrial madness; and with fine humor sought to laugh the South into industrial sanity. The eloquent Grady pictured this folly in his description of a Georgia funeral. The descrip- tion was so pleasing to Tompkins that it became a part of his mental furniture, and he never failed to quote it when occasion permitted. Said Grady: "I attended a funeral once in Pickens County, Georgia. It was a poor *one gallus' fellow. They buried him in the midst of a marble quarry; they cut through solid marble to make his grave; and yet a little tombstone they put above him was from Ver- mont. They buried him in the heart of a pine forest, and the pine coffin was imported from Cincinnati. They buried him within touch of an iron mine, and yet the nails in his coffin and the iron in the shovel that dug his grave were imported from Pittsburgh. They buried him by the side of the best sheep-grazing country on the earth, and yet the wool in the coffin bands and the coffin bands themselves were imported from the North. The South didn't furnish a thing on earth for that funeral but tlie corpse and the hole in the ground. There they put him away, and the clods rattled down on his coffin, and they buried him in a New York coat and a Boston pair of shoes and a pair of breeches from Chicago and a shirt from STUDYING INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS 75 Cincinnati, leaving him nothing to carry into the next world with him, to remind him of the country in which he lived and for which he fought four years, but the chill of blood in his veins and the marrow in his bones." Southern literature of the period just before and just after the Civil War abounds in similar pictures and similar appeals to Southern interest and South- ern pride. Henry A. Wise of Virginia, Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky, Hinton R. Helper of North Carolina were zealous and unceasing in efforts to stem the torrent of cotton madness. One of the wisest, thriftiest, and most prudent planters of North Carolina, the Hon. Paul C. Cameron, of Orange County, made an earnest appeal to his fellow farmers for reform in industrial aims and methods: "I know not when I have been more humiliated, as a North Carolina farmer, than when a few weeks ago at a railroad depot, at the very doors of our state capitol, I saw wagons drawn by Kentucky mules laden with Northern hay, for the supply not only of the town, but to be taken to the country. Such a sight at the capitol of a state whose population is almost ex- clusively devoted to agriculture is a most humiliat- ing exhibition. Let us cease to use everything, so far as practicable, that is not the product of our own soil and workshops — not an axe, nor a broom, nor bucket from Connecticut. By every consideration of self- preservation we are called to make better efforts to expel the Northern grocer from the state with his butter, and the Ohio and Kentucky horse, mule, and hog drover — from our county at least.'* In the midst of this industrial depression, when cotton culture seemed likely to ruin the South, Tompkins decided, after a careful survey of the 76 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Southern industrial field, to devote his life to the promotion of cotton manufacturing industries and the diversification of Southern agriculture. On March 31, 1882, he located in Charlotte, North Carolina, the centre of the Carolina Piedmont region, and hung out his sign : D. A. TOMPKINS, ENGINEER, MACHINIST, AND CONTRACTOR CHAPTER VI THE CAROLINA PIEDMONT THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH THE selection of Charlotte as his home and the base of his industrial operations was eminently wise and fortunate. There is no region in the Southern States better adapted to manu- facturing industries than the Carolina Piedmont. Its water power is large and constant. The annual rain- fall is more than sixty inches. " No other area on this continent," says Professor Shaler, "contams as numerous streams of constant flow." The elevation ranges from 500 to 1,000 feet, moderating the heat of summer, while the latitude produces mild and equable winters. Its varied scenery presents to the eye one of the fairest sights in America. The population of the Carolina Piedmont is mamly of English, German, and Scotch-Irish stock, a hardy, self-reliant, and liberty-loving folk. WTiile very conservative and slow to change, clmgmg tenaciously to ideals and institutions inherited from their an- cestors, they are not dull nor indifferent to the logic of events, but observant, intelligent, and quick- witted. This population is less affected by immigra- tion than any other of similar size in the United States. It is almost entirely native, less than one per cent, being foreign born. The soil and climate of the Piedmont district are well-adapted to small grams, fruits, clover. 77 78 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH grasses, cattle, and poultry. At this period, however, the chief industry was the culture of cotton and to- bacco. Adjacent to the Piedmont district on the east is the Atlantic Coastal Plain, devoted at that time exclusively to cotton culture. On the west is the vast Appalachian mountain region, peopled by the same sturdy stock, as yet scarcely connected with the outside world, and by long isolation from it kept in a backward state of primitive and anti- quated agriculture. This mountain population sup- plied an overflowing reservoir of strong and sturdy humanity, ready for migration and employment elsewhere. To the centre of this great Piedmont region and into the midst of its strong, sturdy, and as yet un- progressive population came D. A. Tompkins, in- dustrial missionary and apostle of the New South. He entered upon his work with a kit of tools, a brave and honest heart, a firm faith in himself and in the future of the South. "When I went to Charlotte," he wrote in his memoirs, *'I asked nobody any favors. I was a machinist. I looked out for my own work, did each job that came my way the best I could, and this was generally better than my customer or employer expected — kept at work, and kept cheerful. "Whenever opportunity presented, I endeavored to point out the future possibilities of Charlotte and the South generally. All I ever said about those possibilities has come true and been exceeded. "In 1882 I advocated building a cottonseed oil mill. In 1884 I advocated building cotton mills. My 'optimistic talk' met with little or no favor. Meanwhile, I always kept at work." BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 79 WTiile slight attention was paid to Tompkins' optimistic talk, there were many who observed his work. His reputation for skill, honesty, and effi- ciency grew rapidly, extending beyond the limits of the city and county. His circle of friends and patrons was steadily enlarging. His friends in the North were watching his career. They believed that a new force was entering the industrial life of the South. The Westinghouse Comp any of Pittsburgh offer ed ItLm tht^ aM'<^liOV tor the sal e of the West inghouse engme!^ Tlifii uITti was aiiCepted, for it fitted in with "Bis purpose to engage in the sale of power-producing and power-economizing machinery: engines, boilers, gins, compresses, saw-mills, and the like. The agency gave promise of growth, but success w^as not easy; for prejudice, ignorance, and stubborn conservatism stood always in his path. He entered at once upon extensive correspondence, seeking customers through- out the Carolinas and adjacent states. He adver- tised freely by circulars and newspapers, and travelled extensively. Extracts from his diary and from letters to relatives show that he was not idle nor de- spondent nor asleep to opportunities, but always full of hopeful philosophy, observing character and study- ing industrial conditions. "I am just back from a trip trying to make con- tract to put in a 40 H. P. engine for some parties up the country. After the most earnest effort I did not get the contract; and it seems really hard. I offered to put in the whole thing much cheaper than any one else, and yet lost the contract. I don't think this signifies any serious lack of confidence in me or in my machine, but is only the difficulty of a new man and a new house and a new engine." 80 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "To-morrow I will go to Shelby, 50 miles west of here, and then about 25 miles farther on horseback to see a man who wants an engine. After that I will return, and then go to Yorkville in South Caro- lina, and then I will return, and will then go to Ander- son and Newberry in South Carolina. If I once get on my feet here, I will not have this running about to do, but will get a man to do it, and I will stay in Charlotte, except perhaps for a very occasional trip." "A great deal of interest is excited in my engine; but every purchaser wants someone else to try it first. I have ordered a small one sent from Pitts- burgh ; and I shall put it up in the gas works, and let it do their work, just to show that it will do what we represent." "The other machine companies are doing every- thing they can to keep me out of contracts; and, al- though I bid lower than any of them on this last contract, they put their bids right down to my figures to beat me. I will put some engines in soon in spite of opposition; and, once started, I feel sure the work will be easy." "I sold a 55 H. P. a few days ago to the cotton- seed oil mill now being built in Charlotte, and got $1,025 for it. I will make about $80 on it. The price was $1,100; but I had severe competition, and I had to cut down my profit. The big machinery takes so long to deliver and set up. I don't collect BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 81 a cent until I get some machinery running. It will take to August 1st to start this last engine." "Have just returned from a trip South. I sold two engines, and the prospect seems to be very fair for good work later. I shall put these two up. In one case the only specification made by the planter was that I might make my own selection of what he required; but he must have on his engine *a big whistle," "Rock Hill. I sold a large engine here a few days ago to the cotton factory, and we are putting it up. If it goes all right, it will be a splendid thing for me, both because it is a good sale and because of the fact it will be well known and a good reference. This is a small town 25 miles below Charlotte, which has a cotton factory and is growing, as in fact all towns in this community are. I am discussing with the Clifton factory near Spartanburg another sale of large engine." "Yesterday I started up the oil mill engine which was 65 H. P. It ran nicely and well." "I have been on a long trip into Stanley County; and if I went near a P. O. I do not know it. For miles I saw men and women without a sign of shoes, and passed several of the famous N. C. illicit whiskey dis- tilleries. A negro drove me, and if I asked a white man if any whiskey could be bought, he would promptly 82 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH answer *No.' The negro would then assure him I was no revenue officer, but an 'Engine man'; then the fellow would not be so sure but we might find some if we tried. I asked one red-faced country- man if there was much profit in distilling, and he said there was. 'Did you ever distill any.'*' I asked. *0h, yes,' he said. 'Made money, I suppose.'*' *No.' *Why, you said there was good profit in it — how was it you made no money.'*' As solemn as a judge, he answered, 'I drinked up the profit, and more, too, and had to quit'." " I am doing a good deal of moving about. I have been two days in Robeson County putting up an engine." "For a couple of days I have been in Rome, Ga. I sold a large engine to Mr. Hammett of the Pied- mont Company in South Carolina, and think I may sell an engine here later in the season." "I am now in a very critical period of my business here. I had not a large capital and thought best not to employ help until I got a start and some in- come. That has proved a good thing — for it has taken about this much time to get advertised, and I am just now beginning to get real busy." His business was now large and growing rapidly. He had built it up by himself. He was travelling salesman, local salesman, bookkeeper, mechanic. BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 83 and machinist. He found customers, sold machines, and set up the machinery. The time was now come for larger organization. Looking over the city for a partner, he made a selection creditable to his judg- ment and reputation. For two years he had occupied a large storeroom jointly with R. M. Miller, Sr., a cotton commission merchant of character, credit, and business capacity, a strong, conservative, upright man, representing the traditions of the Old South. A partnership was formed under the firm name of D. A. Tompkins & Company, with R. M. Miller, Sr., president, R. M. Miller, Jr., secretary and treasurer and D. A. Tompkins, engineer. The company be- came general agents of the Westinghouse Electric Company and the Westinghouse Machine Company for their southeast territory. Tompkins was now rapidly establishing a reputa- tion, not only as a successful engineer, machinist, and business man, but also as a student of industrial forces and an authority on industrial matters. He was beginning to be recognized as a new and strong force in the industrial life of Charlotte. Industrial promoters, writers, and students sought him out for instruction and inspiration. The editor of the Baltimore Manufacturers^ Record, who at this time was passing through Charlotte on one of his annual Southern industrial tours, wrote for the Record an account of his first meeting with Tompkins: "'Have you met D. A. Tompkins.^' were almost the first words spoken to me on a visit to Charlotte by R. M. Miller, Sr., a leading business man of that town. *He is a remarkable young man, and I have been so much impressed with him that I have joined liim in the establishment of a firm, with the view to backing his work with whatever influence my name 84 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH may be worth.'" An interview followed between Tompkins and Edmonds wherein Tompkins was revealed to Edmonds as a close observer, a clear and profound thinker, and a farsighted prophet of the industrial South. His analysis of present con- ditions, his interpretation of the Old South passing into the New% and his vision of its great future were so clear, so striking, and so inspiring that Edmonds urged him to publish his views for the guidance and inspiration of Southern workers. The result was the following article, which in the light of the South's subsequent development seems almost a prophetic vision : SOUTHERN PROSPERITY "The South is in a state of change. A condition of civilization which grew upon the basis of the in- stitution of slavery is dying and fading away. A condition of civilization based upon the new condi- tions imposed by the results of the late war has com- menced to grow, and its growth is healthy and vigor- ous. "There are tenacious people of fine education w^ho are living in the dying conditions of ante-bellum life, some by obstinate preference, some of necessity. These constitute the Old South. They are, as a rule, growing poorer day by day, and will continue to grow poorer, until the most tenacious of them pass out of life; and w^ith them will go the system to which they persist in adhering. "The people who have adapted themselves to the new conditions imposed by the results of the Civil War constitute what we are beginning to hear called the New South. They have divorced from BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 85 their minds the idea that for a Southern man there is no occupation but raising cotton with negro labor, and that free negro labor constitutes a curse to a country. "The New South finds within the South unlimited raw material from which products required by the whole world may be produced. The New South finds that the conditions which surround these vast resources in raw material are such that only energy and good judgment are required to produce many articles of commerce cheaper and better in the South than can be done in any other country in the world. "The New South is of healthy growth. It is already a young giant. It is absorbing the assets of the old, and adding to them at the same time by turning the raw material of the country, heretofore mostly untouched, into products from the sale of which come handsome profits. "In the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina cotton factories are springing up quietly but with a rapidity equalled nowhere in the United States in any industry, except by that of iron-making in Alabama and Tennessee. "While the opportunities of an iron maker in the South are excellent, it may admit of argument whether there are not many places in Pennsylvania or Ohio where they are as good, or better; but the superior advantages enjoyed by a cotton spinner operating in the South are conspicuous. Much cotton is now being spun in the South which comes direct from the field to a gin which is part of the equip- ment of the factory. This cotton is free from in- numerable little losses to which cotton shipped to the New England States, or abroad, is liable, in the way of sampling, cost of freight, damage by careless 86 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH handling in the mud, and otherwise, at railway sta- tions, etc. The profits of Southern mills are evidence of these advantages. *'The only difficulty experienced so far in the de- velopment of the industry of cotton spinning in the South has been the lack of experience of proprietors and operatives. By the energy of enterprising men, this difficulty is being rapidly overcome. The late E. M. Holt, of Alamance County, N. C, was a pioneer. He was eminently successful in his efforts to operate machinery for spinning and weaving cotton. His sons seem to have inherited his energy and his enterprise, and each of them is largely in- terested in factories that have been established either by their father or themselves. "In the same county Messrs. Scott, Donnell & Scott have demonstrated that a small factory may be as successful as a large one if it is handled with the same care and judgment. The junior member of the firm, Mr. John Scott, has taken hold of the work of the factory in a manner and with a success that make him a worthy example to other young Southerners whose businesses furnish neither sufficient occupation nor profit to satisfy them. He is neither afraid to work nor to be seen working. "All along the Piedmont belt there are men who have attained to such success as entitles them to dis- tinction. Notable amongst them may be men- tioned D. W. Gates, superintendent of the Charlotte (N. C.) Cotton Mills, and R. Y. McAlden, of Char- lotte, founder and proprietor of the factories at McAdenville. Both by handsome profits have in- creased the investments which were originally made at the factories they manage. "In Randolph County, on Deep River, there are BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 87 factories in quick succession, as we travel down the river — at Randleman, Naomi Falls, Worthville, Frankl^Titon, and many others. Amongst the men who have contributed to the growth of these enterprises are John H. Ferree, T. C. Worth, and Hugh Parks. "On the other side of the line of the R. & D. R. R. and in the same locality are the twan towns of Salem and Winston; and here we find many men of enter- prise and much diversit}^ of industrial pursuit. It is not to spinning cotton alone they give their atten- tion. Messrs. F. &. H. Fries make an excellent cloth, and the neat suits of clothes they wear are made of cloth which is spun and woven in factories which they themselves have built and are actively engaged in managing. At this place also is a large interest in the manufacture of tobacco; and numerous fac- tories have grown up in a few years. Haynes, Brown, Vaughn, and others have built large tobacco factories, and they utilize negro labor, and have found it profitable. Durham is another point where enter- prising people have turned raw material into valua- ble product, and have created wealth out of what was formerly left by their forefathers as worthless. From Durham and Winston shipments of manufactured tobacco are made to all parts of the world. Tobacco alone is not the only manufactured product that goes out of Durham — cotton and wool are spun there, and in these latter enterprises J. M. Odell, of Concord, has interest, as well as the interests he has at his home in Cabarrus County. "C. E. Hege, of Salem, is turning North Carolina pine wood into sawmills, which are being shipped to all parts of the United States, and in return there- for other products are coming into North Carolina. W. S. Liddell, of Charlotte, has within ten years 88 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH built up a machine shop the total value of which is so much addition to the wealth of the states. He ships cotton presses throughout the South, and his cotton presses, sawmills, in fact most of his products are simply North Carolina raw material turned into finished and marketable machines. "One of the neatest strokes of enterprise anywhere in the South was that of E. D. Latta, of Charlotte, in establishing about two years ago a factory for the manufacture of ready-made pants out of cloths woven mostly in North Carolina. His shipments are to Northern points as well as to Southern, and his factory would be a valuable addition to the enter- prises of any town North or South. "The above cursory references are far from giving an adequate idea of the extent to which North Caro- linians are utilizing the raw materials of the State, and producing therefrom with North Carolina labor products the sale of which is making the State rich. "The gold-mining interest is no small one; and at Charlotte the Mecklenburg Iron Works, a large machine shop, is kept largely occupied with the equipments of machinery for gold mines and the re- pairs connected therewith. "In the western part of the State marble of fine quality is quarried ; mica is mined in very large quan- tities. The mountain regions are becoming well- known and popular summer and winter resorts, not for the people of the State and the South, but for the whole United States. "It is pleasing to note the diversity of enterprise, as exampled in the spoke and handle factories at Greensboro, the shuttle and shuttle block factories at High Point, in the preparation of barrel, stave, and spoke and felloe stock at Lexington and Thomas- BEGINNINGS OF THE NE\Y SOUTH 89 ville. There are in operation in North Carolina more than 275,000 spindles; and the factories belong to and are operated by North Carolinians; and the number of their spindles is increasing. "It was the intention in this article to speak more particularly of North Carolina, but, leaving the State and keeping mainly within the Piedmont belt, we find at Clifton, S. C, splendid properties under the management of D. E. Converse, and to his credit it may be said they are properties founded and built up under his management. "Thirty miles farther westward is Greenville and Col. H. P. Hammett — with his Camperdown Mills and his Piedmont Mills and other properties, and he pays to his stockholders dividends, whether times are good or w^hether they are bad. "Atlanta is full of enterprises and enterprising men, and the growth of that city is a fair example of the results of Southern raw material and Southern labor combined. Here, too, the diversity of enter- prise is marked. Here it is possible to contract for the products of cotton or cottonseed. Here are the headquarters of marble companies supplying marble as fine as the Italian stone. Granite is sup- plied for paving the streets of cities to the north and west. Here are manufactured cotton gins, steam engines, and various machines used in the prep- aration of cotton for the market. In Macon, J. F. Hanson is the successful manager of two splendidly equipped cotton factories; and at Columbus there are the Eagle and Phoenix Mills, than which none in Massachusetts has been more successful. "In Alabama, O. O. Nelson, of Montgomery, and George O. Baker, of Selma, have been foremost in the development of the new industry of crush- 90 A BUILDER OF THE NEAY SOUTH ing cottonseed for its products. And in connection with the growth of the iron interest the names of Doctor Caldwell of Birmingham, and A. H. Moses of Sheffield, are more than well known in connection with the growth of two cities and the marvellous multiplication of the original dollars invested by the corporations of which they are the heads. Both these gentlemen undertook the management of the affairs of the companies they now represent at a time when prospects did not look bright, and when the stock of the respective companies was not par- ticularly marketable. Under their management the properties they control have increased in value more than any other properties in the United States have ever been known to do before. While these places stand conspicuous for their growth from almost nothing to marvellous wealth, other places have grown also, and other men in lesser degrees have done excellent work in Chattanooga, Anniston, South Pittsburg, etc., etc. "With all this improvement and marvellous prog- ress how is it that we now and then see in a well- written public journal that the South is growing poorer? It is because the editor lives amongst people who have not yet consented to give up ante- bellum ways and ideas. Many a man who formerly owned a hundred slaves and lived handsomely on a plantation is maintaining a slipshod semblance of the same sort of life, and is trying to raise cotton with free labor as he raised it with slave labor. He honestly believes he cannot afford to pay a negro laborer any except the most meagre wages, because he don't earn any more, and the negro in his turn is indifferent about whether he works or not, because he is so ill paid. The truth of the matter is that the BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 9i average ante-bellum slave owner is a poor manager of free negro labor. Each year the labor is leaving the plantations and farms, and is being engaged in the new industrial pursuits. "There are plantations within the writer's knowl- edge on which the amount of labor formerly em- ployed was not less than fifty able-bodied hands, and on which to-day there is not a real first-rate hand, but only some half-dozen indifferent workers, and yet the families who own the places are still trying to maintain the appearances of the life they led when the place swarmed with slaves. They are growing poorer, of course, but an energetic man with a taste for farming could take the same place and make good wages and 50 per cent, per annum on the money value of the place, and that raising cotton, too, at 8 cents per pound. But to do it he would have to take the first row himself, and pay fair wages to a good hand to take the second. A large part of the white rural population in the South was formerly wealthy, and could control labor enough to support it without work. The conditions under w^hich that was possi- ble have passed away. The mineral resources and the industrial pursuits of the South have come into quick prominence. The ore and coal beds of Ala- bama have existed for centuries. To turn them into wealth was only a matter of judicious labor. "The cotton which Southern people have only lately begun to spin with such profit has been here all the while slavery existed. It would seem that where an acre of ground can be made to produce a bale of cotton worth forty to fifty dollars with no more expense nor labor than a Northwestern acre can be made to produce forty bushels of corn worth fifteen dollars, that for the farmer the South is cer- 9^2 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH tainly the promised land even more than for the cotton spinner or iron maker. If farming were done in the South with the same method and energy that the iron maker or spinner bestows upon his business, it is beyond a doubt that its fame as a rich agricul- tural country would be not one whit less splendid than it was in days of slavery. A farm laborer should be paid for a year's labor at least the sum of money that would pay for his food and clothes w^hile he was a slave, and in addition thereto a sum that would be a fair interest on the value of himself and family while slaves. *'The South stood once one of the foremost and richest agricultural countries in the world. The soil upon which she raises cotton now is the same as that upon which she raised it then. The prices ob- tained now are more than then, and the cost of labor now is less than then if the maintenance of slaves and interest on investment be taken into considera- tion. "The next Southern boom should be a farming boom. The soil of the South is as superior to that of the rest of the United States as her mineral and forest resources are. Her climate is as fine as that in which ancient Rome attained the highest of all civilizations within the knowledge of history. "The parts of the South in which the old is slowest to give way to the new are the very parts in which most success was attained under the old system. They have the most to unlearn. In the coast cities, which were formerly the centres of all the wealth, their engines are old and they abhor modern types. It is not realized that a gentleman and a mechanic may be combined in one man. It is in these regions also that the systems of farming is least changed. BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW SOUTH 93 and it is in these sections that most of the people live who are growing poorer in the South. But as the natural wealth of the other parts of the South lay for a long time untouched, but finally came quickly into notice and was rapidly developed, so we have every reason to believe that all the land formerly worked with profitable results may be worked again, and will be worked again with similar advantage. "What is said regarding the increasing poverty of the plantation Southerner is said in no spirit of re- proach. It is his misfortune to be a part of a system that is slowly but surely passing away. The labor upon which he formerly depended is gradually leav- ing him. Part of it is going West, and part is being absorbed by the cottonseed oil mills, the new rail- ways, the tobacco factories, and the various other new enterprises being brought into existence by the new spirit of enterprise, as exemplified in the history of the successes of Hammett, Moses, Gates, Carr, and others. The Southern planter created the cotton- producing industry. By means of it alone he made the South rich and powerful. The system by which his success was attained fell with the insti- tution of slavery. Entwined as our pride and affec- tions are in the old planting system and all that is associated with it, we cannot see it pass away without regret; but as we look for success in the future we must recognize the fact that new ideas of life have taken a firm hold of the South; and, to succeed and prosper, we must spin cotton, or farm, alike, in the light of the new order of things. The West never did offer the opportunity to ac- cumulate wealth in farming that is now offered to any one in the South. Rich as her other resources 94 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH are suddenly discovered to be, she was once rich as the result of farming; and it is idle to claim that there is less profit in working land by free labor than by slave labor. There would seem to be no reason why farm lands in the South to-day should not be one of the best of all the opportunities for invest- ment she is offering." This letter analyzes the South 's industrial condi- tion, and points the way of the New South — a new South of varied and intensive agriculture, of manu- factures, of educated and skilled labor, of thrift and economy — a new South turning away from the sole business of cotton culture, and utilizing in manu- facturing industries its vast and varied resources. It was a favorite belief of Tompkins that the early South, during the eighteenth century and the begin- ning of the nineteenth, had surpassed the North in commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, and that Southern superiority had been destroyed by slavery. The abolition of slavery set free the South for a career of industrial development. Tompkins saw this career already beginning; and the vision of its fulfillment fired him with enthusiasm and patriotic ambition. He became immovably fixed in the belief that the South was capable of maintaining any in- dustries and manufacturing any products that ex- isted anywhere on the globe. This belief was the keynote of his life. CHAPTER VII BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS THE first large constructive work Q fJIompkins-^ was to utilize a waste productof the cotton plantatio n^ There was no wastefulness in the Old Southmor^ costly or more conspicuous than the throwing away of cottonseed. Heaped up in piles near the cotton gins, where they had been dumped out by the ginners, thousands of tons of seed, worth millions of dollars, lay rotting in the open air, applied to no use except occasionally a very limited use as 'crude fertilizer. Year by year the seed pile would grow, until it became a small hill, forming a feature of the plantation skyline. Tomp- kins in boyhood frolics with negro companions had played hide-and-seek or fought mimic battles on the big seed piles. He was now to utilize these moun- tains of waste. The sale of an engine soon after his arrival in Charlotte was the beginning of a business connection which started him on a career to revolutionize and recreate the cottonseed industry of the South. *'I landed in Charlotte," he writes in his memoirs, "about the same time as Fred Oliver. He was a na- tive of Cohoes, N. Y., and came here from Paterson, N. J., with about $25,000 capital. He had heard of the oil in cottonseed and came here to investigate the possibilities that lay in this field. He bought the old flour mill building and converted it into a 95 96 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH cottonseed oil mill. I sold him a Westinghouse engine, and this led to an engagement to help him construct the oil mill. In another year Fred Oliver with his brothers built a large mill in Columbia; and I designed and supervised the building of the mill as an engineering proposition. Thus I became launched in the cotton oil mill business." At this time the cotton oil mill business was prac- tically monopolized by the American Cotton Oil Trust. Tompkins was quick to see that the mills of the trust were below the standard of efficiency. Nor was he slow to profit by this condition. He resolved to organize a new company for the construc- tion of new mills with new machinery. The story is graphically told by his fellow worker, Richard H. Edmonds: "In the spring of 1886 Tompkinc, on his way to New York, stopped to pay a visit to the Manu- facturers' Record office. He was going to New York to sell a cottonseed oil mill to the American Cotton Oil Co., which had recently been formed and which was then buying up nearly all existing mills. He stated that while he questioned the wis- dom of some of the purchases that company was making, he was acting for a client for the sale of an oil mill. It was, in his opinion, he said, impossible for that company to control the cotton oil trade; for modern, up-to-date mills could be constructed which in many respects would be superior to some of the mills the company was accepting. His views were so interesting that he was asked to write a series of articles for the Manufacturers' Record explaining how independent mills could be built and operated profi- tably in competition with the big combination. In a week or two article No. 1 of the series was received BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 97 and published, with the announcement that it would be followed by other chapters. After waiting a week or two for the second instalment, urgent letters and telegrams brought another visit from Tompkins. He explained that the more he had studied the matter, the more he had become impressed with the possibili- ties of a new cotton oil company. The facts which he had prepared for the proposed series of papers had been turned into a prospectus for the organiza- tion of a company which he was endeavoring to form with $2,500,000 capital." The article by Tompkins, above referred to by Edmonds, the first of a proposed series, is not only an interesting study of the Southern cotton oil in- dustry as it then existed, but also a very interesting picture of Tompkins: his plans and purposes, his methods of thought and business, his powers of ob- servation, analysis, and deduction. The article is too long to quote in full, but extracts will suffice. COTTONSEED OIL MILLS — ADVANTAGES OF NEW MACHINERY "Probably few large works have ever been con- structed with so little engineering skill and so much useless expenditure of money as the average cotton- seed oil mill; and there are probably few businesses wherein the cost of working a fixed quantity of raw material into product has been so great in proportion to what is actually accomplished as has been the case in the cottonseed oil business; but in spite of exorbitant first cost and excessive running expendi- tures, profits have, nevertheless, been large. Most of the mills built in the South were put up by a class of men known as millwrights and carpenters, who 98 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH delighted in slow-running shafting and ponderous gear wheels; and the more complex the appearance of the belting, elevators, conveyors, and so forth, the more successful the result was considered. Only one mill built up to the present time can be said to have been built with any approximation to engineering economy and results; and no question exists but what it is far short of possibilities of improved construc- tion and profitable operation. *'The best mill now running should produce prod- ucts out of one ton of seed which will sell for $4.92 more than the products produced out of the same ton by an old and unimproved mill, and for $2.15 more than the product produced out of the same ton by an old and improved mill. New designs have been made, however, by which at least one dollar per ton still further may be produced in the shape of additional product. "Besides this saving in price of product there is a similar saving in working expenses of old and new mills, so that, when a system of new mills would be running at anything near cost, the present existing mills would be running, as a system, at a loss of many thousands of dollars per day. Many operations done in the old mills by hand are done in the new and improved mills by machinery, and in a much better and cheaper manner. "Competition will, of course, alter the price of oil: but a new system of mills could stand a far greater reduction than the old ones. In fact, with new mills running on prices which left no profit, the old ones would be suffering enormous losses. "The owners of mills properly constructed could pay farmers three dollars per ton more for seed, sell oil to consumers ten cents per gallon less, and still BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 99 make fair profits, under circumstances under which old mills would run at very heavy loss. *'A large majority of existing mills are practically under one management; and it may be assumed to be one of the specific aims of that management to pre- vent the construction of any new mill, and control the production and sale of cottonseed oil. *'The locations of many old mills were determined by local influences, such as the desire of local capital- ists to build up a town, the enterprise of citizens at points not the most favorable for mills; and in many cases they are old mills constructed for other purposes and turned into oil mills, which cannot be economically adapted for the application of approved design and machinery, now possible to obtain for oil mill construction. Poorly built as the existing mills are, and badly situated as many of them also are, as above indicated, being under one manage- ment, a single mill could be forced out of competition without serious detriment to them as one organiza- tion. "But with a capital of 5 million dollars there could be built twenty mills, of one hundred to 150 tons per 24 hours capacity, each at a cost of $125,000, and still have a working capital left of $125,000 for each mill also, making it unnecessary to borrow money at the high rate of interest now prevalent throughout the South. Locations should also be selected for these mills such that freight rates both for seed and product could be reduced far below present cost to existing mills. The cash cost of existing mills has probably averaged more than four times what mills could at present be built for at equal capacity; be- sides this original cost they have been pooled into a combination on terms and conditions, which is prac- 100 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH tically the equivalent of watering the stock to an unknown extent. "It is probably fair to assume that any dividend which may be earned will be for division on a capital of 40 million dollars or over. The only ostensible property to represent this enormous capital is a lot of old mills, most of which should have been abandoned years ago, and would have been, excepl for the enormous profits in the business, and also a lot of old machinery. In fact, probably 90 per cent, of properties in the combination were fit to be put into the scrap pile when they went in. Whatever is the total capital of the combination, it represents properties taken in; and much evidence has been observed in proof of the assertion that none of it is in money. "The capital necessary to build twenty mills, as indicated, would be 2| million dollars; and with a cash capital of 5 million dollars there would be left 2 J million dollars for running capital. A company formed now would have the following advantages: a series of mills the best possible to be built in the present state of the art, all new, in the best possible location with regard to seed and freight; not a dollar in old and worthless property; ample running capital; on an average more oil per ton than the best mill now gets; seed at less cost per ton than the best mill now does; more concentrated organization; position to do the planter good instead of harm; low rate of insurance and the fact of being organized in the direc- tion of benefit for the general public as well as for the benefit of the organizers, and not to force the public to pay an exorbitant price on a product in order to pay a dividend on a fictitious capital." The ideas and plans thus outlined were carried out BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 101 with perfect success. The undertaking was gigantic, not only in magnitude but also because the conditions of fulfilment demanded immediate completion. The company was organized as the Southern Cotton Oil Company, with Henry C. Butcher, of Philadelphia, president; Frederick Oliver, of Columbia, S. C, man- ager; John Oliver, of Columbia, S. C, secretary and treasurer, and Daniel A. Tompkins, of Charlotte, N. C, engineer. The story of the work is graphic- ally told by Richard H. Edmonds. "The money was soon raised. Some of the sub- scribers of the stock were great packing interests who were afraid to let their connection be known lest they should be discriminated against by the oil mill combination, upon which they then depended for their supply. One of them publicly denied any con- nection with the company, although a large subscriber to the stock. To meet this situation and make cer- tain of providing an ample oil supply for these con- cerns, Tompkins determined that the new mills should be completed in time to crush the coming crop. It was then about March or April. Plans were put under way, draftsmen and engineers put to work to provide the drawings for eight mills to cost about $250,000 each. Sites were selected at several points in the Carolinas, Atlanta, Little Rock, and at some Texas towns. To design eight mills, to select locations at widely scattered and strategic points, to contract for buildings and machinery in April or May, and guarantee their completion by September or early October, was a task which, con- sidering the conditions in the South in 1C86 as com- pared with recent years, has not, I believe, been equalled since. During the construction period I was occasionally 102 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH in Tompkins' office, but he was too busy crowding the work to give the details. That fall his partner \ old me the story of the engineering and construction work, of the daily telegraphic reports that Tompkins got from every mill as to its exact status; and, as one mill after another was reported as completed, the message went back, "Turn on steam," and every mill moved olf in perfect working order. That was an achievement rarely equalled even in these days, when the facilities for construction work have been multiplied many times as compared with conditions in 1886. In those days it seemed that Tompkins could have nearly, if not quite, equalled Edison in his ability to work twenty hours a day and sleep four. I have sometimes wondered if during that period he really knew a home except the sleeping car, and even in a sleeping car he must have been too busy planning and working grudgingly to have yielded up many hours to sleep." This remarkable achievement was the beginning of a long career of cotton oil mill construction. It is not necessary to follow that career in detail. For twenty years as builder, designer, and investor, Tompkins promoted the cotton oil industry. As a missionary for cottonseed utilization he canvassed the South, addressing chambers of commerce, boards of trade, merchants' associations, farmers' conven- tions, legislators, capitalists, and teachers. \Mienever and wherever an audience was ready he was ready to address them. Nor did he confine himself to speeches. By means of editorials, interviews, news items, and communications he flooded the press with articles on cottonseed mills, cottonseed fertilizers, cottonseed feed, cottonseed as the basis of dairying, tender beef from cottonseed meal, cotton oil for BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 103 cooking, cotton oil for salads, and the like topics. His speeches and writings aroused interest every- where. Mills sprung up in every Southern state. Whenever sufficient interest was aroused, he was ready with plans for mill construction. If capital was lacking, he helped to raise it. If necessity re- quired, he furnished the entire capital. In some cases he aroused public interest by an address, pro- cured stockholders, effected an organization, designed plans for the mill, supervised the mill construction, furnished the machinery, and installed it in the build- ing, employed the superintendent, bought a year's supply of seed, and started off the mill — all without cost to the community. He dotted the South with oil mills. But Tompkins was not content to build mills. He was constantly making improvements in mill build- ings and mill machinery. He imparted his own en- thusiasm to the mill men, and sought to enlarge their mental horizons. His address at the annual convention of the Inter-State Cottonseed Crushers' Association at Old Point Comfort, Va., exhibits his power, his enthusiasm, his vision of the evolution of cottonseed industries, his fine perception of eco- nomic relations between allied industries. THE COTTONSEED OIL INDUSTRY "It has been for a long time a sort of fashion to charge against people of the South a want of enter- prise and energy. In many cases the credit for the very work which the South is doing is claimed by the people of some other section, and the idea put to the forward that alien money or alien talent is neces- sary for the success of a proposed enterprise. 104 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "WTiile no one has been more earnest in inviting capital to the South for profitable investment and talent for profitable employment, because of the ample room and opportunity for both, yet for the best interests of our home people and their children hereafter, it is not desirable for these to relinquish to others the foremost positions or the best oppor- tunities. "The cotton oil industry is one which has been developed, to all practical purposes, exclusively in the South and by Southern people. It is an industry in which the enterprise and energy of our home people are made manifest whenever self-reliance is one of the elements in the proposition. A people with less self-reliance and less steadiness of purpose could never have rescued civilization from the dangers that confronted it for a quarter of a century after the Civil War. In the production of the best and cheapest raw material for clothing and in such enor- mous quantities, and also in the development of such a splendid industry in producing food products out of cottonseed — the demonstration of the wonderful originality and capability of the people of the South has been made perfect. No business men in America are entitled to more credit than the cotton oil mill men. You have brought out of nothing a busiuess which you have developed into values reaching into millions. Even in the production of the crude products, oil, hulls, meal, and lint, the cottonseed industry has become one of very large proportions. "Still greater advantages will come, however, from still further development, in which knowledge and skill and industry will change values by the barrel or by the ton into values by the pint and pound. The BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 105 intensive system of agriculture is responsible for wonderful strides in that competition. By skilful and scientific manipulation an acre of ground is now made to yield three times the product of former years. The same intensive idea in steam engineering has made it possible to produce from a ton of coal three times as much power as formerly. The same intensive idea can easily wrench from a ton of cottonseed three times the present values. "How to go forward to this goal is the problem we must all keep before us. First of all, we must look to the proper construction of the machinery and the building in order to reduce the expenses. The item of insurance is excessive. The oil mills in this part of the country pay an average rate of about 3 per cent. The very best of them do not pay less than three quarters of 1 per cent., and there are not a dozen mills in this class. Cotton mills, carry- ing on a business even more hazardous, easily insure for one fifth to one quarter of 1 per cent. \Miy this differences^ It is entirely a question of construction and equipment. It is perfectly possible so to con- struct an oil mill and equip it with fire-protecting apparatus that it will insure as easily as a cotton mill. The same features of construction and manage- ment that conduce to low insurance also conduce to more cleanly premises, and hence a better grade of products. The condition of the average oil mill, as to cleanliness, is something appalling. \^Tien it is considered that practically all of the products are for food, and a large part food for man, the filthy condition of most mills is a lasting reproach, and will help keep alive the prejudice against cotton oil as an article of food. 106 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "But the greatest step toward increasing the prof- its Hes, of course, in continuing the processes to greater refinements and diversifying the products, making a more finished article for the market. The usual process of refining yields 'summer yellow.' If this process is conducted with suflficient care and skill, the result may be called 'butter oil.' If this oil be properly manipulated with other materials, a fine butter substitute may be produced and sold direct from the mills, instead of shipping the oil to Holland to be manipulated and sold from there. If the oil is properly treated, the finest salad oil may be made. This is a mere matter of skill. Ten years ago it was as diflScult to find even an ordinary refiner as it now is to find a first-class one. More attention is now being paid to our education in these lines, and it should not be long before we can find sufiScient skill to make table oils equal to those of Europe. We now export $12,000,000 worth of oil, half of which goes to France, where it is refined and manipulated to suit the palates of a population accustomed to olive oil. It ought to be and is possible to make salad oil here from cottonseed which is superior to imported olive oil, for the reason that we can al- ways have fresh cotton oil, while the imported oils must of necessity be older. The matter of freshness is, in the present state of the art, a most important one. Certain changes take place in oils with age no matter in what way they are kept. The changes are always for the worse, and tend toward rancidity. It is not impossible, however, that a way may be found to remedy even this trouble. A wide field is open for the manipulation of oil so that when it is used for cooking there will be no disagreeable odours. Great progress has been made in this line, and several BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 107 companies now claim to turn out such products. But the best of them fall far short of perfection. *'The manufacture of fine soap is an important direction to look in. A number of mills now make a crude soap from their refuse products and some make good laundry soap from refined oil. It is but a step farther to make fine toilet soap. There is a wide difference between the best laundry soap which sells at 5 cents per pound and some French toilet soaps selling at $1.50 per pound. The difference is mostly a matter of skill and knowledge, and but slightly a matter of raw material. In the manufacture of soap an important by-product is glycerine, which itself is capable of great degrees of refining, and which, if handled to the limit, would add greatly to the value of the output. It is difficult to set any limit to which the chemical end of the business may not be worked. "A much more simple branch of the business, and one w^hich we already have the skill to prosecute, is the proper disposition of the hulls and meal. Fifteen years ago hulls were burned as a fuel. Their fuel value is from 50 to 75 cents per ton, according to the price of coal in the locality. We now sell hulls as a cattle food at $5 per ton, and would consider it idiotic to burn such a valuable foodstuff. But yet we bury in the ground a large quantity of cotton- seed meal, calling it a fertilizer, when it really is a foodstuff, just as we once called hulls a fuel. There is no more denying the fact that meal will act as a fertilizer than there was, or is, that hulls will act as a fuel. But on the same reasoning we might call rose- wood a fuel, or cottonseed a fertilizer. It is a ques- tion of valuation for the purpose. On the present market the experiment stations give a fertilizer's valuation to cottonseed $10 per ton and cottonseed 108 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH meal $20, while we know that cottonseed has a value in its mill product of $20 per ton, and the experiment station valuation on meal as a foodstuff is $35 per ton. Hence it is more profitable to take meal out of the fertilizer class than it is cottonseed itself. *'In transferring meal from the fertilizer class to the foodstuff class a most curious result occurs, nothing less than the creating of a fertilizer value after feeding, which is about equal to the original fertilizing value of the meal. Mr. Edwin Lehman Johnson, of Clemson College, has made a special study of this matter, and he gives the results of some actual experiments as below. He fed five cows on cottonseed meal and hulls. Meal, 20 lbs. per day at $20 . . 20 Hulls, 80 lbs. per day at $3 . . .12 Cost of daily ration . . .32 They excreted 177 J pounds, which, when air dried, yielded 59 pounds, having a valuation of $0,297. The cost of all the feed per animal was $0,064. The fertilizer produced $0,059. Hence the animals were sustained and fattened at a daily net cost of half a cent. The value of the excreted fertilizer was 93 per cent, of the cost of the food. It is found that a steer weighing 1,000 pounds may be fed for 100 days on a daily ration of 6 pounds of meal and 24 pounds of hulls, and gain about 300 pounds in weight. If the hulls from a 10,000,000-bale cotton crop (say 4,000,000 tons of seed, besides planting seed) were used in this manner, they would feed 1,600,000 cattle for 100 days. The meal would feed 4,000,000 cattle. Thus by supplementing the hulls with some other rough forage from the farm, it is BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 109 seen that the products from one ton of seed will fatten one steer. "It is a great mistake for the Southern States to be so much in want of good beef that they bring immense trainloads from Chicago, while they have at their doors enough of the best possible feed for more than a million beef cattle. The full apprecia- tion of this condition will work wonders for the prosperity of this section. Systematic cattle feeding will induce systematic butchering, which will develop into packing houses. Packing houses diversify their products to an endless degree. We shall then have a logical plant, using cottonseed as a raw ma- terial. The beef cattle fattened on cottonseed prod- ucts will produce fertilizers for the enrichment of cotton farmers. When slaughtered, they will yield tallow and oleo, which may be mixed with cotton oil for lard compound and butter substitutes. " The cotton oil business in some degree of intensi- fied development is as important an adjunct to the farm community as a ginnery. There is room for a small plant in every cotton-producing community. It has been the fashion in the past for farmers move- ments to oppose oil mills. But it may easily be seen that a thrifty community derives great profit from the oil mill, and nothing will more quickly tend to bring about a full understanding of the matter than the extensive feeding of cattle. And this very con- dition will enhance the fertility of the soil and advance the condition of the farmer. It becomes, therefore, clear that there are ample fields open for the further development of values out of this business that are and may become auxiliary to it." After locating mills in the industrial centres of the cotton-growing states, Tompkins began a campaign 110 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH for small mills in rural districts. "There are great possibilities," said he, "for small country oil mills. They are in proximity to the raw material, and are relieved of freight rates both on the raw material and on most of their products. The oil that may be extracted from cottonseed by the processes now in use constitutes but 15 per cent, of the whole weight of the seed. Hence, if a mill can buy seed from wag- ons at its doors and sell its meal and hulls over the counter, so to speak, it has saved freight on 100 per cent, of raw material and 85 per cent, of finished product. Working on this basis, and not attempting to operate a mill larger than can supply and be sup- plied by its wagon territory, there is every hope of permanent success for country oil mills. They are analogous to the cotton mill in the heart of cheap cotton territory, manufacturing coarse goods at 10 cents per pound, where the cost of cotton at 6 cents is a large proportion of the value of the product. They have almost a prohibitive advantage, on this particular line of goods, over competitors in other districts where high prices prevail for raw material. In the entire cotton-growing area every community must have its oil mill. The big ones (60 to 300 tons capacity with refineries) and the little ones (20 to 60 tons capacity with cattle-feeding and fertilizer departments) both have ample room for operation." The crusade for cotton oil mills in rural districts was waged with his usual energy among the planters and farmers of the South by speeches, lectures, news- paper articles, and circular letters; and was attended with the usual results. The story of this work is told by himself with characteristic modesty, no hint being given of his own agency in the work. "During the last spring and summer no less than a BUILDER OF COTTON OIL MILLS 111 hundred new oil mills have sprung up, the average size being thirty tons of seed per day. Previous to this year there were about 300 mills, averaging in size about seventy tons. This year's addition is equal to 33 per cent, of the whole number of mills and 14 per cent, of the whole crushing capacity. " Prominent among the causes leading to the great increase of small mills is the increased country de- mand for cottonseed products. No business has been better advertised and none more systematically investigated and fostered by the general government and by the several State governments. Agricultural bureaus and experiment stations of each of the cotton- growing states have made exhaustive scientific and practical investigations of the products, with the result of unanimously approving of them and recom- mending them. "Fifteen years ago cotton planters were congratu- lating themselves on finding sale for cottonseed, which had hitherto been thrown away, and which had been a positive nuisance. But at that very time the oil mills had cottonseed hulls on their hands as a waste product and a nuisance. They were utilized as fuel to run the mills, but even that did not consume them all. Compared with the average price paid for coal, cottonseed hulls are worth for fuel less than $1 per ton. "During the past ten years it has been demon- strated that the real value of cottonseed hulls is as a foodstuff for cattle. As such the true value ranges from $4 to $10 per ton, according to the prevailing price of other foodstuffs. The large mills have made great efforts to promulgate this fact, and have even fed large herds of beef cattle on their own account for the purpose of utilizing the hulls and for advertis- 112 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ing their value, so that now the value of all cotton- seed products is well known in the most remote districts. "With the understanding of the uses of cotton- seed meal and hulls as foodstuff for cattle there came an increasing demand for these products from the country districts. And then the country districts began to discover that they were shipping away their cottonseed and buying back only a part of them, and paying out, counting freights and hauling, about as much as they received for the seed. Thus the idea of country mills took firm root." You would never suspect that the writer was himself the mission- ary of this campaign and the chief builder of the mills. His career as a builder of cotton oil mills was modestly credited by Tompkins to his teachers, em- ployers, and associates: "Just after I had left the South Carolina Univer- sity, General E. P. Alexander built an oil mill in Columbia, but it failed for the reason that the farm- ers would not haul their seed to market and sell them. Gen. Alexander's efforts were the first important efforts on an engineering basis; but the General was a military man and not an industrial man; and, be- sides, this was a little too early for the farmers, who had to be trained a little before they would sell their seed. "My connection with the first oil mill at Charlotte led to my undertaking other contracts, and the second mill I built was in Columbia within a block of where General Alexander's mill had been built. I think the oil mill I built at Columbia for the Oliver Brothers was the first oil mill that was ever built to engineering drawings; and the plans of it are still in use. In these plans I incorporated ideas of Alexan- BUILDER OF COTTON OIL IVflLLS 113 der, Holley, Fritz, and Westinghouse. It was more or less accidental that I was able to incorporate the ideas of four such good men; hence, the success of the first effort. "Methods which Mr. Holley had used in introduc- ing the Bessemer process served me well in develop- ing the cotton oil business. He organized a com- pany and helped raise the capital to build a steel works. Long afterward throughout the South I helped to organize companies and helped to raise the capital to build cottonseed oil mills. Through a period of twenty or twenty -five years or more I was very much occupied in introducing the cotton oil industry into new sections. "I asked my treasurer the other day how many oil mills we had built, and he said about 250, all told. This seems almost incredible, but besides the mills I built myself a number of others were built from drawings I made." The U. S. census for 1900 (Bulletin 190, by Henry G. Kittredge) strikingly emphasizes the importance and the growth of the cottonseed oil industry : "Closely allied to cotton manufacturing is the cottonseed oil industry, in which there has been a great revolution within late years in the utilization of the cottonseed, in obtaining most valuable com- mercial by-products, that were at one time allowed to go to waste with the seed in the form of manure. Cottonseed was a garbage in 1860, a fertilizer in 1870, a cattle food in 1880, a table food and many things else in 1890. "The manufacture of cottonseed oil and all of its resultant by-products furnishes one of the best ex- amples of development based upon the utilization of a waste product. Eventually the entire cottonseed 114 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH crop will be worked through the cotton oil mills, with the exception of the amount reserved for planting." This prediction is now fulfilled; its accom- plishment is due chiefly to Daniel A. Tompkins, who .. may justly be called the Father of the Southern Cotton Oil Industry. CHAPTER Vin BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS THE building of Southern cotton mills for spinning and weaving was a long-cherished purpose of Tompkins. He says in his me- moirs, "While I was yet in the North, working as machinist and draftsman in the Bethlehem Iron Works, I wrote many times to machinery builders in New England about the possibility of estabhshing cotton mills in the South. Poor as the South then was, I was impressed with the fact that she was in- dulging in cut-throat competition in the almost universal process of cotton raising. I thought that if a portion of the people could go to the manufac- turing of cotton instead of raising it, the result would be a better market for the crop and a better price. It seemed wonderful to me how wedded to one pur- suit the South had become through the institution of slavery and cheap labor. "When there was added to this the confusion and iniquity of the reconstruction period, it was more and more clear that what the South needed was for her white folks to go to work and increase their manu- factures in any way available, in order to relieve the competition of cotton production. I thought if these new principles could be introduced, the South ought to become a very prosperous country. It was be- cause of this opinion that I gave up my work in the North and went South again." 115 116 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ^\Tien Tompkins returned South the development of manufactures had already begun in many direc- tions, as indicated in his letter to the Manufacturers^ Record. Industrial plants were springing up here and there for the manufacture of cotton, iron, lumber, tobacco, and other raw material; coal and other minerals were being mined; truck farming was growing rapidly in extent and efficiency; railway and steamship lines were developing; and the banking business was extending its power and usefulness. But cotton industries, while growing steadily, did not arouse popular enthusiasm, for their influence on the popular imagination had been more depress- ing than inspiring. A cotton mill was not regarded as a desirable acquisition in the average Southern community. Aristocratic ideals of leisurely life on large plantations dominated social sentiment; and even the** poor whites" preferred a scant existence as free yeomen in the fields or woods to more lucra- tive employment in cotton mills. Their ideas of freedom were repugnant to the confinement and the continuity of work in cotton mills. Southern lead- ers generally were not hopeful of industrial progress based upon cotton industries. The overthrow of slavery seemed to foreshadow the overthrow of cotton. Although the cotton crop was steadily increasing, its value did not increase. The general despondency about cotton was so great that some writers maintained that **it was and always had been a curse to the South, and the South were well rid of it forever." Not so Tompkins. Although he had long resolved upon a career in iron, a resolution based upon natural inclination and early training in his father's black- BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 117 smith shop, a resolution strengthened and confirmed by his long apprenticeship in the Troy and Bethlehem Iron Works, yet, when he stood facing the great prob- lem of Southern development, he reasoned it out that cotton, the South 's greatest product in the past and the basis of the power of the Old South, was the natural basis upon which to build the New South of manufactures, commerce, and diversified agricul- ture. Having reached this conclusion, he gave him- self heart, soul, and body to its fulfilment. The ideas involved in it he elaborated, exemplified, illustrated, and proclaimed to the world, in a thousand ways, on a thousand occasions. He never ceased to think/ write, and talk cotton. "Cotton is king again," he declared; "Not cotton in the fields but cotton in the mills. "Not only is cotton the world's greatest plant, but the production by the South of ten million bales of cotton in one crop is the world's greatest agricul- tural achievement. "The cotton plant supplies more of the necessities of the human race than is supplied from any other single source. "Food, clothing, and shelter; these are the prime needs of mankind. We have now from the cotton plant the following: "1. For Food, — Cottonseed oil, which, when pure and well refined, is in all respects equal to olive oil, and when it contains 10 per cent, of olive oil, simply to give it a flavor, cannot be distinguished from olive oil even by experts. Cottonseed meal, as food for cattle, sheep, and many other animals; in this way it contributes to our supply of beef, mutton, milk, butter, wool, etc., etc. "2. For Clothing. — The infinite fabrics that are 118 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH made of cotton for human clothing, domestic articles, wadding for clothes, quilts, etc., etc. 3. For Shelter. — Tents, awnings, and sails of ships, roofs of houses, etc., etc." Wherever opportunity presented, he proclaimed Ihese ideas. He spoke in every Southern state to gatherings of business men, capitalists, laborers, planters, farmers, teachers, and politicians. His contributions to Southern newspapers were almost endless. With energy, enthusiasm, and ceaseless activity he waged an industrial war. He vas as tireless as a general in charge of actual war. His speech in Atlanta before the Southern Industrial League, a fair type of his speeches during this cam- paign and a model of patriotic appeal and logical argument, sets forth briefly but clearly the possi- bilities of cotton manufacture in the South. COTTON MANUFACTURE IN THE SOUTH "A passenger once fell overboard a Mississippi River steamboat at a point where the river was about two miles wide and looked as though it might be a mile deep. The man couldn't swim, and was nat- urally very much frightened. He was floundering about, and seemed in imminent danger of drowning. The pilot from the first kept shouting to him, 'Stand up!' and when he finally did make him understand, and the man stood up, he foimd that the water was not over knee deep. "Many of our troubles are very much like the troubles of this man. If we knew the surroundings, or could in any way find out just what to do, we would be able to escape a sea of trouble by simply standing up. The purpose of my talk to-day will be BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 119 to show that the life-saving thing for the cotton farmer is the cotton factory. *'The South is in a period of transition. Whoever fails to recognize this fact not only hazards his suc- cess in life, but does serious injustice in misleading his children. "In the period immediately succeeding the Civil War the people of the South suffered least from the loss of their property. In that succeeding period, lasting from one to two decades, there was an un- ceasing struggle with anarchy amidst the wreck of former conditions. The contrast tended all the time to waste the energies and destroy the hopes of a people who in more ways than one have exhibited a most enduring courage. " Those adverse conditions are all past. The worst of them began to pass away about two decades ago. At the beginning of the Spanish- American War they had faded into insignificance. Before the end of that war the last of the shadows had disappeared. The South has now reached that condition in which she has the prospect of as perfect freedom from disorder and uncertainty as ever before in her history. The time has now come for us to take our bearings, see where we stand, and lay out our course for the future. "Naturally the cotton plant appears as the basis of our most extended industries. We could not ex- port seed cotton, and so we developed a large ginning interest to put our cotton in marketable shape. Now we are realizing that ginning the cotton is but one short step toward putting it in the most profitable shape for market. "Ten million bales of cotton in the seed has prac- tically no market value in that shape. Put up in ginners' bales it has a local value; put up in com- 120 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH pressed bales, it has a universal value of say $400,000,000. Manufactured into fine sheetings, at the present market valuation, it would be worth $1,200,000,000, an increase of 200 per cent. Manu- factured into fine organdies, it would have a value of $12,000,000,000, and in finer goods, still more. "Of course the world would not take the entire crop in the shape of any one kind of goods, but it will take it in the manufactured state, in some of the manifold styles intermediate between the above values, so that it is safe to say that a 10,000, 000-bale crop is ultimately retailed as cloth for $5,000,000,000. "The question to be settled by the communities which produced this raw cotton is: How much of it they are willing to part with at $40 a bale, when it ultimately sold at $500. And up to what price per bale are they prepared to bring it by their industry and skill in manufacturing.? " Cotton is now, as of old, the great resource of the South. We make in round numbers 10,000,000 bales yearly. "This, at six cents per pound, yields $300,000,000. Years ago 5,000,000 bales at twelve cents also yielded $300,000,000. These figures naturally bring us to ask ourselves what gain have we made in producing 10,000,000 instead of 5,000,000 bales. They lead us to talk and write about curtailing the production in order to stimulate the price. "As a matter of fact, the production of 10,000,000 bales of cotton, w^here we formerly made 5,000,000, is an immense gain. It is only by producing more and more cotton at cheaper prices that we still control the cotton business of the world. If we should produce less, or if we could stimulate the price, the cotton supply of the world would be furnished by BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 121 other countries. India is pushing us closer to-day than ever before in the production of cotton. The stimulated price would at once stimulate the produc- tion in India, Egypt and South America, Turkestan and other countries. The world needs an increasing quantity of cotton, and there are other people in the world who have suitable land and who will supply the demand at current prices if we do not do it. "If we rely upon cotton production alone we have before us the prospect of being under the necessity of increasing crops at cheaper prices. Failing in this, we must lose the monopoly. But it would seem to be useless to fight to hold a monopoly that means more and more work for less and less money. *'If we stop with the production, the prospect is not bright; but by the manufacture of this cotton, and finding markets for the manufactured article every class of people in the South is immeasurably benefitted. "Let us assume that an average Southern state produces 1,000,000 bales. This crop at six cents would yield $30,000,000. "If made into cloth worth an average of eighteen cents, the yield would be $90,000,000, yielding a profit to the state of $60,000,000. "This profit would be almost entirely in the shape of actual money coming from foreign markets or other parts of this country. Much of it would go for wages of course, but it would go to home people who have now scant opportunity to make wages. Much of it would go for foodstuffs that the working people would consume; but the farmer would get this money for potatoes, chickens, eggs, butter, milk, fruit, and a lot of other perishable stuff which now rots on the 122 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH farm for want of a market, or which might be made, but is not, for want of a market. "Out of the increased supply of money brought into the state the farmer would probably get the greater proportion of it all. The price of cotton to a farmer is always a little better in a factory town than in an ordinary cotton market. The farmer would, of necessity, get the money paid by the operatives for almost their entire living. "The average price of eighteen cents for manufac- tured goods is about what the cloth would be worth in the shape of plain white cloth and ordinary plaids and ginghams. This price is by no means the limit of what might be reached. With knowledge and skill cotton can be put into cloth worth thirty-six cents, seventy-two cents, and even still higher figures. "We have seen that a crop which in the raw state is worth $30,000,000 easily may be made worth $90,000,000. This same crop at thirty-six cents would yield $180,000,000, and seventy-two cents, $360,000,000, or more than the entire crop of the South is now worth in bales at current market prices. "Nothing is necessary for the accomplishment of this result except intelligent thought and persistent labor. The labor now wasted in the South is some- thing appalling. As the more intelligent and re- sponsible element of our people were formerly discouraged by the anarchy that succeeded the Civil War, so all labor in the South became discouraged for want of regular work at fair cash wages. There is now no longer excuse for either of these conditions. The intelligent and responsible part of each commun- ity ought to formulate plans to take hold of some manufacturing interest to an extent to engage their own time and talents, and to furnish regular and BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 123 profitable occupation to home labor. Then discourage all habits of loafing, and any working community cannot help but prosper; but so long as the loafing habit lives in any community, there can be no pros- perity in that community. "We all know that a great number of farmers now work scarcely one hundred days in the year. With this much labor they produce a cotton crop. The factory employee works three hundred days in the year. This leaves the farmer with two hundred less working days than the factory operative. With a ready cash market for all perishable farm products there would be ample encouragement for the farmer to fill out his three hundred days with some profitable work. This additional work would not be drudgery, nor unpleasant. It would, of course, be work to drive into town with a lot of fruit, vegetables, and other farm products, and sell them out in a factory village for two, four, or more dollars; but there is nothing unpleasant or irksome about such work, and the various sums so obtained, and obtainable any day in the year, would help out mightily in producing cotton at a price that would compete with the India man and the Egyptian. In fact, in the southeast, where the manufacture of cotton is well-established, many farmers make more money out of their mis- cellaneous crops that they sell to the factory popula- tion, than out of their entire cotton crop. **If we contemplate the manufacture of the entire crop of the South, the figures become stupendous. For example: 10,000,000 bales at 6 cts. per yard. $ 300,000,000 10,000,000 bales at 18 cts. per yard. $ 900,000,000 10,000,000 bales at 36 cts. per yard. $1,800,000,000 124 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "For any such results as these we have not yet the population. Even that part of the population we already have would need much in the way of educa- tion and training before any very large proportion of it could be put to work. But the figures show what an opportunity is before us. Each of us ought to do our utmost for the promotion of manufactures and for the education and training of the coming genera- tion in the manufacture of cotton. "The sentiment in this direction is growing con- spicuously. I attended not long ago a meeting of the Southern Press Association held at Richmond, Va. This subject of growing interest in industrial develop- ment was discussed at length, and it was the general sentiment that the rules as to what constituted news needed revision. In the past the rule was that murder, rape, arson, and politics were news. It was agreed that in the future the rule should be that Christian progress, education, manufactures, and commerce should be news. The idea is that benefi- cent works rather than crime shall be news. "It is a growing idea that as the papers follow up their work in the lines indicated a great move will be made in the dissemination of reading matter that will benefit the people instead of that which feeds morbid taste. "As to our production. All the cotton now made is manufactured by somebody. The world's require- ment seems to be increasing, and we seem to be as well situated to make the yarn and cloth as to pro- duce the cotton. It would seem as if the limit of our manufacturing interests is simply the labor we have, and can get, until we manufacture all our own production. Such an ultimate result could only come after long time and after vast improvements in our BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 125 educational system. But the opening is ready for an immediate beginning, and is wide open for indefinite development. "The undertaking of turning all our cotton into cloth is not as great as would at first appear. The factories in North Carolina now manufacture about 300,000 bales of cotton into cloth and yarn a year. For this work there are employed in round numbers 30,000 operatives. This work is done with about one million spindles. It must be understood, of course, that I speak in figures that are even and somewhat approximate, but that are near enough the exact figures to illustrate this argument with reason- able accuracy. "In order to manufacture the entire cotton crop of the South into plain white and coarse colored goods there would be required something like 30,000,000 spindles and 1,000,000 operatives. The population of the Southern States may be reckoned at 20,000,000. Does anybody doubt that out of this 20,000,000 there is idle time enough wasted, even by those who would be willing to work, to furnish 1,000,000 good opera- tives in cotton factories .^^ Go into any ordinary cotton market town where no cotton factories have as yet been built, and at any time from 7 a. m. to 10 p. m. count the people who are loafing, and the number found would more than make up the quota of people for its share of the workers necessary to manufacture the cotton crop. This loafing habit; this super- abundance of people who are capable of working but who are loafing in the country and in towns where there are no factories, is conspicuous by comparison with the town where manufacturing enterprises have been established. By the same comparison the dilapidation of the houses is conspicuous; the poverty 12G A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH of the farmers in the adjacent country and the wretched condition of the roads are more than con- spicuous. "Happily these old conditions are passing away. In many sections they have already passed away. The people of the South are naturally enterprising and resourceful. In the early days of the republic the South was the manufacturing end of the union. The first steamship ever to cross the ocean went out of Savannah. The South Carolina railway, when it was building, was the greatest engineering enterprise of the world. According to the United States census of 1810, the manufactured products of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, exceeded in value and variety those of the entire New England States. This is mentioned in no disparagement of New England but rather to show that our forefathers were men of enterprise and that they had confidence to venture on their own judgment. They never waited for somebody to come from somewhere and develop their resources for them. If they thought a cotton factory or a railroad would be a good thing they built it. The only mistake they made was in think- ing that the colored brother as a slave was a good thing. The growth of slavery dried up a well- develoi>ed manufacturing tendency in the South. "Now slavery is gone, the last vestige of that anarchy that succeeded the Civil War is also now gone. Wherever the people have recovered some- thing of the confidence of their forefathers in enter- prise they have prospered beyond their own ex- pectations or hopes. "The South has put the manufacture of iron on an export basis. The cotton oil industry has been developed on an export basis. The South has in BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 127 these things set the pace and made the prices to which the manufacturers of the North must go and come. If we but utihze the resources we now have, and put to work the idle labor now in every un- developed section of the South, we may supply from cotton-growing states the cloth for the vast markets in different parts of the world that are now furnished from the manufactories of England and Germany. " In all that we do we want to cooperate with and not antagonize our friends in New England and other parts of the North. For the sale of our goods we must rely much upon the development of foreign markets. In the future it will not be a domestic fight over home products. The foreign markets we must seek give outlet enough for the products of the North and South both. It is important that the people of the whole nation shall work together to acquire and develop these markets. "Practically all native people in the South are farmers. The manufacturing now being done by Southern people furnished evidence of the facility with which the Southern farmer extends his opera- tions. Almost every Southern man who has gone into manufacturing is still a farmer, and will continue to be so. The escape of the cotton farmer from approaching poverty is not in trying to curtail production and increase the price, but in devising means to keep the cheap cotton at home, and utilizing surplus time in turning it into cloth worth eighteen cents and upward per pound. " For more than a quarter of a century the political and social conditions in the South have been very unfavorable for the development of material in- terests. The generation that is now passing away 128 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH has withstood a test of Anglo-Saxon civilization — fighting against the strong prejudices of other people of their own blood living at a distance, and against semi-barbaric influences at home that were supported and urged on by those prejudices. This contest is well nigh over. It is no wonder that during its progress so little advance was made in material prosperity; but it is a wonder that the production of cotton has kept ahead of that of other advancing cotton-growing countries. This result alone, together w^ith the saving of civilization and the preservation of the social status of the South, shows the ability of the people of the South to carry to the maximum limit the white man's burden. In the same time Egypt and India, both under English control, have been pushing forward in the production of cotton, becoming our serious competitors. "For the coming generation the way to prosperity is wide open and plain. The passing generation has won the fight against anarchy and left to their children a heritage more valuable than any riches. It is now simply a question of redemption from poverty. To do this we must combine farming and manufacturing. The factories will require opera- tives, who in turn must have foodstuffs, which will make a market for the farmer's supplies. Cotton can then be made cheap, because diversified crops, which can be sold for cash, will bring in a supple- mental income. Indeed the time may come when cotton will be the surplus crop instead of being, as now, the main crop. "It is my firm belief that in the near future no community can afford to be without its cotton factory, its cottonseed oil mill, and its fertilizer works. With these the cotton may be tripled in BUILDER OF COTTON MILLS 129 value, the cottonseed tripled in value, and the farm tripled in value. "Now let us formulate what the farmer ought to do about this matter of cotton manufacture. Most of them are not in position to build factories; yet the subject rests almost entirely in the hands of the farmer. I formulate the required action necessary by farmers as follows: "1. — Create and maintain an untarnished credit. Keep all contracts inviolate and sacred. The com- mercial strength of England lies more than in any other one thing in the perfect faith which England and the English people maintain with those with whom they deal. The true Englishman never repudiates an obligation, even though he gets nothing in return from what he has contracted to pay for a railroad that was never built. I hold, however, that if the debt was honestly created and the chances taken, it is both good moral principle and good in- vestment to fulfil the promise. " If we would turn our cotton into cloth, we must, of necessity, go into the markets of the world, and a reputation for fair dealing and fulfillment of all contracts is the first prerequisite to an established trade with the miscellaneous nations of the world. " 2. — We must develop and maintain our shipping. We must have a merchant marine and a navy to protect it. We have reached that point in our indus- trial development when, if we extend our manu- factures further, we must have more markets. You have built railroads by subsidies. There is hardly a town, county, or state that has not contributed in bonds or in money or in lands or the use of streets to the construction of one or more railroads. Almost every railroad in the United States has had more or 130 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH less bounty money to aid in its construction. Towns vie with each other to-day in offering bounties to obtain new lines of roads, and everybody feels that it pays to do so. Yet there is an incomprehensible prejudice against giving even a fair mail contract to a new line of vessels to a foreign country. England and Germany are willing enough to send their subsidized ships here after our five-cent cotton. They will never permit them to come for our fifteen- cent cloth. These countries want to hold the manufacture and hold the trade. We must have our own ships, as we must also have a navy to protect them. "3. — WTierever there are markets for our manu- factured goods we need American banking facilities. We must have a money upon which the people of all the world can rely. The American five-dollar bill must, at all times and under all circumstances, be as good as the English pound sterling. "The farmer by his influence and vote can bring about these conditions. In bringing them about he is multiplying by three the value of his cotton and, tripling the value of his lands. It is in this way that the monopoly in the production of cotton can be held. It is the way prosperity can be brought to the South, and maintained for all time. "The Civil War made your fathers a poor people. The quarter-century fight you have made for civili- zation has made you a sturdy, self-reliant people. The prejudices of those of your own blood throughout this period of anarchy and disorder have made you a patient people. The year of jubilee is now come and the time is ripe for the farmer to join hands with the manufacturer. "Help to establish manufactures at home, and help BUILDER OF COTTON IVIILLS 131 to get foreign markets and ships and bring back from abroad three dollars and upward where we now bring back one. Add to the heritage of Anglo- Saxon civilization which you have saved for your children a combined system of farming and manu- facturing with the necessary facilities for a world- wide commerce, so that they may become rich and prosperous as their grandparents once were." Tompkins possessed in a high degree talents for thought, for speech, and for action. Had he confined himself to a single career, he might have achieved eminence as a public speaker, as a writer on political economy, or as an industrial builder and promoter. With a calm philosophy worthy of Lincoln he says, "The Civil War made your fathers a poor people. The quarter-century fight you have made for civiliza- tion has made you a sturdy, self-reliant people. The prejudices of those of your own blood throughout this period of anarchy and disorder have made you a patient people." With the joyful enthusiasm of a preacher he shouts, "The year of jubilee has now come and the time is ripe for the farmer to join hands with the manufacturer." With the practical wisdom of Franklin he says, "Help to establish manufactures at home, and help to get foreign markets and ships and bring back from abroad three dollars and up- wards where we now bring back one." He concludes his great speech with a tribute to Southern fortitude in defying the Reconstruction policy of Northern fanatics and with a patriotic appeal to Anglo-Saxon ideals. CHAPTER IX BUILDER OF MACHINERY FOR COTTON INDUSTRIES — THE D. A. TOMPKINS COMPANY — ^HOW TO BUILD UP A BUSINESS THE building of cotton mills and cotton oil mills was carried on by Tompkins during a period of twenty years and was extended throughout the Soutlil IT was greatly facilitated by his work as a builder and distributor of mill machinery and mill supplies. The D. A. Tompkins Company, of which he was president and general manager, beginning with one man and a small kit of tools, developed into one of the largest and probably the most unique of manufacturing plants in the South. Through its own work in Charlotte and its partnership with mills and factories in New England and Ohio the D. A. Tompkins Company was enabled to furnish on a very large scale all machinery and supplies essential to cotton mills, cotton oil mills, fertilizer factories, electric light and power plants, water works, and other power-producing or power- economizing industries. It was the base of supplies for Tompkins' industrial operations throughout the South. The building up of this company is a monument to his energy, skill, executive ability, foresight, patriotism, and broad humanitarianism. He loved to tell the story of it; and he told it over and over again, not only in speeches, books, and newspaper 132 BUILDER OF MACHINERY 133 articles but even in advertisements, which were in- tended to be lessons for the youth of Charlotte and the South. The story carries to young men every- where the assurance that success will always crown merit. From hundreds of advertisments in Southern newspapers the following selections are but samples of his endless sermons on thrift, industry, character, hopefulness, intelligence, self-reliance, and efficiency: STARTING IN BUSINESS "It is now something like fourteen years since there came to Charlotte a mechanic who was looking for a place to go into business for himself. He had been considered where he came from as a good machinist, and had also had a good training as a draftsman and designer of machinery. He had the promise of an agency for an engine. "Working as a machinist or draftsman in a large iron works he had been well at home, but in the business world, on ever so small a scale, he was tolerably awkward. There wasn't very much mechanical employment around here in those days, nevertheless this machinist and draftsman hired a room, got an engine sent on— just one engine for stock, and struck out for business. Things looked squally for quite awhile afterward. The new busi- ness man was ready for anything that would bring enough pay for wages and store rent. He did some surveying on the streets and laid out the grades of most of the pavements in the central part of the city, commencing at the public square. The pay for this work was not very much, but it went a long way toward keeping the pot boiling. After awhile an engine or two was sold, and the scant profit with all 1S4 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH the wages for setting up and starting up the engines helped along very considerably. The man was sales- man and machinist, both, for all that he did. He had very few tools, and most of the piping about an ordinary engine was put together with a trace chain and a stick for pipe tongs. The smaller pipe was cut by hand and put together with a Stillson wrench. A small set of pipe taps, with one stock, a hammer, and chisel or two, a trace chain and a stout stick were about all the tools available for putting up an or- dinary ginning engine and its outfit. *'Once in a while he would do some surveying for private parties, locating a lot; and would earn wages for a day or two. The business wasn't very promis- ing, and it often looked as if the next month or two might wind it up. But each new month brought enough new work of one kind and another to keep things going. After a considerable time and by inappreciable degrees things got better. The jobs came easier and the pay improved. Customers generally liked the results they got, and some of the first ones began to come again. It gradually came so that there was less work hunting for work, and it required more hustle to keep up with the work that came. "After a year or more a good business man ob- served that there was more work and opportunity than there was capital to handle it. He offered to take an interest in a quiet way and furnish some capital to handle the business. A trade was made and then it was a partnership for a considerable period. "Later still a corporation was formed and that's how the business of the Tompkins Company was founded and built up. BUILDER OF MACHINERY 135 "In those early days, if we had ever let up, the business would have ended. As good luck would have it, the mechanic kept in good health. It looks now, and it looked then, too, as if at any time in the first two or three years a spell of sickness would have ended the venture. It was good luck, too, that this proved to be a country of valuable undeveloped resources; and the gradual development of those helped us. Perhaps we were of some value in helping to push on this development. Anyway, we are still here, and are still having some hand in this develop- ment, which is still going forward." WHERE OUR SHOPS ARE LOCATED "The growth of the United States and the develop- ment of her resources is the wonder of the twentieth century. This growth and development began with the coming of the Anglo-Saxon to the New World. The first establishment in America of an Anglo- Saxon colony was at Roanoke Island on the coast of North Carolina. This was in 1585 and the move- ment was under the direction of Sir Walter Raleigh. "Before the ships which brought this party over returned to England there was born a baby who was named Virginia Dare. This girl was the first native American of Anglo-Saxon parentage. "Years afterward a colony was established at Jamestown in Virginia, in which there was John Smith of Pocahontas fame. "Years afterward the Puritans landed at Ply- mouth, in Massachusetts. "When the ships that brought over the Roanoke party went back to England they were detained and it was two years before they returned to America. 1S6 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH When the ships did return, the colony was gone — no- body knew where. " There is now an area in North Carohna of about ten miles square inhabited by a race of people known as the Croatan Indians. They are not like other Indians. They resent fiercely any attempt to class them as negroes. They have many of the qualities of the Anglo-Saxon. Living within two or three days' march of where the first colony of Anglo-Saxons ever settled, the civilization of the white man has de- stroyed or driven out all other Indians. This Croatan tribe has not only been skipped in the progress of civilization, but there seems to be as many of them to-day as there were a hundred years ago. "There is a legend that the Croatans took the part of the white people when they were attacked by unfriendly Indians. Being driven away from the first settlement, the whites and the friendly Croatans retreated together to where the Croatans now live. "In any event, the first settlement of the Anglo- Saxons on American soil was on the coast of North Carolina. The State has seen many changes since. These changing events have been somewhat as fol- lows: (1) Conquest of the country and its settle- ment. (2) Development of agriculture and fair commerce and manufactures. (3) Development of slavery and cotton production and neglect of manu- factures. (4) Civil War and abolition of slavery. (5) Revival of manufactures and commerce and improvement of farming methods. " It was here in the Old North State that the first settlement was made looking to the dev^elopment of an English-speaking nation. The State has had her ups and downs in fortune, but it looks now as though her misfortunes might be in the past. She is making BUILDER OF MACHINERY 1S7 good headway, and our machine shops and the business we are doing is one of the small factors in the State's progress." WE AND OUR GREAT-GRANDSIRES "Investigation has shown that in the latter part of the eighteenth and in the early part of the nineteenth centuries Carolinians had about as much, or perhpas more, mechanical resource and manufacturing ability than the people of any other part of the United States. In the Piedmont region there were numerous blast furnaces, rolling mills, foundries, hollow-ware works (pots, ovens, skillets, etc.); nail works, rifle factories, woollen mills, and other industrial enter- prises. "Just before, during, and after the Revolutionary, War, the wrought bar iron from Piedmont forges found a market in Boston. The rifles made in the home factories were an important factor in deter- mining the outcome of the American Revolution. These same rifles were also important factors in dealing with the Indian and the bear both at home and on the frontier in Kentucky and Tennessee, where many Carolinians of daring spirit went to seek adventure, and to stand a bulwark for the protection of advancing civilization. "Whether it was a bear on the Piedmont slopes, an Indian in Kentucky, or an invading British foe, it was of life-and-death importance for the American to have a rifle that would shoot without fail, and shoot straight. Those made by the mechanics of the Piedmont region could be relied on, and they stood in high favor. Other manufactured products made by the mechanics of the Carolinas of the eighteenth 138 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH century — this most ancient and honorable order of American mechanics — were also first class and stood in high favor with consumers or users. In time came slavery and the downfall of the mechanic in the Piedmont region. "Then came the Civil War and the downfall of slavery. "Then came the so-called Reconstruction period with twenty-five years of anarchy and almost hope- less endeavor to save civilization in the Carolinas. "Then came the restoration of stable and honest government. "This being attained, people began to look about for profitable employment. The occupation of the fathers — agriculture with slave labor — being gone, they fell, more or less naturally, as a sort of heritage, into the occupations of their grandfathers and great- grandfathers. One tried cotton manufacture, another the machine business, another undertook to make wagons, another carriages and buggies, another furniture, etc., etc. "The great-grandson found that though these abilities were dormant in his family through the period of slavery, he could develop, with very little practice, the same old twist of the wrist which the great-grandfather had. "The descendant of the old rifle-maker is just as good a mechanic as the old rifle-maker himself was. The great-grandson of the wagon -maker of 1790 is making just as good wagons in 1902 as the old man made in the second century before. "More than fifty of these descendants make up the bulk of the organization in our new shops and keep its wheels turning. There is a moderate proportion of good men from other parts of the United States BUILDER OF MACHINERY 139 also incorporated in the organization. It makes a strong combination. The Piedmont mechanic of the eighteenth century did superb work. Our or- ganization does just as good work. We study modern requirements and keep up with the twentieth century times. "The cotton yarn reels, which we make to-day in our ship, are just as much of a success as Daniel Boone's rifle was. Our cottonseed huller is made for a purpose that those old fellows of the eighteenth century never conceived of; but it is of just as high- class design and workmanship for the requirements of these modern times as the mountain and frontier wagons were for the day and generation in which they were built and used. In those old days, they used to mix sizing in a bucket and put it on the warp with a brush. In our shop we build a size kettle in which sizing is so well mixed that it is like an emulsion — saturates the yarn and never falls off. "They had no steam engines in those old days. That's the reason the rolling mills were all on water- powers, as at Clifton, Henrietta, High Shoals, Cherokee, and other places. "We wish one of the mechanics of 1775 could see one of the modern Corliss engines operate after we have overhauled it and put it in good order. Or look through our shop and see the electric drive and the beating by exhaust steam. Or see our new foundry, and compare the way we make castings with the way they used to make them." INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS "When the founders of the Tompkins Company business first landed in Charlotte there was mighty 140 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH little doing. The principal merchants occupied much of their time sitting in chairs in front of their stores, sometimes whittling, sometimes playing checkers or backgammon, and sometimes gossiping. These mer- chants came to their stores early and went away late. Long hours and little work was the rule. The little work was because there wasn't much to do. *'How things have changed since then, not only in Charlotte, but in the whole South. In those old languid days the dogs didn't get up to bark. If they saw or heard anything that they thought ought to be barked at they lay still, and barked lying down. It was probably the same m Greenville. "Then there were two machine shops in Charlotte, one doing no miscellaneous work but making machines. "Then there was one cotton mill in Charlotte; now there are twenty. Then the colored people monopolized the business of barbering; now it is well nigh monopolized by white barbers. Then the busi- ness man took his hat off to the banker; now the banker doffs to the business man and finds that he likes it; the business man appreciates the courtesy more than the old-fashioned banker did. "In those days the Tompkins Company's assets was a kit of machinists' tools and the whole organiza- tion was a founder and a cheap helper. There were no debts because the banker couldn't see any basis of credit in the kit of tools — there was value all the same, but it wasn't in tangible shape for a banker to realize on. "Gradually we built up a business and then facilities to do the business. We could get a little more business and then a new tool, more business, an- other new tool, and so the building has been going on BUILDER OF MACHINERY 141 until we now have a large foundry and two large machine shops — all out of that original kit of ma- chinists' tools. OPPORTUNITY WITHOUT CAPITAL "Our business has been built up by work and not by money. There wasn't any money to start with. "The reason is that the fellow who can do things is the master and not the servant of capital. Capital seeks the man w ho can do things a heap more than he ever has to seek capital. "We are not only getting a good home trade and a growing one, but our territory is extending nicely above the Potomac. "Something like 100 years ago North Carolina made wrought iron, much of which found a market in New England. "We are helping to bring about the old condition. We have had several orders from New England for the products of our shops and we have a good trade in the Middle States." WAGES vs. SALARIES "The cry of the industrial world is for men who can actually do something. We have applicants every day by young men and old men who want 'positions.' "'What can you do.'^' is the first question we ask, because we really need men. We need right now four good machinists and two molders. These don't come along. If most of those who do come would answer our question in full frankness they would say, 'I can't do anything in particular with any degree of efficiency, except draw my "salary" and quit promptly when the whistle blows.' 142 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "It seems a pity we haven't a better system of training the boys and young men in a way to make them capable of actually doing something. A machinist apprenticeship can't hurt any boy, even though he expects to be a lawyer or a doctor. "There's plenty of time between school and college terms to give a boy or young man a practical apprenticeship. This time is usually worse than wasted. The boy not only fails to learn to do some useful thing, but does acquire idle habits, sometimes vicious habits. "Our view of the matter is that none of the school- ing would be omitted, but that a reasonable portion of the intervening time should be applied to learning some trade. It's as easy to teach a boy to love work with the result of capability as it is to let him drift into habits of idleness with the result of incapability." EARLY TRAINING "The surest way to get a high position is to fill a modest one well. The restless and impatient man who neglects his work in quest of advancement is never advanced. The languid fellow whose mind wanders from his work to reveries of wealth and fame, he's no good. Yet speak of a good position at good pay, and there are at once applications from these restless, impatient, and languid fellows, while the sterling worker works on, and must be sought out and approached. "Training in early youth has a lot to do with it. A realization that all things come to him who works and waits has a lot more to do with it. "If the deficiencies were due to inherent fault in our people, there would be no use to speculate upon BUILDER OF MACHINERY 143 betterment. But there is no inherent fault. The youth should be trained and made to learn to work, developing at the same time skill and physical strength, and the young man should be taught that education entitles a man to nothing if he fails to accomplish something. "There are few people who may not be successful if in youth they have the right training and in young manhood they leam to have a wholesome reliance in patient and honest work." THE VALUE OF A TRADE "The financier values a property according to the income it will bring in and the probability of this income being permanent. "On a basis of 6 per cent., a property that would bring in $75 a month would be worth $15,000. "There are many mechanics making $75 a month. Many make more. Some good machinists make $4 a day easily and regularly and not a few make $5. A locomotive engineer can make $125 to $175 a month. "These are wages of journeymen workmen and not bosses or superintendents. The figures represent the value of a trade. Capitalize these incomes on a basis of 6 per cent., and we find the value of skill in good workmen to be about as follows: Bricklayer, at $2 per day .... $10,000.00 Carpenter, at $2.25 per day . . Holder, at $2.50 per day . . Pattern makers, at $2.75 per day Machinist, at $3 per day . . Machinist, at $4 per day Machinist, at $5 per day Locomotive engineers at $6 per day 11,250.00 12,000.00 13,750.00 15,000.00 20,000.00 25,000.00 30,000,00 144 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "These figures represent nice sums of money. As long as the mechanic Hves and enjoys health these little fortunes are more secure than if they were in cash and invested in property. "This capitalized value of a trade cannot be risked in a cotton speculation. Nothing but sickness or death depreciates these values. "If a man has the faculty of governing or directing men, he is far more apt to get the opportunity to exercise this faculty and get pay for it, if he knows a trade well, than if he does not. In selecting a superintendent for a cottonseed oil mill, the man who is a good mechanic is always selected by pref- erence, if other things are approximately equal. "In civil life the mechanic is as independent as the soldier in military life. The five-dollar-a-day mechanic is just as securely fixed for life, as to a living, as the one-hundred-and-twenty-five-dollar-a- month captain in the army. The captain may become a general. The machinist may remain machinist all his life, yet he may become proprietor of a factory. The special training stands not in the way of success, but promotes it." OUR APPRENTICES "We make apprenticeship contracts, the D. A. Tompkins Co. being first party and the boy and his parents being second party. The apprenticeship term is three years, the first six months is a trial period for both parties to the contract. We pay 60 cents a day the first year, 75 cents the second year, and $1 the third and last year. "We don't require these young gentlemen to put in three years' continuous work. We rather prefer BUILDER OF MACHINERY 145 that they should not do so. We always give them leave of absence to attend school. After school term they come back and start where they left off. This makes us always crowded with boys in the summer. At present we are overrun because all the schools are out and all the apprentices want to work on their apprenticeship time at once. "We don't let the boys off for anything but a short vacation and for school. The system seems to be working well and those who have gone through this apprenticeship, and at the same time kept their education going, have come out in the end first-class journeymen w^orkmen and decently educated young gentlemen who can do things. "The trades in our shops are: (1) Machinists. (2) Pattern Makers. (3) Molders. (4) Drafts- men. (5) Electric Wiremen, and (6) Roll Coverers. "The combination of practical training and teach- ing makes the best man. It makes a man who knows how things ought to be done and who can do them." When working in the Bethlehem Iron Works Tompkins had written in his diary, "Someday I shall have a machine shop of my own, even if I make a start as a blacksmith at a country cross roads." His resolution was accomplished. D. A. Tompkins, engineer and machinist, has become the D. A. Tompkins Company, with large, well-equipped machine shops and foundry, builders and distributors of machinery for cotton industries, consulting and contracting engineers for the designing, con- structing, and equipping of cotton mills, cottonseed oil mills, fertilizer factories, and other industrial plants. The building up of the D. A. Tompkins Company was in a measure the building up of cotton mills and 146 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH cotton oil mills throughout the South. But its greatest value to the South was its demonstration: 1. That the South had native talent equal to its task of industrial development. 2. That this talent could easily be trained and utilized. 3. That capital was available from abroad and easily multiplied at home. 4. That a capable lad can begin at the bottom of the industrial ladder and climb to the top. CHAPTER X A PLAN TO RAISE CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURING COOPERATIVE MILL BUILDING A FTER much experience in constructing and ZJm operating cotton mills and cotton oil mills X A. Tompkins came to the belief that the mill business furnished an opportunity for cooperative investment by small communities or by men of small means in large communities. On reaching this conclusion he was not slow in putting it to the test. With characteristic energy he entered upon a campaign for cooperative mill building, flooding the press with literature, filling the mails with circulars, and canvassing personally wherever op- portunity presented. Facts and arguments for cooperative mill building were spread broadcast throughout the South. He made stirring appeals to local pride and local interest, showing the disad- vantages to a community of relying upon foreign capital in mill building and submitting to foreign control in mill management. He showed how any community by a little thrift, energy, and cooperation could build a cotton mill. "In most places," said he, "where a new mill is proposed, an idea is prevalent that if half the money is raised at home, then somebody from somewhere will furnish the other half. "Several years ago the builders of cotton mill machinery took stock in new mills as part payment 147 148 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH for the machinery. This brought on numerous complications and trouble; and the practice has now been entirely abandoned. " Commission houses in the North who sell cotton mill products have often taken stock in new Southern mills. They do this of course mostly for the sake of controlling the sale of the mill's products. For while Southern mill stocks are always splendid prop- erty, there must always be some extra inducement for capital to seek investment in distant localities. A mill having a large part of its stock owned in this way is restricted in the sale of its products to one special market, which market might at some time not be the best for that particular kind of product. "All foreign capital is attracted to new enter- prises at a distance by some distinct motive, and is governed by well-defined laws. Large amounts of Northern money have been invested in Southern cotton mills, but they have been influenced by the motive above mentioned, or have been invested in stocks of mills already successful, or with men well known as successful manufacturers. The distant capitalist is attracted by success already accom- plished, and is not disposed to risk money to prove whether a new locality and a new people are both adapted to make a success of cotton manufacture. Success in a new mill or town, once established, often brings foreign capital without the asking. "The home capitalist is influenced largely by the same motive as the foreigner. He prefers for some- one else to make the experiment in manufacturing; if it is a failure, then he has escaped; if it is a success, then he can go in and buy the stock or start a new similar enterprise. "The average Southern town underestimates its CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURmG 149 ability to raise capital to build a cotton factory. Cotton mill property, like all other property, is cumulative. No town could raise the money at once to pay for all the property in it." After building several cooperative mills Tompkins drew up and published in pamphlet form his plan to raise capital. The pamphlet was extensively cir- culated throughout the South, was very generally copied in the newspapers, and published in various journals. It covers the ground of cooperative cotton mills, and is easily adaptable to any kind of co- operative industrial enterprise. PREFACE TO PLAN "While working as a machinist, and in other capacities for the Bethlehem Iron Works, Bethlehem, Pa., I always carried some stock in one or more of the local Building and Loan Associations at Bethlehem. "Toward the latter part of my service with that company I devised plans for the organization of a Savings Fund and Building Association. The plan was that nine of my fellow workmen with myself should form an association for saving something out of our salaries and wages each month, and, putting these savings together, should use the fund — not to loan, but to build houses for rent and for holding as investment. "At $20.00 per month each the ten of us would pay into the Association $200 per month. With this we could soon have built a house, and then with the con- tinued payments and the rent from the first house we could soon have built another, and so on. We thought of continuing this process and also the use of rents for building for a period of ten years. Then we proposed to stop payments and use rents for dividends. loO A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "Two of my fellow workmen and I purchased something like thirty lots, having in view turning them over to this Association. *' Just before the time for organization of this little Savings Fund and Investment Association I moved away from Bethlehem and the plans were never executed. The thirty lots are yet undeveloped in Bethlehem, and are still the property of the two of us who survive and the estate of our third partner who has passed away. "After going into business in Charlotte, N. C, on my own account, I worked out a modification of the same plan for raising capital to build manufacturing plants, and published it in the Manufacturers^ Record of Baltimore and other periodicals. "This plan of raising or accumulating capital has been utilized for building 15 or 20 cotton mills in the South, principally in the Carolinas. "This pamphlet gives a synopsis of the general plan, as applied to building cotton mills. The illus- trations exhibit some of the mills which have been built by the use of the plan. PLAN TO RAISE CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURING "There are in successful operation in the southeast a number of cotton factories built by money raised on the installment plan as the payments are made in a building and loan association. The writer had observed that in many towns there was a strong desire amongst the people to build and operate a cotton factory, but conceived it impossible to raise the capital at home because, as a rule, few people in towns or small cities have much unemployed capital. It was further observed that in almost if not quite CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURING 151 every one of these instances one or more building and loan associations were in operation with accumulated cash in excess of what was considered impossible to raise for the construction of a cotton factory. The conclusion was therefore reached that if a plan could be formulated by which a company could be organized whose capital stock was made payable in the shape of regular weekly or monthly saving, then any ordinary community could raise the money to build a factory. "Following out this line of thought it was found that with shares of one hundred dollars par value they could be paid in full as follows: (1) At the rate of one dollar per week per share the par value would be reached in a little less than two years. (2) At the rate of fifty cents per week the time would be a little less than four years. (3) At the rate of twenty -five cents per week the time would be a little less than eight years. All of these plans of payments have been tried at Charlotte, N. C, and in every case the result has been successful. "The plan (2) of fifty cents per week per share, it seems, is the most popular and the most suitable for all ordinary cases and places. At this rate the following would be the regular payments for about four years : On 1 share ($100), 50 cents per week or about $2.00 per month. On 5 shares ($500), $2.50 per week or about $10.00 per month. On 10 shares ($1,000), $5.00 per week or about $20.00 per month. On 25 shares ($2,500), $12.50 per week or about $50.00 per month. On 50 shares ($5,000), $25.00 per week or about ^100.00 per month. 152 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "In organizing a company each subscriber for stock makes the payments as above indicated either by the week or month. "On the basis of subscriptions aggregating one hundred thousand dollars there would be paid the company each year about twenty-five thousand dol- lars. With this amount of money the buildings could be constructed and paid for in the first year. Within the second year one third the machiner}^ could be purchased and put in operation. In three years from the time of organization it would be usually possible to have the entire plant in operation with some debt, which could be paid off as the in- stallments were paid in the last year. "A capital of one hundred thousand dollars will build a mill of about five thousand spindles and two hundred looms which w^ould furnish work for about one hundred hands. These estimates are only given for the purpose of conveying the most general idea. There are infinite conditions that might vary any one of the items given, and therefore in each special case the general result might be different according to the cost of materia s and the kind of product desired to be made. "The illustrations and general data are taken from mills that have been built on the plan herein dis- cussed. "It goes without saying that the quickest time in which the capital can be accumulated is the best. If subscriptions can be procured on a basis of two dollars a week per share, thus making the capital payable in about one year, this would be the next best thing to having the money subscribed subject to call as it might be needed. Next to the rate of two dollars per week then one dollar per week would be desirable. CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURING 153 Then follows fifty cents a week and twen^.y-five cents per week. *'The last-named rate, while it has been proven practicable in the case of a few mills, is undesirable, if the subscriptions can possibly be got to fifty cents per week or more. **The plan of fifty cents per week has been the most popular one, and it has in all cases worked well, the result having been dividend-paying manufactur- ing plants. "The completion of a mill may always be hastened beyond what could be done with ordinary income by borrowing money to complete the mill at once and then paying this money back as it is paid into the treasury in installments by the stockholders. Where- ever this has been done the mill company has com- monly made notes which have been made secure by indorsement of the directors. For this reason it is desirable to have a board of directors whose responsi- bility is well known. "Some mills have been built, however, simply by investing the money as it came from the members; and while this is somewhat slow, yet when the mill is finished and in operation, it is usually so much property ahead for the stockholders, for it frequently represents money that would not have been accumu- lated at all, except for the obligation of the stock- holders to get together and save so much money each week or month. "By the means of this plan any ordinary town has within itself the resources to establish a cotton factory. And besides establishing a factory the company is practically a savings institution for the people. Regular and systematic saving is probably the best of all means to accumulate money and at the 154 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH same time encourage a spirit of thrift and cooperation amongst the people of any locality. Any good farmer could take one thousand dollars stock, paying two hundred and fifty out of each crop for four years. "A mill built on this plan, when once finished, is just as good property for the stockholders and does a town or city just as much good as if it had been built with money brought from elsewhere. In fact, it is more advantageous, as its construction develops a latent resource out of which further development is sure to come. *'The preliminary preparation for the organization of such a company in the way of preparing the right kind of character, by laws and subscription list, should be left to the engineer selected to make plans and guide the company in the conduct of its affairs. "It is very important for a company of inex- perienced people to select a good engineer and then rely upon his knowledge, skill, and judgment. Any attempt to build a mill without good counsel will be troublesome. Advice picked up here and there, free of charge, is worth just what it costs, viz., noth- ing. A good engineer will charge a good fair price, and will handle the matter just as a good lawyer would a lawsuit, or as a physician would handle a case of sickness. There are numbers of good en- gineers in the country whose records for successful work become a guarantee for the success of whatever they undertake. "By the plan herein explained those towns in which the people are waiting for some capitalist to come and to build a mill may help themselves and build a mill without outside help. Capital naturally seeks investment amongst people who have themselves exhibited resource and capability. When a cotton CAPITAL FOR MANUFACTURING 155 mill has been built on this plan, the result is not only a manufacturing plant for the town, but a savings institution has been worked out in the manner of raising the money with which to build the mill. Every one of the towns and cities of the southeast that are now well known as manufacturing places built their first factory out of native resources and without outside help. As a result, whenever New England money is looking for investment, it is likely to go to one of these places where success has already been demonstrated. "In one or two cases another feature has been introduced, viz., subscribers give notes for the amount of their subscriptions. By this plan the company has the notes to use for collateral in case of borrowing money; and if the notes are made interest-bearing, then the burden of interest falls on the subscribers and not on the treasury of the company. "As soon as the mill is in operation the matter of interest balances, provided the profit equals or exceeds the interest account. If the stockholders pay the interest, then the mill ought to pay a divi- dend from the time it starts up. But if the mill carries any interest account, on account of any un- paid subscriptions, then the stockholders ought not to expect any dividend until the stock is paid in full. "The factories built with capital raised on the above plan have all been successful, and are now doing well." CHAPTER XI PROMOTER OF INDUSTRIAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION — TRUSTEE OF NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND ME- CHANIC ARTS — ^ADDRESS ON TECHNICAL EDUCATION THE development of the New South was much hindered by lack of skilled labor and tech- nical knowledge. The supply of orators and statesmen exceeded that of mechanics and engineers. Tompkins was deeply impressed by this condition. His education at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- tute, his apprenticeship in the Bethlehem Iron Works, his construction and management of cotton mills, cotton oil mills, fertilizer works, and electric power and light plants, his manufacture of machinery, his inability to procure workmen for these enterprises, his business connection with Northern manufacturers of machinery, his frequent trips North with observa- tion and study of Northern progress in wealth, popula- tion, education, and industries, all confirmed and strengthened his conviction that the industrial supe- riority of the North was due to technical skill and knowledge rather than to superior natural resources or superior natural ability. The difference between the two sections he credited to their systems of educa- tion and labor; on the one hand, a system of intelli- gent, educated, free labor — on the other, of ignorant, untrained, and irresponsible slaves. Now that slav- 156 PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 157 ery was gone, ignorance must go with it. The New South must be founded on education. In the midst of labors and activities that would overtax an ordinary man he took up the task of arousing the South to an appreciation of the value of education in developing wealth and power. He threw his energy and talents into a campaign of educa- tion which he kept up for twenty years in public speeches, in addresses before schools, colleges, and universities, in newspaper and magazine articles, in appeals to manufacturers, in the establishment and operation of mill schools, in urging and assisting young men to avail themselves of the best educational training and culture. "The South must move in the matter of educa- tion," said he, "and keep moving, else in time the people who are keeping up and ahead in education will own the rest of the country. As * eternal vigi- lance is the price of liberty,' so persistent energy in keeping pace with progress is the price of being amongst the successful peoples of modern times. Ohio is not furnishing our Presidents by accident. It is not by accident that I go from Charlotte to the North to buy water wheels, gas engines, etc. It is because of systems of education that qualify the people to be the most competent to do these things. The South should follow this lead, and never rest till our people lead the world in education. If we do this, we will then take a leading part in supplying the world with manufactured products. The natural resources of the South are unsurpassed. We need knowledge and skill to handle them to our own ad- vantage, and we ought to qualify the youth of the South to handle them for our own people and not wait supinely for strangers to come and take posses- 158 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH sion of them, thus leaving the wages paid by the stranger to be the only advantage to our own people.*' In a striking letter from Dayton, Ohio, published in the Charlotte Observer and copied extensively by the Southern press, he elaborates this idea as follows: "The central Northwest is an area great in population, wealth, and intelligence. Chicago on the Lakes and Cincinnati on the Ohio are great cities, but there are many others that would be boasted great in population and commerce if they were in other parts of the nation. "What is it that makes the wealth and influence of this central Northwest.? "The great and controlling factor in making the people of the central Northwest rich and powerful is education. The public schools here in Dayton are of unbounded interest. These are some of the figures in round numbers: Population of Dayton . . . 85,000 Cost of high school building. . $330,000 Number of district schools . . 19 Number of school teachers . 350 Salaries of teachers, each $400 to $1,500 Aggregate salaries .... $200,000 Students in high school . . . 1,050 Pupils in district schools . . . 14,000 "How can the cost of such expensive systems be borne .'^ "Some of the graduates of these schools are the mechanics who make water wheels which are sent to North Carolina; and some of the money comes from these. Others make oil mill machinery, which goes to North Carolina; and more of the money comes PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 159 from there. Others make Corhss engines, which go to North Carohna; and still more of the money comes from there. And so on with many other articles requiring knowledge and skill to make. **But we get some of this money back; for I saw in a large dry goods jobbing house a pile of goods with 'Highland Park Manufacturing Company' on the bands. Quite a lot were from the Cone Export Company, of Greensboro, and there were white goods from Piedmont, Anderson, and Green- wood, S. C. "In the exchange of products between Dayton and Charlotte the former has the advantage. We used to exchange our raw cotton for whatever we needed. Latterly we are doing better, and we now exchange cotton goods that are plain enough to be made by labor that has little or no education and scant skill, for gas engines, photo-engravings, etch- ings, water wheels of high efficiency, and other prod- ucts carrying better profits and made by higher class and better paid workmen. But Charlotte is going forward, perhaps, at a better pace than Dayton is now going. Whether we gain or lose in the race is to my mind a question of education." He was in constant demand as a speaker on educa- iional topics; for his power of thought, his clearness of expression, his forceful illustrations, and his wide knowledge made him entertaining, instructive, and inspiring. Literary clubs and lyceums, school and college commencements, alumni associations, boards of trade, state legislatures, conventions of the various professions, associations of manufacturers, bankers, and farmers kept him busy. He responded to in- vitations as often as he could get away from business engagements. He spoke before the leading colleges 160 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH and universities of the South and a large number of high schools and academies. Such audiences were especially pleasing, because he saw in them potential centres of wide influence. One of his addresses, delivered before college men in North Carolina, reviewed the educational and industrial history of the State, emphasized the commercial value of education, and demanded better equipment for the State institutions. "In all the world," said he, "education is one of the cheapest things to buy and one of the highest priced things to sell. States and nations spend money in various ways and in large sums to promote commerce, or to improve agriculture. No fostering appropriations contribute so much toward any of these as the same amount of money would contribute to them all if expended in education." "Some countries have exports that are small in tonnage but large in money values. These large values in money on very small tonnage show the prices obtained for education. Our people sell cotton at six cents, send it to Germany where it is manufactured into socks, and we buy it back at $1.00 a pound. We send our finest upland long staple cotton to France at fifteen cents a pound, where it is made into fine organdies and we buy it back at $40 a pound. We send our Sea Island cotton at twenty- five cents a pound to Switzerland, where it is made into Swiss embroidery; and we buy it back at $80 a pound. When our people buy these goods they pay mostly for education." PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 161 "The wealth of the State Hes in her undeveloped resources. The poverty of the State lies in the want of education and training of the people for the profit- able development of these resources. Strangers are coming from other states that are more liberal to their people in matters of education, to take advan- tage of our rich resources. In letting this come to pass, is the State fair to her own home people? Shall the best resources, the best salaries and compen- sations go to strangers because our home legislators refuse the necessary facilities to home people to be as fairly taught and as fairly trained as those strangers.^ "For the interests of our people it is imperative that we bring our State University to be the full equal of Harvard, Yale, the University of Michigan, or the University of Wisconsin, and our State Agri- cultural and Mechanical College to be the equal of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Co- lumbia School of Mines, or the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology. The cost of an education to-day at either of our State institutions is probably about two to five hundred dollars a year. The education received at this low cost may easily be made by application and integrity to bring a salary, or other increase, of 1,200, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, and even 25,000 dollars a year. Resources and oppor- tunities are here in this State in abundance; educa- tion alone is necessary to bring out the values of them." His interest in public schools was no less marked. He advocated popular education as an essential basis of industrial progress. He demanded an increase of taxes for public schools, although a large tax payer himself and a large contributor privately to both 102 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH public and private schools. He demanded better schools and longer school terms, even if the State should be compelled to issue bonds. The following editorial, written by him and published in the Char- lotte Observer, of which he was controlling owner, sounds a trumpet call to the Legislature: "plant the flag of education" "This State has vast resources which have lain dormant through the centuries past, and the develop- ment of which has just begun in the last few years. Whatever advance education has made in the State has been perhaps the most valuable factor in conduc- ing to the beginning of the development of the re- sources of the State. Everj^ educational institution has contributed to the end of qualifying the youth of the State to know the resources that are here, and to stay at home to help develop them, whereas formerly tho youth of the State had to go to some other distant section to find occupation and profit. A" "Whatever else the legislature does or does not do, it ought to plant the flag of education through the State. Instead of hesitating too much about the cost, we should make certain of at least six months' school, and take chances on raising the money. It is really a case where we cannot afford to do less than establish a six months' school term throughout the State. The education will show the way for raisin^^ the money. We are not here regarding education as so much of a burden upon the resources of the State, but rather as means of bringing the State's L_ resources to profitable fruition. H Better education will not only conduce to more~fax money, but will conduce also to better observance of the rules of PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 163 the Christian religion, to better morals, to better thrift and economy, to better industry, to the better- ment of the children and youth of the State, and to the general prosperity of the State in all future time. We earnestly recommend to the legislature that it make sure, first, of an increase of the school term, and then raise the money the best we can, if we go in debt a little more. The schools and the education of the youth of the country will pull us through in the matter of the debt; but if we let things drift into the alternative of ignorance, ignor- ance will never improve the State in any particular." An editorial, directed at the manufacturing towns of North Carolina, sets forth his ideas of elementary industrial education, as follows: "trade schools" " This State has developed a large number of manu- ufacturing centres. In different centres the manu- facturing is different. Durham and Winston manu- facture tobacco; High Point, furniture; Charlotte, Rockingham, and other centres manufacture cotton. There is great need of trade schools as they exist in Germany and as they have been developed to a very considerable extent in other continental countries and in England. Such schools should be adapted to the particular manufactures prevalent in a com- munity. If it requires a knowledge of the game and practice to develop skill to play baseball, we know that it requires more knowledge and skill to qualify a man to spin yarn, make furniture, and manufacture tobacco or trousers. These all require as high a degree of special knowledge and special skill as play- ing football or playing baseball. We all know what 1C4 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH sort of a figure a man would cut going on a baseball or football field wholly unskilled, to undertake to play with the modern players. In view of the different kinds of education the formulation of the plans should be left to local centres of manufacturing dis- tricts. This would seem necessary fully to adapt the school to the local needs. Teaching ought, to a large degree, to be done not in courses of study but to the extent and of the kind that the applicant wants. Learning should be dispensed by the quart and the gallon as well as by the barrel. Here in Charlotte some movement looking toward a trade school has been accomplished by the Christian Association people both in their main building in the city and in the Southern Industrial Institute at Hopkins. Some work has also been done at other points in the way of small beginnings. "One or more well-developed trade schools in a centre like Charlotte should have the recognition of the State and of the public school authorities. The future development of manufactures is very dependent upon special education and training. In Massachusetts a great deal of attention has been given to this subject, and in time our educational authorities will have to take it up and do something." An editorial, intended to influence sentiment in his native town of Edgefield, S. C, set forth his ideas of education for a community partly agricultural and partly manufacturing : "a proposed system for EDGEFIELD** "The system should begin with the kindergarten. It should then go through the 7th or 9th grades of literary and scholastic education, with such contact PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 165 With practical features as are available. It should have a small farm; and farm work should be demon- strated to the scholars. Then it should continue through the high school, and there should be classes in the special activities in practical work in the neigh- borhood. In the grades the pupils should be thoroughly grounded in the three 'Rs.' In the high school they should have the equivalent of a practical apprenticeship in some trade, and they should study special technicalities that apply to the various voca- tions of the neighborhood. This in Edgefield should include the manufacture of cotton oil and other prod- ucts of cottonseed, the manufacture of yarn and cloth from cotton. It should also especially in- clude instruction in farming, both from books and from practical demonstration; and there should be a good course for domestic science for the young woman. This high school can ultimately be brought to be the equivalent of a college, and can be made to yield values out of the resources in and around Edgefield through its educated graduates. The school should be a free school, and should ultimately be the central school for the county, at the same time be a tributary school to the A. &. M. and Winthrop, the Citadel and the University." In 1893 Tompkins was appointed by the governor and confirmed by the State Senate, a member of the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, which had been recently established under the provisions of the Mor- rill Act of the Congress of the United States — "to provide Colleges for the Benefit of Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, and Military Tactics." From this date until his death, with an interval of two years, he was a member of the governing board of the 166 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH college, and was the most potential factor on the board in molding the character and developing the work of the institution along lines in harmony with its mission. At the time of his appointment the college was in its fourth year, struggling for existence, with a small faculty, with scant equip- ment and very inadequate support either from pat- ronage or from legislative appropriation. The State was suffering from poverty; agriculture was its chief resource, and agricultural products were at a low price. The people were pinched in living and were not disposed to support, either by patronage or by taxation, institutions for higher education. The university w^as very grudgingly given a mere pittance; and even this pittance was used as a fire- brand by demagogues and bigots to inflame popular passion and prejudice. There was little appreciation of the value of higher education ; and very few people comprehended even vaguely the purpose, character, or value of technical education and industrial training. Until the appointment of Tompkins, the Board of Trustees of the college, although consisting of hon- est men devoted to the interests of the college, had not included a single member who had received a thorough technical education. This great desider- atum was now supplied by a man whose talents, edu- cation, experience, ambition, and public spirit made him a blessing to the institution and the State. His missionary work in the South as speaker, writer, lecturer, on technical and industrial education; his practical work as organizer, builder, and manager of industrial enterprises; his long and powerful ad- vocacy of popular education; his skill and knowledge and experience as a civil engineer were all now to culminate in the work of organizing and building up PROIMOTER OF EDUCATION 167 and directinoj a great people's college for technical and industrial education. His service on the Board of Trustees extended through nineteen years, during which period the writer, as president of the college, was closely associated with him for nine years in the college management. His advice and assistance were always helpful and freely given. He was not only level-headed and practical but well-trained and experienced in all lines of college work, especially in civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering and textile work. In agriculture he was well-informed, experienced, broad-minded, progressive, and scienti- fic. He would visit every department of the college, inspect its work, and suggest something helpful. But he was not meddlesome nor officious. He had neither interest nor part in the little wrangles and petty discussions over small details of college life which so often engage the attention and deeply interest the minds of college trustees lacking in busi- ness experience and enjoying narrow views of life. He understood the necessity of leaving all details of management to the college officials. The development of the college was his aim; and he sought to achieve it by all possible agencies: by competent teachers with adequate salaries; by ample equipment in shops and laboratories; by lofty ideals and high standards of efficiency; by healthful, hand- some, modern buildings; by wholesome, generous diet. His aim was the evolution of a technical college in keeping with the spirit of the age and worthy of a commonwealth of two million people. To the president of the college Tompkins was a comfort and a help in many perplexing and discour- aging problems. His vision of future developments, coupled with tolerant acceptance of unavoidable 168 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH temporary deficiencies, rendered him a most help- ful adviser. The most depressing condition in the early college days was the low grade of in- struction and the low standards of attainment. In discussing this condition Tompkins would always accept it as a temporary necessity. "It will soon give place to something better," he would say. Of an indifferent teacher he would say, "He is a cheap man, and we can expect little from him. We shall do better in time." Of trifling and frequently vicious pupils he would say: "The college is new, and the whole idea of industrial education is new to our people, who were wedded to the old traditions of education. The college cannot attract the best material all at once, but in due time it will come.'* Of a building faulty in construction, or a department poorly equipped, he would say: "It is poor, indeed, but better than nothing. It will do for a beginning." In education, as in business, he was for doing the best possible with the material available. His mental attitude was always helpful. While tolerant of present imperfections, he understood thoroughly what was essential to improvement and future development. Others, to whom were en- trusted the destinies of the college, whether members of the Board of Trustees or members of the State Legislature, were firmly and proudly fixed in the belief that the meagre and antiquated plant of the college was superior to anything in the old world or the new. Tompkins knew better, for he had seen the best equipment and experienced the best training and enjoyed a large experience. His was an intel- ligent estimate of technical and industrial education. And yet he was prompt to make the most of whatever was available. He would start with a ten-thousand- PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 169 dollar equipment, knowing that it would soon be- come a million-dollar plant. "I will make a begin- ning of a career in iron if I have to start as a black- smith at a country crossroads." This had been the animating principle of his early life, and he applied it to the early life of a technical college. Tompkins was a great favorite with the college students, who loved to hear him speak, and mani- fested by attention and applause their keen apprecia- tion of his best thoughts. He never talked down to a college audience, but presented them with his loftiest ideals and his deepest thoughts. He delivered before the faculty and students an address worthy to be printed on the walls of every Southern college. It manifests in a high degree his fine talents as thinker and speaker, his sympathy with young men and abil- ity to inspire them, his love of the South, his appre- ciation of the value and power of skill and knowledge, his love of mankind and broad views of life. The address was as follows : TECHNICAL EDUCATION AN ADDRESS DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF THE NORTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL AND MECH.ANICAL COLLEGE AT WEST RALEIGH, DECEMBER 15, 1899 *T have come from my work and appear before you in my working clothes. If I had done this ten years ago I would have appeared in a suit of overalls, with a hammer in one hand and a coal chisel in the other. I regard it to be far the most important feat- ure of my education as an engineer that I served an apprenticeship at the machinist's trade, and had a long term of experience as a journeyman machinist. I also had a service as draftsman, and then as master mechanic. It was ten years after I graduated 170 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOX^TH from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, of Troy, N. Y., as an engineer, before I assumed to undertake any comprehensive engineering work on my own responsibility. This ten years was a period of prac- tice and arduous training. "As the burden of what I shall say to you to-night will be to emphasize the importance of training and skill, as well as of study and knowledge, I hope that the scant reference I have made to my own work may be taken as simply to show, at the outset, that I have conscientiously practised what I shall recom- mend and urge upon you as being necessary for the best interests of Southern progress and for your fu- ture welfare and success in life. "Enough has been said and written about the-value of technical education to create great expectations on the part of those who have been its promoters and patrons. In some instances there has been dis- appointment. Sometimes mothers and sisters have kept boarders and washed dishes to keep a bright son and brother in school, with the fond expectation that when he graduated he would get a position at a good salary, set up a house for them to keep, and with nothing else to do. It has sometimes happened that the young graduate has returned home with a fine education, only to add an unprofitable member to the household. His mother and sisters could ob- serve that he had learned much, that his conduct was gentlemanly and honorable, that he indus- triously sought employment, that he was perfectly willing to work, yet he found nothing to do. Under these circumstances there is naturally disappoint- ment. For the time being it would naturally seem to them that technical education had not all the ad- vantages claimed for it. The trouble in such cases PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 171 is that the young man has been amply equipped in the matter of teaching, but he was deficient in training or skill. He knew the theories, but he served no apprenticeship. "There have been absolutely no cases, where knowl- edge and skill have been combined, where easy suc- cess has not followed. ENGINEERING AND MUSIC "Engineering is a science and an art. For the science careful study is necessary. For the art ardu- ous practice is necessary. It may be compared to music, which is also a science and art. Let us suppose it had been the sister who was to have been educated, and music was to have been her career. If she had gone to a conservatory and studied to the utmost limit all the science of music, but had never practiced it, what could she have done in giving a con- cert.^ If she had come home thoroughly equipped in the science of music, but without practice, she, too, would have been compelled to become one more of the household to be supported. "There was a time when, for an ordinary commun- ity, the musical requirements were simple. Who- ever could turn a tune on a violin, or thump a tune on a piano by ear, was a musician. So, also, there was a time when the man having practice but no education — the self-made man of the former generation — was the great boast of his day. With the more exacting conditions of these modern times, with the advancing of civilization, we hear nothing about the self-made man, about the man whose college was a canal boat. "These were men, however, of sterling worth. While they had scant knowledge, they had amazing 172 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH skill; and they performed wonders in handling human- ity and in accomplishing material results to their country's advantage. Some of them, realizing their own deficiencies in education, and realizing what a tremendous advantage additional education would have brought to them, founded schools; but, remark- able to relate, they caused to be formulated, in most cases, courses of instruction in what they were them- selves deficient in and omitted all care as to the re- liable training that they possessed. They founded universities without systems of training or practice. "Perhaps the best educated people who ever lived in the United States were the Southern planters' sons before the Civil War, if their future occupation is taken into consideration. These, in their youth, all had a full apprenticeship in the work of planting cotton and tobacco. Whether required to do it or not, they rode mules, drove wagons, and did all the operations on a plantation. The young man growing up on a plantation not only knew about mules in general, but he knew the characteristics of each mule on the place. He knew every negro on the place. He knew every ordeal of the plantation life, and at an early age knew these details better than his father did. Add to this perfect apprenticeship a college education, and you have the education of the men who in the ante-bellum days governed the nation. They were successful in the government of the nation because for the then existing conditions they had been well educated and trained. VALUE OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION "In material value a well-rounded technical educa- tion, made up of equal parts of knowledge and skill, PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 173 is difficult to estimate. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1820, and the graduates were the chief factors in the development of the Amer- ican railway system, in contra-distinction to the English system, which latter was followed and copied throughout Europe. These graduates almost in- variably started in railway service as rodmen and chainmen. And they do yet, at pay something like $30 a month. They then find places as section bosses, then as division superintendents, and finally as presi- dents, as was the case with the late Mr. George B. Roberts, who was the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Mr. A. J. Cassatt, who is now presi- dent. We have far the finest and most practical system of railways in the world; and the distinction of the system is its originality. The American bridge system is also the outcome of that school. The Reeveses of the Phoenix Bridge Works and the Roeblings, who built the great Brooklyn Bridge, are all graduates from Rensselaer. "In metallurgy we always needed high protective duties, until the Columbia College, New York, sent out some graduates who were well equipped m metallurgical knowledge and in skill. I regard that the rapid progress we have lately made in the pro- duction of cheap and excellent iron and steel on an expert basis is due more to the work done by the graduates of that school than to any other cause. There are now a number of schools in both engineer- ing and metallurgy that are turning out graduates that are as well educated as those who come out of the schools referred to; but those referred to led the way in their respective subjects. The magnitude of the developments in each of these divisions of industrial progress have been simply stupendous. 17* A HriLDKR (W THE NEW SOUTH We liave inoro .nul In tier railroads than all the rest of the world put together; and after a long and hard fight of England to keep her system as the stan- dard one for foreign countries, and very little on our part to introduce ours, it has come to pass that ours is credited as being much the best and is now being readily introduced in many foreign countries, not- ably in Russia. "In pig iron and steel we have also brought out processes and methods to such perfection that we make the best and cheapest product in the world; and our expert trade in these is growing to enormous proportions. "Unhappily, we have no such schools in applied chemistry, in what might be called chemical engineer- ing, nor in textile engineering. These are fields practically as large as others, and from a scientific point of view are practically untouched in America. Chemical engineering might bring wonderful results out of our cotton oil and other raw products. Ger- many has given much attention to the development of applied chemistry ; and as a result she has magnifi- cent chemical works in which even coal tar and many valuable products are obtained, such as aniline dyes, medicines like phenacetine, antipyrine, and other valuable stuffs. Germany has also developed a system of textile schools as a result of which we send our cotton to Chemnitz at six and seven cents a pound, to be manufactured there and sent back to us in the shape of knit goods at one dollar and up- ward a pound. All the freight charges going and coming are paid to German ships, always to German labor, and all the dyestuffs come from the German manufacturers. We simply get our seven cents, and pay back our dollar. PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 175 "Let us look into one of our homely products, and see what we might make of it, if our people had the knowledge and the skill. Reckoning our North Carolina cotton crop as worth to the producer an average of six cents from one year to another, we would have 500,000 bales, as cotton at six cents, yielding $15,000,000. This same cotton, manufactured into cotton cloth, would be tripled in value, and 500,000 bales, as cloth at eighteen cents, yields $45,000,000. "We already manufacture about three hundred thousand bales into yarn, or into white and colored cloth, which means that we are turning about ten million dollars' worth of cotton into thirty million dollars' worth of product. We do this with our own home people as operatives; and, therefore, between the manufacturer, the operator, and the foreman, the whole two hundred per cent, is profit. "With agricultural colleges, experiment stations, fertilizer control, and by other means, wisely pre- pared by our legislators, we have been able to keep down the cost of producing cotton to an extent to continue to control the production. The production and prices show, however, that we have reached a ten- million-bale crop, which at six cents has yielded us $300,000,000. We find that when we have a five- million-bale crop, it yielded us twelve cents, or the sum of $300,000,000, and when we made two and a half millions it yielded twenty -four cents, or again the same $300,000,000. Could we have curtailed the pro- duction and increased the price.? Such a plan would seem to me impossible. India, copying our method and buying our machinery, is already producing more cotton than we did twenty years ago. Egypt, also, even at the low prices, is increasing her produc- tion. The English, who control both those countries, 176 A BOLDER OF THE NEW SOUTH are exerting themselves to the utmost to stimulate cotton production in those countries. "We have reduced the cost of production to a point where further reduction can only be a differential quality; a saving of one cent a pound in producing the entire crop of the State would only aggregate two and a half million dollars, whereas the same crop, manufactured into plain cloth, would be increased in value $30,000,000. In the distribution of this aggregate gain the farmer would be the greatest beneficiary. Because of the proximity of the mills the North Carolina farmer already gets from one half cent to one cent more for his cotton than the Texas or Missouri farmer gets. This is not all, however; he gets home markets for his fruits, vegetables, poultry, milk, butter, and a great variety of perishable food- stuffs that can be produced on a farm, while the operatives of the neighboring factory make a market. Whenever cotton is tripled in value by manufacture, the adjacent lands are tripled also in value. The increased price of cotton, the in- creased price of land, and the increased markets are all gain to the farmers, to say nothing of the new avenues of success and fortune opened up to his sons and daughters. Amongst our people the farmer's interest in developing manufactures is the greatest. In truth, in this generation, we can have only such manufactures as the farmers develop — for all of us are, or have been, farmers. "The estimate of an increase to three times the value of raw cotton when made into cloth relates only to the plainest sheeting and plaids. This is what may be done with the least possible knowledge and skill. Take the fancy ginghams, such as the Toile de . Nord, made by my friend, Mr. A. H. Lowe, in PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 177 Fitchburg, Mass., and these will reach sixty cents a pound, or ten times the value of cotton at six cents. Our North Carolina crop of 500,000 bales worth as cotton $15,000,000, if made into the ginghams would be worth $150,000,000, or half as much as the entire crop of the South brings as cotton. Even this is not by any means the limit. My friend, Mr. H. H. Hargrove, of Shreveport, Lc, told lately of having weighed a dress pattern of fine French organdie. The entire piece weighed one third of a pound, and it sold at eighty cents a yard, or an aggregate of $24 a pound. The cotton in this was of course the best Sea Island, but even that probably cost not exceeding twenty-five cents a pound, while the prod- uct is selling in our stores here at $24 a pound. The difference is what we pay the German and French men and women, for their knowledge and skill — for their technical education, which we haven't got. "The designs of the patterns are made largely by artists, affording profitable, agreeable, and artistic employment, at home, to young ladies, who are educated and skilful in artistic designing. It is evident from the prices charged for these goods that everybody who works in any of the processes gets high salaries, which makes the goods come high; but our home young ladies are beautiful, and must have beautiful goods to wear, even if the money must be sent to France and Germany, until our own people learn how to make the nicer fabrics. I have spoken of how a nice gingham costs sixty cents a pound. Omitting altogether the really finer stuffs, such as French organdies, and dotted Swiss muslins, and taking a fabric at $1.20 a pound, which could be .i^ made with a modicum of education and training, the nSlorth CaroUna crop of $500,000 bales (I speak in 178 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH round numbers always) would be worth, if manu- factured into goods of this value^ $300,000,000, or as much as the entire South's cotton crop is worth as raw cotton. I believe we have ample population to do this, and that all that is needed is knowledge and skill, or technical education." CAPACITY OF THE PEOPLE "Twenty years ago our friends in New England asserted with some emphasis that Southern people could not manufacture cotton at all. It was said that the climate was enervating, that the people of the South had no mechanical taste, and a lot of other reasons were given why the attempt would fail. But it succeeded. Then it was said that some coarse goods might be made but never the finer stuffs. It is not a matter of inherent capability nor of climate, but purely one of technical education. *'The development of our manufactures in the last twenty-five years is a revival rather than a new development. The taste and capability exhibited by the present generation is an inheritance, and not a thing of entirely new birth. In the early days of the Republic the South was the manufacturing section of the Union. By the United States census of 1810 the manufactured products of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia exceeded in value and variety those of the entire New England States and New York put together. The Henrietta Cotton jMill, near Rutherford, is on the site of an old iron works. The High Shoals INIill, now being built near Lincolnton, had to be cleared of some brick stacks of old Catlin forges to make way for the new founda- tions. Throughout the Piedmont region there are PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 179 many evidences of former extensive manufacturing plants and much prosperity. I have at home a copy of a contract in accordance with which a machinist at Lincolnton made all the machinery necessary to equip a cotton mill complete having a date of 1813. "This manufacturing spirit and its success gave rise o many schemes for internal improvement. Iron and other goods were carried from the Lincolnton and other Piedmont sections to Fayetteville by wagon, and thence down the Cape Fear River on boats, and thence to Boston in sailing vessels. "The poison that ultimately destroyed this develop- ment, these great Southern manufacturing interests, was the institution of slavery. As this grew in strength, manufactures dechned, until by the time of the war they were well-nigh dried up. There were those, however, who made a tremendous fight for their preservation and for the extension of our commerce. The founders of the Republic, most of the leaders amongst whom were Southern men, did everything in their power to develop American manufactures and retain American commerce; and these principles made better headway at that time in the South than in the North. Charleston had fair promise at one time of becoming the greatest Ameri- can port. It was a promise based upon the capability and enterprise of her people. When the South Carolina Railway was built it was one of the great engineering works of the world. It was extended from Charleston to the head of navigation on the Savannah River, to take the cotton coming down the river in flat boats by rail to Charleston instead of letting it go in boats to Savannah. They extended a branch to Columbia, to catch the cotton on the ISO A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Congaree in the same way. Then they undertook to get a Hne through to the Mississippi River at Mem- phis, there to catch the cotton and Northwestern produce, and turn it to Charleston. Largely by the influence of the people of Charleston, the State of Georgia either aided or wholly built roads from Augusta to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Chattanooga — calling the latter the Western and Atlantic, the name indicating what the motive was in its building. There, pushing on farther, the Memphis & Charles- ton was built from Chattanooga to Memphis, the name again indicating some meaning as to the plans. When this road was finished, making a through route, there was a special run over the entire route carrying a party of Charleston and Memphis people, and also carrying a barrel of water which had been taken out of the Mississippi River, and which was emptied into the bay at Charleston, indicative, as it were, of the future course of the Mississippi River commerce. While not appreciating the increasing strength of slavery or its blighting influence, the people of the South, observing the tendency of manufactures to decline, made heroic efforts looking to internal development. After successfully developing a great railway line to Mem- phis, the people of Charleston formulated plans for building a direct road from Charleston to Cincinnati. Mr. Robert Y. Hayne was the chief promoter of the enterprise, and devoted much time to it. In getting the necessary legislation, his talents excited such admiration that he was sent to the United States Senate as the colleague of INIr. John C. Calhoun; and the debates betwixt Webster and Hayne about slavery were perhaps the most noted that ever were conducted in the United States Senate. But Mr. PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 181 Hayne, even at the height of his poHtical fame, never lost sight of interest in his Charleston-Cincinnati railroad; and in the interval of his Congressional duties he spent much of his time in Asheville, N. C, looking after his interests. *' There was an extraordinary situation: Mr. Hayne was at the same time the teacher of two tremendous and opposing institutions, for the success of either meant the destruction of the other. "Had the road to Cincinnati been completed, the tide of export commerce from Pittsburgh down the Ohio, thence from Cincinnati to Charleston, the agricultural products from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, then the Northwest but meagrely developed, and from the states south of the Ohio would probably have led to interests greater than that of slavery, and therefore to the peaceful abolition of the institution. Mr. Hayne succeeded, however, better with his de- fense of slavery than in the construction of his great railroad. "In North Carolina Colonel John M. Morehead led the forces for internal development and the extension of commerce. He caused to be built the North Carolina Railroad, reaching from Goldsboro to Greensboro. Then also the road from Goldsboro to Morehead City. Then plans were formulated to build a road from Salisbury to the Tennessee line near Ducktown. It was then contemplated to form a private company to build a connection through to Chattanooga, thus reaching Memphis over the Memphis and Charleston. If this road had been built, and the roads all consolidated, North Carolina would now have a direct line from Memphis to tide water at Morehead City. Every phase of the history of your ancestors and their work shows them to have 182 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH been men of sterling abilities and great enterprise. They ruled the government in those days because they had the best possible education and training in practical affairs. "The increasing agitation about slavery and the increasing interest taken by Southern people in the subject gradually drew interest and energy away from the beneficent works of enterprise, and brought on the Civil War with its disastrous results. SO-CALLED RECONSTRUCTION "Comparing the wealth of this State with that of Massachusetts, it may seem to you that your parents had left you a scant inheritance. It may seem as if they had not made much of a success of life. Let us see to this. In the period that succeeded the Civil War the whole South was plunged into a state of semi-anarchy. After having all their property swept away, and the former system of labor completely destroyed, your parents had forced upon them an experiment in human affairs never before attempted in the world. It was one involving the ability of the white race to preserve the Anglo-Saxon civilization under the most adverse conditions and the most powerful opposing influences. Under far less pres- sure, the Latin race in Cuba and South America descended toward the inferior race. In a war for civilization lasting for a quarter of a century your fathers have held one hand ready at all times to defend their homes, while with the other the re- sources of the country have been taken care of. They have furnished the monopoly of the production of cotton. They have paid one third of an enormous pension list, getting nothing in return. They have PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 183 paid two dollars for every one that could be applied to the education of their own sons. "In the short period since the restoration of good government they have returned to the occupation of their ancestors, manufacture; and have demonstrated that cotton goods may be made here to advanta;:e and profit, and on an export basis. They have developed a splendid industry in cotton oil, and on an export basis. In other parts of the South the passing generation has demonstrated the value of other resources, and the practicability of developing them profitably, such as iron, lumber, phosphates, etc. They have founded such schools as this, to prepare you to take charge of this great inheritance. All this is to be delivered to you unencumbered for you, as it has been for them in the past. "They have won the fight for civilization. There is no race problem now. There is no anarchy. You have as fine opportunity before you as ever a genera- tion of young men had in the world. If each of you, taking advantage of these opportunities, should grow rich, and should build honor for your parents and keep them in luxury the remainder of their days, you would not approximately settle the debt you owt them for what they have endured for civilization and for your welfare. THE REAL RECONSTRUCTION "The real reconstruction of this State is in your hands. It is for you to take up the great work of internal development where your grandparents left it off. I have attempted to show that you come of a race of broad-minded, progressive, and successful men. In their day and time they fostered by wise means the 184 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH development of manufactures. They formulated and executed comprehensive plans for internal devel- opment. They created and put in motion a system of agriculture which has resulted in the production annually of ten million bales of cotton in an area that is small as compared with the cotton areas of China, India, Egypt, and South America. This is the greatest result in agriculture ever accomplished by any people in the world. "Your forefathers made one mistake — committed one error — slavery. The whole industrial fabric of New England is going forward to-day on lines that were worked out and partly executed three quarters of a century ago by the people of this State. "Slavery is gone. The anarchy that succeeded the Civil War is gone. Besides preserving for you in untarnished purity — the civilization of your an- cestors — which required ceaseless vigilance, toil, and privation, your parents have laid for you the founda- tions for the reestablishment of manufactures, the further development of agriculture, and for renewed zeal in the work of internal development. In the prosecution of this work they have not been so situated as to allow you luxuries or any form of ex- travagant indulgences. "Thus it transpires that you have had at home a constant discipline in economy and self-control that has been Spartan in its severity. The very enforced simplicity of your early lives, the very earnestness of your parents in work of saving honor and civihza- tion out of the wreck wrought by slavery and the Civil War, have kept you in an atmosphere that ought to have made sound minds in sound bodies and further qualified you in moral character to give you something of the abilities of your ancestors. The PROMOTER OF EDUCATION 185 organization of this very school is part of the work your parents have done for your future advantage. They are ready to turn over to you as a heritage the great resources of the South with the work of develop- ment already well begun. In the short while since they returned to this work of development the people of the South have put cotton goods, cotton oil, iron and lumber upon an export basis. In all these the fires of the new industry have been started for you. "It is yet to be seen whether you are capable of handling wisely and well the greatest heritage ever developed by a going generation to a coming one. For myself there is not a shadow of doubt about the result. I confidently believe that your generation will restore to North Carolina the wealth which relatively she once enjoyed, and bring back to her people the progressive and ruling qualities which were characteristic of your ancestors. "For the future greatness of the State the resources are all here. "We have a race of young men in whose veins flow the blood of those who were the leaders in the great battle for freedom in the latter part of the eighteenth century, of those who were leaders in the early days, of those who made the Republic strong by wise and comprehensive measures for the development of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. "The mistake of slavery is now a thing of the past. The results of the mistake have all been repaired by your fathers except one. Our deficiency is Technical Education. Even for this they have provided the means. The final solution of the problem remains alone with you. The graduates from this school — the classes now before me — ought to formulate the 186 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH plans and put in operation the new systems of agri- culture, manufactures, and commerce that will re- store to this State something of its former splendor in the Union, and will determine the course which every state in the Union must go, to keep the lead- ing pace that you will set. CHAPTER XII BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS — THE S. C. TEXTILE SCHOOL — THE N. C. TEXTILE SCHOOL — THE MISSISSIPPI TEXTILE SCHOOL — PROGRESS IN OTHER STATES THE next step taken by Tompkins in behalf of industrial education and cotton manufac- tures was the building of textile schools. He resolved to make a beginning by establishing a school in his native town. The following letter to his friend and fellow worker, R. H. Edmonds, editor of the Manufacturers' Record, sets forth his purpose and plan : "You know of the hotel building I have at Edge- field. I enclose a cut of it. "I have been figuring on using this building for Textile School purposes. It might seeni that Edge- field is not a proper place because of its isolation. I have thought over this carefully, and I believe that it is as good a place as can be found in the South and better than most places. For inspecting factories trips could be made to Augusta, Piedmont, Pelzer, Columbia, and other places. The students and pupils would be free to study, as they would not be in a city. All industrial centres could contribute to and support it without prejudice. There is now at Edgefield a plant comprising an oil mill, a ginnery, and a cotton factory. This one plant would be bet- ter than twenty cotton mills without a ginnery or oil mill. 187 188 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "My idea has been to go ahead and open the school without asking for help beforehand, or support beforehand. I had thought of asking the following gentlemen to serve as a Board of Trustees: R. H. Edmonds, Baltimore, Md. J. O. Hemphill, Charleston, S. C. James L. Orr, Piedmont, S. C. "Also some good mill man in Augusta and myself. This would make five, which I think would be enough. "Mr. E. W. Thompson, who has been with me about eight years, would make a good man to put in charge. He, with some bright young man to help him, could manage it to start with. Then with such help as could be gotten we could extend the school. Gifts of machinery or money could be solicited. We could also arrange with as many mills as possible to give work to the graduates. By this means we could guarantee an opening to the successful students. Of course a mill could do no more than put a graduate to work. His progress and advancement would depend upon himself. At present a young man of twenty years finds himself without an opening in man- ufacturing pursuits for want of knowledge or training of any sort pertaining to manufacturing. With the good will of mills to such a school the young graduate would find himself possessed of all these, viz.: the knowledge, the skill, and the opening in a mill to make a start. "I have spoken privately to several of my friends about this plan. My suggestions have received the hearty approval of my friends as far as I have gone. "I could put Mr. Thompson at Edgefield, say September 15th, and open up at once. I cannot undertake to do this without feeling that I shall have BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 189 a strong support afterward from such men as you, Mr. Hemphill, and the mill men," The impracticability of the Edgefield project was soon realized by Tompkins. He had formed it in zeal and enthusiasm; but his cooler judgment con- vinced him that textile schools are best established and supported, not by individuals, but by states or cities. He now determined to promote the establishment of textile schools in the various Southern States to be under the control and support of the State govern- ments. He turned his attention first to his native state. "I took up the subject with my friends in South Carolina," he says in his memoirs, "with the idea of having a textile department at Clemson College. I found it easy to excite interest. Mr. Benjamin R. Tillman, U. S. Senator, promptly favored my plans. Col. D. K. Norris, for whom I was engineering the new Norris cotton mill, also favored them. Finding public sentiment decidedly favorable and the prospects bright for the school, I decided to make a tour of inspection of the textile schools in the United States and England. I visited Philadelphia and looked over the textile school there. I visited England and looked up textile schools there. I was not only inspecting and studying these textile schools, but was on the lookout for a man to be director at Clemson if the textile department should be established. Mr. C. P. Brooks was recommended to me. After several conferences I asked him to bring his wife to tea with me at my hotel. He did so; and I was well enough impressed to make an engagement with him to go to America at a salary of $2,500 a year and expense of the trip over for him and wife. He was to be one of 190 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH the engineers for the Tompkins Company; and, if the Clemson Textile Department was established, he was to go there if I wished it. Mr. Brooks worked for the Tompkins Company in this tentative way about a year. Meanwhile, the State of Massachusetts had inaugurated a movement for a series of textile schools, and the one at Lowell had been begun. Mr. Brooks' arrival in America and the purpose of his coming had been pretty well advertised by notices in the public press; and when Lowell wanted a textile director, they offered Brooks $3,500 a year. He consulted me as to his desire to take the place and his moral obligation to me. I promptly told him the offer was more than Clemson could pay, and advised him to accept it."* Public sentiment in South Carolina was growing rapidly in favor of a textile department at Clemson, and the public looked to Tompkins to shape the policy of the department and arrange the courses of instruction. He was invited by the trustees of the college to present before them his views concerning the proposed textile department. After performing this duty, he subsequently, at the request of the Board, embodied his ideas in the following letter: Charlotte, N. C, Aug. 24, 1897. To the Hon. R. W. Simpson, Chairman and the Board of Trustees, Clemson College, S. C. Gentlemen : Pursuant to your request, made when I discussed before your board the subject of a textile department at Clemson College, I submit the following sug- gestions : •Mr. Brooks became first director of the Lowell Textile School and afterward director aud organizer of the New Bedford Textile School. BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 191 I conceive Clemson College to have been estab- lished in deference to the wishes of the people of the state to have a school where the youth of the state could, in getting an ordinary college education, do it in a way that would qualify them to find an easier entrance into some profitable occupation than it was found could be done from the ordinary literary institutions. The education and training given at such an institution ought to be of a kind that is calculated to be most useful to the graduate and also of the greatest advantage to the other people of the state at large. For the accomplishment of these advantages, it seems apparent that the courses of study and training should relate to those pursuits into which students could at once enter in the state. Two industries which have developed more rapidly and more extensively perhaps than any other in the state, are the manufacture of cotton oil and the manufacture of cotton. The youth of the state have found employment to a very great extent in oil mills and cotton mills. What they know of these subjects has been necessarily picked up by the rule-of-thumb method. Both these industries furnish the most unlimited opportunities for the work of every gradu- ate of Clemson inside the state. In cotton oil, besides the process of manufacture, there are great possibilities in refining, in making soap, in the pro- duction of food stuffs by mixing the hulls and meal, in making fertilizers, and in other ways. With a better knowledge of the subject many collateral in- dustries might be established. Glycerine, candles, fancy soaps, table oils, and many other articles of great commercial value are already made from cotton oil in other sections of this country, and with a proper 192 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH exposition of the knowledge relating to these subjects all these products might be made in South Carolina, furnishing lucrative employment to the young men of the state and keeping in the state a resource which comes from a product of the state. In the manufacture of cotton the field is probably still greater; and the importance of extending amongst the youth of the state a knowledge of the textile art could hardly be properly estimated. Up to the present time the product of the factories of your state has been chiefly plain w^hite cloth. Simple as the manufacture of this cloth is, it has been neces- sary to employ many men from other sections of the country to conduct these operations in South Carohna, while in many cases the young graduates of your state institutions, being untaught and un- skilled in the textile art, have been compelled to go North or West to find employment in fines where their education and training in your schools is more appficable. It is noticeable also that those young men who want to go into some line of textile manu- facture do not consider any Southern school, but go North either to a school or into the shops or in some engineer's office. Some people think that the development of cotton manufacture in the South in the line of coarse white goods has nearly reached its profitable limit. If this is true, it is all-important that the youth of the present generation should be educated to extend it into other lines. The tendency will naturally be toward finer goods and toward colored dress goods, which is a field of infinite variety. Your state was foremost in the development of cotton production. On plans that were formulated and executed first in South Carolina, the cotton area BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 193 of the South is furnishing the great bulk of the cotton supply of the world. This was all original work. No other people had done such work. There were no methods to copy. Does it seem proper that in the manufacture of cotton the people of the state should content themselves with duplicating the simplest processes of cotton manufacture in other sections and be further content to carry on these processes largely under the direction of men brought from other sections, when a great many of the youth of your state are seeking profitable employ- ment — in some cases, leaving the state to find it? This subject of textile schools has received the most careful thought and attention in Europe. Some years ago it was noted in England that some of the continental countries, notably Germany and Switzerland, were making an increasing progress in capturing Enghsh trade. Even in England, edu- cated young Germans were being employed as super- intendents of dye works for their chemical knowledge and their practical training in making beautiful colors at cheap cost. Also for designing new and stylish patterns in various fabrics. It came to pass that not only English trade was suffering, but also the practical English dyer and the practical English weaver found German and Swiss young men taking their places. A commission was appointed to go to the continent and make a report of the cause of the growing continental trade. This commission found magnificent schools at Zurich, Chemnitz, and other places. Steps were at once taken to found similar schools in England. To-day, Manchester has a textile institution to furnish instruction day or even- ing, thus making it available to young men who have to work during the day and can only devote some 194 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH time in the evenings to study. Many other English manufacturing centres have established similar schools. Some of the textile machine builders in England have founded schools of instruction in their works. It is astonishing to learn how much money has been spent on even those schools which are practically departments of the business of private firms. As to the value of all this expenditure, it is suflScient to say, nobody in England doubts the wisdom of the expenditure, but, on the contrary, the disposition is to still further increase and cheapen the facilities for technical and especially textile education. In the United States the New England and the Philadelphia textile districts have both made splendid progress in providing for the collection and dissemina- tion of knowledge in textile subjects. The first textile school of importance in the United States was established in Philadelphia some years ago. This school has been doing excellent work, and promises to be of great advantage to the Philadelphia district. At Lowell a textile school has lately been established by state and city aid. This school has been well equipped, and is doing well. Such a department at Clemson College would un- doubtedly contribute to diversify the manufacture of cotton goods in the state, and would probably at an early date bring about the establishment of one or more bleacheries and finishing works. Besides being of advantage to the youth of the state in qualifying them for profitable employment, it should be of great value in stimulating the development of the resources of the state in the line of textile manu- factures. Education, to be of value, must not be entirely pedagogic. If an educational system is applicable BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 195 and successful in one section, an imitation of that system is not necessarily the best or even suitable for another section. What I say related, of course, to technical education in relation to its application to manufactures. Therefore, in the light of South Carolina's interests, I should put the study of cotton manufacture ahead of that of electrical engineering, for example. Both are important, and neither should be neglected; but if the study of one must be omitted, I should say teach textiles and let electricity go. If I can serve you in any way whatever in connec- tion with this matter, I beg of you to command me. The trustees decided to establish the textile de- partment, and invited Tompkins as constructing engineer to draw the plans for the building and supervise its construction. This pleasant duty he performed with skill, energy, and enthusiasm; and refused to accept compensation for his services. It had been a labor of love. The dedication of the textile building and the inauguration of the textile department was cele- brated with imposing ceremonies, of which the chief feature was an address by Tompkins. His audience was composed largely of farmers. A few extracts from his address will show how easily he adapted himself to his audience and how strongly he could appeal to special interests and feelings: " I regard it a rare privilege to be permitted to have a hand in the establishment of this textile school here to-day at Clemson College. The expenditure now being made of twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars is a far better start than any of the original German schools had. I have no sympathy with that helpless sentiment which would say Philadelphia has spent a 196 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH half million dollars on her textile school, therefore our meagre twenty -five thousand dollars can accom- plish nothing. I am one of those who believe that if only fifty dollars can be raised, a fifty-dollar start ought to be made. If we want an oak tree and have nothing but an acorn, let us plant the acorn and nurse the sprig and bush until we have the tree. "This school is supported in part by farmers. Why should farmers pay for educating young men to operate cotton factories .^^ Because by the establish- ment of a factory in his neighborhood, with his son as manager, the farmer can sell not only his cotton to the mill but also his apples, peaches, eggs, chickens, cabbage, peas, and an infinite variety of stuff now unsaleable at any price, for cash to the operatives. And the money received for these is not local money turned over, but it is in many cases brought from abroad for cloth, and when let loose is in addition to the money wealth of a community. *'I hold that these new schools should be open not only to young men but to young women. From time immemorial the weavers of the world have been women. Why, in an advanced state of the art, should they be shut out.? They can design fabrics, they can spin and weave as well as young men. I favor their admission into this new textile depart- ment. "I believe we are going to make more cotton at cheaper prices. Conventions to curtail production will never have any influence. The best interest of the farmer is to produce cotton cheaper, in larger quantity, thereby making it possible to send it farther and farther away from home. Inside of twenty years the United States will make fifteen million BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 197 bales of cotton. We must make it cheap, spin it cheap, and weave it cheap. If we don't, other coun- tries will do it. The more we spin and weave, the cheaper we can produce cotton. This is made possi- ble by the foodstuffs consumed by the operatives. The farmer who can get money for apples that now rot can afford to raise and sell cotton cheaper. The time will come when a farmer living in a cotton manu- facturing neighborhood can get more money in a year for butter, eggs, vegetables, and fruits, than his present cotton crop is worth. "Are the people of this section fitted for factory management.^ I answer, Yes. In the early days of the republic the South led in manufactures. By the cen- sus of 1810 the manufactured products of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia exceeded those of all New England. The manufacturing interests of the South were dried up by the institution of slavery. Since the abolition of slavery the aptitude of the Southern people for manufactures has again promptly shown itself. In the Spanish- American War the achievements of Hobson, Blue, Schley, and others have shown that with a reasonable chance the Southern youth stand always in the front rank. In the early days North and South Carolina had a well-developed iron indus- try. In the period since the war x\labama has set the pace for the manufacture of pig iron. The Piedmont region leads in cotton manufacture. The coming generation wants nothing but opportunity, and this opportunity is chiefly a matter of education of the right kind. Your agricultural college here is the foundation of that sort of education which makes the opportunity. The textile department which we are met here to-day to inaugurate will, in my judg- ment, make one of the most important departments 198 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH in this school. Its work ought to and will largely in- crease the list of cash farm products. It will enhance the value of all lands that are near enough to a fac- tory to reach the operatives with auxiliary products that are now valueless. It is notable that all fac- tories in the South pay from | to | of a cent per pound more for cotton than the buyer for export. " The farmers of South Carolina may well support a system of education that will bring wealth to the people of the State. Who would enjoy it more than their sons and daughters.^ Some of these will farm and some w^ill run the factories. On the other hand, if our own sons and daughters are not trained for this work, then educated men and women must be brought here from other sections of our country, or from England and Germany, to direct the manu- factures, while the sons and daughters of our home people will be compelled to work under the direction of strangers. "I do not believe in the plan of waiting for foreign capital and foreign skill to come and develop our home industries. I believe rather in the value of teaching the sciences and the arts to our own boys and girls and of having our home industries developed at home by our home people. In saying this it is not meant to promote any sentiment for shutting out immigration, or to discourage the coming of foreign capital. People who depend on these, however, as against home effort, are not promoting the perma- nent interests of the South." On the recommendation of Tompkins, Mr. J. H. M. Beatty was chosen by the Clemson trustees as director of the Textile Department. Mr. Beatty was qualified for the work by talents and experience. He had been associated with Tompkins for many BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 199 years as machinist, mill builder, mill worker, and mill superintendent. The organization of the depart- ment was entrusted to Tompkins and Beatty, who made comprehensive plans for its equipment, di- rection, and growth. The Clemson Textile School has surpassed the hopes of its most ardent friends. Its excellent work is a noble monument to the foresight, the public spirit, the engineering skill, and the organizing ability of Tompkins. It was one of the favorite children of his brain, for it represented in his mind the re- birth of his native state, the new foundation of a new South Carolina. Tompkins now turned his attention to his adopted state, and united his energy, enthusiasm, and tech- nical knowledge to other forces that were working for the establishment of a textile school in North Carolina. He neglected no opportunity for propa- ganda, and rallied all available forces, especially among the mill men of the Piedmont section. A fine sample of his skill, tactful management, and power as a promoter of public sentiment, is furnished by his utilizing for this campaign the closing exercises of the Atherton Mills Night School of Charlotte. He was president of the mills, founder and benefactor of the mill schools, friendly adviser in all the school work. The night school was a novelty in Charlotte and a favorite with the public. Its closing exer- cises were greeted by large audiences. The occasion was favorable for creating sentiment, and Tompkins used it. He selected as orator the Hon. Heriot Clarkson, leading member-elect to the Legislature from Charlotte; secured the attendance of promi- nent mill owners ands uperintendents; saw to it that influential mill workers from adjacent mills were on 200 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH hand and treated with consideration; procured, as the honored and distinguished guest of the occasion, Director Beatty of the South Carohna Textile School. He focused on the closing exercises of this little night school the power, the enthusiasm, and the light of a hundred different forces. Everything went off with apparent ease and spontaneity; but those who knew Tompkins knew whose guiding hand was working unseen. The Textile Excelsior gave the following account of the occasion: "Give honor where honor is due. Those men of our Southern country who are devoting much of their valuable time and talents to the cause of education and to the bettering of the conditions of our factory workers deserve present recognition for their services. The result of this means not the personal glorification of any of the leaders of such movements, but the awakening and cooperation of the communities. In this way the improvements are effected. D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte, has been very active in this work of humanity. Through all the mediums of his sphere, and they are many and far-reaching, he has used his influence for good in this direction. His efforts, as chief promoter of the present South Carolina Textile School, as coadjutor with Dr. McAden and other mill presidents in bring- ing the hours for factory labor voluntarily down to eleven per day, all redound to his credit. As president of the Atherton Mills, Charlotte, Mr. Tompkins takes an individual interest in the factory hands. He has provided them not only a day school, but a night school as well. Closing exercises of the latter for the Christmas season were held in the Atherton Ly- ceum a week ago. On this occasion Heriot Clarkson, Esq., who has just been elected to the Legislature BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 201 from this county, delivered a short address on * Prac- tical Education,' and in the course of his remarks said that it was his purpose to introduce in the com- ing Legislature a bill for a state textile school, and he intended to use his utmost endeavor to get the bill passed; that he thought it would be a most import- ant movement and of great benefit to the mill owners and operatives in the State. Mr. Clarkson is one of the warmest friends of education for the masses, and of technical education for mechanics, artisans, and mill men, we have ever met. Several prominent mill men were present, also Prof. J. H. M. Beatty, director of the South Carolina Textile School, who said that he would be glad to see a textile school in North Carolina and would do anything he could to forward the movement. Mr. Tompkins awarded the prizes, which he had personally offered to inspire the students to greater progress." On the meeting of the North Carolina Legislature Representative Clarkson promptly introduced his bill "for the establishment of the Vance Textile School." The bill was referred to the Committee on Education, of which a sub-committee was ap- pointed to consider and report. Mr. Clarkson was chairman of the sub-committee, and at his request Mr. Tompkins furnished the committee with the following facts and figures: "Gentlemen — Pursuant to suggestions made by you and other members of the House, I submit the following data : Cotton raised in North Carolina, crop '96- '97, bales 521,695 Cotton manufactured in cotton mills, '98, bales 326,700 202 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Spindles in South Carolina .... 1,325,390 Spindles in North Carolina. . . . 1,054,686 Spindles in Georgia 749,314 No. mills in North Carolina. . . . 220 No. mills in South Carolina. ... 75 No. mills in Georgia 69 Looms in South Carolina .... 39,458 Looms in North Carolina .... 24,535 Looms in Georgia 21,094 PEOPLE EMPLOYED Men . . . Women . . Children over 14 Girls under 14. Boys under 14. Total wage earners . No. people supported directly Aggregate wages .... 9,660 13,240 6,190 950 810 30,750 100,000 $5,670,490 Value of 500,000 bales cotton (about the State's crop) at 6 cts. . Same, manufactured, at 18 cts. Same, manufactured into finer goods, at 36 cts. (if we know how). . Enhanced value of raw crop at J cts. advance Perishable foodstuffs now annually paid for by operatives, formerly unsaleable (estimated) .... Expenditures by State government to foster or promote this particular industry $15,000,000 45,000,000 90,000,000 625,000 2,000,000 0,000,000 BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 203 Superintendent of North Carolina mills born and trained in other states (estimated) 100 Average salary (estimated) . . . . $1,500 "Time to build a school and put it in operation, six months to one year. "Some of these figures were kindly given me by the Bureau of Labor Statistics; most of them are estimates or taken from memory. TEXTILE SCHOOL Cost of building $10,000 Cost of machinery, equipment . . 15,000 Cost of operating each year. . . . 5,000 Organization: One Professor $1,500 One Assistant 1,000 One Assistant 600 Other Expenses $2,600—6,000 "Regular Course Study — Two years for young men; special course for mill men. Could teach 50 pupils in regular course and 50 more in special in- struction. Pupils from North Carolina now in North- ern schools for textiles (estimated), 50. Tuition — Regular course, $60; special students, $5 a month; extra special as may be agreed. "One school to start with in helping along to put value on cotton is very little to ask of the State. The mill men and operatives both want such a school. With astonishing frequency I have inquiries from bright and energetic young men about where they 204 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH can go to learn the complete processes of spinning and weaving. With astonishing frequency mill o\\Tiers are hunting men who know enough to super- intend a mill, and not finding them at home have to send to New England or Old England. "The mills, the operatives, and the youth of the State all need this school, and its provision by the Legislature would be a popular act." The sub-committee recommended the bill; and in due time a meeting of the full committee was held for public hearings and discussion. The state papers of January 20, 1899, tell the story: "The establishment of a textile school was the question discussed before the House Committee on Education yesterday. Not only was there a full meeting of the committee, but there were many visitors present to hear and take part in the discus- sion, among them the following prominent mill men: "William Entwistle, John Gilligan, Dr. J. H. McAden, George E. Wilson, Dr. George A. Mebane, JuHan S. Carr, R. S. Rhinehart, R. J. Brevard, C. T. Holt, E. L. Mooring, Donald McRae, W. H. William- son. "The bill immediately under consideration was that introduced last week by Mr. Clarkson, of Mecklen- burg, for the establishment of the Vance Textile School. Though Mr. Clarkson was present and briefly explained the bill, the discussion that followed was upon the general subject of textile schools and the need for one in North Carolina rather than upon the particular provisions contained in the bill before the committee." A large delegation from Charlotte was seeking to BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 205 secure the school for that city as the centre of the cotton-milling industry in the two Carolinas. A delegation from Raleigh urged the establishment of the school as a department of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, located in West Raleigh. Speeches were made by Mr. George E. Wilson, president of the Victor Cotton Mills, Meck- lenburg County; by Maj. E. J. Hale, editor of the Fayetteville Observer, formerly United States Consul to Manchester, England, who "talked most in- terestingly of the textile schools in that great cotton- manufacturing centre"; by Mr. William Entwistle, superintendent of two of Rockingham's eight cotton- mills, "who came to this country from Lancashire, England, twenty-seven years ago as a mill worker"; by Prof. J. A. Holmes, State Geologist; by Mr. W. U. Hall, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics; by Mr. W. S. Primrose, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts; by Mr. Richard H. Battle, and others. One of the most forcible speeches was made by Mr. W. J. Peele, chairman of a Committee of the Watauga Club,* who read a memorial of the club asking that the Textile School be established as a department of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. "Wherever estabUshed," said he, "it ought to be in close touch with the mills and the mill men. They ought to be the directors of the institution, and all parts of the State ought to be represented." The best of all the speeches was that of D. A. Tompkins, who was introduced as one of the main- springs in the cotton mill movement in North •The Watauga Club was an organization of progressive and public-spirited young men seeking to promote the industrial and educational advancement of the State. This club, under the leadership of W. J. Peele and Walter H. Page, had been a potent factor m securing the establishment of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, 206 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Carolina, and known all over the South. Mr. Tompkins' talk was intensely practical. He de- clared that there was a great need of specialists — highly trained specialists — and that no money could be better spent than in training specialists to take charge of North Carolina's greatest manufacturing interest, the cotton mills. "Every dollar this Legis- lature, or others, may spend on textile schools will be returned a thousandfold. The question is not — *Can we afford to build the school .^'^but, 'Can we afford not to build it? ' If we do not train our young men and our young women, foreigners — by which is meant persons from other states — will get the posi- tions and salaries and in many cases will eventually own the mills. "North Carolina was a manufacturing state 75 years ago. In 1810 its people knew many times more about cotton and woolen manufacture than they know now, because then they made their own clothes. They made then many things better than they do now; but the growth of slavery drove out manufactures. Now we are coming to the front again, as we have $20,000,000 invested in cotton mills. These mills add greatly to our wealth; they raise the price of cotton to our home farmers at least one fourth of a cent, and they pay in wages an aver- age of $5 a week to 30,000,000 workers employed in the mills. The mills consume about 320,000,000 bales of cotton yearly. This cotton — worth in the raw state 5 cents to 7 cents a pound — brings when manufactured 15 cents to 20 cents. "If the school was started the bulk of machinery needed for teaching would be given by manufac- turers. The textile school in South Carolina cost about $30,000, of which $15,000 was given by the BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 207 State. There is going to be a textile school in North Carolina. South Carolina and Georgia al- ready have schools; Alabama and Mississippi are considering the matter. In less than ten years we will have $500,000 invested in a textile school. Our own children will make us do it." Although the committee reported the bill favor- ably, a deficit in the state treasury, a financial panic, and a low price for cotton made its defeat inevitable before a timid Legislature. But the prediction of Tompkins was fulfilled two years later when the next Legislature, yielding to strong popular demand, provided for a textile department of the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Tompkins was a member of the Board of Trustees of the college; and, at their request, he drew the plans for the textile building and supervised its construction. He would not accept compensation for his indispensable services. His wise counsel and active cooperation in obtaining a competent director and faculty for the school, in securing donations of textile machinery, in arranging the courses of instruction, and in making known the advantages of the school to the North Carolina public, were beyond estimate in promoting its suc- cess. It started off with power and efficiency; and its subsequent career has been a fulfilment of its great mission. For this achievement Tompkins was chiefly responsible; he was its promoter, its builder, its organizer, and from its beginning until his death its chief friend and counsellor. The next work of Tompkins and one of his finest achievements was the establishment of the Mississippi Textile School. This he accomplished by a single speech. Public sentiment in Mississippi 208 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH was favorable to a textile school. The speeches and writings of Tompkins and other industrial leaders had prepared the ground; and the existence of similar schools in North and South Carolina and Georgia had aroused in ^lississippi a feeling of generous rivalry. But public sentiment was not unanimous, and the establishment of the school by no means assured. The Legislature met; and a bill was promptly in- troduced to establish a textile school as a department of the State Agricultural and Mechanical College. At this critical moment Tompkins arrived in Jackson, in response to private telegrams, and was greeted by an invitation from the Legislature to address them on the advantages of textile schools. The two houses met in joint session; and after hear- ing a powerful, convincing, and inspiring speech from Tompkins, passed the bill without discussion. Of this speech the New Orleans Picayune said: "The speech delivered by Mr. Tompkins came in the nick of time, removing all doubt among certain members as to the wisdom of such an appropriation. This is the greatest work that this Legislature has done. It serves notice on the world that Mississippi is going to be in a position not only to foster cotton mills but that the sons and daughters of the State are to reap the salaries that in the absence of textile education must inevitablj^ go to the sons and daughters of other states who would come to Mississippi equipped to earn such salaries and to officer the mills — building, and to be built." The trustees of the college engaged Tompkins to design the plant, organize the equipment of machinery, and formulate the courses of study and training for the new textile school. This duty he performed with his accustomed skill, efficiency, and BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 209 unselfish patriotism, refusing compensation for his services. By invitation of the Legislature of Texas Tomp- kins discussed before a joint session of that body the subject of textile schools; and, subsequently, follow- ing the example of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Mississippi, the State of Texas established a textile school as a department of its Agricultural and Mechanical College. A similar discussion was made by Tompkins before the Legislature of Louisiana, at the close of which the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- tives in joint session assembled. That the earnest thanks of these bodies be tendered the Hon. D. A. Tompkins, of North Carolina, for his able, instruc- tive, and patriotic address and effort to lift the South from the slough of industrial depression, and to light it back to that high plane of prosperity in which it stood in ante-bellum days." Tompkins' speech before the Mississippi Legisla- ture was as follows: "the importance of textile education and textile schools in the south "Since the foundation of the republic three generations have lived and passed away. In the first third of the century, dating from the War of Independence, the South led in education, in manu- factures, in commerce, and in wealth. In the second third of the century the South still led in education and in wealth, but the institution of slavery had stifled our manufactures and seriously impeded the progress of our commerce and brought on the 210 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Civil War, which ended with the abolition of the institution. *' In the last third of a century the South has been carrying on another war, a war of more than thirty years for white supremacy. The Civil War, from '60 to '65, demonstrated the tremendous force of character and courage of the people of the South. The thirty years' war for white supremacy and Anglo- Saxon civilization demonstrated that the sons of those who had been charged with being impetuous fire-eaters could be infinitely patient, judicial minded, and firm as a rock in standing for a principle involving Christian civilization. "When slavery existed, the manufactures estab- lished by our grandfathers were dried up. When slavery was abolished, it was impossible to reestab- lish manufactures pending the restoration of law and order. ''Promptly on the restoration of governments capable of guaranteeing security manufactures began at once to grow. "Our grandfathers were a great people. So also were our fathers. But the greatest generation of Southern people is the one that since the Civil War has at all times trained one hand to arms for the defence of Southern homes, while the other has been kept trained to those occupations that would make a living for those living in the homes. Speaking in round numbers, I give the following record: "In the first decade after the Civil War we made 2,500,000 bales of cotton at twenty-four cents, $300,000,000. In the second decade we made 5,000,000 bales of cotton at twelve cents, $300,000,000. In the third decade we made 10,000,- 000 bales of cotton at six cents, $300,000,000. BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 211 "This is a wonderful record and a discouraging record. Four times the cotton and exactly the same money. " Meantime, India and Egypt are now making more cotton than we made twenty years ago. The tread- ing upon our heels by those countries, with larger quantities of cotton at lowering prices, makes it clear that there can be no remedy in curtailment of production to increase price. Any curtailment of our production means that the people of other coun- tries will make more cotton. If we would continue to control the production, we must make large quantities at cheap prices. "This monopoly has been so far preserved by wise legislation of the various Southern States. It has been done by establishment of agricultural colleges, departments of agriculture, boards of fertilizer control, and other liberal and advantageous meas- ures. "With the highest opinion of the value and the necessity for all these measures, I want to show you that there is another end to this problem on which we can work to advantage. We can continue the control of the production of cotton by its manu- facture. "The fortunes of the cotton farmer and planter can best be revived by the manufacture of cotton. It is a great thing to have developed the production of cotton to the extent of 10,000,000 bales. This alone is sufficient to mark the people of the South to be of great capabilities and resources. Other countries have the land, the climate, and the people, but none have developed the business to any com- mercial proportions, except on lines you have laid out. But you have reduced the production to such 212 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH perfection that while still further improvement is possible, an improvement of one cent a pound in reduction of cost of production would mean only $50,000,000 saving on the entire crop. "If, however, we manufacture the whole crop into the simplest, plain white cloth we change its value from $300,000,000 to $1,000,000,000. Here is a profit to the South of $700,000,000, or more than two hundred per cent. Of course, this is not profit to the stockholder, but if our home people do the work, and Southern fuel and other supplies are used, the whole increased sum must be profit to the South. Much of it goes to labor now unemployed or unprofitably employed. "To make a simpler proposition, let us take 10,000 bales as the production of an average county. These at six cents (average price the last few years) would yield $300,000. Now let this cotton be manufactured into plain, white sheetings, which sell at five cents a yard, and the product is worth $1,000,000. xVssume that this is done with home people (and in North Carolina it is), is done with home fuel (and it can be), and practically the whole increased sum becomes profit to the county. In other words, a county which sells its 10,000 bales of raw cotton gets for it, from England or Germany, $300,000, while, manufactured at home, the county gets the following: Farmers, for foodstuffs $250,000 Merchants and bankers, for groceries, clothing, discounts, interest, etc. . 150,000 Stockholders' profits 100,000 Farmers, for wood and miscellaneous ser- vices and supplies 50,000 BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 213 Lawyers, doctors, preachers, and teachers . $50,000 Savings of operatives out of wages, etc. . 25,000 Improved roads, public buildings, and other public improvements . . . 25,000 Wasted by operatives 25,000 Miscellaneous 25,000 "It will be seen that out of this extra return the farmer gets an extra $300,000, or just as much money as he got for his raw cotton. He would get this for his perishable products, which now practically have no markets. These would be meat, meal, flour, chickens, eggs, butter, milk, potatoes, onions, cabbage, turnips, peaches, apples — in truth, for everything that grows on a farm. "By means of the factory and the demands it makes upon the farm the land is vastly increased in value. It transpires that wherever cotton is tripled in value by manufacture, then the adjacent farms are also tripled in value. "It is by this means we can continue to control the production of cotton. Double the farmer's income on a fixed production of cotton and he can continue to produce the cotton for the world and undersell the Egyptian. "The development of the South requires manu- factures. The interests of the cotton farmer require, above all things, that his cotton be manufactured at home to give him home markets for all his other farm products. "The development of manufactures requires, first of all, education and transportation. England and Germany send ships here for our cotton at an average price of six cents a pound. Those countries manufacture it, and re-sell the products to South 214 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH America, South Africa, China, and other countries at twenty cents a pound and upward to unbelievable prices per pound. It stands to reason they won't be willing to furnish subsidized ships and handle our cloth to the injury of their own trade. "We have the best domestic transportation facilities in the world in our railroads. Wealth and education considered, we have the worst ocean trans- portation in the world. Our domestic markets are the best developed and most valuable in the world. "If we get our ocean transportation to the same degree of efficiency as our domestic facilities, then we might safely extend the development of cotton manufacture to cover the entire crop. We now manufacture in the United States about one fourth the crop. This supplies our domestic market. We have commenced the development of some foreign markets with success. If we continue to develop our manufactures we must continue to develop our ocean transportation facilities to put us in position to sell our goods economically and profitably in foreign countries. If we do this we can manufacture the whole of our cotton into cloth, if we know enough about the processes of manufacture to turn the cotton into marketable shapes. This means tech- nical, and especially textile, education. "I urgently advise that you make a liberal ap- propriation to establish a textile department at your Agricultural and Mechanical College. It should be open to both sexes. Your grandmothers spun and wove, and there is no reason for excluding your daughters from the use of any facilities to learn to spin and weave now. "The presidents were formally selected from the South, not by accident, but because they were the BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 215 best educated people of the Union. Also because they had great interests developed, and great in- terests require and develop great statesmen as great wars require and develop great generals. ''To develop here a great industry and great interests cotton is your best basis. You must have schools to teach the science and art of cotton manu- facture. "The best contentment in life comes from having learned to do some profitable thing better than any- body else can do it. To accomplish this, study and practice are necessary. It is as easy to learn all about a loom as it is to learn all about football. It requires as much practice to become a superior weaver as it does to become a superior football player. "The management of a spinning frame and the making of yarn is not near so difficult as the manage- ment of a sewing machine and the making of clothes. In every household it is well understood that a careful study of the principles of a sewing machine and a lot of practice are necessary to the making of a satis- factory operator on a machine. It is better for a girl to go to some normal school or female college, but it is not necessary. Some of the very best housewives never go to college at all. They acquire superior capabilities by careful observation and continued practice. As it is in the household so it is in a factory. The average girl knows that if she would keep a good house, she must study and practice. Perhaps her mother is her only teacher, and she may have no opportunity to practice except at home. "The boy who expects to manufacture cotton should learn the principles involved in each machine in the mill and acquire the necessary skill to operate 216 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH it, just as his sister learns the sewing machine and cooking utensils at home, and acquires skill in the handling of them. "In modem education far too little stress is laid on practice, where the future occupation is to be in- dustrial. Manufacturing, housekeeping, music, and painting are all sciences and arts. The schools may teach the sciences involved, and to a limited extent the arts. Take music, for instance. It may be taught at school, and to a limited extent practised at school, but to be a successful musician means long and arduous practice after the schooldays. In music the teachers all emphasize the futility of ex- pecting success in music without this arduous practice subsequent to the schooldays. But many of the technical schools let the idea grow amongst the students that the college course alone will fit them to manufacture cloth or make yarns. For the best work the school is essential in manufactures as in music. But also for the best work practice is as essential in manufactures as in music. The best music draws the biggest crowd to the concert. Every musician will say that, as a rule, the best music means the most practice. The best cloth will have the preference in every store. The best cloth means the most skill, which in turn again means the most arduous practice. So it is in housekeeping, so in painting, and in other callings. Genius is mostly application. "Of two boys, one having a fine technical educa- tion with a little practice, the other having only a common school education, and having served a full apprenticeship, the chances for success are four to one in favor of the latter. Put the technical education and the apprenticeship together, and the young BUILDER OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS 217 man having both is at once a master of his occupa- tion. "The latter is the way it was with the planter's son before the war. From the day of his birth till he went to college he was serving an apprenticeship on a plantation. He didn't realize it, but he did serve the apprenticeship. He rode the mules, drove the horses, helped feed the hogs, was in close touch with the negroes. At twenty-one years of age, with or without a college education, he could run a planta- tion, and do it well. Nine times out of ten he was successful in life. "The youth of to-day needs the same sort of education to fit him for modern conditions. The youth of to-day ought to understand a loom as well as his grandfather did a mule. He ought to know every phase of cotton manufacture as well as his grandfather knew every phase of its production. Practice in the different operations is the way to get the skill. "In thus exhibiting the importance of practical training with this technical textile education I am urging upon you, I do so to show that the higher education in this line will open up the way for prac- tical and profitable occupation for every boy and girl now unoccupied, even though they do not have opportunity to go to the technical school. Let the higher school open up the way with its higher teach- ing and training, and this opens up the way for profitable occupation and opportunity for every farmer's son or daughter in the State, and for all other people who need an opportunity to get a start in life. I am a machinist by trade, and made my start in life as a machinist. The chance that spin- ning and weaving offers for a start in life, though «18 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH lowly in the beginning, has before it unlimited op- portunity for wealth and honor. Some of the most distinguished men of the world have often started some narrative by saying, *When I was a weaver!"* It may truly be said of Tompkins that he was the chief promoter and builder of Southern textile schools, as he had been of cotton mills and cotton oil mills. With him schools and mills were both essen- tial parts of a great industrial system. "We have reached the limit," said he, "of what may be done with picked-up knowledge and ignorant labor. The remedy is schools for textile instruction. They will multiply mills, enhance the value of mill products, and create home markets for perishable farm produce. Cotton mills and textile schools to- gether make the remedy for the depressed condi- tion of farming in the South." CHAPTER XIII AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON INDUSTRIES THE culmination of Tompkins' career as a missionary of cotton was his authorship of books on cotton industries. These books were the products of his experience, and dealt with actual mill problems in the Southern States. They are intended for books of instruction in textile schools and for the guidance of mill owners, mill builders, and mill workers. Although sufficiently technical, they are interesting to the general reader, as they furnish a picture of the Old South growing into the new. His first book was entitled, " Cotton Mill Processes and Calculations, an elementary textbook for the use of textile schools and for home study, with ap- pendix containing tables, rules, and recipes. 300 pages, 50 original drawings." In the preface the author states the plan and purpose of the book, and sums up for cotton mill apprentices the philosophy of success: "It has been attempted in this volume to give a description of the machines, and exhibit their various functions; also to give rules and formulas for making the calculations, in such a simple way that they may be followed out by any person of ordinary intelligence, and with only a limited common school education. "To the student and apprentice, for whom this 219 220 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH book is intended, it might not be amiss to say that skill in operating machines and in keeping a manu- facturing process well balanced throughout cannot be acquired by reading any book. Both knowledge and skill are necessary in the production of good music. So, in the manufacture of cotton, knowledge and skill are equally necessary to get the best results. The best success will not come to the young man who acquires the fullest knowledge and omits the practice necessary to make him skilful. Neither w^ill it come to the one who works longest and hardest, and never studies. But rather to the one who with discretion and energy devotes reasonable time to the acquisition of both knowledge and skill." The first edition was quickly exhausted, being widely used in mills and textile schools, as well as in demand by general readers and students of the industrial South. Its commendation by the press was equally gratifying. "One of the best books ever published in the South," said the Raleigh News and Observer, "is 'Cotton Mill Processes and Calculations,' by Mr. D. A. Tompkins, the practical and wise manufacturer of Charlotte. This book may be said to mark a mile-post in the industrial history of North CaroHna. The State has passed out of the experiment of manufacturing raw cotton into yarn; it will henceforth teach the youths of this and other states. Yesterday it sat in the schoolroom, near the foot of the class, doubtful if it could be a great manufacturing state; to-day it is a teacher, with pupils thronging its industrial academies desiring to learn the problem of converting raw cotton profitably into finished products. In the industrial progress of the State Mr. Tompkins has been a helpful and inspiring factor. His book will be invaluable, and AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON 221 the fact that there is a demand for it shows that we go forward." "Cotton Mill Processes and Calculations," said the Norfolk Landmark, "is in every respect a notable work. It is the first book written and published in the South on the important subject of cotton manu- facturing. Mr. Tompkins is intensely practical. What he has to say is not based upon mere theoretical knowledge but also upon actual and extensive ex- perience. No man is better qualified to utilize experience, and profit by its lessons, than is Mr. Tompkins. To the youthful student and the apprentice, especially, Mr. Tompkins addresses himself, desiring to impress upon the young workman of intelligence and ambition the great truth that success comes not to mere skill of the hand and eye, nor to mere theoretical knowledge, but to a judicious combination of manual skill and technical knowl- edge. The whole wisdom of active life is here condensed by Mr. Tompkins into the compass of a few words." His next book was entitled: "Cotton Mill Commercial Features, a textbook for the use of textile schools and investors, w^ith tables showing cost of machinery and equipments for mills making cotton yarns and plain cotton cloths." "This is the author's second volume of a series on cotton mill subjects," said the Manufacturers^ Record, "The first volume treated of the interior detail of cotton mill machinery and its management. The present volume is devoted to the commercial and financial aspects of the business. It is a book which the business man can read with pleasure. It is not encumbered with technicalities which usually load down books treating of special industries. It 223 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH is a straightforward and easy discussion of the busi- ness principles underlying the organization of a new company for cotton manufacture, the building of the plant, keeping the accounts, and disposing of the product. The author is a Southern man intensely interested (financially and sentimentally) in Southern institutions, but he takes pains to show in every case that the true road to advancement in cotton manu- facturing lies in the harmonious cooperation with Northern and Eastern mills for the acquisition of the world's markets." "A valuable feature of this book," said the New Orleans Picayune, "is its presentation of the theory that more wealth accrues from the sale of the manu- factured article than of the raw material. The author directs attention to the great increase of cotton manufacturing in the cotton states. He adduces many striking facts to show how the new enterprises have worked for the general prosperity of the South. In a suggestive chapter on textile education Mr. Tompkins deals with the movement on behalf of technical training which has lately sprung up in the Southern States. He explains at some length exactly what ought to be taught in textile schools. Another chapter is devoted to the new conditions of labor which have sprung up as a result of the evolution of the negro. Mr. Tompkins even goes so far in this subject as to present plans for cheap but comfortable houses for the accommoda- tion of the laboring class. This work is unique as well as comprehensive. Mr. Tompkins has rendered a great service to the South in compiling it. The book is copiously illustrated, the plans of machinery and mill construction being a particularly valuable feature." AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON 223 His next book was entitled: "Cotton Values in Textile Fabrics, A Collection of Cloth Samples, iVrranged to Show the Value of Cotton, when Con- verted Into Various Kinds of Cloth." The purpose and character of this book are set forth in the preface, which says: "This collection of samples of cotton goods with data on costs per j^ard and per pound was prepared to show the possibilities that lie in our cotton crop. Opposite each sample is shown the value of a good North Carolina crop, 500,000 bales, reckoned as raw material, and sold at a normal average price of six cents per pound or thirty dollars per bale. Con- trasted with this valuation is shown what the same half million bales would bring if manufactured into goods like the samples, at normal average prices. "The cheapest sample showTi is duck, worth four- teen cents per pound. Half a million bales of cotton in this shape would bring thirty-five million dollars, or nearly two and a half times its value in the raw state. The whole crop of the country, say eleven million bales, if manufactured into this goods and sold at this price, would show a gain over the raw price of more than four hundred million dollars, or more than five dollars per capita for all the people of the Continental United States. "To manufacture the entire cotton crop into duck would be a misfortune, somewhat akin to selling the entire crop in its raw state. But cotton may be made into numerous other forms to produce even greater values, as is shown by the succeeding samples, the last of which shows that if the North Carolina crop could be converted into Swiss embroidery and sold at twenty dollars per pound, it would bring five billion dollars. This is about equal to all the money 224 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH received for all the raw cotton grown in the United States in the past twenty years. It is more than enough to buy all the cotton and woolen mills in the world ! "To manufacture the entire crop of the country into embroidery would be as undesirable as to turn it all into duck. These extreme figures are given to show the v/ide range of possibilities in the business. They exhibit the relative gain in both cases and not the absolute result to be attained. "All of the samples shown are made of cotton; but some of the finest were not made of the ordinary cotton of our commerce, and therefore it may be contended that the claim for such princely values in our cotton is beyond the mark. But the goods were made of a kind of cotton. This cotton was grown under certain conditions. If these conditions were well understood, and the production of cotton carried on with sufficient skill, these fine grades of cotton could be raised over large areas now devoted to the ordinary kind. "Therefore the argument resolves itself into a question of proper education and thrift to turn a possible cotton crop into thousands of times the money now realized on it by the people who produce it. In other words, in undertaking to exliibit the values to which cotton may be brought the subject covers improvement of the lint by the grower as well as improvement in spinning and weaving by the manufacturer. "Part of the difference between the price of raw cotton and the retail prices affixed to the samples shown is created by the merchant and not all by the manufacturer. But nevertheless there is a gain to the community by reason of the goods having been AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON 225 manufactured at home. The very process of manu- facturing is conducive to greater volume of mer- cantile business from the fact that many people are thus given employment who would otherwise be idle. These people become wealth producers, and become much larger consumers of all commodities than before. "The grower of unimproved raw cotton now receives but a modicum of its possible value. It is hoped that this collection of samples, though giving but a minute suggestion of the infinite possibilities, may point the way to greater returns for the labor of the people in the cotton-growing states, and lead them to find out the steps necessary to acquire the skill for producing better qualities of cotton, and for turning this better cotton into goods of greater value." This little book went like a missionary through the South. Five editions were called for in five years. It shows at a glance the value, on the one hand, of finished products and skilled labor; on the other hand, of raw material and untrained muscle. VALUE OF 500,000 BALES OF COTTON PRODUCED IN NORTH CAROLINA* Not Manufactured: — sold in bales @ 6 cts $ 15,000,000 Manufactured: — into Duck @ 14 cts. per lb 35,000,000 Manufactured: — into Drilling @ 16 cts 40,000,000 Manufactured : — into Sheeting @ 18 cts 45,000,000 •The prices given in this table were the market prices at the^me of the publication of the little book. 226 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Manufactured: — into Bleaching @ 20 cts $ 50,000,000 Manufactured: — into Tick @ 24 cts 60,000,000 Manufactured: — into Cheviot @ 26 cts 65,000,000 Manufactured: — into Denim @ 30 cts 75,000,000 Manufactured : — into Plain Ging- ham @ 34 cts 85,000,000 Manufactured: — into Shade Cloth @ 34 cts 85,000,000 Manufactured: — into Madras @ 40 cts 100,000,000 Manufactured : — into Long Cloth @ 70 cts 175,000,000 Manufactured : — into Mercerized Cloth @ $1 250,000,000 Manufactured : — into Gingham Lawn @ $1.70 425,000,000 Manufactured : — into Poplin @ $1.80 450,000,000 Manufactured: — into Fancy Ging- ham @ $2.20 550,000,000 Manufactured : — into Persian Lawn @ $4 1,000,000,000 Manufactured : — into Embroidery @ $20 5,000,000,000 The last and in many respects the most interest- ing of his books on cotton industries was the follow- ing: "Cotton and Cotton Oil: — Cotton Planting, Cultivating, Harvesting, and Preparation for market — Cottonseed Oil Mills Organization, Construction, and Operation — Cattle Feeding, Production of Beef AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON 227 and Dairy Products, Cottonseed Meal and Hulls as Stock Feed — Fertilizer INIanufacture, Manipulation, and Uses. Full Information for Investor, Student, and Practical Mechanic." Aside from its technical contents, "Cotton and Cotton Oil " is full of interest. It describes Southern industrial conditions before, during, and after the Civil War, the old Southern plantation, the growing and marketing of cotton, the growth and influence of cotton mills, the utilization of cottonseed, and the beginning of a new agriculture. It contains a very interesting chapter intended to show that the cotton saw gin was invented by Hodgin Holmes, of Georgia, and appropriated afterward by Eli Whitney, whose invention was a roller set with teeth or spikes, but lacking saws. The four books forming this series have been highly praised : "The Editor of Cotton and Finance,'' says Theo. H. Price, "desires to make our acknowledgments to Mr. D. A. Tompkins for some pictures of the cotton boll in its various stages of development recently published by Cotton and Finance, They were taken from * Cotton and Cotton Oil,' one of a series of books of which he is the author. These books, taken together, form the most valuable and compact reference library with regard to the history of cotton cultivation and manufacturing of which the writer has any knowledge." "This series of books," says the Manufacturers' Record, "is devoted to various aspects of the cotton trade — growing the crop, manufacturing it into different classes of goods, selling these and finding new markets abroad for increased sale and consump- tion. Each book is an attempt to supply a much- 228 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH felt need for full information about the cotton manufacturing business. There has been no class of literature like this published in the United States. Presented as it is from the American standpoint, it is interesting and instructive." An addendum to the series is, "American Com- merce: Its Expansion, a collection of addresses and pamphlets relating to the extension of foreign mar- kets for American manufactures." Besides his books on industrial subjects Tompkins published "A History of Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte," in two volumes; Vol. 1 "con- taining the simple narrative," and Vol. 2 "In the nature of an appendix, containing ample discussions of important events, a collection of biographies and many official documents justifying and verifying the statements in the narrative." Among interest- ing topics discussed in these volumes are : The Meck- lenburg Declaration of Independence, The Early Settlers in the Piedmont Section, Education, Religion, Slavery, Industrial Life, the Revolution, The Civil War and Reconstruction. Tompkins also published in pamphlet form many of his speeches. He was an active, ready, and zealous speaker; and wishing to extend the influence of his speeches by widening the circle of readers, he pub- lished them in convenient form for circulation, pres- ervation, and reference. The activity of his mind and the strength of his desire to educate and stimulate public opinion are shown in the following list of pamphlets of which he was the author: The Unification and Enlargement of American Interests; Cotton Growing; Road Build- ing and Repairs; Road Building and Broad Tires; Nursing and Nurses; Home Acquiring and Industrial AUTHOR OF BOOKS ON COTTON 229 Insurance; The Currency; American Merchant Ma- rine; The Tariff; National Expansion; Cottonseed and Its Products; Cotton— The Mill Man's Point of View; Labor and Legislation; A Plan to Raise Capital; Cotton as a Factor in Progress; Export Trade; Markets for American Goods; The Storing and Marketing of Cotton; Fourth of July Address; Patriotic Songs; The Cotton Gin — History of Its Invention; The South (Some Addresses); Child Labor and Apprenticeship Training; Cotton Ware- housing; Cotton Picker; Electric Lighting; Cotton- seed Oil Mills; The Cotton Industry; Should Start Early in Life; The Money Value of Education and Training; Apprenticeship Papers; Cotton Certificates; Address at Inter-State Cottonseed Crushers' Associa- tion; Ohio Valley and Southern Industrial Tour; The South's Position in American Affairs; Road Building in a Southern State; The Cultivation, Picking, Baling, and Manufacturing of Cotton; American Cotton Manufacture and the Tariff (Charleston Address); Company K, 14th S. C. Volunteers, C. S. A.; Building and Loan Associations. CHAPTER XIV INDEPENDENT AND INDUSTRIAL JOURNALIST — CHARLOTTE "OBSERVER" NEWSPAPER IDEALS ll LTHOUGH an author of industrial books L\ and a speaker on industrial subjects, it was X J^ chiefly through newspapers that Tompkins educated the South to appreciate its industrial needs. He possessed in a high degree the new^spaper instinct, and was strongly attracted by the allurements of journalism. He knew the power of printer's ink, and used it constantly. Opportunity now came to own it, and was seized by him with clear vision and steadfast purpose. The story of his entrance into journalism is told by Tompkins with characteristic simplicity and modesty. He says: "With a desire to have a better daily paper in Charlotte some gentlemen associated themselves together to make a company with capital enough to put out a good paper, as they thought. Some of these gentlemen were Col. Wm. Johnson, Major Clement Dowd, Col. Ham Jones, and others. They raised $6,000 to buy out the Chronicle and put it in shape. They invited me to take some stock, and I took $500 worth of stock with them. They then asked me to become a director; but I declined, on the ground that I was not enough in Charlotte and was too bus3\ "After operating two years the company had lost 230 JOURNALIST 231 half of its capital stock and was in debt for $3,000. Then the stockholders met to consider what could be done. A committee came to me and asked me to take charge of the paper as its business manager. I told them I could not think of doing this; but they persisted, and asked on what conditions I would take charge. I proposed that if they would get up all the stock, I would buy it all, and upon that condition alone would I undertake to run the paper. They got up the stock according to my proposition, and I bought the paper. "One of the chief difficulties was the mechanical end. The machinery was inadequate, and what there was of it would not work well. I went to work to put the machinery in order, so that they could be sure of getting the paper out on time every morning. I proceeded myself to take out the two-horse gas engine and put in a four-horse gas engine. I rearranged and overhauled all the machinery; and the paper im- mediately went smoother and better. Everybody worked with better spirit, knowing that this work would bring out a paper each morning on time. After getting the machinery in good order, the paper jogged along in very good shape." But "jogging along" was not the speed nor the gait for Tompkins. He quickly recognized the neces- sity for a partner. It was impossible for him to man- age and edit the paper while performing at the same time his work as engineer, mill builder, and manufac- turer of mill machinery. The paper needed an editor and general manager, a man of ability, character, and newspaper experience, who would devote himself entirely to its management. The ideal man was at hand, living in a small country village and issuing one of the best, if not the best, among the weekly 232 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH newspapers in North Carolina — Joseph P. Caldwell — editor and owner of the States ville Landmark. Tompkins had seen Caldwell, and valued him at his true worth. He now invited him to Charlotte to become joint owner and managing editor of the Ob- server. His purpose in selecting Caldwell reveals his purpose in developing the paper. "In securing Mr. Caldwell," he says in his memoirs, "to become my partner in the Observer, I was governed by various motives. In my business dealings with him in Statesville and in my personal acquaintance with him, he had seemed to be a man of strong character and clear judgment and high purpose, a man of broad, liberal views, who was looking hopefully to the future of the South. The one thing that I wanted the paper for was to preach the doctrines of industrial development. There was need for the South to get away from one single crop as its only source of income. I felt that I had seen enough, while I was working in the North and during the year's work I had done in Europe, to make me know that we had to diversify our pursuits in the South, not only in raising crops, but in all industrial ways, before we could get from under the depression which existed. Mr. Caldwell and I talked over these matters and agreed in views as to the proper course for the paper to pursue in the accomplishment of that result. He was a most able writer; and with definite plans and views before him he set them well before the public. There was a sort of tacit understanding that I would look after industrial matters and he would look out for the political interests of the paper. Of course we were both interested in both questions, but each was well suited to look after the interest that was in a way assigned to him. The partnership was always an JOURNALIST 233 easy fitting arrangement. I became the majority stockholder after awhile by the purchase of some of his stock at his request. There was never a time throughout the partnership of about twenty years that we had the slightest difference that made a jar of any kind. "Neither of us, I think, ever thought about the money that might be made out of the Observer, and neither pursued any course or policy because of the money involved. The paper stood for the welfare of the whole people. It was inaugurated at a time when there was need for reform. The South's ideas had been so controlled by the slave-holding oligarchy that many economic questions had to be changed before the welfare of the country could be best pro- moted. Yet these changes had to be carefully ex- pressed and worked out to keep from offending the delicate sensibilities of a fine race of people, who had been defeated in war, whose property had been de- stroyed, who afterward had been oppressed by the conquerors with every sort of harassment that was calculated to annoy, irritate, and depress their feelings and stifle their energies." There was never a partnership more felicitous, harmonious, or efficient than the partnership of Tompkins and Caldwell, in the ownership, editorship, and management of the Charlotte Observer. "We never tried to come into exact accord on all sub- jects," said Tompkins, "but Caldwell was a man of such extraordinary good judgment and ability that I always felt that a question discussed and left in his hands was left in its very best shape." After Caldwell's death the following tribute was paid him by Tompkins in the columns of the news- paper. It is a fine picture of Caldwell; and, look- 234 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ing beneath the surface, it is a perfect picture of Tompkins: J. p. CALDWELL "He should not be spoken of as the best editor in North Carolina, nor of the South. He was an editor who would have done great things in any country. "In the reconstruction of the fallen fortunes of his state he was among the first to discuss the value of industrial activities for revising the people's wel- fare. In politics he did more than any other to save Republicanism in his native state from Carpet- baggism, and Democracy from Communistic Popu- lism. "He equally knew and supported the white race and the colored race, each with its proper rights and privileges. He enjoyed the highest confidence of both races. "In his writings he so balanced the forces of political movements as always to help get the best resultant force for the State's and the Nation's welfare. Per- haps better than all he balanced Northern and South- ern sentiment to the best interest of the whole coun- try. His balancing of forces was never a compro- mise; it was the right way." Working harmoniously together for twenty years, Tompkins and Caldwell made the Charlotte Observer one of the leading Southern newspapers, conspicuous for brilliant, fearless, and powerful editorials, for constant advocacy of industrial development, and for impartial publication of news. The keynote of the paper's policy was pitched by Tompkins in the following announcement: "The Observer has always been and will continue to be independent Democratic. JOURNALIST 235 "It will not undertake radical support or opposi- tion of causes with which Democracy has no con- cern. "It will support moral, intellectual, and educational causes. "It gives special attention to the matter of collect- ing and publishing industrial news." The policy of political independence was carried out by Caldwell in the editorial columns and sus- tained by Tompkins in business management and financial backing. Under the guidance of two such leaders the paper could not be a political organ nor a partisan sheet. It cut loose from party shackles, and refused to use prevailing methods of partisan warfare. Its columns were courteous and fair to political opponents, publishing accurate and full reports of Republican meetings, speeches, and plat- forms. It would not garble, distort, nor suppress political news, nor misrepresent in any way the utter- ances of its political opponents. It was brave, honest, and fair. It relied upon argument and reason rather than prejudice and deception to convince the public mind. It was full of faith in the people. It believed that the best way to lead the people is to keep them informed. "It is the purpose of the Observer ^^^ said its an- nouncement, "to publish all the news and intelligent comment on same. "It has always been and will continue to be fair in all its interpretation of the news. "Comprehensively speaking, the purpose is to publish a Neivs paper and give the news so fully that each reader may feel that if he has glanced over the Observer he is well posted about the events of the day over the whole world." 236 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH The supreme test of the Observer's independent journaHsm came in the national political campaign over *'free silver." Unhesitating and unflinching, it stood for sound money. It supported Cleveland in his three campaigns with zeal, energy, and ability. It believed in the principles for which he stood, ad- mired his honesty and independence, and loved him for the enemies he had made. It hoped and labored for the regeneration of the national Democracy under the guidance of Cleveland. It distrusted the un- natural and dangerous coalition of Southern conser- vatism with Western radicalism. When the national Democratic Party, yielding to the clamor and threats of Populism, endorsed free silver and fiat money, the Observer repudiated the platform and bolted the ticket. It was over- whelmed with a flood of ignorance, prejudice, and misrepresentation; but it survived the storm, and was justified in the final triumph of its principles — in the maintenance of public credit, the restoration of business confidence, the revival of business, the increased production of gold, and the arrival of the long-delayed era of abounding prosperity. But the chief work and the chief purpose of the Observer was the industrial development of the South. In the mind of Tompkins the paper existed as an instrument for this purpose. To him the most im- portant of all news in the growing, expanding, and developing South was industrial news. His ideas on the subject were proclaimed so constantly that he was regarded almost as a crank. "Many a time," said the leading Observer reporter, "Red Buck," H. E. C. Bryant, "have Mr. Caldwell and myself joked about Mr. Tompkins' desire to fill the Observer with * industrial news' and cut out all sensations. JOURNALIST 237 *Why don't you put cotton mill news on the front page, top of column, and lynchings inside the paper?' Mr. Tompkins used to ask, when he would come in from some engineering task. Mr. Tompkins thought of the South and its industrial development all the time. Nothing else interested him for years. " "Write constructive news," was the motto of Tompkins for the Observer reporters. "Very few newspaper reporters," said he, "understand what is news. If a train going North with thirty loaded cars kills a tramp ten miles out of Charlotte, the reporters flock there, get the name of the tramp, if possible, find out what sort of clothes he wore, what was in his pockets, how he looked, etc. — come back to town and write it up in one or more columns. They completely missed the news. They gave a gruesome story that should not be given to the pubhc at all, or, if at all, very briefly. The real news was what the thirty cars were loaded with and why they were going North. "If a man starts up a stock farm or a vegetable farm, and runs it different or better in a locality where there is not much of this sort of industry, or starts a new enterprise to put people to work, that is real news. Most papers fear to write it up, how- ever, because it may give the man or his enterprise some free advertising." Two years after the organization of the Observer by Tompkins and Caldwell its columns contained the following article written by Tompkins: "the 'daily observer' and its policy" "The ante-bellum newspaper of the South was essentially a poHtical institution. Its patrons were 238 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH chiefly planters and slave owners. The chief interest it could have for its patrons was in telling well and fully how politics were going and in exhibiting the doings of statesmen and future statesmen. Every interest in the South was entangled with the institu- tion of slavery. Its maintenance depended solely upon the work of Southern statesmen at Washington, and in the various State capitals. ** Whoever subscribed for a paper was moved by his interest in government affairs and in the people who conducted them. There was no way in which a cotton planter could make money by taking a newspaper. But by keeping well posted he could help send the best men to the Legislature and to Congress to help maintain the institution of slavery in which his material interests were involved. "Newspaper men of the South are not yet freed from this heritage of habit of conducting a newspaper for politics only. Newspaper patronage in the South is also more or less constrained by this same inherited idea that a newspaper is a luxury — a sort of political luxury. But politics is no longer the one subject of public interest to Southern people. It is exceed- ingly important for the benefit of the papers and also for the benefit of the people that this fact should be appreciated and that it should have its influence in the make-up of the newspapers. Southern people are becoming more and more interested in manu- factures — in diversified manufactures. One man is interested in lumber, another in cotton oil, another in cotton spinning, another in mining iron ore, another in gold mining, and so on through a long list. A large number, of course, are interested in farming, and especially in the production of fruits and early vegetables. JOURNALIST 239 "A newspaper which gives reasonable space and attention to these various subjects is in no sense a luxury. Its readers who are in business should find its subscription price a most excellent investment. The six, eight, or ten dollars paid annually for such a paper should make itself over many times in a year, provided, of course, the reader is intelligent enough to avail himself of the benefits of special information on the subjects upon which news and general informa- tion is gathered. "In one Southern paper of good repute the published matter in one week, exclusive of the regular markets and advertisements, was as fol- lows: Crimes, casualties, and political news . 94 per cent. Industrial 2 Farming 4 Literature and art a it "Yet it doesn't seem to have occurred either to the management or the patrons of that paper but that it is a powerful good paper. "Politics is the old and accustomed diet to its readers and the paper is organized to produce this diet. It would probably find it very awkward to be required to change it much. If three men meet together to make a deal about ward representation in an approaching county political convention, it makes first-rate material in such a paper for a one quarter to one half column editorial, while a conven- tion of business men or manufacturers may meet and be disposed of in a few lines, somewhere in the inside of the paper. 240 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "Under its present management the Daily Observer has made a material change in these matters. It gives special attention to the matter of collecting and publishing industrial news. Some of its expe- riences in revealing to its old patrons the money value of a good paper are unique. "When the paper was purchased by its present owners, its subscription price was $5.00 per year, payable about as the subscriber pleased. The first move w^as to change the price to $6.00 per year, and there was a loss of some subscribers on account of this change. But most of the subscribers stayed with the paper at the new price, probably as much as anything else in a spirit of approval of any effort to make a good paper in Charlotte. "For the past two years the subject matter of the paper has been well diversified and careful attention has been given to industrial subjects. A competent man has been put on the road to do special work, most of which relates to education or developing manufactures. The expenses of producing this sort of paper naturally increased very materially, so that on the first of January last the subscription price was again changed — this time from $6.00 to $8.00 per year. " This change caused some considerable dissatisfac- tion, and quite a number of orders were received to discontinue the paper. Every one of these orders to stop the paper indicated in one way or another that the old habit still survived of looking upon a newspaper as simply a sort of luxury to be read to pass away idle time. A job printer wrote, *Please stop my paper. I like it but do not feel that I can afford to pay $8.00 per year simply to gratify my desire to read your paper.' JOURNALIST 241 "This letter was answered about as follows: "*The paper will be stopped as you direct. We beg, however, to call your attention to the fact that our paper ought to do much more than furnish reading matter for your evenings. For the last two years it has contained early information of the establish- ment of many industrial works. Amongst others the organization of several in your town was first made public in our paper. You have probably got some of the job printing work from some of these concerns by knowing who to see about it. You got this in- formation out of our paper.'" Under this policy the Observer became indispens- able to industrial workers, managers, and investors throughout the Carolina Piedmont. An afternoon edition was issued, known as the Charlotte Evening Chronicle; and the Observer Company became also controlling owners of the Greenville, S. C, News. Through these papers Tompkins daily heralded far and wide the gospel of industrialism. His texts were manufactures, diversified agriculture, stock and dairy farming, fruits, truck farms, improved roads, industrial education, building and loan associa- tions, thrift, enterprise, self-reliance, and economy. He knew that the Old South was dead and that the New South must be, first of all, a new industrial South. With this theme he filled the Observer and his other papers. He preached it with the faith, the zeal, and the power of a genuine missionary. He steadily converted everybody in touch with him, and organized into a band of industrial workers for the building of the New South the entire force of his three newspapers — editors, reporters, canvassers, and correspondents. The following letter of instruction to his newspaper / 242 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH employees shows his methods, his tact, and his skill in accomplishing this result: for writers and canvassers of the observer company" "The newspapers of the Observer Company are in our opinion unsurpassed for general news and for editorial writing. The deficiency of almost all South- ern papers is that they contain little else except poli- tics and general news. Formerly, these were the only matters of interest in the South. In late years, both manufactures and commerce have revived and the interest in these is equal to, if not superior to, the interest in politics and general news. Therefore, it is very important that the gatherers of news and writers should publish items relating to this industrial development and commercial revival. A large num- ber of the readers of the Observer papers take the keenest interest in learning that a bridge is to be built, and it is very desirable that the details be published; who the Commissioners are that will let the bridge out, whether the contract has already been let, whether stone-work will be required, etc. "Notes of a new factory are interesting, and it is very important to give the names of the projectors and their addresses. "If a railroad is extended into a new territory where apples abound, every grocer is interested to know the facts. The names of those who are in position to furnish apples in the new territory, to- gether with their names, is very important. "In fact, everything out of which people could make money or that would lead to the extension of trade is the best of good news, and the more of this JOURNALIST 243 that is put in the paper the more the paper will be read, the easier it will be sold, and the better the argu- ment that can be made for its sale. We want to get to where we can assure every subscriber that if he will watch the news and advertising columns he will be sure to get information out of which he can make a hundred dollars a year as a minimum and possibly a thousand dollars or two thousand dollars. In other words, we want to make the paper valuable as a money-making proposition for every subscriber, provided he wants to make money. My own opinion is that our papers are that kind already, but they can be still further improved. "The Charlotte Observer is by long odds the cheap- est paper in the State for the man to buy. The reason is that it is an investment which makes a return. In addition to that it gives more news, better editorials, and more literature than any other paper in the State. The former good work of the paper in the various lines will not be diminished in the least, but there is room to improve the industrial news, both as to the completeness of the items and as to the number of them. What is wanted is a statement of the facts, the names and addresses of those connected with an enterprise, what materials are yet to be bought, and who should be written to about them. It is not desirable to string out indus- trial items; padding them sometimes fills the paper to no purpose." Tompkins was not merely a preacher. As a worker he set the example for workers in every department of his papers. His editorials and various contribu- tions in the Charlotte Observer on industrial subjects attracted national attention, and were copied by leading industrial and commercial journals. His 244 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH reports of industrial expositions and new industrial enterprises were especially popular and attractive. Besides publishing his writings the newspapers sought him out for interviews and gave him oppor- tunities, which he never neglected, for preaching industrial sermons and exploiting the industrial development of the New South. In the North he always talked about the South, while his sermons at home related to Northern thrift, enterprise, and prog- ress. Whenever he travelled, and wherever he stopped, notebook and pencil were busy, jotting down obser- vations, facts, ideas to be published later. He made use of all possible material that could be used either to point the moral or adorn the tale of industrialism. New inventions, new enterprises, new fashions, new books, new people, railroad wrecks, flying machines, drummers' yams, Texas cowboy escapades, moon- shine liquor, millionaire banquets, the elevator boy, the Chinese Ambassador, abbreviated skirts and fancy hosiery, anything, everything, and every- body — all the world — was grist in the voracious Tomp- kins mill of industrialism. He ground it out and gave it to Piedmont Carolina for its daily meal. "I have never known a newspaper man," said the editor of the Manufacturers^ Record, "with so keen a nose for news — not the news of sensationalism or gossip or small politicians — but the news which makes for human advancement. He can get a better newspaper story out of the improvements of skme worn-out farm, out of the chance remark of some fellow traveller about an invention or a new piece of machinery or a newly discovered business opportunity, than the average man can get out of the sensational events which fill so large a place in the JOURNALIST 245 daily papers of the land. A chance remark of some seemingly unimportant fact will often catch his in- terest, and the ever-ready notebook and pencil are at hand to jot it down for future investigation." The helpless invalidism of Caldwell in 1907 threw upon Tompkins the sole control and management of the Observer Company's publications. He de- voted himself to the task with energy, enthusiasm, and power. His capacity for taking pains, his ex- ecutive ability, his conservative, judicial tempera- ment, his broadness of view, his knowledge of and sympathy with manual workers were given to the development of journalism as fully and zealously as they had been given to the development of manu- factures. His head, his heart, and his hand were felt in all departments of his papers. At home or abroad, personally or by mail and wire, his ideas were transmitted daily to editors, reporters, and business managers. Every department of his papers re- ceived his watchful attention. Memoranda, hints, and instructions to managers and workers in various departments of his papers were, as a rule, preserved by him and filed in duplicate. They fill many large volumes and testify not only to his unusual capacity for work and remarkable versatility of talent, but also to fine literary ability and high ideals. A few samples of his notes, memoranda, editorials, and other newspaper contributions, may give a hint of the variety, the extent, and the power of his talents and abilities as a newspaper manager. To one of his editors, who made excuses for Yellow Journalism : "I have read with some degree of surprise your editorial of Saturday on the subject of Yellow Joumal- m^ 246 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ism. I can't agree with you that the decent pubhc demands such news, at least not the subscribing pubhc. The truth of the matter is it ruins the paper for many a family, and gives concern to many a parent far beyond any outside value to anybody. It makes easy news to fill up a paper with, but the worst kind of news for the subscriber and his family. Many a subscriber feels that having paid for the paper, he and his family are deprived of the value of it by yellow journalism. The claim of new^spaper people that it is necessary to pubhsh indecent news doesn't seem to be borne out by the facts. Talk to any of those people w^ho pay for the paper by the year, and I have not heard one of them say a word in justification of any indecent new^s, or 'yellow journalism' as you call it. Most of those who love to read sensational stuff borrow the paper to read it. They don't even buy the one paper at one cent. "The subject is a big and important one, and I hope you will investigate further and pursue it fur- ther." To another editor, who had proven teachable: "I want to compliment you on your issue of April 12th. The first page is clean, constructive, and con- ducive to human welfare. Your editorials in the same issue are on admirable subjects and well written. I congratulate you on the progress of your paper in the way of subordinating calamity news and noisy or indecent news to the better class of news which you are now handling." """' To the same: "Too much politics": "I know that the politics of your state are strenu- ous, but is not your paper getting to be too strenuous JOURNALIST 247 upon the subject of politics of your state? Too much poHtics will ruin any paper ultimately in my judgment." To J. P. Caldwell, opposing a reduction in the price of the Charlotte Observer : "The phantom of a cheap paper at a cheap price has been pursued frequently in this State. Nobody so far has had will power to cease the fruitless chase except the Charlotte Observer. We have got along fairly well in this isolated policy, and I am in favor of maintaining it. I would advocate emphasizing it still further by producing a seven-day paper at an increased price, if it were a matter of following my opinion alone. The question we are discussing is really the question upon which people succeed or fail. It is a question of good work at good prices, or cheap work at cheap prices."* To the editor of the Charlotte Observer, on editorial policy : "We must keep the Observer in position for it to speak when it is necessary — To speak for vested interest, when vested interest is right — to speak against vested interest, when vested interest is wrong. This is the very best protection we could give to vested interest. Any other policy would be to prostitute the voice of the paper until it could do nobody harm or good. "A newspaper should never make itself a busy- body, hunting up mare's nests to expose. A news- paper should take pains to be neighborly with all its neighbors, and that means it must not interfere nor prod too much with private affairs. •His advice prevailed. The Observer was issued daily, the first "Daily" in North Carolioa. 248 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "A newspaper ought to be friendly to the welfare of children in mills, yet it must be able to recognize the necessities of the cotton manufacturers' interest also. It must so differentiate these two interests that it can distinguish between them. It cannot blindly take the side of emotional opposition to child labor, neither can it take the side of the mill interest, but it must of necessity try to adjust these two. It must naturally take the position of support- ing one side in many things and then supporting the other side in many things. It must never be compelled to condemn or approve. It must reserve the right either to condemn or to approve, according to the merits of the case." To one of his editors, who was long on editorial and short on news: " The public is more important than the editor and the publisher put together, and this should always be recognized. The public pays for the paper, and what it wants to buy is news rather than much opinion." To a careless business manager: "The report inclosed does not show the progress that you are making, or any of the results that are being obtained on the paper. I have previously suggested that you finish this report and make it show what we want to know each week. I carefully prepared a statement of this sort and sent it to you some time ago. A report which does not show much of anything is no better than no report at all. You don't even add up your column of figures. One of the most important items in any business is not on the report at all, to wit, your net balance in the bank. JOURNALIST 249 I return this report to be made out fully; and I do this more in the interest of having you attain to a definite purpose in making these reports, so that you then can see to what end you have got to work in the future." To the Observer's Washington correspondent — a compliment : " I find myself looking for your items of news from Washington, and I simply want to write this line of compliment for your method of procedure. I am a great believer in the value of naked news, of telling it quickly, and telling it in one piece, and telling it as soon after it happens as possible, even if it is only one line." To the same — a sample suggestion: "Could you get up a little story for the Observer, very briefly stating what is the contention between Austria and Servia.^ In what way is Russia in- terested .^^ and in what way is Germany interested.'^" To a business manager — on newspaper contests: "I have just received your audits to June 30th. This audit seems to verify the position I have always held, that there is nothing in contests in the newspaper business. I am not criticising but commenting. It is the old, old story that the way to get along in the world is for the shoemaker to stick to his last. I have observed that in all contests, special editions, and otherwise, some peripatetic juggler gets off with the money and the paper holds the bag. "The successes of life are mostly made by a mo- notonous grind and by laying out a task to accomplish and being sure of accomplishing it. Pyrotechnical 250 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH efforts to clean up a debt all at once rarely ever work — if ever." To one of his editors — "The first business of a news- paper": "The first business of a newspaper is to stay in the newspaper business. This means: (1) It shall not be a political organ. (2) It shall not be persuaded into various specula- tive schemes, such as premium contests, voting contests, or anything whatever outside of the news- paper business. (3) It is not a literary proposition, nor a feature proposition, nor any kind of a stunt proposition. Its business should be strictly to get news together and to publish it for the benefit of the people." To one of his editors — on "Box-Car Headlines": "Abundant space taken with box-car headlines over nothing of consequence may be used for printing the actual news, and in about the quantities that people want to read." To one of his editors — on vituperative articles: "In the paper of July 5th is a reprint of a story by Watterson, headed 'Wilson, Satan, Bryan, and Snake,' or something to that effect. In the spirit of conference I want to suggest that I do not think it is a good thing for a paper to print wildly wTitten and vituperative articles — not even to reprint them. The fate of both orators and writers of ultra-cynical and ultra-sarcastic language has not generally been a wholly agreeable one. It is interesting to read one article in ultra-sarcastic or ultra-abusive vein, but it does not tend to build up interest. JOURNALIST 251 "Mr. Caldwell and I for nearly twenty years pur- sued a plan of publishing news that would help some- body, and in no case that would damage or injure anybody. We made a fine success in carrying out these principles and ideas." To one of his editors— "The subscription list vs. letters of approval: "Some editors lay great stress on an occasional letter of approval. The truth of the matter is that letters of approval don't cut much figure in the run- ning of a newspaper. Most people don't write any letters at all of approval or disapproval; and therefore you can't get a gauge on what the public think by letters of approval or disapproval. It is the subscription list which marks the favor or dis- favor of the public. Nothing could be more^ inter- esting than the interpretation of a newspaper's sub- scription list. The subscription list is the cold- blooded scales, the rise and fall of which marks the real measure of approval or disapproval of the paper. To a managing editor— " Truthfulness and Clean- liness" i "The Associated Advertising Clubs of America in convention at Dallas, Texas, have emphasized the necessity of truthfulness of statements m advertising matter. It might also be said that in the reading columns cleanliness is as important as truthfulness in the advertising columns." To the same — on "Lambasting": "Many newspaper writers fall into the error of sup- posing that lambasting people is forceful writing. The only force of such writing is a draft upon the 252 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH paper's resources and standing. Without the back- ing and protection of the paper such writing would fall flat and excite the contempt of the community and sometimes bring chastisement upon the writer." To the editor of the Observer — "Newspaper influ- ence and duty": "I have read in the morning paper with great interest some reflections by Mr. William Jennings Bryan on the subject of loss of influence of news- papers. He attributes the loss to the fact that papers devote so much space to crime and domestic infelicity. This is precisely what I have said repeatedly in our papers. "The editor of the New York Evening Post, com- menting on Mr. Bryan's observation, says that if people have the kind of politicians and priests they deserve, they also have the kind of newspaper they deserve. I don't understand just what Mr. Ogden is driving at, but I think the newspaper ought to be of the right kind, regardless of priests and politicians, and rather help the people to make the right kind of priests and politicians." Editorial in Charlotte Observer — "Brevity": "An essential element of good writing is brevity. "The Bible narrative of the Creation uses about 800 words. "The narrative of the Resurrection about 300 words. "The narrative of the Prodigal Son about 500 words. "The Lord's Prayer 67 words. "The Ten Commandments about 300 words. "Lincoln's oration at Gettysburg 269 words." JOURNALIST 253 Editorial paragraph— " The too busy man": "The lazy man is not the only one who stands in the way of his own progress. The too busy man is equally in his own way. Who is there who has not seen men so very busy that they hindered business." Editorial paragraph — "Sentiment": "The sentiments of life are stronger than the in- terests. Whoever does something that is attuned to human sentiment attains fame. Burns and Poe are of the elect. Byron living was not altogether nice, but he attuned his heart to human sentiment, and the world has forgiven him his faults in admira- tion of the sweetness of his song." Editorial paragraph — "Ships." "We are building a ship canal on one side of the Union at a cost of four hundred million dollars. We are discussing a railroad in Alaska at a cost of thirty- five milHon dollars. Surely when these are done we ought to be able to get about the world. ^Vhat we now seem to want most is ships to take our agricul- tural and manufactured products to the markets of the world." Editorial, Charlotte 065eri?er—" Self-government" : "The government of the United States has been a great success. It is a government suited to the character of the original population. It is not a government suitable for Mexico or for China. Most of the troubles we have had with the government of the United States have come from the mistaken theories of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the mis- taken theory of Mr. Jefferson that all men were born equal. 254 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "All men of the general character of the Puritan and Cavalier are more or less equal and are capable of self-government. But men of the character of the average Mexican and Chinese are not capable of self-government. It looks as if we would have to modify our theories of self-government and the uni- versal equality of men." Editorial, Charlotte Observer— " The World Tri- bunal and Mexico": " There is a world tribunal which must be reckoned with in every important question which comes up within one of the nations, or between the nations of the world. "In the United States the institution of slavery was abolished by this tribunal. In Egypt modern standards of law and order, commercial and otherwise, were established by the same tribunal. Again in Cuba a condition incompatible with modern civiliza- tion was terminated by the same influence. Civiliza- tion is always patient. It is slow to take hold of a festering sore until every local human endeavor has been allowed to exhaust itself. "The United States has been long-suffering in her patience with Mexico. We were long-suffering with Cuba, but the time came when the self-respect of the Nation and the opinions of mankind demanded that we go down and put an end to an intolerable condition. We approved President Wilson's course of exhausting every possible peaceful means of having order restored in Mexico; and we further approved his patience and good judgment in letting them bring their own issues to a conclusion, if they can possibly do so. But if the President's policy fails to bring about law and order, the United States must do it, JOURNALIST 255 as they did it in Cuba, as England did it in Egypt, as it must always be done with people who disregard law and order and have to be forced to do what is right." Among all the creations of Tompkins the Observer was his favorite. It was in a sense the voice of his work, the daily herald of the New South. His deep emotional nature enfolded it to his heart as the darling child of his brain. "I asked my brother one day," says !Mrs. Grace Tompkins Ennett, "why he did not sell the Observer, and get rid of its cares, responsi- bilities, and labor." "Sell the Observer!'' said he, "Do you think your mother would sell you!" "The Charlotte Observer,'' said Howard A. Banks, "was IVIr. Tompkins' pet; it was his sweetheart and he was its lover. It was the second real romance of his career." The Observer was the thousand-tongued messenger of Tompkins to the industrial South. It helped him as a builder, organizer, and industrial missionary. His practical work in turn as builder and organizer gave special meaning to the Observer's industrial sermons. "Of all Southern newspaper men," said Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, " the one whose practical work as an industrial leader has accomplished most is D. A. Tompkins of the Charlotte Observer," CHAPTER XV MEMBER OF U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION- MILL OWNER AND MANAGER — ^VIEWS ON LABOR ON JUNE 18, 1898, an Act of Congress au- thorized the appointment of a non-partisan commission to collate information and con- sider and recommend legislation to meet the prob- lems presented by labor, agriculture, and capital. Tompkins was appointed a member of this Indus- trial Commission by President McKinley in recogni- tion of his eminent career as industrial worker, organizer, and promoter. He entered into the work of the Commission with zeal, energy, and patriotic purpose. The problems before it had interested him for years. As a student he had studied them, as a man of affairs he had handled them. The meetings of the Commission he attended with scrupulous fidelity, travelling with it over the country and post- poning to its work all private business. The report of the Commission* is published in nineteen bulky volumes. It covers a large portion of the vast field of political economy, dealing practically with all industrial problems then confronting the American people. The following titles will indicate the scop e of the work: *At the time of the final rep>ort, February 10, 1902, the Commission was composed as follows: Mr. Albert Clarke, Chairman; Senator Boies Penrose; Senator Stephen R. Mallory; Senator John W. Daniel; Senator Thomas R. Bard; Representative John J. Gardner; Representative L. F. Livingston; Representative John C. Bell; Representative Theobold Otjen; Mr. William Lorimer; Mr. Andrew L. Harris; Mr. John M. Farquhar; Mr. Eugene D. Conger; Mr. Thomas W. Philips; Mr. Charles J. Harris; Mr. John L. Kennedy; Mr. Charles H. Litchman; Mr. D. A. Tompkins; E. Dana Durand, Secretary. 256 U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 257 Volume I. II. " III. " IV. V. " VI. " VII. " VIII. X. " XI. " XII. " XV. " XVI. " XVII. *^XVIII. " XIX. Trusts and Industrial Combinations. Trust and Corporation Laws. Prison Labor. Transportation. Labor Legislation. Distribution of Farm Products. Capital and Labor in Manufactures and General Business. Chicago Labor Disputes. Agriculture and Agricultural Labor. Agriculture and Taxation. Capital and Labor in the Mining Industries. Immigration and Education. Foreign Labor Legislation. Labor Organizations, Labor Disputes, and Arbitration. Railway Labor. Industrial Combinations in Europe. Final Report of the Industrial Com- mission. The recommendations of the Commission concern- ing needed legislation were made after the taking of much testimony, the hearing of experts and business men, and due conference and discussion among themselves. The wisdom of their recommendations is recognized by their adoption to a large extent and their enactment into public laws by subsequent Congresses. For improvement of agriculture and protection of the public health the chief recommendations were: the extension and improvement of existing laws and governmental machinery for the inspection, regula- tion, and protection of animals and animal products, grains, fruits, and fruit trees; the establishment of a r 258 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH pure food section in the chemistry division of the Department of Agriculture, to prevent adulteration and imitation of foods; the better protection of domestic animals against disease; ample protection of the beet sugar industry; a policy of national road building, with extension of the rural postal service; a broad and generous national policy to promote forestry and establish forest preserves. For improvement in transportation the Commis- sion recommended supervision and control by the national Government, with private ownership. For correcting the evils of trusts and industrial combinations: publicity, clear-cut uniform laws rigidly enforced, Federal taxation and supervision. These remedies failing, the Commission recom- mended a Federal Incorporation Law. For tariff reform, a permanent non-partisan expert commission to investigate and study tariff problems. For reclaiming arid lands, a policy of national irrigation. For reform in taxation, among other recom- mendations, was the following: "That the States abandon the general property tax and raise their revenues by taxes upon corporations, inheritances, and incomes, supplemented w^hen necessary by in- direct taxation; that local revenues be raised by taxes on real estate and personalty under the general property -tax system as at present." To this recommendation Tompkins and C. J. Harris, both members of the Commission from North Carolina, made the following dissent: "We regard recommendation No. 1 as too new and not sufficiently tried in practice for unqualified recom- mendation under all conditions. "We dissent from any proposition to tax, as ia- U. S. INDUSTRLIL COMIVIISSION 259 come, book profits of individuals, firms, or corpora- tions, except such as may be retired from business, divided or declared as dividends, for the following reasons : "The determination of undivided profits, besides being difficult, would submit competitive businesses to injurious exhibits of details, would unduly con- strain business men to report, in periods of depression, more profits than made in order to sustain credit, would often tax apparent profits which later might have shrunk to nothing; and for other reasons." For control of immigration the Commission recommended various regulations, including "Re- newal and continuance of the Chinese exclusion laws, with administrative amendments to render these laws less liable to evasion." Tompkins objected strongly to special restrictions, or exclusion, aimed at particular races or nations, and dissented from the above recommendation as follows: "For the protection of American civilization and American labor it seems to me to be desirable to make the general immigration laws restrictive of all immigra- tion that would seriously threaten to injure these. "Such general laws, properly formulated, would exclude all undesirable Chinese, as well as the un- desirable of all other nations, without the necessity of discrimination against China or any other country as / a nation." The most difficult problems before the Commission were those relating to labor. The Commission, at least a majority, aimed to secure uniformity of labor throughout the United States; laws relating to hours of work, wages, labor organizations, strikes, child labor, women, convicts, and other factors. The report of the Commission on this 260 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH subject was a review of the evidence, with recom- mendations as to legislation. To this report were four dissenting opinions signed by five members of the Commission. The dissenting opinion of Tomp- kins, signed by himself and C. J. Harris, both from ^ North Carolina, was as follows: "We believe that the foregoing review of evidence as it stands is, for general application, too much in the nature of a theoretic argument in favor of the unrestricted and uncontrolled organization of special classes of labor, and mainly relates to part of the labor engaged in manufacturing, transporting, mining, and some oc- cupations peculiar to large cities. "We apprehend that the theories, if attempted to be carried fully into practice, might lead to the development of powers in the hands of special combinations of labor which, by cooperation with the powers of special combinations of capital, could levy tribute upon the vast body of other labor and all consumers for the benefit of the capital and the labor so combined. Statutory laws in restraint of violence and of coercive acts against the rights and liberties of others should be maintained and enforced against those who are in organizations, as well as all other citizens alike. "Organizations of labor, when the members are intelligent and when controlled by good motives and good men, are very advantageous, and such organiza- tions will have little or no occasion to be in any degree controlled by restraining laws. "Other organizations, where the degree of in- telligence is not high, as in the case of many immi- grants not long in the country, and not in sympathy with the personal liberty provided by our institutions, where the motives are sometimes bad and the leaders U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 261 sometimes not good or wise men, are positively in- jurious, and it seems essential that those who are members of such organizations should be amenable to wholesome laws. ^ "The most important factors influencing and constraining the betterment of the condition of working people we believe to be as follows: ;^ "(1) The provision of ample school facilities. y /s *'(2) Compulsory education. "^^ ' "(3) The maintenance under State laws of co- r^ operative savings institutions, under such control and restrictions as absolutely to insure their safety, and, so as to make it easy for members, through these institutions, to build homes and pay for them by instalments, similar to the cooperative banks of Massachusetts. "(4) The establishment by the United States Government of postal savings banks. "(5) Liberal provision for the incorporation of labor organizations." Tompkins was opposed to Governmental regula- tion of labor, regarding it as unwise, unnecessary, meddlesome, and injurious both to labor and to capital. He was a disciple of Herbert Spencer, believing in the natural evolution of good results, unless hindered by artificial obstructions. This theory in harmony with his own temperament had been impressed on his mind by early reading of Spencer and confirmed by long experience as laborer, capitalist, employer, and manager of laborers. He was especially opposed to uniformity (or attempted uniformity) of labor regulations in a country as large as the United States, where variety of condi- tions and occupations and climate and race character- istics and varied stages of wealth, culture, and 262 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH progress would necessarily produce corresponding variations in wages, hours, and conditions of labor. He did not believe that Texas and Massachusetts, South Carolina and Minnesota, Maine and Florida, could, or should have the same labor regulations. Such a miracle, if possible in the future, he considered impossible now. The attempt to work it he regarded as full of mischief, a meddlesome interference, and an unnecessary hindrance of natural forces, which were already working as rapidly and beneficently as possible. As a cotton mill owner and manager Tompkins had built mill villages, had employed as mill workers poor white families who hitherto had lived in one- room cabins, scantily supplied with even the neces- saries of life, had paid them each month more money than they had formerly earned in a whole year, had built for them schools and churches, had supplied them with teachers and preachers, had encouraged and helped them to cultivate gardens and beautify their homes, had practised on them his favorite philanthropy of helping mankind by helping people to help themselves — and now to be invaded, attacked, and hindered in this work by professional and sentimental agitators and philanthropists was far from pleasing. He wrote and spoke freely on the subject before mill men, mill workers, phi- lanthropists and legislatures. The following extracts will illustrate his earnestness, sincerity, and deep conviction : "professional reformers" "Those who become newly interested in human betterment work rarely appreciate to what extent U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 263 human betterment work has been going on before their interest. At first bhish it always looks as though monumental reforms should be and could be accomplished immediately. A little time and a little experience soon reveal the fact that human betterment is surrounded by hindrances and diffi- culties multifold. First of all, it is generally found that most of the things one would do immediately have all been tried by capable and talented people, and that most of the things one would wish to have done, have been, and are still, in process of doing, by natural means and in the calm, slow way which nature has provided for human improvement. "It transpires that too much reform at any one time means not evolution but revolution with per- plexing confusion for the human race. It transpires also that those things needing reform are largely ignored by humanity and left to nature's tender, slow ways. It is when a reform is well under way of ac- complishment that the professional reformer wants to take a hand. And whenever the professional re- former does begin to take a hand, the betterment movement gets a jolt that stops its growth until the forces of the professional reformer's sentiments and impatience are spent. "The people of the South have had a sort of satiety of reform since the Civil War. An experiment of reconstruction was tried upon them, and the experi- ment lasted about a quarter of a century. Our relations with the colored brother were sought to be wholly changed; and decent government was upset in the attempt to force theoretic ideas of what the relations ought to be. Meanwhile, the personal relations of the races remained the same. Natural means continued to hold their own in determining a 264 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH question that nature alone stands sponsor for. Slavery was an unholy institution. It was all well and good for the laws to abolish slavery, but the personal and social relations of humanity cannot be legislated. Legislation undertaking to regulate per- sonal and social relations always will be fruitless. There was never a better subject of emotional senti- ment than the colored man. No human thing ever excited so much emotional sentiment as the colored man did when the craze was on about the colored man and his relations. The very color of his skin made him a subject of pity. His former condition of bondage excited emotions in his favor. None ever said to him that he must be self-reliant; none ever said to him that he must be thrifty and economical and industrious. The crusade was that the Southern white man must carry him on his shoulders and make him fulfil all the emotional expectations of those who were so zealous in the cause of his betterment. The condition of the colored man has been immensely ameliorated and improved, in spite of emotional influences which have hindered the progress of the work. Slavery being abolished, nothing stands in the way of the colored man any more than of the white man, and the colored citizen has been most improved by consultation with and cooperation with his ancient white neighbor. "Now comes the crusade about Child Labor. Most of the families now living in cotton mill villages in the South formerly lived on the farms. Cotton went as low as five cents a pound, which meant a very scant living and no education. As mills were built and drew these poor farmers from agricultural to industrial work it was recognized that in the cause of humanity, and for the best material interest of the mill, children U. S. INDUSTRIAL COIVIMISSION 265 should be provided with means of education. There is hardly a mill in the South that did not provide this means of education, and where the State did any- thing at all, the State's work was supplemented by school extension, paid for by the mill. The mills have contributed to the construction of churches, to the establishment of libraries, and the organization of other betterment work; and just about the time the progress of these various betterments begins to at- tract attention because of their altruistic character and their wonderful success, the professional re- former wants to take a hand, and is taking it with a vengeance. The professional reformers comprise many well-meaning, tender-hearted women, most of whom are living on incomes and have little knowl- edge of practical life. Also of men and women who are thirsty for notoriety. These hate a dull time, and wherever they go there is bound to be trouble. Then there is the grafter pure and simple, who can collect a bigger salary in the name of charity, pro- vided his accounts are left unchecked, than he can get for doing anything else where the measure of his work is reckoned and where his accounts are checked. "Happily the real welfare of the children of the South is well assured. It is in practical hands. Movements for amelioration and betterment are so well established on practical lines that the emo- tionalists, though they may hinder a little, cannot disestablish the good practical work. **It is always a pleasure to think of some of the wise ways of Solomon. When the two women went to him, each claiming to be the mother of a child who was the subject of controversy, the old King ap- peared worried as to how to decide between them. 266 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH but with foxy wisdom he proposed to cleave the child in twain and give each woman a half. Then he discovered who the real mother was by discovering which one would give up the child rather than have it slain. It is so with the children of this day. It would be better if every child could have an ideal apprenticeship and ideal education; but, in the absence of all that we want, there is many a mother that has to take a choice between two alternatives. I feel confident that any mother would choose a condition of wholesome work, even though it was not altogether the kind of work that she would like the child to do, as a preference over idleness, indulgence, and surroundings which are liable to turn vicious. "I repeat that betterment conditions are extremely difficult. I assert with the utmost confidence that, so far as Southern cotton mills are concerned, the average of the conditions is as good as can at present be attained. There are exceptions, but unhappily there are exceptions to all good things as an aver- age proposition. The betterment of humanity in Southern cotton mills is going on apace about as rapidly as the humanity is capable of digesting the opportunity. "Not one word here uttered is against children. On the contrary, my every thought and every effort, when I come in contact with the subject, is in their favor. I am brought in frequent and in close con- tact with their present condition, and I knew their former condition well. The work of bringing about their betterment must be rational, and must fit their present condition. Unconditional exemption from work up to the age of 14, 15, or 16 would do untold injury. Even at ages below 14, besides going to school, they ought to be required to do a certain U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 267 amount of work which is necessary to develop them into the best sort of men and women. "Much of human improvement must necessarily be brought about by the tendency of the human race itself to improve and go forward. The field of the work of betterment is always extending, and the number of workers in the field is likewise extending. The real workers are never heard much of. It is the agitator that looks out for a seat on the band wagon and the nearest place to the big drum, and it is nat- urally he or she that is most seen and most heard. Before the time of the band wagon and when there was nothing but conscientious work, the agitator and notoriety seeker were not in evidence and they will not be after the band wagon is aboHshed. When the band wagon shall have disappeared, the old workers will still be the workers, and the altruistic labors will be performed as of yore, and while the work of betterment will not be so much in the limelight as it is to-day, it will be none the less effective." Tompkins was chief owner and president of three large cotton mills, director of eight mills, and stock- holder in many more. His chief financial interest was in cotton manufactures, an interest that en- gaged his best thoughts and appealed to his philan- thropic nature. He saw in the cotton mill an opening for the South to a new career, an open door for capable, ambitious Southern lads. "The cotton mill," said he, "is the wide-open door through which any family, even those of the most ordinary natural endowments, may find a way from the farm to manufacturing pursuits, or other fields of skilled labor. Without the cotton factory the transition would be in many cases difficult. The cotton factory naturally retains many workers of 268 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH small natural endowments, but it also retains many who are of the highest natural endowments. The cotton mill offers unlimited opportunity, and the opportunity offered is daily being availed of by those who are capable of utilizing it. I know men who have, inside a decade, utilized these opportunities to change their condition from one of pinching pov- erty to one of independence and affluence. "If ever this class of people needed special help it is not now. Their lives were led in hard lines when the institution of slavery was the controlling influ- ence in the South, and also in the period of reconstruc- tion that followed the Civil War, when all the white people of the South were lined in solid and serried ranks in an army committed to the defence and pres- ervation of Anglo-Saxon civilization. But it is a people who would probably have refused personal help, or any sumptuary patronage, even under those circumstances. Opportunity, good will, and favor- able environment are all they ever wanted and all that could ever have been of any avail to them. Oppor- tunity and good will and favorable environment they now have. The preservation of these is now the one thing of importance. With opportunity for regular work and with regular wages in cash, these people will do more for their own advancement than could ever be done by others for them. " The cotton mill operatives in the South are mak- ing about as rapid advance as any humanity in their present state of education and training are capable of making. The employing manufacturers and the home people cooperating with the new conditions are furnishing to them about all the intellectual and moral training they are capable of assimilating. "The employer and employee are in the main of U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 269 the same blood, in many instances are of kin, each generally enjoys the confidence of the other, and each has full faith in the other. By this confidence and cooperation the best progress is being made. Prog- ress is being made step by step, and no step forward is generally undertaken until it has transpired that the people are prepared for it. Kindly and friendly interest is welcomed by em- ployed and employee alike, but both are exceedingly averse to emotional philanthropy and both resent being made the subject of agitators and notoriety seekers in the name of philanthropy. "The new conditions and the new environment are doing more than all human effort could do. The opportunity to help themselves is what has been lacking in the past. The opportunity being fully at hand it may safely be left for the natural initiative, energy, and ambition of the people to work out their own best success. In doing this the personal friend- ship and simple friendly interest of those who have had better advantages will be valuable and will be highly appreciated. Professional philanthropy, in which a sumptuary influence is attempted, will be injurious, and would be resented even at a sacrifice." The story of the South 's poverty and humiliation, of its fight for existence, of its redemption from disin- tegration and anarchy, is told again and again by Tompkins in books, pamphlets, speeches, and news- paper articles. He knew it well, for he was a factor in it all. He was happy and proud to be a factor in the rebuilding of the South and the elevation of the Southern poor white laborer. This noble feeling he imparted to his family, his kindred, and his friends. His youngest sister was a teacher in one of his mill schools. Both he and she were proud of her work. 270 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Each month she sent him careful reports of the school work and progress: the number of pupils enrolled, the average attendance, the ages and sexes of the pupils, the subjects taught, and the proficiency attained. A bundle of these reports, carefully pre- served, was found after his death among his private papers, one of his treasures, a token of the work of his youngest sister in helping the mill people, a token, too, of his desire to educate her into sympathy with and appreciation of mill workers. He was fitting her to be a just and sympathetic mill owner. Tompkins resented the idea of charity for Southern mill workers. The whole South was indeed deserving of charity, but it did not ask it and would not receive it. "It is the truth," said Tompkins, "that the con- dition of all Southern white folks was in sore need of amelioration during the so-called reconstruction period. Deplorable as was the condition of the white working man and his children of that day, the most enduring hardships of the time were borne by those who had not formerly been working people. During that period everybody was poor. All white folks had to join on one level of poverty to make a scant living with the left hand while the right hand was vigorously engaged in the defense of Christian civil- ization. The fight was with the dragon. If the South routed and survived the dragon of that day surely she will survive the horse-fly of this modern day. "In the redemption of the South from the semi- anarchy of reconstruction there were hindering in- fluences and helpful influences. Among the hindering influences were the misguiding of the negro by some who believed they were governed by philanthropic motives and by others who loved disorder and theft. U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 271 "Some of the helpful influences were the all but unanimous cooperation of the whites against dis- order, for the establishment of factories with cash pay rolls for working people, and liberal help by Northern machine builders and merchants in the way of credits. "The real story of rescue is one of Southern pa- tience and courage and of sympathetic social and commercial support from sane and rational men and women of the North." The following account of the Atherton mills owned and managed by Tompkins is taken from an article by Leonora Beck Ellis, "A Study of Southern Cotton Mill Communities," published in The Criterion: "The xUherton Mill community, just outside of Charlotte,N.C., is a well-situated, well-housed, and prosperous-looking village of a thousand souls. The mill itself is relieved of the commonplace utility look by a picturesque growth of ivy, such as might grace an old English cathedral. The neat white cottages all have small vegetable and flower gardens, which are usually well kept, the result of a system of prizes offered by President D. A. Tompkins to the most successful gardeners. Up to about two and a half years ago the children of the community were left to find places in the municipal schools of Char- lotte or the district schools near by. But in spite of all his progressive management in other directions, President Tompkins, who is widely known as one of the most successful mill men North or South, found something still lacking. Nor was he slow to locate the desideratum. When I visited the com- munity a year ago I found they had a new and com- fortable school building, which is the gift of the man- agers, and is to serve also as the people's hall for all 272 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH legitimate gatherings, literary, social, or otherwise. I found the school evolving with good promise. County and mill management had already joined financial forces to make the term nine months an- nually. One hundred and ten pupils from the homes of the operatives were being conscientiously taught by two teachers — one, sister of the mill president." Similar conditions existed in the mills of the Edge- field Manufacturing Company, Edgefield, S. C, of which Tompkins was president. The mill at High Shoals was even more favored with schools, churches, parks, playgrounds, gardens, lawns, and other instrumentalities of health, comfort, culture, and pleasure. This mill was an object of great favor and pride w^ith Tompkins. It aroused in him a deep sentimental interest , for it was built on the ruins of a former rolling mill which had flourished here for fifty years until wrecked by the baleful influences of slavery. Tompkins published and widely circulated a handsome album with half-tone pictures of High Shoals, showing the falls and water power unused in 1750, the rolling mills in 1800, the ruins of same in 1850, and the new cotton mills in 1900. This album was sent to newspapers through- out the South. The Baltimore News comments as follows: "Mr. D. A. Tompkins of Charlotte, N. C, who has been one of the foremost men in the develop- ment of the South, has had printed four half-tone pictures of High Shoals, in that State. At this point is located one of the cotton mills in which Mr. Tomp- kins is interested, and he uses the pictures, covering a period from 1750 up to the present time, as illus- trating the eft'ect of slavery on the manufacturing interests of the South. Mr. Tompkins is an ardent believer in the future of the South, and especially U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 273 of his own State of North Carolina. He points to the fact that North Carolina passed Massachusetts in growth, although Massachusetts had the start. Massachusetts, in turn, passed North Carolina only after the energies of the Old North State became paralyzed by the institution of slavery. Mr. Tomp- kins' pictures bear out his theory that the desiccating effects of slavery having worn off, the physical and human resources of the State are now beginning to reassert themselves, and that it is only a matter of time when North Carolina will again overtake the great New England Commonwealth." The agitation for child labor legislation especially aroused Tompkins. He believed thoroughly in the early training of children for work and by means of actual work. He placed his own nephew at an early age as an apprentice in machine shops and as a worker in cotton mills, in order to fit him to be a competent mill superintendent and an intelligent mill owner. He wrote and spoke on this subject for many years, advocating trade schools and ap- prentice systems in the great cities and in all manufac- turing communities. His address before the Na- tional Civic League, New York City, December, 1906, may be taken as representing the best thought and best purpose of Southern mill men in opposing national child labor legislation. It also sets forth the favorite theory of Tompkins as to practical education and early preparation for life-work. CHILD LABOR* "As this discussion progresses, it becomes more and more evident that we have a difficult and import- •An address before the Civic Federation, New York, December. 1906. 274 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ant subject. I shall speak with reference to that phase of the subject which relates to conditions in Southern cotton mills. It is important that some of the antecedent conditions vrhich existed in the South be understood, in order that we may appreciate what is novv' going on in the present conditions. You all know about the Civil War, and you have in your minds that its end was a calamity for the South. But the most thoughtful of Southern people do not believe that the calamity was unalloyed. The Civil War ended the institution of slavery; and if the poverty that came was a calamity, the abolition of slavery was in turn a sufficient benefit to balance it. [Applause.] But we had a subsequent period of so- called * reconstruction,' which w^as a calamity such as never before was borne by a Christian people, in which poverty became greater and conditions more dark than that in the time of, or as a consequence of, the Civil War itself. Through a period of almost twenty years succeeding the war the white people of the South sacrificed all else in the fight for Chris- tian civilization; and while carrying on that fight there was no question of wealth, nor of anything but **hog and hominy" and "bacon and greens" to live upon. In that time one hand was on the plow, while the other had to be held upon the sword. It was a twenty-years' war, and out of it everybody came in absolute poverty. Every man, woman, and child in the South was a veteran of that war. The beginning of the cotton mill construction was the end of that period, about 1865-85; and this construc- tion work has gone forward as a beneficence not alone for the owner, but for the operator; not alone for the owners and the operators, but for the farmer, who in the period of fake reconstruction saw cotton r. S. INDUSTRIAL COMI^HSSION 275 go from fifty cents down to five cents a pound, and had to live upon that. To-day the cost of making cotton is eight cents a pound; and it is selling, hap- pily, at twelve cents. The extremely hard condition of having to live upon the proceeds of cotton at five cents was relieved by the construction of cotton mills; and the farmer himself has begun to prosper simply because the cotton mill operatives have gotten out of competition with him on the farm. With the construction of the cotton mills began the ameli- oration of the condition of the people who worked on farms and also of the mill operatives. That amelio- ration has continued to the present time, until now we are just beginning to see the light of the beginning of a new day. Some gentleman asked what ought the child committee to have done.^ What is recom- mended? What is our duty? ]lVs a Southern cotton u mill man can see it, I answer : The mill managements having established, or extended, schools, having worked year after year for a compulsory educational law, having increased wages fifty to seventy-five per cent., and having brought what seems to us all in the South great prosperity (certainly great by comparison with former times) out of conditions of deepest poverty, we feel that we ought to be allowed to go on in that same course. I am not one who be- lieves that we can do beneficient things altogether by law. Every Southern cotton mill man is bringing conditions, as fast as he knows how, to that point which is desired by those who wish to see the age limit for the work of children up to fifteen years at least. I know that that is my sentiment; but I don't believe we should undertake to do it arbitrarily and at once. We should continue to build up the educa- tional forces, the social forces, and the financial con- 27G A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH dition as in the past. I prefer compulsory education to child labor legislation, by which we will avoid ex- clusive laws, which are always liable to become sump- tuary and interfere with the liberty of the individual. "We do not need any law on the subject of night work, because night work is almost at an end, and will be at an end at a very early date, in consequence of the influences which are already at work, some of w^hich are economic and some of which are altruistic! In one business in which I am engaged, which is the machine business — I am engaged in the cotton manu- facture and in the machine business — in the machine business we have developed a system of apprentice- ship in which we do not want to limit the age of the apprentice to be as high as sixteen, but we particu- larly desire that they be brought to us at twelve. That is not for the purpose of working them for profit, but it is for the purpose of education. Our latest contract requires that the apprentice shall go to school six months in the year and then he may work four months in the machine shop ten hours a day. This young apprentice's work consists in wait- ing upon the machinists. He gets waste for them and takes their tools to the blacksmith shop for repair and does other errands and light work. We are considering putting it in the contract that he must spend one month of the year in the country, and we expect to pay the board on the farm of those whose parents cannot afford it. "As long as men are greedy men there will be need ultimately of some law to set a limit to the overwork of children which cannot be eliminated by better motives. And also as long as there are tender-hearted women, there will be sentiments that are liable to injure children, as the tender mother U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 277 so often spoils the child. I believe there are just about as many children spoiled by indulgence as there are by overwork." [Laughter and applause.] A Voice: "More." Mr. Tompkins: "A gentleman here says more, and I agree with him perfectly. A Voice: "He has no children." [Laughter.] Mr. Tompkins: "He looks like a father [Laughter] but whether that be true or not, two facts remain: As long as there are greedy men, we have got to protect children from overwork by them; and as long as there are people of excessively tender hearts, we must do the best we can to protect children from excessive indulgence. "I can recollect the first time I ever went 'possum hunting and stayed all night. When I got back in the morning my mother was in a great state of mind and wanted to know where I had been. I told her 'In the woods, hunting 'possums.' 'Didn't you sleep any.^' 'Oh, yes, we raked up some leaves and built a fire and slept from 11 o'clock until four. The darkies said the 'possums would be walking about 4 o'clock.' 'Well; you slept out there with the negroes.^' 'Wliy, certainly, yes, that was not the worst of it, the dogs were in the bunch also.' [Laugh- ter.] There is a great deal that a boy wants to do and is bound to do that we worry ourselves about unnecessarily. There is a lot of this child labor talk based upon misconception of the subject very much as the hen misconceived the situation of her young ducks in the water. Light work, in my opin- ion, is not bad for children, but, on the contrary, it is good for them and we ought to take them earlier, determine upon an apprenticeship, as I have en- deavored to do in my machine shop, and incorporate 278 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH with their education an early knowledge of what work is. [Applause and voices: "That's right, that's right."] "This matter of looking after the welfare of human- ity and its education has been carried by Germany much farther than it has been by the people of the United States. In their common schools, when the child reaches ten years of age, it is desired that it be determined what the child is going to do, what sort of education that child is going to have; and for those who w^ill be engaged in industrial pursuits, the fur- ther education is not differentiated with respect to scholastic and technical teaching, but in many cases it is required in addition that a certain amount of manual training shall be done, not from 12 years of age or 14, or 15, but from 10 — and I am right with the Dutch in their ideas about the proper way to educate children. [Laughter.] "One diflficulty I find in handling an apprentice system in a machine shop is that a lady will come to me — a mother or an aunt — with a fine fellow that she wants to have learn the machine business, and when I ask *How old is he.^' the reply often is: *19 years old.' *Well,' I have to answer, 'he is too old; you ought to have brought him when he was 12.' "The subject is the more difficult because we can- not make rules. If I do not need laws in the machine shop, it is because the boys that I deal with have al- ready been so educated by home training and practi- cal teaching that it makes laws unnecessary. I couldn't abuse those boys if I wanted to, my own shop would revolt; the journeymen would revolt. In the cotton mill business I desire to see the least possible legislation, that is liable to become sump- tuary, and infinitely more attention to the subject U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 279 of raising the social and moral condition of this whole people. If we could get a little more help from the child labor committee or anybody else on the phase of the work of betterment, it would be very highly appreciated and would be useful, whereas in many cases the agitation is doing positive injury, neglecting altogether, as the agitators do, consideration of what we are going to do with the child when legislated out of the mills, out of one of the easiest occupations that could be found and from a condition in which he has already been rapidly advanced. "Mr. Smyth here has a fine school at Pelzer. He has a library and a reading room and every facility that a city could give for the betterment of the opera- tives in Pelzer town. "In the course of time we will elevate this calling of spinning and weaving. At present, most people think of those employed in the cotton mill business as bemg employed in a place in which common white cloth is woven and laboriously turned out without the exercise of a particle of brains — and unhappily it is too much that way— but the more profitable busi- ness will always carry it toward a better understand- ing of what the production of better fabric is. When our textile work people come to an appreciation that weaving is an art which can be carried as high as any of the arts, not only in the production of well-designed carpets and fine carpets and in the production of well- designed lace curtains, but of fabrics even finer than those, and ultimately of tapestries which are works of art, why should we think so much about legrslation that is. liable to become too soon sumptu- ary and interfere with the higher development of which I speak. "Dr. Joseph LeConte, one-time profe^oor of chem- 280 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH istry in the South Carohna college, and later profes- sor of geology in the University of California, said that the highest attribute of the white race was its capacity for training, both physical and mental. [Cries of "hear, hear."] Christian civilization is founded upon the fact contained in Doctor LeConte's statement that the white race can carry its training farther than that of any other and maintain it longer. The extent to which it may be carried is practically unlimited. "\Miatever we do in the way of legislation against child labor for profit, let us not forget that we have a large duty to see that the child w^hen legislated out of the mill shall not be left wholly idle and untrained, but be mindful to provide enough w^ork in school and in some apprenticeship condition to develop a de- cently trained and educated man or woman, and with these conditions, raise the age of labor for profit to 15 or 16 years. [Applause and cries of *'hear, hear."] Instead of enacting laws which totally expel children from that training so essential to their better develop- ment as men and women, let us leave the way wide open for both teaching and training — each in proper proportion; and so make our laws as to stimulate mental and physical training in proper degree while in childhood and youth. It is in the period of child- hood and youth that the faculty of mental and physical development may be made most fruitful of permanent results. Eight years used to be consid- ered a tender age for the child to start to school. Now the cry of the teacher is to get the child younger, and it is not uncommon to see three-year-old infants regularly enrolled in the kindergarten. By this means the child may be brought at eight years to a fair degree of elementary education; and under proper U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 281 care the child is strengthened both physically and mentally. It transpires that the welfare of children means decreasing the school age and not increasing it. " As in school, so I believe it should be in the factory. The practical training should be begun while the pupil is yet young. It should, of course, be guarded at every point, to prevent the use of the child as a laborer for profit up to as high as 15 or 16 years, but work in the capacity of apprentice should begin earlier rather than later in life. I have thought that the following graded schedule of apprenticeship work and school attendance might well be authorized and controlled by law for boys and girls in textile pursuits : ^ " From 1 1 to 12 years, three months' work in a textile factory may be allowed but only after attendance at school for six months. "From 12 to 13 years, four m.onths' work in a textile factory may be allowed, but only after attend- ance at school for six months. "From 13 to 14 years, five months' work in a tex- tile factory may be allowed, but only after attend- ance at school five months. "From 14 to 15 years, seven m.onths' work in a textile factory may be allowed, but only after attend- ance at school for three months. "From 15 to 16 years, ten months' work in a textile factory may be allowed, but only after attendance at school for two months. "But what is the use of the law without first de- veloping the system? I state as a fact that the system is well under way in the Southern cotton mills, and that it has been under way since the first mill was built after the Civil War; and that better- 282 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ment is progressing to-day in Southern mill towns at a rate greater than the educational system of New York .City". A Voice: "That isn't saying very much." Mr. Tompkins: "The gentleman says that is not saying very much. [Laughter.] Now what we want is not controversy. It does not matter whether the figures that have been given by magazine and platform reformers are correct or not; it matters not whether a picture of a loom has been published show- ing a bedraggled child at it, when no child ever did work at a loom either in this time or any other time. From time immemorial it has been the custom in the family for the young married woman to do the spin- ning and for the elders to do the weaving. That is where some of you ladies got your name of spinster. [Laughter.] To-day, as of yore, the younger people do the spinning and the elders do the weaving. A child cannot weave, and therefore the picture is to- tally misleading. Some of the figures that I have had in my hand were quoted by Capt. Smyth, and some of the figures which were made by the child labor committee have been taken back, or so modi- fied, that I do not think there are many figures left to argue about. But the Southern cotton mill men want to have you realize that we believe that we are doing right. The effort to help the operatives began at a time when everybody in the South was on ab- solutely the same level of poverty. Leaders were not elected but were chosen by a process of natural selection, as in the days of reconstruction, when the man on horseback led because he was the right man for the place. Immediately after the reconstruction anarchy was ended, the man who undertook to build a cotton factory was simply put forward many times U. S. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION 283 without his consent, to help to do the most promising thing looking to ameliorating the condition of the people in the country. The warm ties of friendship and affection and love, which had been generated during the period of reconstruction and poverty and equality, made every man desirous of doing as much for his operatives as for himself. In this work of real reconstruction there came from unexpected sources much help, and it is to the eternal credit of the New England machinery builders that they gave liberal and long credit; and it was largely upon the basis of that help that a beginning was made and that success has been brought out of an industrial development, and will continue to be brought to a still larger growth for the infinite betterment of the humanity of the South and the Nation." [Great applause.] CHAPTER XVI APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM FOURTH OF JULY SPEECH AT GASTONIA THE SOLID SOUTH NATIONAL EXPANSION WHEN I was teaching in the mill village of the Edgefield Manufacturing Company, of which my brother was president," says Mrs. Grace Tompkins Ennett, "he sent me pamphlets, which he had published himself, with all the patriotic songs, and requested that I teach them to the chil- dren and have them sing them every day. These songs were: America, The Battle Hymn of the Re- public, The Blue and the Gray, Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, Dixie, Hail Columbia, Maryland, The Old North State, The Star-Spangled Banner, and Yankee Doodle. He was very anxious that we float the national flag over every school in which I taught, and asked me to do all possible to teach the children that it was their flag, and train them to reverence and love their country. He asked me to start the fashion of cele- brating July 4th in Edgefield, and always to stand by the thought that Washington and Jefferson and most of the founders of the Union were from the South, and that we had as much cause for pride in the Nation as any other section." The political chasm which for half a century had separated North and South seemed as wide and deep in 1902 as fifty years before. The solid South was 284. APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 285 apparently the only everlasting, indestructible, thoroughly dependable factor in American politics. This condition was a source of deep grief and trouble to Tompkins, who considered it not only a menace to our institutions but a hindrance and obstruction to Southern industrial progress. Prilled with this belief and inspired by deep love both of the Union and of the South, he used every opportunity, and made opportunities, to create in the North a better understanding of the South, and to revive in the South its old-time love of the Union. His 4th of July oration at Gastonia, probably the greatest of all his speeches, is a fine picture of his double love, a noble plea for a new South, forgetting slavery and remembering the Union. It deserves to be published by every Southern State government and distributed among the public schools, to be read before the pupils each 4th of July. '^^ ff ^ ♦ FOURTH OF JULY ADDRESS AT GASTONIA "The occasion which we celebrate on July 4th is the Declaration of American Independence and the founding of a new nation. These events should be peculiarly dear to the hearts of the people of the South because of the prominent and active participa- tion of Southern men in severing the old political ties, in the successful conduct of the Revolutionary War, which was already begun when the Declaration was made, and in the establishment of a Federal government after the war. "The first motion made in the Colonial Congress looking to the independence of the colonies was proposed by Lee, of Virginia. This motion being favorably acted upon, a committee was appointed 286 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH to draft a suitable declaration of independence. Mr. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, was made chairman of this committee, and became the author of the Declaration, which we have come here to-day to celebrate. "In the war, which had begim before the Declara- tion and which continued after it, George Washing- ton, of Virginia, was made commanding general; and when the Federal Government was formed, with the name *the United States of America,' George Washington, of Virginia, was selected to be the head of the new nation. "Thus the most casual observation shows that the events which are annually celebrated by the Ameri- can people, on July 4th, were to a very large extent brought about by Southern men; hence, in the natural order of things, the day should be more popular in the South than in any other part of the American Union. "It transpired, however, that the popularity of July 4th, as a holiday in the South, commenced to wane about 1820, and continued to diminish until 1860, when it was practically nothing. At that time Christmas had been so turned into a festive, instead of a devotional, holiday, as practically to supplant July 4th, in its fireworks, cannon firing, dancing, and other joyous festivities. "Immediately succeeding the Civil War of 1860-'65, the negroes observed, in some degree, the Fourth as a holiday. To them it never went beyond being simply a day of no work. Their ancestors, as a people, had never participated in the patriotic emotions which impelled the events for which the Fourth may be celebrated with full appreciation. "I feel that this meeting here to-day to celebrate the 4th of July in the way that it used to be APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 287 celebrated in every Southern State about a century ago, is significant of a new turn in the affairs of the people of the South. I feel that this new turn is one of momentous consequence in the reconstruction of our fallen fortunes and in the reclamation of our rightful influence and position in the American Union. " I will undertake to review some events of Ameri- can history, and in the light of these events show what promise there may be for us all in the impelling influences that bring us together to celebrate the 4th of July to-day, and why it is peculiarly appropriate that the re-christening of the Fourth in the South should be done in Gastonia. "In the olden time, when a Southern man was appointed to write the Declaration of Independence, when a Southern man was leading the army of the revolution, and later when a Southern man was at the head of the new Federal government, this Piedmont region was fortunate in possessing a great variety of industrial interests. At that time the manufacturing interests in the territory south of the Potomac fully equalled, if they did not surpass, those of any other part of the United States. At the time of the formation of the Federal Union Virginia headed the list of all the states in population and wealth, and North Carolina stood third on the list. There was developed here in the Piedmont region blast furnaces, rolling mills, cotton factories, foundries, hollow ware factories (pots and ovens), woolen mills, wagon factories, and many other manufacturing industries. American commerce was, in the early part of the nineteenth century, proportionately of greater value on the high seas than it is now. Charleston, Wilmington, and other Southern ports stood relatively far higher in the world's commerce than they do to-day. 288 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "We had in those days a fine population of self- respecting and skilled white labor. The manu- factured products of this section stood high in com- merce, not only here at home, but in all markets. The rifles made at Greensboro and near Pendleton were an important element in frontier life in Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as at home. At Lincolnton, in the adjoining county to this, cotton mill machinery was manufactured in the early part of the nineteenth century; and some of the parts which are still preserved show that the design and work- manship were excellent. "If the progress in manufactures and commerce which was so much advanced in 1810 could have continued under the influences under which they reached such a considerable development, it is im- possible to conceive what our situation might be to- day. What hindered the progress.^ What adverse influence was it that not only hindered progress, but gradually dried up both the manufactures and the commerce of the South .'^ I hold that it was the institution of slavery. Under its influence this country gradually changed from one of free white labor, diversified manufactures, prosperous com- merce, and successful agriculture, to a country practically wholly occupied with the production of a few staple crops with slave labor. All diversity of agriculture, beyond a few staple crops, was driven out, insofar as making products for commerce was concerned. It came to pass that the country was given over to the big planter of cotton, tobacco, or rice with slave labor. The small farmer became poor. The iron worker, the millwright, the gun- maker, the carpenter, and other white skilled labor emigrated, to a large extent, to the Northwest. APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISjM 289 Those of them who were left drifted to farms, where, having no markets for diversified and perishable farm products, they became very poor in the attempt to raise crops in competition with slave labor. As the institution of slavery grew stronger, the South grew weaker in most of the elements necessary to a strong and independent people. "In the change from one condition to another, as above described, it is natural that, as manufactures and free labor were driven out by agriculture and black slave labor, the 4th of July as a memorial day and holiday should follow the fortunes of the white labor. The slave had no occasion to cele- brate it. With scant employment, and while grow- ing poorer year by year, the white farmer found little occasion to want to celebrate it, because it didn't fit the institution of slavery, which he so strongly advocated. "The changes referred to gradually led up to the conditions which precipitated the Civil War, and abohshed slavery. "For a quarter of a century succeeding the Civil War there was forced upon the South a condition of social and political anarchy surpassing in persistent error any other experience in the history of nations. In that time the Fourth was made a sort of holiday by the negroes. It seemed to have no particular meaning or significance in their minds beyond being a day of no work— a sort of day of aimless and useless loafing. "With slavery abolished, with the restoration of law and order and the reestablishment of honest and stable government — what then.^ "The descendants of the manufacturers of 1800 immediately reestabhshed factories in 1900. I have 290 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH shown how the great-grandsires of the present generation of North CaroUnians made a success of manufactures and developed a strong and prosperous commonwealth — then holding the third place in the Union. Whoever may wish to know what sort of success the present generation of North Carolinians are making of manufactures, and in building a strong and prosperous Commonwealth, may learn best by coming to see Gastonia. "Having begun anew the career of our forebears in supporting diversity of manufactures and agriculture and in fostering commerce, have we not come to the time when again the 4th of July should be our most cherished secular holiday? Its re-inauguration could not be more appropriately made than in a city where a great diversity of manufactured products, not only in cotton goods but in iron works, wood work, and in many other lines, and in a city whose neighboring farms sustain a diversified agriculture. This is, too, in a city where everything has been done practically inside of ten years. It is an instance where the people with only their own scant resources have practically built a successful and prosperous city. " Twenty years ago Gastonia was small and dilapi- dated. Nowadays things are different in Gastonia, because what the conditions have become in twenty years is an ample answer to any reproach for former conditions. Her achievements are more than an answer for herself. She has shown every poverty- ridden Southern town what wonderful resource there is in a brave home people when the}' try. "A celebration like this would be far short of its full JDurpose, if, in reviewing the past and discussing the present, we could not deduce some lessons for our guidance in the future. APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 291 "First and most important of these I conceive to be contained in the proposition that if we would have our agriculture prosper, our manufactures must also prosper. We have once seen the consequences of per- mitting the destruction of manufactures in the interest of slave labor and agriculture. One of the most con- spicuous results of the political success of agriculture in a way that eliminated manufactures was the infinite injury that ultimately came to agriculture itself when manufactures were driven from the South. The deplorable condition to which agriculture fell grew worse and worse, until the revival of manufactures revived in turn the agriculture of the State in each locality, in proportion as manufactures grew and prospered. "There can be no competition between manu- factures, agriculture, and commerce. The success of one must of necessity be dependent on the others as well. Each of the three must be kept strong, in order to make a strong commonwealth. We must frown upon prejudice by manufactures against commerce. We must keep strong and healthy all three elements necessary to a strong and prosperous commonwealth. In Massachusetts the manufactur- ing element could destroy the farming element, but, as a matter of fact, it supports it. Except for the support of the manufacturing element, farming in Massachusetts would have long since been one of the lost arts. In her policies that state is wise in retain- ing in her counsels representatives of all three of these elements necessary to a strong and prosperous state. "Our long training as an agricultural people has brought to us a certain abiding degree of prejudice against manufactures and commerce. The manu- facturer is looked upon with too much suspicion. 292 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH The railroads, our chief instrument of commerce, are treated too much as common enemies. I would regret to seem an apologist for the faults of either of these. On the other hand, I would regret to have to stand for the faults of those who, in the pursuit of emolument or position, foster and stimulate prejudice against manufactures and commerce. In listening to the sophistries of those who do this, the farmers of the State not only commit a grave error in dealing with their best friends, but hinder their own progress and do themselves injury. LThe cotton factories and the raiboads of the State are doing the farmers more practical good than all the office-holders and office- seekers in it ever can do it. The interest of the farmer lies with the manufacturer and the railroad. He should vote to foster and encourage these in proper ways, and not to handicap and harass them. We have seen how the Southern agriculturist of the nineteenth century succeeded in driving out manu- factures and drying up commerce, and to what end? To his own undoing. Since the war we have seen the State prosper, and agriculture regain a profitable position in proportion as manufactures have been established and increased. Everybody admits the value to a community of manufactures and good transportation facilities for commerce. It would seem natural that the representatives of these should be invited into the councils of the government. But our politicians, claiming to represent the farmers of the State, who are in a majority, set it up as offence, if it is suggested that a manufacturer be put in posi- tion to take a hand in the law-making of the State. This is the more incomprehensible when it is con- sidered that these politicians are rarely themselves farmers, nor are they in position to do the farmers APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 293 approximately the benefit that they derive from the manufacturer. They simply lead the majority into an attitude of antagonism against a minority element the benefits of whose works everybody admit^ "This fight of the majority is all wrong. Each element should help the other element. The farmer, the manufacturer, and the railroad man should work together for the benefit of each other, and for the advantage of the whole State. If we do this, the way is now wide open to a bounteous prosperity. "Slavery circumscribed our habits of thought. It took away from us freedom of political action. It destroyed all profitable occupation for the white man who worked for wages. It made the South doubly solid; first, voluntarily solid for the protection and perpetuation of slavery; afterward necessarily solid against the disorder, violence, and even anarchy that followed in the wake of the destruction of the in- stitution. Slavery is now gone forever. The wreck of its destruction is now about cleared away. We may now, with unhampered hands, prosecute the work of reconstructing the industrial fabric of the South which was destroyed by slavery and by an excess of zeal for agricultural interest. "We may now rebuild the working man's school, which was swept away in the interest of agriculture and slave labor. We may again, if we concur in opinion, follow the lead of George Washington, the Southern protection President. We may, if we believe with him, follow the lead of Thomas Jefferson, the Southern expansion President. We may, if we think as he did, follow the lead of Andrew Jackson, the Southern sound money President. "And why not follow these, if we believe with them? They are all Southern men. Each and every 294 A 15U1LDER OF THE NEW SOUTH one of us has come to follow the lead of that other Southern-born man, Abraham Lincoln, the aboli- tion President. Not one of us would fail to defeat a proposition for the restoration of slavery if we should meet such a proposition. Having come unanimously to concurrence with the views of Abraham Lincoln, we may now with propriety and advantage deter- mine whether or not we may follow any or all these other three Southern men; and formulating our convictions, follow them with independence. "Let it be distinctly understood that I am saying no w^ord of reproach against the South for having stood solid for the quarter of a century succeeding the Civil War. The solidity of her people in that period was of the same sort as that of the ministers of China when they were shut up with their people and were besieged by the heathen mob. Our siege by anarchy has been raised. The enforcement upon us in our homes of fanatical experiment and infamous at- tempts at sumptuary regulations of our affairs have been discontinued. The reasons for disregarding economic questions of government are past. The way is now^ open for us to participate in a rational determination of governmental questions. If we fail to do it, we become a people of opposition and obstruction. "It may be charged that in what I say there is inconsistency, because I admit the error of slavery and yet complain, perhaps with bitterness, of our treatment during the period of so-called reconstruc- tion. But there is no inconsistency. As we were wrong in one case, so were our friends in the North wrong in the other case in nmch — yea, most — of what they did. The account of error North and South is about balanced. The opposing forces have brought APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 295 US at last, the North and the South, to about the same course. If in the quarter century succeeding the Civil War the North sent to us men who were in the main thieves and plunderers, she is now making good to us this error by sending to us the young men of her best blood and most sterling merit, to aid in the industrial upbuilding, and as hostages of good faith, in her dealings with us to-day. "If we were plundered in the so-called reconstruc- tion period by carpet-baggers who came South empty-handed, the machine builder and capitalist of the North are in a considerable degree helping us to recover our losses by extending generous credits, and in many cases becoming partners with us in our ventures. We have come back to that condition which prevailed in 1776, which made the occasion which we are here to celebrate, when the people of America had only common interests and were a united people. "The loyalty with which our fathers and grand- fathers supported the institution of slavery was a mistake. It drove out diversified manufactures and turned commerce away from us. It did not even contribute to the lasting advantage of agriculture, but brought it to a most depressed and unprofitable condition. The reduction and confinement of the State's resources to agriculture alone put us from third place in wealth and population to a position low down in the list. "We return here to-day to a loyalty to the senti- ments and purposes of our Revolutionary ancestors, which were the highest, the noblest, and the purest that ever existed amongst any people." This speech was delivered in many North Carolina towns, and its ideas were proclaimed and emphasized 296 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH by Tompkins during several years in speeches throughout the South. The newspapers caught up his plea for inde- pendence of thought; and the politicians undertook to see in him an undeveloped political potentiality. They urged him to become an independent can- didate for Governor, for United States Senator, for Member of Congress, for Mayor of Charlotte. They did not understand him. His mental horizon was too large for their narrow vision. His strong and clear-cut ideas of fundamental truths in govern- ment and political economy unfitted him for the ever-shifting drama of political life. The vestments of the politician wereJtoo^malHojLlii^j^^^ While Tompkins loved the Union, and sought to break down barriers between North and South, he w^as strong and firm in advocacy of Southern white supremacy. This he considered fundamental not only to Southern industrial progress, but also to Southern civilization. He proclaimed this idea North and South in speeches and in the press. His views on the subject are set forth in the following extracts from one of his speeches : THE SOLID SOUTH AND ITS NEEDS "The South is compelled to stand for the supre- macy of the white man, or suffer decline. Its ultimate development depends upon escaping the fate of Cuba and almost all South America. Under similar conditions Spanish America succumbed to adverse influences. "In the South all politics in both parties is subject to this one fundamental principle. Political eco- nomics must be subject to it. We have not only the APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 297 example of Cuba and South America to guide us, but we have had in the reconstruction period a most grievous experience of our own to confirm the correctness of the principle. The future develop- ment and progress of the colored race is as depend- ent upon the white standard as is the white race it- seK. It is not meant here to suggest that the colored race be denied any rights or the exercise of any proper influence. But the standards set up for the colored race must be white standards. In this situation and in this one cause the white people of the South must ever stand together. "The South made a stupendous mistake about the institution of slavery. The sufferings of its people as a result of this mistake exceed almost those of any other modern people. Its experiences make it abhor the institution. It has never made a mistake about race relations. The colored people as a whole never suffered at the hands of its people. There was never a time when Southern slavery was not an advance on African savagery. Dominion of white influence is not in the least an attack upon the colored citizen or any of his fair prerogatives or just privileges, any more than it is upon the white child. "The South has abandoned slavery, and it should now abandon such political principles as were made to fit the institution. Nothing could be^ more important than to maintain high standards of civiliza- tion. Accepting that as essential above all things, then we ought to work out our new political eco- nomics on the basis of modern conditions. The tariff, American shipping, the currency, conservation, count as nothing to our being on safe ground where standards of civilization are concerned; but, after that, the South has need for light on all these and 298 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH more. The time has come when we must require those who represent us in Washington to be sound upon the fundamental principle of white supremacy, and then also support sound political economics, fitted to modern times and conditions." There is no mistaking the deep love which Tomp- kins felt for the South, nor his conviction of the necessity for white supremacy. But he believed that the South, now emancipated from slavery, was ready for emancipation from the mental tyranny of slavery. In a speech on National Expansion, which he delivered extensively during the national discussions over the annexation of the Philippine Islands, Tompkins shows himself clearly and strongly in his threefold character of a patriotic American, a de- voted and loyal Southerner, and a firm believer in the Darwinian theory and Spencerian philosophy of " The Survival of the Fittest." He was a true Anglo- Saxon, loving land and loving power, but loving liberty more — not theoretical and impracticable liberty, nor the unrestrained and desolate freedom of the wild ass of the desert, but practical liberty based upon human nature and human experience and common sense, the liberty of law and order and civilization, the liberty of industrial achievement and of unlimited human progress. NATIONAL EXPANSION *' Civilization a Survival — The history of nations is largely a record of 'the survival of the fittest.' Modern nations exist by reason of the death of the nations of the past. It is useless now to argue the justice of the destruction of any nation of APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 299 former times. That nations have fallen when no longer fit to rule, is a fact and it may safely be pre- dicted that the future will be a verification of the wisdom of the destruction of outworn and effete forms of government, which had to be destroyed that the progress of the world might not be retarded. *'In a business man's every -day life he sees this law of the survival of the fittest at work, thinning out the ranks of his competitors, introducing new material. And it would be the silliest kind of sentimentalism for the successful man of affairs to sit down and lament his past success and cease his efforts to widen his avenues of trade, because he may have been the indirect means of pushing to the wall some other business man, forcing him to assign or to go into bankruptcy, leaving his wife and children de- pendent on charity. Yet the like happens every day. Competition, the very essence of business life, puts down some and elevates others. The fittest survive. It must be so, else there is no life, no progress. Whatever the socialist and other sentimentalists may think, the survival of the fittest is, has been, and will always be the law of progress in national affairs, in business, and in all the other walks of life. ''A Retrospection— When the United States set up business in 1789, they were small in numbers, popula- tion, and area, confined to the Altantic slope. It is true they all claimed dominion to the great ocean on the west, but that claim was disputed, and success- fully, too, for many years. The beginning of an expansion of territory was inaugurated by the purchase of Louisiana by Jefferson in 1803. The reason given by those who favored the acquisition of the new territory was necessity. The young republic did not feel that it was strong enough to go 300 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH to war with the nation that then held the port of New Orleans, so it proposed to acquire rights in the Mississippi valley by purchase. The territory of Louisiana, with its Indians, Spaniards, Creoles, and French was acquired, Jefferson himself saying there was no constitutional warrant for thus expending the public money. He never said the Republic had no right to acquire territory by conquest, nor did he ever quote the memorable declaration of 1776 about the 'consent of the governed,' while consummating the bargain with Napoleon. It seems that such a weighty (?) objection to the trade in hand was then overlooked, and thus James Monroe, the United States Minister at Paris, and Napoleon closed the deal without consulting the Shawnees, the Sioux, the Spaniards, the Creoles, and the French residents then on the land called Louisiana. " Then, in a few years the Spaniards and Seminoles of Florida were sold out to the United States. The Seminoles and Spaniards there were not consulted nor was the consent of those to be governed obtained. The Anglo-Saxon desire for land and the necessities of the young republic subordinated all other con- siderations; and Spain's colonial possession, Florida, was made a territory of the United States. The State of Texas was acquired in 1844 by annexation, which led to the Mexican War. When the affairs of that war were wound up, the United States took some land, some Indians, and some Spaniards, in payment of the war debt, and to punish Mexico for being indiscreet enough to go to war with us. It has been said that Mexico was unfit to govern Texas; that her power there was a menace to progress, and that the Texans won their independence some time before 1844, in consequence of Mexico's APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 301 tyranny and incapacity for enlightened government. However, this country acquired Texas by the consent of the governed, it seems; but the territory compris- ing Arizona, New Mexico, Cahfornia, Utah, Nevada, and some additional strips, was not acquired by the * consent of the governed.' "In 1867, when General Grant purchased Alaska, it was done only by the consent of this country and Russia. The Esquimaux and the Indians and the fur traders up there were not consulted, nor their future rights considered. The United States thought they needed the land and they paid for it, consulting the tenants in nothing. " The Why of All This — It may be remarked, in the first place, that the United States now have all the land referred to above; that some of it has been formed into states and admitted into the Union on equal terms with the thirteen original states. In the second place, it may be noted that in acquiring this territory no time was specified as to the term during which the new territory was to remain without the privileges of statehood, nor was that question then considered; and that no conditions were imposed on this country by virtue of any acquisition, ex- cept those freely imposed by this nation upon itself. "But the veriest tyro knows that we did not ex- pand to the Pacific Ocean or the West all by chance, or because the territory happened to be contiguous or because we punctiliously observed certain tenets of the Declaration of 1776, or certain injunctions that Washington left to Congress about entangling alliances. We have expanded because we deserved to expand, because we demonstrated our capacity to buy land, to conquer land, to annex land, and to 302 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH govern the people on that land. Without such capacity our past expansion would never have taken place, and would have remained an unrealized dream in the minds of some — nothing more. " The Consent of the Governed Theory — It may be pertinent to remark here that the government of this country has never proceeded on the theory of a literal application of the principles of the Declaration of Independence to the government of its territories especially when the territories contained inferior peoples; nor have the several states literally applied those doctrines in carrying on their local govern- ments. At the very moment Jefferson was writing those memorable words about the consent of the governed his several hundred slaves, governed by overseers on his Virginia plantation, had no govern- ment by the consent of the governed. The several states composing the Congress w^hich published that declaration to the world had restrictions numerous and many on the suffrage, and did not govern their inhabitants by consulting the wishes of all the governed. "But, it may be said, the several states have gradually removed those restrictions, and the ten- dency is now to consult the wishes of all the governed. This is all very true, especially when the governed are thought to be worthy of exercising the rights of citizens on account of superiority of morals and capacity for civilization. Instead, however, of this country consulting the wishes of all the governed, it has always shown the good sense not to do so. And in pursuing such a policy this country has gained the proud place she now holds as a civilizing factor in the world's progress. If, as Mr. Gladstone once said, the English economy of government is founded APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 303 on inequalities, it only shows that such inequalities have inured to the benefit of all mankind, as witness that wherever England goes, trade, commerce, Chris- tianity, civilization, and good government follow. Certain social and moral conditions have rendered so-called inequalities in our governmental policy necessary; inequalities of mere birth, of course, are not here considered. "The absolute impossibility of a practical, literal realization of the theory of Jefferson about the political equality of all men, then, is apparent. Those who invoke such a doctrine now, to argue against the further expansion of this country, betray an ignorance of our past history which is little less than absurd. The whole history of our dealings with inferior races, such as the Indian and Southern negro, ought to be gentle reminders of the fact that a good government in this country would have always been impossible, based on a literal interpretation of the Declaration of Independence; and would to-day be impossible in almost every Southern state. It may be argued that our treatment of the Indian has been immoral and degrading, and that our present treatment of the Southern negro is equally so. But the treatment which the Indians and the negroes have received at the hands of the superior races has been the treatment all inferior races have received at the hands of superior races, the Declaration of Independence to the contrary notwithstanding. Joshua's treatment of the Canaanites was not half so humane as our treatment of the American Indian. Platitudes about equality and natural rights do not alter race prejudices and laws of nature. It is a wise, a righteous provision of God's law that provides that the imperfect must die that progress be made, 304 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH and that the whole race be not engulfed in ignorance and vice, superstition and paganism. *'This leads me to say that the South once made the great mistake of trying to perpetuate African slavery in the face of the English prohibition and in the face of civilization. But the North also made an equally great mistake when it gave the emancipated slave, ignorant and inferior to his white neighbors, the right to vote. The question of the negro's physical freedom is settled forever, but the vain attempt to apply the theory of the Declaration of Independence here in the South to the negro, giving him the power to vote, without regard to his mental and moral qualifications, is not yet wholly settled in favor of progress and good order. Judging from past experience, it is safe to say that the theoretical doctrines of political equality and the consent of the governed will play a very small part in the final adjustment of the race problem. Plain, practical good sense and Anglo-Saxon superiority will govern in the end; and if the negro stands in the way of progress he will have to get off the earth, just as the Massachusetts Indians did before the face of Capt. Miles Standish and his Puritan soldiers. "We have lately taken up a war in the interest of humanity. We have destroyed the sovereignty of an effete nation in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philip- pines. Those islands are now certainly not Spain's, and wh}^? Simply because she does not deserve to rule them. We have violated no code of inter- national ethics in taking the foot of Spain off the necks of the Cubans and Filipinos. We would have deserved the censure of civilization if we had not done as we did do. Therefore, we have settled the first great problem in expansion in this particular APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 305 instance; we have demonstrated that we have the moral character sufficient to protect the weak from the oppressions of the vicious and tyrannical. In doing so, we have been true to our traditions and our history. We have realized that we owed it to civili- zation to do as we have done, viz., destroy forever the sovereignty of Spain in her colonies. And when Spain's power was thus destroyed in her colonies, the one supreme question of expansion was settled for- ever. "Unless we intend to reverse our past policy of dealing with inferior races and institutions and enter on a policy of decrepitude and imbecility we need fear nothing from extending our sovereignty over the Philippines. The man who doubts our ability to restore order in the Philippines and to rule them as we do Alaska and New Mexico and Hawaii must certainly have lost faith in our institutions. It seems to me he must deliberately give the lie to the whole history that is behind us. "It is said that we have no constitutional right to annex the Philippines. If that be true, then there was no constitutional warrant for the acquisition of Alaska, Louisiana, Hawaii, or New Mexico. Such theories and refinements may amuse the antiquarian, but they certainly do not appeal to common sense. We have been governing, taxing, and acquiring alien territory and peoples since the beginning of this century through a period of 100 years, and it is rather late now to enter such a plea. "The idea of annexing a 'subject people' to this country seems to give the anti-expansionists alarm just as if they never heard of such a thing before. Are not the Alaskans a * subject people.^' Have we not seen the people acquired with the Louisiana 306 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH purchase go through all the stages from the condi- tion of a 'subject people' to the highest form of self-government known to our institutions? These so-called anti-imperialists argue that a 'subject people' means a monarchical government and a colonial system, and that as they are against a monarchy and in favor of a republic, therefore they are anti-imperialists and against what they call the colonial system, forgetting our past history and that a republic has to deal with the same prob- lems of government with which a monarchy has to deal. "We have seen ourselves go through the process of evolution from colonies to a Federal Union, control- ling large areas of land under a territorial s;y*stem of government, which is only another term for a colonial system, and yet we pretend that we are afraid of colonies ! We have had colonies in this country ever since we ceased to be colonies ourselves. For any one, then, to say that, all of a sudden, the expan- sionists are insisting on embarking on some before -un- heard-of scheme, insisting on adopting a new colonial system for this country, certainly indicates a remark- able forgetfulness of our past history. "Has the expansion of this country to include the Spaniards and Indians of Florida made us forgetful of the great principle of local self-government.'^ Has the expansion of our republic to include the Creoles, the Indians, and the French of Louisiana, and the Spaniards and the Indians and the half-breeds of New Mexico made us insensible of the rights of people to govern themselves? No, a thousand times, no! Our history gives the lie to such a proposition, while at the same time our expansion has taught us that the practical application of the theories of the APOSTLE OF PATRIOTISM 307 Declaration of Independence cannot yet be made to all classes and conditions of men. That lesson is worth something, because it teaches us that we can govern the Philippines just like Thomas Jefferson governed Louisiana, or Polk governed the lands acquired from Mexico, and with just as little danger to our institutions, our constitution, and the Declara- tion of Independence. "The climatic objection is one of last resort. We had Alaska in one extreme and Florida in the other before the late war with Spain. The climate of Alaska did not prevent the discovery of gold in the Klondike; the climate of Cuba will not prevent an- other George Waring from going there to aid in cleansing its cities, nor will climate prevent the benefits of good government from being carried to the Philippines by the United States. It is the mission of humanity and science to counteract the ill effects of climate and to show men how to live under adverse conditions. Indeed, I believe that the time is coming when all tropical countries will be governed by the people of temperate zones. And finally, if it is a good thing to take our religion to the East, why is it not as correct a thing to do to take our goverment there, climate or no climate, just as we send our missionaries out regardless of tropical suns and rams.'' The two greatest passions of Tompkins were love of home and love of country. With him the Tomp- kins family and Edgefield and South Carolina and the Southern States were the heart of the Nation but not greater than the Nation. Patriotism with him was a larger passion than love of home, for patriotism was love of home writ large. He was 308 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH proud of liis race and proud of his country, because of the ideals that they represented. He favored national expansion, not for the sake of dominion, but for the increase of freedom and the spread of liberty over the globe. CHAPTER XVTI A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON THE PROBLEM STATED — ^A SYSTEM OF COTTON WAREHOUSES UNDER CORPORATE OWNERSHIP AND GOVERNMENT CONTROL — PROGRESS OF THE PLAN — STATE AND NATIONAL LEGISLATION THE mind of Tompkins, at once practical and philosophic, was peculiarly attracted by prob- lems connected with the marketing of cotton. His life on a cotton plantation, his experience in hauling cotton to market, his career as builder, manager, and owner of cotton mills, his experience as cotton buyer and cotton seller had impressed upon his mind the disadvantages of fluctuations in cotton prices and the evils of cotton speculation. He under- stood the urgent need of improvement in the existing system of marketing cotton. In the Manufacturers' Record, August 11, 1904, he published an article which analyzed the problem and suggested a solution. The article was as follows: TO MAINTAIN A FAIR AVERAGE PRICE FOR COTTON "The cotton situation has been unsatisfactory either to the farmer or to the manufacturer for the last ten years . The price of raw cotton has within the decade ranged from a figiu'e less than five cents to one exceeding 15 cents. The low price was a hardship 809 310 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTiI on the farmer, and the high price has paralyzed the cotton goods trade, which paralysis extends naturally to the cotton mills also. Every farmer, merchant, and manufacturer who is conservative, will testify to the fact that unsettled conditions are adverse to the safe conduct of his business. Each of these would prefer conditions which eliminate all speculative features and which carry in these respective callings a fair, moderate profit. "Some little review of past conditions may be of value in elucidating present conditions. "The institution of slavery reduced the South practically to the single occupation of agriculture with slave labor. Slave labor meant of necessity ignorant labor. The conditions in the decade im- mediately preceding the Civil War were such as admitted no very material increase in population and little, if any, in wealth. The conditions totally stifled manufactures. The equivalent natural in- crease in population emigrated to the northwest free states, or, in case of a few whites carrying many negroes, to the southwest slave states. "After the Civil War the conditions were semi- anarchic. The South was compelled to make a new start in the one industry of agricufture and with ignorant negro labor. The people knew noth- ing else. There was no diversity worth consider- ing. "Speaking in round numbers in all cases, the events of the development since the Civil War may be illustrated by the following figures. Taking the four decades succeeding the war, we find the pro- duction of cotton and the development of manu- factures represented, as shown by figures, as fol- lows: A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 3U FIRST DECADE 2,500,000 bales cotton, at 24 cents $300,000,000 Manufactures 10,000,000 Total $310,000,000 SECOND DECADE 5,000,000 bales cotton, at 12 cents $300,000,000 Manufactures 25,000,000 Total $325,000,000 THIRD DECADE 10,000,000 bales cotton, at 6 cents $300,000,000 Manufactures 100,000,000 Total $400,000,000 FOURTH DECADE 10,000,000 bales cotton, at 12 cents $600,000,000 Manufactures 400,000,000 Total $1,000,000,000 "The figures as to manufactures are estimated, as representing the value to the South of increasing manufactures; and the price obtained for the cot- ton crop in the fourth decade shows the influence of diversified interests in relieving the harsh competi- tion, when everybody had practically one business or calling. "The time will probably not come again when cotton will go to five cents. Southern people have found that there are other things which may be done 312 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH to better advantage than to produce cotton under adverse conditions. *'It has been pointed out that in the first three dec- ades succeeding the Civil War, as the production increased, the price decreased. In each decade the product of quantity and price was a constant, reaching $300,000,000. Now we have the same sort of situation, except on a higher level. Take this year's crop, for example. Weather conditions may make it vary from 11,000,000 bales to 13,000,000 bales. If the former, the price will probably aver- age 13 cents, while at the latter figure the price may average 11 cents. 13,000,000 bales, at 11 cents $715,000,000 11,000,000 bales, at 13 cents 715,000,000 "The great drawback to the production and the manufacture of cotton is the uncertainty as to quan- tity and price. A practical plan to eliminate this uncertainty would be of untold advantage to the farmer, the manufacturer, and the merchant the world over. It would be perhaps of greatest value to the ultimate consumer. "The proposition before us, to secure a cotton sup- ply in average and satisfactory quantity from year to year and at an average satisfactory price is as follows : (1) We must find some way to make the annual consumption the average of the production for at least ten years. (2) We must find some way to maintain the price at the average of what it would be in ten years under the varying influences throughout the ten years. A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 313 ''Two means or ways for accomplishing this aver- age suggest themselves. The first of these is by State control. This would mean that the principal cotton-growing states should join in making a monopoly of the commerce in cotton. If each State would enact a law to take the entire crop of cotton in the State at 10 cents a pound, and sell it out to the cotton mills at 10 cents plus the cost of conducting the business, and hold to the one price, regardless of whether the crop is large or small, then the aver- age could be accomplished. If in a big crop year there was a surplus, it would be carried over; if a deficiency, then the mills would simply shut down a week or a month or whatever time would be neces- sary on account of the deficiency. "The plan seems unusual. The conditions are unusual, viz., for a world product to be subject to the extreme variations of weather and other influences in an area that is by comparison insignificant as compared to the area of the consumption of cotton products. In such narrow area natural influences become often cumulative to make an abnormal low crop or an abnormal high crop. While the plan is unusual, it is not without precedent in other fields of staple products. South Carolina monopolizes the commerce in whiskey, France in tobacco, Hungary in wines from her vineyards. Many cities monopo- lize the liquor traflSc by dispensaries. The United States monopolizes the mail business. Ordinarily, it is far best to leave things under the control of natural causes and influences. Ordinarily, nature has provided methods of getting average results. Some- times a means or method is provided by nature, but left for us to find and operate, as in the case of in- surance. 314 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOTTTH "The second and most practical plan would be by and through a corporation whose capital is sufficient and whose field of operations covers enough ground and time to accomplish average results. It is by means of corporations that the risks of life and fire are averaged and a life or fire insurance premium is figured out to cover the risks. The company cannot control life or death, or prevent fire. It can only find an average of these, and mitigate harsh results, which would fall to individuals, if they were not averaged. It might be apprehended that such a corporation would control the cotton business. It could not; and only disaster would follow any at- tempt to do it. It would be as important and necessary for such a company to figure correctly the proper averages of quantity and price as it is for a life insurance company to figure correctly the aver- age life expectation and corresponding premium. If either of these figures is not accurately ascertained beforehand, no safe business could be done. So in the matter of the world's demand for cotton and price. The average of these two factors is a constant for the same conditions. A company would pro- vide for yearly variations in production the same as an insurance company provides for the individual uncertainty of a man's life. *'The two methods of State and corporate effort are mentioned in order to cover, in this article, the scope of the subject. The method of control by the states would be objectionable: (1) because all the cotton states could not be brought to agreement on the subject; (2) it would lead to corruption in politics and State government; (3) it would be too socialistic in tendency to suit the American people. "The plan of corporate effort would be practically A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 315 parallel with the work of the insurance companies in averaging the rates for life and fire insurance. The operation of such a plan would totally eliminate the speculator. It would break up all bucket shops, the number of which is now increasing, and the oper- ations of which are extending to the small towns even. It would stay the spirit of speculation. The oper- ations of the plan would vastly benefit the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, and the con- sumer. If the average production should begin to fall below the requirements, the price could be raised a little. If the surplus should become chronic, let the price be lowered a little. "The bettered conditions would attract immigra- tion to the South, and the increased demand for cotton could be met by this immigration. It is not in the interest of the Southern farmer nor of the cotton-growing states to undertake to maintain cotton at so high a price as will stimulate large pro- duction in other countries. A fair average price will hold the monopoly in the United States in the future, as in the past." A month later, in an address on "The Storing and Marketing of Cotton," delivered before the New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association at Bret- ton Woods, New Hampshire, he strongly advocated a system of cotton warehouses under corporate management, wherein farmers might store their cotton, receiving storage certificates, transferable in the markets of the world and available as col- laterals for loans. The following extracts will illus- trate the general character of this address and its main ideas: "In many other departments of life we have found a means to get an approximate average of consump- 316 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH tion and supply. In order to do this for cotton it would seem that the best plan is to form a company or system of companies, which should build large central warehouses in the cotton-producing area and issue certificates upon the cotton which would be stored in them. The warehouses should be built in the centres of cotton production, where the farmer himself may go and store his cotton and, if he is so disposed, hold his cotton to see whether it goes up or down, keeping in his possession a storage certifi- cate. The warehouse must be large enough to jus- tify eflScient management and clerical organization suflScient to take care of it; to justify a system of sprinklers and other fire protection. It must be in the hands of a corporation whose certificates are known to be absolutely good for the cotton. "In other staple crops we have found means of storage to make the product security for money at the banks while it is stored, take proper care of it in respect to fire, water, and other sources of damage, and to issue a storage certificate upon it which be- comes a trading basis anywhere in the United States. If we bring the cotton crop to that same condition, build warehouses, issue receipts, let it be known that those receipts represent the cotton and that the cotton never moves till the receipt comes back to release it, we shall have taken a tremendous step forward in the interest of everybody connected with the cotton trade." In a subsequent address, December 12, 1904, be- fore the National Cotton Convention at Shreveport, La., Tompkins develops his plan in fuller detail. After discussing various factors that affect cotton production and cotton prices, viz., boll weevil, foreign production, scarcity of labor and lack of a A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 317 cotton-picking machine, he considers the evils of cotton speculation, due to fluctuations in the size of the crop; and, as a remedy, proposes a carefully planned and regulated system of cotton warehouses. "We furnish to the world one year a crop which is overwhelmingly big and the next year a crop which is insufficient to supply the ordinary demands. This creates a condition in which the speculator holds high carnival in dealing in cotton. The legitimate merchant and manufacturer are made to turn gam- bler, whether they will or not, and the ordinary course of trade is tremendously disturbed. The average production for ten years, if it could be maintained, would bring about an average price. Inasmuch as the climate forbids this, from one year to another it is important that the production shall be by some artificial means brought to more or less of an aver- age and thereby the price brought to an approximate average. I believe that this might best be done by the development of a system of warehouses which would do far more than shelter and care for the cot- ton. Existing warehouses simply issue a receipt for a bale of cotton. No effort is made to state what kind of cotton the receipt stands for, nor does the ware- house company assume any responsibility for the grade, weight, or anything else connected with the cotton. Insurance is higher than it ought to be. "I believe that if a comprehensive warehouse company would engage the best graders to be had, and would issue a certificate in which every factor re- lating to the bale of cotton was accurately entered, and the warehouse company stand responsible for the description of the cotton as given in the receipt, such a receipt could be traded in to better advantage than the bale of cotton itself. The purchaser of the 318 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH receipt in Carolina, in England, or in Germany, would know more about the particular bale of cotton in question from the receipt in hand, than he would know about it if he saw the bale of cotton. Cotton being one of the very best collaterals on the market, such receipts, standing for the cotton exactly, might be traded in in the financial institutions of the whole world. Thus it would be feasible to bring cotton within reach of the surplus money of the world; and, when there was a large crop, the surplus would un- doubtedly be carried over hy financial institutions, as investments, until a small crop should bring the price to an average. It would save the forcing of the surplus on the market, and by proper construc- tion of warehouses, proper protection against fire, and building in proper units, the cost of carrying cotton could be very much reduced both by reduc- tion of insurance and by reduction of interest rate in consequence of the certificate being an accurate rep- resentation of the cotton itself. "I exhibit herewith the picture of a warehouse which I have designed to carry from 20 to 30 thou- sand bales of cotton according to weight and extent of compression. I exhibit also a receipt which not only stands for a bale of cotton, but gives the gen- eral classification, the grade, the length of the staple, the strength of staple, the degree of tinge, the degree of softness, and the degree of fineness. All these points are to be given in accordance with the judg- ment and the skill of the best and most expert graders obtainable. This record, written by experts, would make a certificate representing a bale of cotton stand for more to a purchaser than if an average unexpert purchaser could see the bale of cotton himself. This certificate would stand for more to a banker in A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 319 Liverpool, or in Bremen, than the cotton would to the average man in the town where the cotton was lo- cated. It would, in addition to having the record of expert judgment on every feature of the particular bale, also have the backing of a responsible company guaranteeing this record. Such a system of ware- houses, with such a receipt, would tremendously simplify the purchase by a mill man of cotton in warehouse, no matter where located in the cotton- growing district. The European spinner by the pur- chase of these certificates could become the owner of cotton in Memphis with absolute confidence that with a certificate in hand he knew more about the cotton than if he could see it in Memphis and with the further absolute confidence that the responsi- bility of the warehouse company insured his getting the cotton whenever he wanted it, and yet equally insured its safekeeping. By making it feasible for a mill man to buy cotton from the owner in warehouses outside the mill territory, and by bringing cotton into shape where it could be held as an investment and the surplus carried over from one season to an- other as an investment, speculation would neces- sarily have a much narrower field of operations than now, and the cotton spinner would have an infinitely better situation in respect to buying cotton than he has now." The Shreveport address attracted national atten- tion, and was published extensively by commercial, manufacturing, and trade journals. One passage in the speech caught the popular fancy, and was quoted very generally and extensively by the daily and weekly newspapers. This passage was a refer- ence to the famine in Egypt caused by "seven years of dearth" following "seven years of plenteousness." 320 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Tompkins applied the Biblical story to the cotton situation as follows: "If a minimum crop because of weather condi- tions precedes a maximum crop because of other weather conditions, it makes a famine one year and a glut the next. "The famine year ruins the cotton manufacturer. "The fat year ruins the farmer. "In the years past we heard that the cotton farmer needed a Moses. The cotton farmer did need a Moses. "The farmers' Moses has been found. He is the cotton factory. What the farmer now needs is a Joseph. Listen to what Joseph did : "And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth handfuls. "And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. "And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was with- out number. . . . "And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended. "And the seven years of dearth began to come, ac- cording as Joseph had said ; and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. "And the famine was over all the face of the earth; A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 321 And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians ; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. "And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands. "As the development of manufactures was the Moses to lead the cotton farmer out of the wilder- ness, so the development of commerce must be the Joseph who is to average the production of a series of years and thereby meet the world's demands and steady the price." Tompkins had been the manufacturing Moses to lead the cotton farmers of the South out of the in- dustrial wilderness. His plan for cotton ware- houses now showed him to be also a possible Joseph. He was in large demand as a speaker on this topic and delivered this speech with some changes before the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers in Atlanta, the Southern Cotton Growers' Association in New Orleans, and various other organizations, conventions, and associations throughout the South- ern States. The address was also published in pamphlet form and widely circulated among cotton growers, manufacturers, and merchants. "At the meeting of the Southern Cotton Growers' Association in New Orleans, under the influence of Tompkins' speech, a committee was appointed to recommend improvements in the existing ware- house system. The report of the committee shows the hand and the voice of Tompkins. It recom- mended: (1) the building of large warehouses in commercial centres, to which local warehouses may be tributary; (2) the formation of grading and guar- antee companies to issue guaranteed receipts on 322 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH cotton in any warehouse adopting proper methods and giving proper bonds; (3) the encouragement of credits based upon warehouse certificates. 'Upon a proper system of warehouses,' says the committee, in conclusion, 'depends the future of cotton. A perfect system will enable us to solve the problems of marketing cotton, to extend our foreign markets for cotton goods, and to increase the construction of Southern cotton mills. These things are vital to our continued prosperity, and none of them can be well accomplished until the Southern farmer is enabled to house thoroughly and cheaply his cotton while waiting the coming of the buyer. Three things we intensely need and must have at the earliest time possible: (1) warehouses that make absolute pro- tection and very low insurance possible; (2) a receipt covering goods stored, which clearly describes the goods and is of such financial strength as to make as- sured its acceptance in all markets; (3) a law which applies to warehouse receipts the rules of negotiable instruments, and clearly defines the title of the legal holder of such receipts.'" In a speech written for the "Cotton Conference" May 2, 1906, at Washington, D. C, Tompkins shows that he had reached a definite conclusion as to the es- sential factors in the solution of this problem. "The trouble about cotton," said he, "reminds us of the former confusion about money when issued by the old State banks; or it is like the confusion which used to exist in the fertilizer business. The remedy for such evils has been found to be examina- tion, control, and rei^ulation. I am convinced that 90 per cent, of the troubles about cotton in commerce can be remedied in the same way, viz. : by corporate or State examination and control. This means that A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 323 a large and responsible corporation, or the State, would undertake the establishment of a bonded warehouse system for the custody of cotton; and would employ experts to examine, classify, grade, and otherwise so exactly define on paper each bale of cotton that the certificate would become a better sub- ject for trade than the cotton itself. "The middleman can take infinite liberties with a bale of cotton while it is his property, which he could not take with a certificate, standing for a bale bonded as to every particular. The first thing a farmer would do would be to have his bale of cotton certificated by the corporation or State expert. The moment it is certificated, it is past being tamp- ered with, or misrepresented, by any middleman. A book of certificates should be printed once in two weeks, or once a month, so that a man in England or Germany, with the book in hand, could see how much cotton was available, where located, who the owner was, address of owner, and then the Manchester spinner could buy cotton direct from the farmer. "Such a system would tend to eliminate wide fluctuations in price. Now, if it is discovered there is a big crop, there is no way for surplus capital or bank money or trust money to conserve the sur- plus. With a system of certificates, which are really safer to deal in than the cotton itself, surplus money would always take up surplus cotton. Thus all the evils at present existing would be corrected by the natural tendency of trade and not by arti- ficial means. "If cotton is gin cut, the inspector and grader would state the fact in the certificate, and the farmer's indifference to poor ginning would come home to him. If cotton is well ginned, the fact is 8JJ4 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH stated, and the farmer gets the increased price, which the spinner is willing pay. Any excess tare, any bad condition of bale, any surplus moisture, any sand would be named in the certificate. Thus the faults and the merits of bales would reach the farmer and the mill man alike. Speculators could not well trade in such certificates; at least not to injury of the farmer or spinner. "The suggestions which I here make relating to cotton have already been carried out by each of the cotton states in dealing with fertilizers. The condition of fertilizers on the market was once as bad as cotton is now. Inspection, analysis, and control have brought this commodity into excellent commercial situation. To do the same with cotton involves its custody under bond, as well as its grade and certification. "Besides advantage to commerce in cotton the South would enjoy all the business and income con- nected with the warehouse business. The English- man buying certificates — perhaps by direct corres- pondence with the farmer — would put his certificate in the safe, and leave the cotton in the Southern bonded warehouse until he needs it. The South would thus collect storage from England on cotton already bought for English mills. It would be a con- venience and economy for England, and nobody would lose anything by the arrangement." In a subsequent article he sums up the plan as follows : "The essential features of the cotton warehouse- guarantee certificate plan would be: "(1) A system of local and central warehouses "(2) A corps of inspectors and graders. "(3) A certificate giving every detail the ultimate A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 325 buyer or spinner would want to know about the cot- ton. "(4) A guarantee company, to stand for the cotton and the facts as represented in the certificate. "(5) A cotton exchange to handle a standard trading certificate, exchangeable for actual ware- house or delivery certificate." "Under such a system as I propose a cotton ex- change properly organized would be the medium through which all of this business would naturally be done. Such an exchange would be a beneficent commercial organization instead of a gambling in- stitution. It would contribute to the economy of the whole commerce in cotton. The cotton would generally first be stored in a local warehouse in mar- ket towns under an ordinary warehouse certificate, and would in due time naturally progress to a central warehouse point where a new certificate, giving grade and every detail, would be issued. This certificate would be negotiable anywhere in the world and would serve as a basis of credit. "Such a system would be of immeasurable value to the mills, inasmuch as they could then go into the market and sell goods as they wanted and then cover and hedge through the exchange upon the ac- tual cotton that they want or so nearly that it would be the equivalent. "This system was discussed by me before the Shreveport Cotton Convention in 1904. It was further discussed by me before the cotton con- vention in New Orleans and again in Atlanta. Interest is increasing all the time. Throughout the South farmers are organizing local warehouses; and 326 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH these will all naturally in time become a part of the system. The system must necessarily be a development and the development is now going on." The solution of this problem was thus developed step by step in the mind of Tompkins. He knew that similar development step by step, in longer time and with many experiments, would take place in the mind and the practice of the business world. He never ceased to study the problem, and to give his thoughts to the world. A little while before his death, as he lay abed a helpless invalid, he wrote to the Textile World Record, and added a new idea to his previously developed warehouse plan : "A proper warehouse system for cotton should include warehouses in the principal markets of the world for cotton goods, as well as warehouses in the cotton belt for raw cotton. This in conjunction with the banking system, as large as the new system is expected to be, would create and facilitate not only for the sale of raw cotton but also for cotton goods. ". . . If we could have a system of ware- houses owned by one or more big corporations and so coupled wuth our new banking facilities as to make it feasible to carry these goods a reasonable time for the mills at one end and the merchants at the other, we would tremendously extend our commerce in cotton goods abroad, as well as take care of our cotton at home. This might involve a federal charter and the same sort of federal examination, publicity, and control as our national banking system is now run under. ... A private corporation chartered by the government, like our national banks, should be of infinite benefit; and an unbridled cor- poration could be of infinite harm." A PLAN FOR MARKETING COTTON 327 This was the last expression by Tompkins on the subject. It shows the clear conclusion to which he had come; viz., corporate ownership of cotton warehouses under government examination, pub- licity, and control. ^ Laws to regulate the ginning, warehousing, and marketing of cotton have recently been enacted by many of the cotton states. The city of New Orleans under laws of the State has constructed and is operat- ing public cotton warehouses "with a storage ca- pacity of approximately half a million bales" and "with negotiable receipts current in financial centres throughout the country." This warehouse system aims "to enable the port of New Orleans to become a deposit market for the cotton supply of the world." The State of South Carolina has a law providing for a system of cotton warehouses. The State Warehouse Commissioner in a circular explaining the State law and setting forth the benefits to farmers of cotton warehouses concludes with the following appeal: "The farmers of each community in every cotton- producing county in South Carolina should unite in building a warehouse; the owner of every ginnery should operate a warehouse for the accommodation of patrons; every farmer making 100 bales of cotton should have a plantation warehouse, or two or more farmers should combine in the construction of a warehouse with capacity sufficient to store their own and their neighbors' cotton. If there were enough warehouses in the State Warehouse System to store all the cotton grown in the State (about 1,500,000 bales), the farmers of South Carolina could control the marketing of their cotton crops, selling strictly on grades and only when prices were satisfactory." 328 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH The United States Government under the U. S. Warehouse Act of August 11, 1916, has provided for licenses to cotton warehouses which are properly constructed, equipped, managed, and bonded; and has also made provision to furnish licensed weighers and classifiers, who shall classify the cotton ac- cording to grade, or otherwise, and certificate the same. A circular issued by the Department de- clares that: "The central purpose of the U. S. Warehouse Act . . . is to establish a form of warehouse receipt for cotton, grain, wool, tobacco, and flaxseed, which will make these receipts easily and widely negotiable as delivery orders or as collateral for loans and, therefore, of definite assistance in financing crops. This purpose the act aims to attain by licensing and bonding warehouses under conditions which will in- sure the integrity of their receipts and make these receipts reliable evidence of the condition, quality, quantity, and ownership of the products named which may be stored with them." The dream of Tompkins may yet be realized. Many forces are working for it: cities, states, and the United States. He foresaw both the distant goal and the long road. With characteristic patience and philosophy he applied to the growth of this favorite scheme a truth which might comfort other reformers and benefactors of mankind: "The system is neces- sarily a development," said he, "and the develop- ment is now going on." CHAPTER XVIII PROMOTER OF BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS LAND LOAN BANKS — HOME-PURCHASE PLAN OF LIFE INSURANCE LACK of thrift was a great defect in the hf e of the Old South and a great obstacle to the building -^ of the New South. It was an inheritance from slavery not easily gotten rid of. Southern aristo- crats, Southern poor whites, and Southern negroes all looked down upon Yankee thrift as "unworthy of a Southern gentleman." Tompkins turned his mind and bent his energies to correct this evil. He was thrifty himself by natural inclination, by intellectual conviction, and by force of education and experience in Northern schools and workshops. It was one of his ambitions to promote thrift among Southern working men. After careful study he decided that the best instrumentality for this purpose was building and loan associations. The problem was not only to furnish an oppor- tunity for investing small savings, but also to supply a constant stimulus, which would, in a way, force the workmen to save. The ordinary savings bank did not offer such stimulus. But the building and loan association appealed to love of home, one of the strongest passions in the heart of the humblest Southerner. It kept constantly before his im- agination the picture of a home. It thus incited him to save; and it enabled him to save, even with 329 330 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH small effort. Finally, if he made good, it helped him with loans sufficient to build a home. Tompkins, when working as a day laborer in the Bethlehem Iron Works, had gone through an exten- sive experience with building and loan associations. This experience was narrated by him whenever he advocated them. He knew that personal ex- perience appeals more strongly to the average mind than mere argument; and so to arouse the interest and sympathy of his audiences he would make him- self the hero in each building and loan campaign. Here is the story, as he told it in a speech at States ville, N. C. MY FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH BUILDING AND LOAN associations" "At the Rensselaer Polytechnic at Troy, New York, while I was a student, I got some vacation work, and some work during my spare time in college, at the steel works in South Troy. I got this work through Mr. Alexander Holley, who was then in- troducing the Bessemer steel process in the United States for Henry Bessemer. The work was chiefly tracing drawings for different Bessemer steel works he was building. "About the time I graduated Mr. Holley moved his office to New York, so as to be more accessible to the work he was then engineering, and I went with him. After a year of work in New York, Mr. Holley went to Europe; and I went to Bethlehem, Pa. "At Bethlehem I arranged with the chief clerk to deposit the contents of my pay envelope in the bank each Monday instead of drawing it. The name of this clerk was CharHe Prosser. One day I met BUILDING AND LOAN 331 Charlie on the way to the works, and he asked me if I didn't want to buy five shares in the building and loan association. I had an idea that the building and loan institution was some ephemeral 'benefi- cent organization.' I had saved a little naoney while working for Mr. Holley, and was saving a little more at Bethlehem. Prosser told me a member named Abe Crider wanted to sell out, and wanted to sell a lot along with the building and loan shares. I finally told him I would take two building and loan shares, and on these I had to pay $1 a month. "I soon found that my savings through the building and loan at the rate of $2 per month were more satisfactory than what I was otherwise sav- ing. Prosser would pay the $2 a month for the two shares out of my pay, and then the balance of my money he would put in the bank, and in one way or another I would check it nearly all out. I, therefore, resolved to take three more shares in the building and loan. These shares were $200 apiece, and each share required the payment of $1 a month through a period of eleven and a half or twelve years. "The money I drew from these five shares made $1,000 when they were paid out, and this was the first $1,000 capital I ever had. Since then I have been an urgent advocate of compulsory savings on the in- stallment plan. The engagement for compulsion is practically with oneself, because the building and loan has no way of compelling payments. "Most people have an aversion for entering into an engagement to pay so much money a week or a month, but the engagement is only compelling enough to operate one's conscience, as it were, and it is found that a great majority of men will keep such an engagement punctiliously to the end. 332 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH "Societies have been formed to promote home owning by working people and others, philanthropists have interested themselves in such movements, but under the very nose of these societies and philanthro- pists the American people have become home-owning people through and by means of the building and loan association. "After paying out my first five shares, and getting the $1,000 in actual cash, I resolved always to keep in the building and loan for as much money as I could save weekly or monthly, and I have always done so. "The building and loans are to-day much better organized and better managed than the old institu- tion. They are more uniform and more absolutely mutual. They are operated on three conspicuous plans to-day. At Charlotte, N. C, the shares are $100 each and mature in about six and a half years; in Philadelphia the shares are $200 each and mature in about eleven and a half years; at Dayton, Ohio, the shares are $100 each and mature in about six and a half years, but in Dayton they have no series. They let a member join at any time and start his payments at once. Each man, therefore, becomes a series by himself. Many of these Ohio societies operate on what is called the * Dayton Plan,' and have accumulated some of them as much as $1,000,000 assets, and some of them have gone as high as $5,000,000. "Children may join and pay as little as $1 per month, and no training could be better for thrift and economy than that of the child having to make a weekly or monthly payment in the building and loan. "It is certainly enough cheaper than paying rent to own a home while the rent money can be made to pay for the home; and if maturities were extended to BUILDING AND LOAN 333 fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, any home might be bought for this money which it takes to pay the rent. . "I built a house at Bethlehem, and was very timid about entering into the obligations for the debt. The house I built rented for enough money to pay the building and loan dues and interest, and I had $1 a month left over. "Some time ago I was in Bethlehem, and the agent who is handling the house for me said: *You are not getting over three or four per cent, net out of this house; why don't you sell it and invest the money down South where you would make a better per cent?' I told him that the house didn't cost me anything, the tenant paid for it, and being the first house I ever built and owned, I could afford to keep it as a matter of sentiment. I looked upon it as my good-luck house or mascot, as it were, because it was the house that got me into the building and loan for building purposes as well as saving purposes. "Practically all of the apprehensions about a building and loan are groundless. If one gets sick, the money may be drawn out, and it is so much to the good against the sickness. If a workman loses his job, he has got something saved against his misfortune, and the building and loan will turn it over to him promptly upon application. Those who have never been into a building and loan think it is hard to get your money out if you should want it. After being in an association for a while, almost any man will conclude that it is almost too easy to get out. He would rather an association would hold the money a little tighter, and keep him from spend- ing it too lightly. "The compulsory principle, which is only a sort ot 3S4 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH constrained conscience to keep up with the rest, is found to be one of the best principles in the world to enforce upon oneself regular and systematic savings. It never becomes irksome, and is like a duty well performed, which grows more satisfactory the more it is done. The principles ought to be taught in the public schools. "Already the building and loans have grown to such magnitude that their combined assets in the United States about equal the capital of the national banks. It is the only agency that has been success- ful in turning the population of American cities into a home-owning population. It is the best sort of insurance in the world for securing a home for the widow of a man who is dead. No man could leave anything better than a good home paid for. "The longer the time of the payments, the smaller they are. In Charlotte the term of six and a half years makes it necessary for the installments to be a little more than the rent money. In Philadelphia, where the shares are $200 and run eleven and a half years, the payments would average probably a little less than the rent money. Installment payments if extended for long enough time, say fifteen or twenty years, would make the installment payments much less than the rent money. Therefore it seems to be folly to pay rent for years and years when the rent money might be applied on the price of a home. "The local building and loan associations in America have become great institutions, and I believe they are destined to become still greater. Through them may ultimately be accomplished the ownership of homes by all working people, and this ownership will be no burden, but will simply be the application of the rent to the ownership of the home." BUILDING AND LOAN 335 Wherever a building and loan association was a possibility Tompkins was ready to help promote its organization. He associated himself in this work with S. Wittkowsky of Charlotte, an active, energetic, and prudent business man and capitalist, afterward president of the North Carolina League of Building & Loan Associations. To the joint efforts of Tomp- kins and Wittkowsky was due, either directly or in- directly, the establishment of most of the building and loan associations in the two Carolinas. Tomp- kins practically canvassed North and South Carolina in this behalf. His speeches were carefully written out before delivering, and afterward were given to newspapers, thus reaching a multitude of readers and serving as potential sermons for economy. The following is a specimen, a fine model of brevity, clearness, and cogency: SYNOPSIS OF AN ADDRESS IN THE INTEREST OP ORGANIZING A BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION IN GASTONIA "Every working man ought to own the house he lives in. In many cases the rent he pays is ample to pay for the house he is living in in a reasonable time. In all cases the rent he pays would more than pay for the house he lives in in the average working life. In almost any case the rent with very little additional money will pay for a house in from six to twelve years. The difficulties which stand in the way of a working man owning his own house and paying for it with rent money are as follows : "1. The average man will not put aside a cer- tain fixed proportion of his income or wages, except under a little coercion or pressure. If he starts in to 336 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH put up an amount of money in the Savings Bank, he does not keep it up regularly. *'2. He would usually have to save the money to pay for a house while yet paying rent money and this is too burdensome. "The building and loan provides a means by which a working man, having saved enough money to buy a lot, can then build a house and have the association pay for it, and then pay back the debt in install- ments exactly like he formerly paid rent, his rent money going as part of the installments. It is even possible for a working man without any money at all to buy a lot on credit and upon the condition that the building and loan will put a house upon it, taking a first mortgage for the house and the man who sold the lot taking a second mortgage on the whole property for the lot. Every payment to the building and loan reduces the first mortgage and the second mortgage is becoming proportionately in the position of a first mortgage. When the build- ing and loan shall have been paid back, then in a new series the building and loan could pay the second mortgage off, and then let the owner again pay by installments and in the end clear up the whole debt. WTiile the building and loan association is particu- larly advantageous to the working man, it is a good thing for the merchant, the school teacher, the law- yer, or preacher and all others who in reality are also working people. "I know of nothing that builds up a town more rapidly than a building and loan association. Next to the churches, schools, and the beneficent organiza- tions, the building and loan association when properly conducted has more influence for good than any other organization that I know of. It establishes homes BUILDING AND LOAN 337 for those who are in the habit of thinking they cannot afford them. It improves the character of the population of any toTvn or city, because it leads people to live in their own homes. It raises the hopes, the self-respect, and the other better qualities of a man. A man being established in his own home takes more interest in his neighbors and they take more in him. He is more apt to take a hand in church work or library work and to send his children to school, than if living in a hired house. It adds to the wealth and taxable values of a city. "Nothing is more important than that the associa- tion shall be properly organized. Where the ad- vantages are fully understood there is no difficulty about this, because when a community once under- stands a building and loan it cannot be misled by a spurious institution. All loans should be made on property within a comparatively narrow and local area, say within a mile or within two miles of the court house or some central point. "For a people to prosper and grow rich is not necessarily a matter of money. It is simply a matter of turning clay into bricks, of putting the bricks into walls to make building, of cutting timber and making lumber and of putting the lumber into houses. A people who handle very little money may do all these things. The building and loan simply provides the means by which people may do these things with ex- ceedingly little money. The aggregate membership pays in one thousand dollars. The money is turned over to one member who builds a house and pays for it. The money goes into trade and falls back into the hands of the members again. It is paid in again, and practically the same thousand dollars is turned over to another member who builds a house and pays 338 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH for it. The money is again paid out, goes into the usual channels of trade, falls back into the hands of the original members, and is again paid in — and so on indefinitely until perhaps one hundred houses aggre- gating in value one hundred thousand dollars have been built and paid for with the same one thousand dollars and this one thousand dollars has been ac- tively circulating in trade all the time. Besides the material property accumulated, there is tremendous advantage in teaching the possibilities that may come of regular savings, and it is seldom that one who has had experience in a building and loan associa- tion does not also in time become a good depositor in the savings banks. The profit made is generally about 7 per cent, on the money paid in, but if there was no profit, it would still be advantageous be- cause usually the whole aggregate sum saved would not have been saved at all except by the regular payments into the building and loan." To establish a building and loan association in his native town of Edgefield was a work of joy with Tompkins. His heart and his head were given to it. Here, as elsewhere, his labors in this field were en- tirely gratuitous and humanitarian. The following announcement of the Edgefield B. & L. Association shows his power of clear-cut statement, his desire to stimulate thrift and business habits, his strong, sen- sible humanitarianism, based upon confidence in human nature and desire to develop character through self-reliance and self-help. "home money for home people" "The Edgefield Building & Loan Association has money to loan to its members. It invites working BUn.DING AND LOAN 339 people to become members. It is a savings in- stitution as well as the working man's bank. While some kind of property security is required in all cases to make a loan perfectly safe, yet the real basis of credit is the borrower's labor — his willing- ness to work and the known fact that he is an ener- getic worker. By work and the income from work the association will get back all the money it loans a working man. It will not loan on property with any prospect of having to take the property. "The working man may be a carpenter, lawyer, farmer, merchant, spinner, bricklayer, doctor, weaver, or any other working man who is energetic and active and earns wages, fees, or other compensations as the result of his labor. "The association will require all its members to pay exactly as they agree to pay. It has been the habit in the South for the borrower to consider that the bank or other loaner of money could notify the borrower when a note or other debt was due. If it wasn't convenient to pay it when due, then some other day later would do as well. Good credit means prompt payment at maturity. The association will require its members to make all payments as agreed and without notice and without being dunned in any way. "This is not done for the benefit of the association but for the benefit of its members. The first lesson looking to success is the volunteer prompt pay- ment of debts, and the association will teach this lesson. "This does not mean that the association will be relentless when a man can't pay. It means that the man must not ignore the fact that his promise was matured and he must either pay at maturity 340 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH or voluntarily call on the treasurer and make some arrangement or be fined for delinquency. "The association can arrange for farmers to repay loans in annual installments in three payments in the fall, viz.: September 15th, October 15th, and November 15th. Mechanics working for wages pay by the week or month. The payments are made suitable to all classes of working people. "This is a local or home institution. It is to be managed at home and all the money will be loaned at home. None can be loaned outside of Edgefield County. Instead of sending away to borrow money from land loan companies or from foreign building and loan associations, with a lot of discounts, this home institution will accumulate the savings of home people and loan these accumulations to home people. The home building and loan association has been successful in all parts of the United States. Its workings when in the hands of competent and honest home people and when all loans are confined to home people have always been profitable and advan- tageous. " This association runs two series of shares or mem- berships each year. One commences January 1st and one July 1st. Any one wishing to join may do so at any time by paying the back dues to either of the above periods. "The shares are $100 each. The dues are $1.00 per month for each share. In seven years or less the shares mature. Therefore, when a member subscribes for one share and pays one dollar per month for seven years (or less perhaps) he draws out $100. Five dollars per month for the same period would make $500. BUILDING AND LOAN 341 "Meantime money may be borrowed at any time on proper security and then interest would be paid in addition to the dues. "The association is the best sort of savings in- stitution known in the world. It is also the best place in the world for a working man to borrow money. He can pay it back by installments. "The asscoiation invites those who have energy and mean to make a success of life to become mem- bers. "Nothing stimulates or brightens a young man up so much as to assume a little responsibility for the purpose of getting a start toward getting ahead in the world. "In Pennsylvania and other parts of the United States where home building and loan associations have prospered for a long time many a leading rich man got his first $100, $200, $500, or $1,000 out of the building and loan association." The interest of Tompkins in B. &. L. Associations was not confined to the South. In their behalf he wrote many articles to Northern magazines and papers, and made addresses before various national associations. An article in Cassier's Magazine, March, 1903, entitled "Working People's Homes", was copied and quoted extensively by newspapers and weekly journals throughout the country. The article is a complete summary of the advantages of building and loan associations; its closing paragraphs are worthy of Franklin: " There is no help for working people that compares with the help they provide for themselves. Munifi- cent philanthropy is as nothing compared with a morsel of self-help. The one may be fruitless or even 342 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH injurious; the other is always strengthening and fruitful. "Working people have far more resource and abil- ity to pay their own way, and to pay for what they get, than is generally supposed. Indeed, most of them pay extravagantly for what they get. In many cases they pay enough rent for a cheap and uncomfortable house to pay, in a very few years, for a good, comfortable house, and own it in fee simple. It is the opportunity to do this latter thing, rather than financial help, that they need — even if the help is called philanthropic or semi-philanthropic. The greatest mistake of the philanthropist is usually judging others by his own tastes or ideas. He too frequently fails to give either support or sympathy to what the working man wants to do, but he insists that the working man shall do as the philanthropist wants him to do. "Laws and conditions that place opportunity within the reach of the working man himself, and for himself, do more good for his advancement than all actual contributions in money or advice that could possibly be made. All humanity can be brought to lose courage and heart by being given no chance. There are so many ways by which working people are cheated out of, or otherwise deprived of, savings, that many a one is brought to feel that he had rather squander his surplus earnings than put them where he might likely lose them for the advantage of some- body else. With a knowledge, however, that what is saved is safe for himself the workingman becomes a capitalist. "It is rare that a working man needs charity or any kind of free help. Make for him a fair opportunity and good security for his savings, show him the op- BUILDING AND LOAN S4S portunities, convince him that they are safe, then give him friendly encouragement, and the chances are he will succeed. But to do so he must be left perfect freedom to undertake something according to his own tastes, and not be pressed into doing something that somebody else thinks he ought to do. Good advice is all right, but it is all wrong to press on the working man methods of spending his earnings and savings that are contrary to his tastes and what he considers his requirements. "Good philanthropy for the working man is, more than all else, opportunity and freedom." A series of articles in the Manufacturers' Record, beginning August 25, 1904, entitled, "Building and Loan Associations: The Means of Cooperative Sav- ings by Southern Working People", discussed all phases of the subject, both American and foreign. This article was copied and quoted extensively, reaching practically the entire South, and exerting a great influence in promoting thrift and economy. Southern newspapers everywhere called for buildin^^ and loan associations; and Tompkins was in constant demand as a speaker on this subject. His presence rarely failed to secure an association, and in many places his name was sufficient. It was characteristic of Tompkins to follow an idea to its logical conclusion, to incorporate a good prin- ciple into as many instrumentalities as possible. The principle of self-help and cooperation, of self-help through cooperation, and of cooperation through self- help was the darling of his mind. He had put this principle to work among Southern laboring people in cities and towns through the agency of building and loan associations; now he aimed to do the same work for rural laborers through rural credit societies, 344 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH or land loan banks. The following article is a sample of his writing on this subject: LAND CREDIT SOCIETIES *'The European agricultural credit system is ex- actly the same thing as our building and loan associa- tions with payments made to suit the marketing of the crops. "Our building and loan system has succeeded without government aid or appropriation. So also the land loan banks for farmers' credit societies of Europe have succeeded without government aid or appropriation. Self-help is the main feature of our building and loan associations, or mechanics' co- operative banks, and so is self-help the main feature of the European land credits. "There is absolutely nothing to keep any com- munity in this country from organizing a land credit society similar to those in Europe and without gov- ernment aid or any special legislation. If these ever become rich as they are in Europe, and as our build- ing and loans are in this country, they will need some State or Federal regulation. But to start with, there is nothing necessary except to form a society and commence the installment payments. It has often been pointed out that these installment payments should correspond with the marketing of the crops. The politicians had nothing to do with the starting of the Eurbpean farmers' credit system. Neither did they have to do with the starting of the American building and loan associations. All talk of the Gov- ernment furnishing money for these is in error. The Government should furnish no money. It does not do it in the case of the building and loan associa- BUILDING AND LOAN 345 tions, and these would have been ruined if it had done it. "The plan of forming these land loan banks is precisely the same as that of forming the building and loan association. A certain number of farmers subscribe to shares in the land loan bank. There is to be paid on each share one hundred dollars, par value, twelve dollars per year, in such installments as may be determined by the board of directors. In a cotton-growing country this would naturally be in about four installments of three dollars each, on the first of October, November, December, and January. Each subscriber paying in these install- ments puts the bank in a position to make one or two or more good loans to farmer members of the society. Borrowers, of course, pay interest on the money they borrow. The shares would mature in a time some- thing between six and seven years. Those who had not borrowed at all would get the cash at the end of the term; those who did borrow would get the debt cancelled at the end of the term. Thus the farmer becomes his own banker and a very successful one in Germany he is. Formerly these land loan banks of Germany borrowed money to loan to their members. Some of them do so still, but the great majority of them now have surplus money which they loan to the city bankers. Perhaps no set of farmers in the world are better fixed to do their own banking in this way than the Southern cotton pro- ducers." For ten years or more, in the Charlotte Observer and other papers, he hammered out this idea, educat- ing the public mind to an appreciation of its import- ance. "During a period of more than ten years, this paper has been agitating the subject of install- 346 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH merit savings and loan associations, and incidentally has referred frequently to the existence in Europe of land loan banks as being exactly the same thing as our building and loan except that the installment payments are made to suit the maturing of the crops instead of to suit monthly or weekly wages. It is very gratifying to note that this subject has been lately taken up by President Taft, and was one of the matters of interest in the late governors' con- ference at Richmond. These land loan banks have been as successful in Europe for the farmer as the local building and loan association has been in the United States and England for the industrial worker." Tompkins was thus forerunner and herald of the "Federal Farm Loan Act," which provides a system for lending money on farm lands at reasonable in- terest for relatively long periods. It provides for the creation of twelve Federal land banks and per- mits the establishment of any number of joint stock land banks. Its primary purpose is to promote agricultural prosperity by enabling farmers to borrow money on farm mortgage security. This x\ct, pop- ularly called the Rural Credits Law, became a law July 17, 1916. A further application of the principle of self-help through cooperation was now made in the life insur- ance policies of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of which Tompkins was at the time an active and influential director. It is known as the Home Pur- chase Plan. Under this plan loans are made by the society to its policy-holders, secured by mortgage on the home, and paid in monthly installments for a period of ten, in some cases fifteen, years. In case of death the insurance pays off the loan. "Mr. BUILDING AND LOAN 347 Tompkins was a member of the original Committee of the Board of Directors appointed by Paul Morton because of his keen interest in and advocacy of this plan when it was first broached, based upon his close association with the building and loan associations of Charlotte/' said Henry L. Rosenfeld, second vice-president of the Equitable Society. "He pre- pared a pamphlet on the Home Acquiring Plan of the Equitable which was quite helpful to us, and contributed very materially to the conversion of some of his fellow directors at that time to the plan. The writer personally having had charge of the matter desires to bear testimony to the co- operation and valuable assistance rendered by our late friend, Mr. Tompkins, in the furtherance of this idea." In promoting building and loan associations, in advocating farm banks, in helping to inaugurate the Equitable Home Purchase Plan of Life Insurance Tompkins was animated by an intense philanthropic desire to benefit humanity by providing, as far as possible, a comfortable home for every American family. "That country," said he, "is always the most prosperous whose work people have the best home life. Home life conduces to the highest wages, the best education and training, and the greatest pros- perity of a nation and of all its people. " The mechanic who builds a home, sends his chil- dren to school, and otherwise identifies himself with a community of good people, has an important advantage over the one who comes to-day and may go to-morrow. He becomes a citizen, a neighbor, a friend, where, before, even though a good mechanic, and well thought of, he had no particular standing 348 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH in any community. His better situation makes better opportunities for his children. Identification with a community and its people always makes a better condition for any family. The home and the binding of the family to the community are largely the basis of Anglo-Saxon strength and Anglo- Saxon civilization." CHAPTER XIX VARIOUS ACTIVITIES — CHARLOTTE AND EDGEFIELD WITH unceasing activity Tompkins per- formed his great work as builder of mills, colleges, and newspapers, as author of indus- trial books, as builder and distributor of industrial machinery. His versatility, powers of concentra- tion, and retentive memory enabled him to carry on simultaneously very many diverse and widely sepa- rated enterprises. Like the perfect chess player, who plays at one time a dozen different games with a dozen adversaries, Tompkins carried on simultane- ously in many Southern states a score of industrial enterprises. His larger activities covered the entire South, not only as promoter and builder but as writer, orator, teacher, preacher, and apostle of in- dustrialism. His minor activities, extending in many directions, were chiefly in the two Carolinas. No forward move- ment of magnitude or promise during his lifetime in these two states escaped his sympathetic attention. Industrial enterprises, educational reforms and im- provements, plans and organizations for promoting thrift and economy, schools, hospitals, parks, sanita- tion, all movements and instrumentalities for human betterment received his constant attention and, if deserving, his endorsement and helpful cooperation. He kept in the field for the Charlotte Observer a regular reporter of industrial movements ; and special 349 S50 A BTJILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH reporters were sent to write up newly organized industrial enterprises and industrial celebrations. Industrial experts, or promoters, from other states, if working or visiting in the Carolinas, wene sought out and interviewed; and their views on industrial matters were given prominence in all departments of his papers. His three papers were daily preachers of thrift and industrial progress. News columns, reporters' columns, and editorial columns gave con- stant and never-ending emphasis to industrial move- ments and enterprises. Tompkins himself would go at his own expense and frequently at much inconvenience to a distant community to promote an industrial enterprise. He would promote it not only by clear-cut facts and figures but also by stirring appeals to local feeling and Southern pride. Having aroused public senti- ment to the point of action, he would assist in effect- ing the necessary organization, draw the engineering plans for the proposed industrial establishment, and, if occasion required, subscribe for stock in amount sufficient to start the enterprise. It came to be understood in the two Carolinas that Tompkins* experience, engineering skill, and financial help were available for any meritorious industrial enterprise that needed assistance to set it going. His speeches and pamphlets on good roads, broad tires, road building and repairs, farm and factory, cottonseed and its products, beef and dairy cattle, trade schools, early education, building and loan associations, and similar subjects were scattered broadcast, and produced throughout the Carolinas a pregnant spirit of progress and a harvest of in- dustrial establishments. His work in Charlotte, as builder and promoter of VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 351 industrial establishments, as manufacturer and dis- tributor of cotton mill machinery, as builder and con- troller of independent and industrial newspapers, as promoter of building and loan associations, gave the little city a power and a fame possessed by no city of its size in the entire South. The Atherton Cotton Mills, the D. A. Tompkins Co.'s machine shops and foundry, the Charlotte Observer and the Evening Chronicle were institutions worthy of a large city. His administration of these establishments was on a high plane of efficiency and public spirit; progressive, broad -gauged, full of hopefulness and enthusiasm. They set the tune for the little city. The Tompkins illuminated tower stood out above the city, and marked it for miles, especially at night, with its brilliant electric lights shining like a constellation of hope and typifying the spirit of industry and cheerful- ness that animated its workers. The same spirit was imparted by Tompkins to a score of industrial enter- prises in which he was director or stockholder. His spirit was contagious. Under his direction in his various industrial establishments were trained many young men whose successful careers in Charlotte and elsewhere testify not only to his fine business methods but also to his far-reaching work as an in- dustrial trainer and educator. His industrial method and ideals were thus extended very widely through- out the Carolinas. His newspapers, while tireless advocates of in- dustrial progress, were no less zealous and efficient in promoting civic development. They stood in the front rank of many battles for reform and improve- ment. They carried the flag of progress. They fought not for partisan triumph but for human betterment. Philanthropy, not politics, was their 352 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH aim. Day by day they made clarion calls for prog- ress and improvement, sounding amid the fog of political partisanship the clear note of reason and patriotism. The following is one of a thousand calls made during twenty years by Tompkins' papers: WHAT CHARLOTTE NEEDS "1 — Improved educational facilities in the entire city and a school building in the Fourth Ward. "2 — Clean streets and the breaking up of loafing crowds on the streets. "3 — The enforcement of measures for temperance to the full limit without becoming sumptuary. "4 — Fostering the city's commercial and manu- facturing interests. "5 — The execution of exact justice, tempered with a judicial mercy, but without harassing the unfor- tunate with prosecutions about little things or tolerat- ing neglect by and incompetence of oflScers of the law in larger things. "6 — Advancing the interests of skilled and other labor, as well as conserving vested interests, without using the people's tax money to improve private property." Tompkins was often urged to become Mayor of Charlotte, but steadily refused. It was a political oflBce, won by political campaigns and held by po- litical manipulation. He could not work in political harness. But he worked to build up Charlotte; worked longer, more zealously, and more efiiciently than all its mayors and politicians combined. He was a model of thrift and industry to the entire city. He constantly preached thrift and industry to the working men of Charlotte, and urged upon them the VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 353 vital importance of owning their own homes. His writings and speeches on this subject would fill many volumes. His labors were fruitful. He lived to see Charlotte a city of homes, unsurpassed by few manufacturing cities in the United States in the percentage of hand-workmen owning their own homes. It was one of Tompkins' ideals that every family should live in its own home. He pursued this ideal, and promoted it, in the spirit of true philanthropy, humanitarianism and patriotism. Charlotte's schools and hospitals, its public libra- ries, the Young Men's Christian Association, Young Women's Christian Association, public parks and buildings, railway connections and accommodations, waterworks and sewerage, sanitation and health, were objects of his constant and sympathetic con- sideration. He would praise, criticise, or condemn, as the case required. As chairman of the city "Tree and Park Commission" he secured a skilled landscape gardener of national repute to lay out a scheme of improvements. As assistant architect and builder and one of its chief promoters and stockholders he secured for the city its handsome modern sanatorium. His views were broad and progressive. He had seen what was best in Europe and America; and he de- sired for Charlotte only what was worthy. For Charlotte Tompkins was an organizer and builder not only of material but also of spiritual forces. He knew that self-sacrifice, service, and social spirit are essential to a city's growth, no less than toil, thrift, and enterprise. In an address before the Greater Charlotte Club he emphasized this idea. "It used to be thought," said he, "that great cities grow only on the water. This was because of the natural situation favorable to cheap transit. It 354 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH is not the harbors which have made cities on the coast, but the coming and going of the commercial people of the world. The ocean and the harbor make facilities for free commercial intercourse. It is known the world over that coast cities are more liberal in social and commercial intercourse than those which are not in the tide of commerce. There- fore, we may see that the points of contact with the big world is where the greatest liberality develops, is where the cosmopolitan ideas take root, is where the social and commercial intercourse is freest and most liberal, and where industrial and commercial development is greatest. The development of the useful sciences is parallel with that of manufactures and commerce. Following these come literature, art, and all the concomitants of higher civilization, provided there is an underlying foundation of Chris- tian principles. **At Charlotte we are neither upon the ocean nor upon any stream of water. But we are upon lines of railroad, which makes it possible for us to have as close elbow touch with the big world as though we were on the ocean itself. With railways as an arti- ficial means of commerce the old handicap of an inland city is gone. Not only is the old handicap gone, but the advantage of a model climate to live in and the power in the mountain stream become incalculable advantages. It required constant exer- tion, large investments of money, and the cultivation of a personal and commercial intercourse to secure for Charlotte her railway connections. It was the cosmopolitan spirit of the last generation and their investments in railroads which made a city here. These means of transportation did not come unsought nor without a hospitable welcome. VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 3o5 **This club should keep it in mind that it requires but little effort to make an atmosphere in which so- cial and commercial intercourse may be enlarged and made more liberal. To create this atmosphere of liberality and hospitality requires the same ex- ertion that was made by former generations to pro- cure the building of the railroads. A tendency of a club of congenial spirits is naturally toward having things comfortable for themselves, and this tendency may continue until the atmosphere becomes inhos- pitable to the stranger, and fosters a sort of selfish seclusion. Charlotte's railroads were not secured without self-sacrifice and the investment of money. A large social and commercial intercourse with the outside world is always difficult to get without self- sacrifice and without money. An association of gen- tlemen ought always to be willing to put themselves out in order to make the city a hospitable haven for the great tide of the travelling public. If this be done and be constantly kept up, the city will al- ways have an atmosphere of liberality and hospi- tality which will w^in the stranger, and in turn win the coming and going commerce, and in turn build itself to be a Greater Charlotte in fact as well as in aspiration." At industrial or educational celebrations in Char- lotte he was in demand as a speaker — not as a spread- eagle orator, but as a fountain of new ideas, an in- spirer of new activities, a teacher, preacher, and pro- moter of industrial enterprises and virtues. His addresses were carefully prepared and full of thought; instructive, inspiring, and worthy to be read many times. They were usually published in pamphlet form, as well as in the press; and were carefully preserved in business offices and private libraries. S56 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Notable addresses by him were those before the Manual Training Department of the Charlotte High School, before the trained nurses of the Presbyterian Hospital, before the Young Women's Christian Asso- ciation, before the Charlotte night schools, and at the opening of the Carnegie Public Library. He was always ready to cooperate, or to lead, in reform- ing an old institution, or inaugurating a new enter- prise. A notable service to Charlotte was his work in helping to organize and develop the Manufacturers' Club. He made this club a very potent instrumen- tality for the advertising and upbuilding of Char- lotte and the Piedmont section. Under his guidance the club became a commercial salon, a hospitable Southern home for business men of large denomina- tion, an informal exchange and clearing house of busi- ness propositions. "Our club," said he in his annual address as president, "is unique, in that it is in a degree a commercial exchange. I regard it as ex- ceedingly important to maintain this character of the club. Any day within the club cloth and yarn may be sold. Contracts may be made for a cotton mill or an oil mill or for cotton; and it is these facili- ties that hold our non-resident membership and much of our local memxbership. The wishes and convenience of our non-resident members ought always to be deferred to, as a good host does to guests in a private house. I recommend that the word Southern be dropped from the club's name; first, because it is little used, and second, it in a degree provincializes the club. The best loyalty to the South is to cosmopolitanize our institutions." Animated by this spirit the Charlotte Manufac- turers' Club was the host of leading American states- VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 357 men and business magnates, who were thus informed concerning Southern resources and business possibili- ties, and were warmly enlisted in the cause of South- ern development. Acquaintances here formed rip- ened into friendships, and produced results of large importance. Among the prominent guests of the club were President Taft and the Chinese Minister 'Wu Ting Fang. For years Tompkins kept up his friendship and correspondence with Minister W^u, and endeavored by this means to promote Southern trade in China. With characteristic zeal and public spirit Tompkins sought to extend to other cities the ideas of the Char- lotte Manufacturers' Club. In a letter to the Manu- facturers' Record, June 28, 1901, he wrote as follows: "It has occurred to me that the Manufacturers' Club here is just such an organization as every town in the South needs. There are a great many busi- ness men's leagues, commercial clubs, chambers of commerce, and boards of trade, none of which ac- complish the purposes for which they are intended. The diflBculty seems to be that these organizations rarely get together, except at some regular meeting, or when specially called together to consider some proposition. Almost any business proposition, when brought up before a miscellaneous organization, comes to no good end. Our Manufacturers' Club here is organized upon a plan where the social fea- ture keeps the organization together, and makes a reason for frequent and constant visits by the mem- bers to the club building. The club never consid- ers at any meeting a proposition to build a factory or actually to do any material thing. Therefore, the club is never called upon to decide for or against anybody's purpose or proposition. \^Tiat the club 358 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH does is to furnish a perfect atmosphere and all the surroundings necessary for any man to get a hearing from each individual of the best business element in Charlotte. In this way any man can quietly try his hand at getting up a new factory; and any stranger can through the club get access to the busi- ness element in Charlotte. In this way we get three or four times as many new enterprises as could be gotten if the propositions were formally brought up before an ordinary business men's meeting or board of trade. The general officers of the Southern Rail- road cheerfully come to our club, cheerfully listen to suggestions from individual members about freight rates and other transportation facilities, and are glad of the opportunity. There is nothing published, and nothing has to be done immediately. Proposi- tions discussed before a chamber of commerce would have to be formally answered. Discussions at the Manufacturers' Club require no formal answer." From the time that Tompkins entered Charlotte in 1882, equipped only with a stout heart and a kit of tools, to the close of his life in 1914 as one of the largest capitalists and the foremost industrial pro- moter of the city, he was a potent force in advancing its intellectual development, its educational and philanthropic institutions, its health, prosperity, and happiness. "Have you seen D. A. Tompkins.^" was the first remark of R. M. Miller, Sr., in 1882 to the editor of the Manufacturers^ Record, who was visiting Charlotte. "He is a wonderful man. You may look for big things from him." Twenty years later the Augusta Chronicle noted the passing of Tompkins through that city: *'D. A. Tompkins of Charlotte was in the city yesterday, en route to New Orleans, to address the Southern Cotton Convention. He is VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 359 the man that put Charlotte on the map for cotton mill machinery. Tompkins is Charlotte." Charlotte was little more than a village when Tompkins came to it. It is now a busy, bustling, thriving city of approximately fifty thousand popu- lation. Within a radius of fifty miles live four hundred and fifty thousand people. The city has one hundred and forty-two manu- facturing plants. It is the centre of the Southern cotton mills section, having four hundred mills within a radius of one hundred miles whose opera- tives number eighty thousand, and whose annual pay roll is thirty million dollars. Charlotte is the centre of the biggest hydro-electrical development in the United States, furnishing current over two thousand miles of high-powered transmission wires to more than one hundred towns and cities. It has nine banks and trust companies and four building and loan associations with sixty-two thousand shares in force. More citizens of Charlotte own the homes in which they live than in any other city of its size in the United States. With the exception of one other city, the death rate is lower in Charlotte than in any other city in the nation. "It would not be proper and correct to say that Tompkins and his efforts made Charlotte a city, but he started those things, by acts and writings, which commercially put Charlotte on the map of the coun- try. He was an advanced thinker and builder, a civil engineer by profession, but by nature and intellect a master of details, a student of causes and effects, all of which he studied with a decision and a precision and accuracy as if using his compass and rule and chain." The Uplift, May, 1914. It was not by accident that Tompkins selected 360 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Charlotte as his home and the centre of his industrial and philanthropic activities. He studied out and comprehended the possibilities of Charlotte, and selected it as his residence after a careful survey of the entire South. "The Piedmont region," said he in an address on Charlotte and her future, "seems to be the centre of the new industrial South. The city of Charlotte is the centre of the Piedmont region; and the new conditions are most emphasized in the matter of Charlotte's growth. If, as has been done in the past, Charlotte is initiative and progressive in the development of the resources of the surround- ing country, if she continue friendly to her neighbors and interested in their developments, there is no reason that we should not have a city here such as never before has been built in the South Atlantic States. We have a situation most favorable for the building of a city, being one day's ride from Atlanta, one from Richmond, one from Washington. There ought to be a commercial centre for the great Piedmont manufacturing section, and Charlotte ought to be that commercial centre." Charlotte will some day realize the dream of Tompkins. He loved the city, and freely gave forth his life's energies in building up not only its indus- tries but its intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic life. "Though occupied with the sterner things of business and commerce and industrial development," said The Uplift in May, 1914, "he always found time to interest himself in things that touched the higher side of human endeavor. Hospitals, Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations, schools, colleges, charitable and philanthropic institutions all have profited by his recognition." His mind swept the gamut of human activities, from cotton VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 861 mills to flower beds. "Plant flowers and sow grass/* he would reiterate in the Daily Observer. "It doesn't require much work to produce a little grass and grow a few flowers in a front yard ; and when all the front yards in a city have green grass and flowers, it does make such a tremendous difference in the appear- ance of the whole city. In such a town or city life is far more worth the living than it can ever be in a dilapidated, flowerless city. And don't forget the back yard. Clean it up, and plant a few pleasant green shrubs or vines." Handsome donations were made by Tompkins in his will to most of the philan- thropic and charitable institutions of the city: the Presbyterian Hospital, St. Peter's Hospital, the Good Samaritan, the Carnegie Library, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Young Women's Christian Association. Tompkins loved Charlotte because Charlotte typified himself. His activities in Edgefield were as generous and public spirited as in Charlotte. Edgefield was the darling of his heart; for it was his birthplace and the home of his parents, and around it clustered the memories of his childhood and the dreams of his youth. Edgefield had formerly been a notable cen- tre of social, intellectual, and political influence, famed for wealth, culture, and whole-souled hospi- tality. The Civil War and reconstruction had dealt it a heavy blow. When Tompkins in 1876 returned from Bethlehem to Edgefield, to take part in the South Carolina pohtical revolution under the leader- ship of General Wade Hampton and General M. C. Butler, he found everywhere marks of poverty and decay. In a letter to his fiancee, November 2, 1876, he says, "Dilapidation certainly prevails every- S62 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH where. This morning I found a very large house on the outskirts of the town that was once very hand- some, but now it is actually falling down. The old schoolhouse I used to go to is without a floor, and the grove is used for a Yankee garrison. Every mark of prosperity is gone from the town. The little bridges that used to be here over the brooks are gone. But the spirit of Southern life is still left; for last night the young men of the place hired a band and had them play under the windows of the young ladies. "Politics is all the talk and excitement. To-day a lady told me if the white people succeeded, her hus- band would go crazy over the result, and if they failed, he would go crazy also. I will be here until after the election next Tuesday. The Federal soldiers have been sent in squads to the different voting precincts. Only three companies are left here. Everything is quiet and will remain so." "Nov. 6th. The election passed off quietly. The whites won. I was glad to help." He modestly omitted to tell how his help had car- ried the day. "He was busy all day going from vot- ing place to voting place," says Mrs. Ella Smyly Tompkins. " His life in the North and his knowledge of Northern people gave him a sort of hold on the Yankee officers, who listened to his appeals and through him got into sympathy with Southern white people. He persuaded these officers to let the whites and the negroes vote alternately, thus giving the whites an advantage; for the polls closed before all the blacks could vote, and reduced to nothing the customary big black majority in Edgefield County. After the election the citizens came to our house to serenade him, and took him on their shoulders VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 363 and carried him in triumph all over the town. It was a happy and a proud day for him and for Edge- field/' His love for Edgefield and his interest in its devel- opment continued throughout his life. To advance its industrial growth he built and operated there a cotton mill and cotton oil mill and refinery, thus giving employment to its youth and inviting other industries. To encourage thrift and economy and promote home building and home owning by work- ing people he helped to organize a building and loan association. To develop education he constantly advocated by speeches, by newspaper articles, by pamphlets, and by personal appeals every instru- mentality for school improvements : better buildings, more competent teachers, longer school terms, and adequate school equipment, all to be secured and supported by more liberal taxation. His efforts resulted in a well-equipped public graded school. The handsome high school building he designed and constructed. In his will he made donations of several thousand dollars to the Edgefield Free Li- brary and for the promotion of manual training in the Edgefield high school. Through his efforts the movement to erect the Confederate Monument was rendered successful, and by his help the first bank building was constructed. He erected many nice buildings in town; and always favored liberal taxation for public buildings and public purposes, although he was one of the largest taxpayers in the town. Besides paying taxes freely and liberally, he was a constant, sympathetic, and liberal subscriber to enterprises affecting the prosperity of Edgefield. As Edgefield was a country town, its prosperity depended very largely on good roads. To this mat- 364 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH ter Tompkins gave earnest and constant attention. Speeches, pamphlets, and newspaper articles were used with unremitting zeal and persistency to edu- cate the public mind and arouse the public interest in good roads. The prevailing mania for politics was keenly ridiculed and denounced. The necessity for good roads was his daily sermon for Edgefield through many years. Here is one of his clear-cut appeals : ROADS, SCHOOLS, AND POLITICS "Nothing could be more important to the welfare of Edgefield County than the education of its children and youths. But there can be no efficient system of schools in a community where in bad weather the children cannot walk to school without getting bedraggled with mud. Some teachers attest and none deny that many a day in winter the roads in Edgefield County are too bad for a child to walk to school. A fair macadam road would correct this difficulty as well as serve for marketing farm prod- ucts and hauling supplies back home. It would serve both for school attendance and for social and commercial intercourse. "Bad roads entail the following losses: " (1) They impair school facilities by their im- passability for school children in the muddy and rainy season. " (2) They make prisoners of the farmers' wives and families during the winter months. " (3) They prevent church attendance, and this hinders the progress of Christian civilization. " (4) They destroy more live stock and vehicles in value than it would cost to build good roads. ' VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 365 "(5) They reduce the value of cottonseed and cotton by excess cost of hauHng. They increase the price of fertihzers and rations by excess cost of hauHng. " (6) They hinder prosperity and all good causes and purposes, and are in partnership with whiskey and the gentleman below with a forked tail. "Good Roads bring the following advantages: "(I) They facilitate church attendance. "(2) They facilitate school attendance. "(3) They facilitate social and commercial inter- course in the country and between the country and city. " (4) They open up a vast resource in the way of truck farming, production and sale of chickens, eggs, milk, butter, etc. "(5) They reduce the price of fertilizers and rations, and increase net values of cottonseed and cotton. They save wear and tear on wagons, mules, and human energy more than enough to pay all cost of construction of good roads. "With good roads a young girl can profitably raise chickens and eggs, and do a butter business, because she herself can drive to town and market these. A boy may do a fine truck business because he can market his products. A farmer's wife may go along any day to do a little shopping or pay a visit. Good roads make opportunity for young men and young women of the coming generation, and keep them at home. Bad roads drive them away to find oppor- tunity. "It will make no difference to the farmers of Edge- field whether Blease or Jones is elected governor. Those whose candidate is elected will throw up their S66 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH hats and hallo and then go back to work in the old way; and those whose candidate is not elected will cuss a little, and also go back to work in the old way; and the wives and daughters of the supporters of both candidates will continue to sigh and lament about the old quagmires their husbands call 'roads,' and the rest of the young men will continue to go to North Carolina, Oregon, or elsewhere to find opportunity. One good road of twenty miles would do more good for the country than twenty governors. The ques- tion of who is made governor makes mighty little difference to the man who has to haul wood for a living, but it makes all the difference in the world to this same man whether he has a fine graded and macadamized road to haul over, or a streak of brick clay with a mud machine for a wagon. "Before the Civil War politics led our grand- fathers to the bow-wows. All weVe got to do is to stick to politics long enough and industriously enough; and we will see our grandfathers all right. "Edgefield County, S. C, has perhaps more politics and less good roads than any county in the United States; and the worst of it is that her people seem not only satisfied with this condition, but proud of it." Tompkins loved Edgefield, and was proud of its honorable fame as a centre of wealth, culture, and hospitality in the days of slavery. He treasured all the memories of its glorious and delightful past. An unpublished monograph by him on the Edgefield district displays deep and loving interest in the history of the district, and is a fine scholarly tribute to Edgefield men and women of former generations. He looked upon ante-bellum Edgefield as the fairest VARIOUS ACTIVITIES 357 a gem in South Carolina's coronet; and now as builder of the New South, he longed for the re-polish- ing of that gem into even greater brilliancy and the fitting of It in the very front of the crown of the new bouth Carolina. CHAPTER XX PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS — ^LESSONS OF LIFE SUMJMARY THE life of Tompkins is full of inspiration and instruction. His career was not the result of chance, inherited wealth, or help from kindred, but the product of character and energy. He found friends everywhere, attracted and bound to him by his merits. They helped him with opportunities; and he modestly credits them with his own achievements. But he knew that every man makes his own career; and this was the lesson he would teach the youth of the South. In teaching it he referred frequently to his own work, but only to illustrate and emphasize the lesson. "I don't think," said he, *'I am indulg- ing in personal vanity in referring to my own experi- ence, but do think I am impelled further to forward the cause of industrial development and industrial education; also to show the way to the youth of the South for material, moral, and intellectual progress by the path of character and intelligent work." The chief characteristic of Tompkins was love of work; and the ch ief lesson of his l ife isthe power of persistennippiication . "Genius is mostly applica- tion," he was fond of saying. In his whole career he exemplified and illustrated this noble truth. As a boy he drove the mules in the gin house on his father's plantation; as a lad he worked in the carpenter and blacksmith shops; as a youth he plowed and hoed in SUMMARY OF LIFE 3GG the big fields. He was never idle in boyhood and youth, except when hunting, fishing, or swimming. His work was voluntary, was a joyous expression of his nature. During college vacations in South Carolina he was building county bridges a njj-epairing houses. His expenses at the University of South Carolina were met by these earnings. At the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N. Y., by rigid economy he met the expenses of the first year with funds ill-spared by his father. His second year's expenses were paid in equal shares by his own work at odd hours and his remittances from home. The third and fourth years he worked each afternoon and every Saturday and during the long summer vacations in various in- dustrial establishments in Troy. At night in his bedroom he did special work as a draftsman. He met all expenses of his last two years pt thp institntp. . by work and bv personal loan s. His diligence and skill while a student in the institute attracted the attention of Alexander Holley, one of the foremost American engineers and at that time a trustee of the institution, who gave him employment for a year after graduation as confi- dential secretary and draftsman of designs. His fidelity and efficiency as a worker secured Holley's warm recommendation, whereby he entered upon his career at the Bethlehem Iron Works und er the man- agement of the great steel maker, John Fritz . His career at Bethlehem was a continuous illustration of his favorite theory that genius is mostly application. While other employees were taking a day off for country fairs, or 4th of July celebrations, Tompkins was at work. When an opportunity came for work abroad under 370 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH very special difficulties installing in ^Germany ne w machinery, Tompkins was selected by Fritz to per- form the work. ^ Yhen his long apprenticeship was ended and he began in^harlotte, N. C, his career as engineer"^nd contractor, with little equipment ^cept a kit of tools, he was marked at once as a workman of exceptionaT diligence and efficiency. His reputation extended rapidly in all directions, and gained for him from George Westinghouse the agency for the Westinghouse^engities in the Southeastern States. Accepting this agency and working at the same time as a machinist and engineer, he was busy day and night, as salesman, machinist, engineer, contractor, and builder. He was bookkeeper, pro- prietor, travelling salesman, and promoter. As busi- ness grew, he was constantly on the road, travelling at night to save time, and living in sleeping cars. There was no busier worker in the South. Tompkins worked with an object; not to earn money, nor n:erely to employ his restless energies, but to produce results, to construct, to fashion^ in create, to learn. "I always delighted in constructive work," he wrote in his memoirs. "My first constructive work as a boy was making a pair of gaffs in the blacksmith shop for cock-fighting. Mine were far superior to those made by the negro black- smiths. But after making two or three pairs, I lost interest, and made no more. I had learned all there was to learn." His faith in the power of work was strong and deep- rooted. "If everybody in the South would go to work," he was fond of saying, *'if the idlers in villages and towns and the loafers around railway stations could be converted into productive laborers; and if farm workers would stick to their jobs as SUMMAKY OF LIFE 371 many hours in the day and as many days in the year and as dihgently as cotton mill workers, the South would be the richest country in the world. It surpasses all other sections of the United States in climate and natural resources. Now that it is rid of the curse of slavery, it should surpass other sections also in manufactures, commerce, and agriculture, in wealth, education, and culture." After locating in Charlotte in 1882, it is doubtful whether Tompkins for twenty-five years ever spent an idle day. His passion for construction and his wonderful versatility kept him always busy. After spending the day in promoting some industrial organization, or supervising mill construction, he would lecture at night before a college or university student audience. His versatility was equal to his ]y^ energy. He would pass easily and quickly from practical engineering work to the study and dis- _^ ^ -/ cussion of problems in government and political ^"^ ^ economy; from the building and organization of textile schools to experiments in cooking; from land- scape gardening to building and loan associations; from city sewerage to Beethoven's symphonies, from trained nurses and typhoid fever to plans for marketing cotton; from the undeveloped water power of Piedmont, Carolina, to the organizing of a system of apprenticeships; from lecturing before national as- sociations or speaking before Congressional com- mittees to familiar chats in the Charlotte Manu- facturers' Club ; from his apartments in the Waldorf Astoria to his rooms in the Buford Hotel. With the Roman poet he could exclaim, "Homo sum, nil humani a me alienum puto." His friends called him a genj us. They could not otherwise explain his tremendous achievements in so 372 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH many lines of work. But Tompkins smiled at the suggestion. "Genius," said he, **is mostly applica- tion." Ke was not a genius in the popular accepta- tion; but he had a genius for work. He fulfilled his own definition. "Few people," said he in an address before the students of the North Carolina College at Mount Pleasant, "appreciate the pleasure and wholesomeness of work. It is like the ocean waves on the beach — always dreaded until one is well into them, when former apprehension is found to have been groundless. The pleasures of all dissipations are fading. The pleasures of all work are cumulative. Work is pleasanter to-day than it was yesterday. It will be pleasanter to-morrow" than it is to-day. "I wish to lay emphasis on the expression of my conviction that the graduates of this school have as fair opportunities as any youth anywhere in the world. To derive the advantages cf these opportun- ities neither capital nor influence, nor help from the North, or from anywhere else is necessary. Indeed, all these might be a hindrance. All that is necessary is study and work. "To do things in a true way, to gain the distinction which always comes from perfection, requires work, labor, effort — more work, more labor, more effort — the most work, the most labor, the most effort. Whoever labors for distinction and fame follows a phantom. Whoever labors for good results will find distinction or fame. Fortune dallies wath fools. She is the slave of him who never departs from the path of duty and labor." Next to love of work w^ ith Tompkins__was love of h elping others. T his was the controlling motive of his busy life. Speeches, writings, building of milLs and colleges, promotion of building and loan associar SUMMARY OF LIFE 373 tions, all his activities during thirty years were designed to produce for Southern laborers opportun- ities of employment, or to stimulate Southern youth to education and training for industrial careers, or to promote among Southern working people habits of industry, thrift, and economy. Outright charity, mere giving, except to the sick and helpless, he did not regard as real help. "The only real help," said he, "is when you help a man to help himself." . . . "The best help for the working man is employment." . . . "A good pay roll is the best philanthropy." . . . "Give the working man an opportunity to work and good wages for his work, and he will work out his own salvation, material, intellectual, and social." . . . "With opportunity for regular work and with regular wages in cash, the mill workers of the South will do more for their own advancement than could ever be done by others for them." . . . "The greatest benefactors of the South are those who have formulated plans for the industrial develop- ment of the South, and have accomplished the main- tenance of regular work and regular cash pay rolls. Whoever finds the way to keep people employed at profitable wages may depend upon it that these employed people will, in time, be more instrumental than anybody else in their own betterment." He knew that work is the best preparation for life, and the joy of work the greatest of human satisfactions. He had felt this joy, and he wished all young men to feel it. He gave it to his best beloved. He took his eldest nephew, Sterling Graydon, Esq., of Charlotte, at an early age as an apprentice in his Charlotte machine shops. The lad worked in company with other apprentices, under the same contract, at the same wages, doing the same work. 374 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH subject to the same discipline, receiving the same instruction and training. At the end of his appren- ticeship the nephew borrowed from his uncle money to meet expenses in the State Textile School, giving notes in due form with legal interest. To pay oflF the debt he worked at odd hours during the college session and through the long vacations. After graduation he entered the Atherton Cotton Mills in Charlotte, and worked his way up from the bottom to the top. He is now president of the Atherton Mills and general manager of his uncle's estate. The career that Tompkins thus helped his nephew to follow was the career that Tompkins himself had followed. He believed that a career of this kind was open to any young man in the South. By speeches, writings, and advertisements he was always urging Southern lads thus to fit themselves for industrial work and leadership. It was one of his chief pleasures to help such lads obtain an education. It is not easy to make an estimate of the number of young men helped by Tompkins at schools, colleges, and universities. "He never refused to help any young man who asked his aid to get an education," says his secretary. Miss Twelvetrees. "I never knew my brother to turn down a boy or a girl who wanted to go to school and came to him to borrow money," writes Mrs. Grace Tompkins Ennett. "He didn't mind contributing anything to a person or a community that helped in their own building up." Nor was his help confined to lads seeking an education. He was a teacher and wished everybody to be at school ; but his school included the big world of business. In his school he sought and gi*eeted op- portunities to help anybody who was willing to be helped in the right way. SUMMARY OF LIFE 37o A characteristic example of his methods in helping young men to business habits is furnished by a reporter for the Charlotte Observer, at that time a stranger to Tompkins, but for years afterward a close friend, fellow worker, and counsellor: "The first thing that I remember about Mr. Tompkins is that he helped me out of a troublesome situation and started me on the road to financial success. I had just graduated from the State University, and was working in the Observer oflfice. A big debt hung over me, and a note for $200 was past due. I was very blue, and was thinking of going to Texas. Mr. T. passed by the office, and observed my downcast look. 'What is the matter with you.f^ I never saw such a dejected-looking person. Are you ill?' He came into the office, sat down beside me and heard my story. "'Well, said he, you need a guardian, you have no idea of business. Have you a bank account.?' "'Bank account!' I said. "'Yes. Where do you keep your money .'^' "'My money.? Why, Mr. Tompkins, I have no money, not a dollar ahead.' Mr. Tompkins looked at me without saying a word for several minutes, turned and started out, saying, as he went, "'As soon as somebody relieves you, come to my office.' "Inside of an hour I had taken out five shares of building and loan stock, opened a bank account with $25, and paid Mr. $175 of what I owed him. Mr. Tompkins pointed the way, signed my note with me, and since I have never been without a little bank account. From that day I was a friend of Mr. Tompkins ; and have often wondered how many poor, green, thoughtless youngsters he started in a business 376 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH way. He lectured me briefly, gently, kindly, and made me happy. I soon paid for the money with my building and loan stock." The devotion of Tompkins to his theory of self- help is shown by his using this method in helping his youngest sister, Mrs. Grace Tompkins Ennett. Let her tell the story: "I had been teaching a year or so before I ever thought of saving any money. I usually drew my salary and spent it immediately, and didn't even dream I could possibly spare a penny to lay up, as I was supporting myself. One day my brother sug- gested to me the idea of saving something. He asked me how much I received, and inquired gener- ally into my expenses; and then told me about the building and loan association. I had never even heard of such a thing, and didn't even dream that I could enter into it, but so great was my admiration and belief in him that I gladly followed out his directions and took ^ve shares. That was the best service my brother ever did n e. It was the begin- ning of my own immediate family's acquaintance with the B. & L. and I can truly say the acquaintance has grown more intimate every year since. He took me to New York that summer where the National B. & L. Association met, and got me introduced to some of the crowd, and I attended all the meetings where ladies were allowed, while he was busy downtown. I would tell him all about it at night, when we met at the close of each day ; and after it was all over, he had me write it up, and published what I wrote in the Charlotte Observer. "The next year we went to New York again for my summer vacation. Then it was he began to talk about my building a house. He showed me how it SUMMARY OF LIFE 377 could be done by renting it and supplementing the rent money with a small part of my salary. I im- mediately wanted to try it; and we spent many hours discussing plans for building and ways and means for me to undertake it. He always urged me to ex- press my own individuality about the house and not to be unduly influenced by himself. But I was so ignorant, and believed so in him, that I was anxious to follow his lead in the entire matter. He had some lovely building lots, so he let me choose any one I wished, and sold it to me on credit, taking second mortgage, and allowing me to give first mortgage to the Building & Loan. Then he got me many books with house plans and made me select my own plan. I don't think there was a house in Edgefield at that time that had been planned by an architect. So he had the plans drawn up by the best architects in Charlotte, and made me a present of them. I shall never forget his enjoyment over my building that house. I think he wrote me something about it every mail during the building. He thought of new ideas and steered me around difficulties and generally said he wanted it to be a model for Edgefield. That year of the building he took me to Cincinnati to the big National Building & Loan Con- vention; and, when winter came on, he had me run up to Charlotte some week-ends to study interior furnishings; and, when it was all completed, he fur- nished one of the rooms beautifully for me. After it was all ready, the family moved into it, and rented the one we had been living in, because the new house was so much better than the old. I got the rent money for the old house instead. "After my house was completed, and we had moved in it, my brother began to talk to me about 378 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH the yard. WTien summer came, I went to stay with him and kept house for him as usual and always we talked and planned about beautifying my grounds. He had many ideas, and wanted them carried out, but at last decided to get a landscape architect to help shape them. Mr. John Nolan of Boston, Mass., was working on parks in Savannah and Charlotte; so once, when he was passing Edgefield on his way to Savannah, he spent one day with me. I am sure I was the most ignorant person about plant life Mr. Nolan ever met; I was embarrassingly ignor- ant. I did not know^ the commonest wild things around me. I have been trying to remedy that ignorance every day since. Well, my brother wanted me to develop plants that were native, * Take what you have,' he would say, 'and make the most of it.' He would tell me what beautiful gardens my grandparents had before the war, and said I could do the same. He especially wanted me to have pergolas with grapevines growing on them and plenty of fig trees planted. He would tell me to work to make my place not only pretty and attract- ive, but remunerative. He would say if you want a shade tree, you can just as well let it be a black walnut, you'll get shade and nuts, too. He always advised me to sell m.y grapes, figs, fruits, and any- thing I grew on my place. 'Show the Edgefield people there is no disgrace in working and making your home pretty and selling your surplus.' My pergolas are here, and the fig trees; and the yard is quite pretty. His spirit made it all, and taught me besides the most valuable lessons I ever learned." On account of old age and semi-invalidism, the business affairs and especially the large plantation of Tompkins' father became involved in debt and con- SUMMARY OF LIFE 379 fusion. Tompkins took hold with characteristic energy and desire to help; advanced several thousand dollars to square up debts, devised a plan of manage- ment on strict business lines, and lifted the property out of its hopeless condition. He never allowed him- self to be repaid the money he had advanced, but tore up his father's notes. Afterward by his father's will he was made heir to one sixth of the property that he had saved. This, too, he declined to accept, giving it to the widow and the other children. On the death of his father Tompkins wrote in one of his frank letters to his private secretary: "I am impelled by my father's death to devote myself more freely to the help of others. I cannot think that I have ever been especially selfish; but it may be that I can do more for others than I am accustomed to do." He was a constant and generous giver to charitable and religious organizations; to churches and hos- pitals; to struggling schools and colleges; to Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations; to associations and institutions for training and up- lifting the negro. His private secretary and treas- urer says: "I kept in Mr. T's books a 'donation and gift account'. He gave away quite a sum each year, and his contributions spread over many insti- tutions and churches. He helped very many young men in their education, but his help was generally on a loan basis, depending upon the honor of the young men and their thrift to pay it back when they got to work. Even with his own nephews, whenever he advanced money for their college education, it was a debt to be repaid with interest. His spirit was first to show people how to help themselves." Tompkins was a philanthropist, not from emo- 380 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH tional impulse but from desire and purpose to aid in the elevation of humanity. "It does us all good," he said in his speech at the opening of the Carnegie Library, "to feel that we are doing some good in the world, or at least are trying to do some good in the world. The material advantages of this library are probably better than what could be obtained from any new business which you could establish for the purpose of making money. There is a general good which will be advantageous to all material interests. The influence of a library is to extend knowledge, which, in turn, softens asperities, removes prejudices, and extends human happiness. But the greatest good is the altruistic work. It is to any individual or to any people of supreme advantage to have al- ways in hand more or less altruistic work — to be doing something in which the motive of self-interest is left out." The money help given by Tompkins to young men and women was very large and very efficient in results. But still greater was his help by inspiration, through lectures, speeches, and newspaper articles. His altruistic motives for attending conventions, making speeches before colleges and universities, and performing other semi-public missionary work, were not always appreciated or even comprehended. In his personal memoirs he shows a modest though manly indignation at the misunderstandings and misrepresentations that often confronted him in his philanthropic work. "Someone told me yesterday," he writes in his memoirs, "that he heard a man say to another, * Tompkins must have had to do a great deal of manipulating to get the appointment of director in the Equitable'. The other answered, *I don't know about that, but I don't see how he is SUMMARY OF LIFE 381 going to make anything out of it. ' I am constantly confronted with this interrogation in connection with my work. "There seems to be exceedingly few people who are capable of comprehending that I like to do some things for the interest I have in the subject and for the good of humanity. I went once to Raleigh to make an address before the students of the A. & M College. The auditorium contained not only the students, but a large company of ladies and gentle- men who came out from Raleigh to hear the address. When it was over, I was cordially complimented ; and I think most of those who heard the address were really interested in what I said. A number of extra trolley cars were waiting to take the Raleigh party in, and, on the way in, a Federal officer sat by me and amongst other things said, *I have not heard a more interesting address in a long time than the one you delivered to-night.' Then he leaned over, and said, sotto voce, in my ear, *but I cannot see how you make anything out of this sort of work.' "It is evident that very few people credit anybody w^ith any spirit of altruism. I often neglect the money-making end of my work for the altruistic end, simply because I like it; and my own feeling is that I have lost a great deal of money by the neglect at times of the money-making end of my business. I think that most people have no conception, not even the slightest conception, of the fact that a great deal of my work is done without any expectation of compensation or return. I have printed many pamphlets at my own cost, and circulated them, for no other reason than that I thought the subject needed discussion, and that discussion of the subject would do general good. I have distributed and S82 A BTTIT>DER OF THE NEW SOUTH printed pamphlets on banking, good roads, building and loan associations, working people's homes, and similar subjects, in which I had no possible private interest, one pamphlet on the cotton gin involving much labor and expense, to clear up the matter of Whitney's patent rights and his claim that the South did not treat him right. I have written and published a number of books absolutely without regard as to whether I would get the money back or not. * Cotton Mill, Processes and Calculations' was published for the benefit of students and superintend- ents who wanted to learn the cotton mill business. I was impelled by letters that I got from a number of these asking for formulae. The book on ' Cotton ' was written to get the cotton story on record, by pictures and printed matter. Yet in the face of this work and its publicity people persist in talking to me and about me as though I was intent upon getting money and that I had no other motive. I think this is partially due to the fact that a number of people who have been associated with me have been trying to get the money while I was doing the al- truistic work; and they attempt to justify themselves by making it out that they had to fight my greediness to get what belonged to them, whereas all the greed was on their side. I being always on the defensive, if there was a difference of opinion about money. "Besides the jEquitable Boar d I am a member of the Executive Committee of the T^J^ational Associa- tion of Manufacturers; a member of the Executive Committee of the Asiatic Association; a member of the proxy committee of the Associated Press, and I have joined a number of other organizations in the work of which I take more or less interest. If the desire for money was ever a controlling impulse SUMMARY OF UFE 383 with me I don't know it, and never did know it. 1 don't think that I ever worked a day in my life or the money that was in it. I have done the work that I have Hked to do regardless of whether I was paid for it or not, and whenever I have been doing work for pay my chief concern was that the pay would be sufficient to make a good job and give good re- sults for the man I was working for. It is wonder ul what a different feeling there is m the presence ot a set of men who are thinking about nothmg but money and in the presence of a set of men who are successful but who are willing to do something for the general good. There is a great pleasure m associatmg with fhe kind of men I meet on the executive committees of such associations as the National Associat«>n of Manufacturers, the Asiatic Association and the Associated Press. They are not only not trying to make any money out of the thing, but they never Enk about money. Most of them are success^ men who have made money very easily and could get along without doing other work. Thos/w]aa±aeaLj::Qmplans_m^sl_int^^ -•MrTWpkins never Wsidered money m carrying out an idea," says his secretary. Miss Twelvetrees^ "he would put it through regardless ot cost, lo accompHsh a thing he spared neither time nor money^ I remember how he took great interest •" getting up specimens of cotton in all its stages from the seed to the finished cloth, to send to schools in the Northern States for the benefit of pupils who never saw any cotton growing. He always had in hand some such ente^rise and spent thousands of dollars m their accomplishment." Similar testimony is borne by H. E C. Bryant, an intimate friend and fellow worker 384 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH on the Charlotte Observer for twenty years: ''^fr. Tompkins cared nothing for money. Neither he nor Mr. Caldwell ever considered money in shaping the management and policy of the Charlotte Observer. ^^ In altruistic work as speaker, writer, and author, in promoting and assisting industrial enterprises that were not successful, as well as in philanthropies and charities never seen or known by the public, Tompkins gratuitously and freely consumed and donated for the good of humanity as large a fortune as the one which he retained. Aj itrnng ch nrnctorint i c o f Tomplrin ^ ij YrrijnLLpnTrrr He concentrated his faculties and energies on what- ever task he was performing. He would compose a speech or plan a building in the midst of a crowd or in a railway coach, regardless of noises, interrup- tions, and diversions. When he took up an idea, he studied it from every angle, and saturated his mind with facts and theories concerning it, developing the idea in his own mind through many stages of evolution, until finally it blossomed forth in perfect shape as a manufacturing plant, or a system of ware- houses for marketing cotton, or an address on tech- nical education, or a scheme for promoting thrift and industry among Southern working people. He never let go an idea until he had exhausted it. His youthful experience at Bethlehem with building and loan associations served him for thirty years as a lesson in thrift and a text for preaching thrift to others. Only once in his long career did Tompkins change a deliberately formed plan or purpose. His early ambition was to achieve a career in iron, to become a great iron master like John Fritz. This idea bound him to Bethlehem during his long apprenticeship. SUMMARY OF LIFE 385 But 'when lie studied the^ Southernjndustm^ tion and saw thatjhe_SmitEio«14-fe€^aided"more%r tiie development of cotton industriea^ than by tlie^ develojpmenf^^on^^ to nbecome^ Imissionary of cotton. His making . tTie"cEange^as a fine exhibition of^ill power; for ^ he tore up by the roots the settled purpose and strong ambition of his early life. Will power was the force that carried him not only through life's triumphs and successes, but also through disappointments, discouragements, and pending disasters. It enabled him to face life without flinching, to meet its difficul- ties with courage and determination never to yield. A beautiful and striking illustration of Tompkins' will power and a most instructive lesson to young men was his overcoming a natural bashfulness and disinclination to speak in public. "As a boy at school my brother had a horror of speaking in public,' says Hon. A. S. Tompkins. "Friday afternoon at the old field schools, he would often be punished before he would undertake the usual old field school declamation. By nature taciturn and of few words, he just could not, for a long time, get up in public and spout out something he did not feel. His first attempts at public speaking later in life were utter failures and he broke down. Once after such a fail- ure before an indulgent audience, he said that he was inspired with the thought that he never could make a bigger failure than he had just made; and so, in time, by strong tenacity of purpose, he not only overcame this embarrassment, but found himself making speeches all over the country, as much to his own amazement as anybody else's. He had reached that mental attainment where he had something to say. Ideas of instruction and construction, nascent S86 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH thoughts that burst through the eggshell of his em- barrassment with all that gentle force that nature hatches out the young chick. He learned not only to speak in public with ease and grace, but with a dash of Irish humor in his nature, he would adorn his speeches with anecdotes and illustrations." When Tompkins realized that oratory is one of the « fffeatest instrumentalities for moving mankind, \/and that Southern people especially are aroused to action mainly by public speeches, he focussed his will power and concentrated his energies on the appar- ently impossible task of making himself a fluent, attractive, and forcible speaker. His success was perfect; a great triumph of character, energy, and will power over natural timidity and reticence. For thirty years he made speeches before colleges, schools and universities, before state legislatures and com- mittees of Congress, before national associations of bankers, manufacturers, and social workers, before local gatherings of farmers, merchants, and laborers, before cotton mill operatives and women's clubs, before millionaire capitalists and young men starting penniless in life.CHe never spoke for pay, or for x^^ politics, or from vanity. His speeches were gratui- tous and philanthropic They exhibited him as a student of history and economic problems, as a deep and original thinker, as a prophet with a vision of the future and a message to the world. He never made a tiresome speech. His audiences always wished for more. They recognized him at once as master of his subject, as having a purpose to help and instruct, as free from vanity and desire for self -ostentation. Anybody could interrupt him and ask questions. He was the most popular, the most forcible, the most efficient of all Southern speakers SUMMARY OF LIFE 387 who spoke without pay, without politics, without vanity, and solely for the promotion of the public good. His anecdotes, his witticisms, his aphoristic sentences became current coin throughout the nation. His work as a speaker was a powerful factor in his work as a builder. It should be to young men a helpful lesson not only in will power, but also in speaking. It shows that a man can speak, if he has something to say, that "an orator," as Quintilian says, "is a good man, strongly moved." The social instincts were very strong in Tompkins. They were exhibited in long and enduring friendships, in constant and generous hospitality, in love of home and kindred, as well as in writing, speaking, and work- ing for the general uplift of humanity. He was fond of folks, and loved company — was warmed by the light of a friendly eye and the touch of a friendly hand. His fondness for children and young girls and cul- tured women was the tenderest quahty in his appar- ently rugged nature. As a child he was "mother's boy," loving to be fondled and caressed, as a lad he was "buddy", the darling of his sisters, as a young worker at Bethelehem he sought out, and was ac- cepted as a friend, in the most cultured homes. A friendship here formed endured until his death, with frequent and loving letters through years of toil and busy work on his part, of travel in many lands and residence in many places by his friend. After his death, among hundreds of letters there came to his private secretary a tender note of woe from Mrs. F., his Bethlehem good angel: "Some day when you have time, perhaps you will write me a little more about the last days of Mr. Tompkins; if he talked of the good old days in Bethlehem, when he played 388 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH with my children and considered my home a place for rest and pleasure in his very busy and lonely life." Another highly cultured lady friend kept up for thirty years an active correspondence with him, never failing to send him greetings on his birthdays, as well as at Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and other festivals. At the age of seventy she was writing him, "I do not know a more profitable way I can spend the Sabbath than having a little chat with you," and again, "I wish you to know that I am thinking of you this Christmas day." He carefully treasured and preserved all these tokens of friendship and esteem. A tender sympathy attracted him to the female sex, and secured for him women friends, wherever he lived, or travelled, or worked. For years after working in Germany, he corresponded with the wife and two daughters of the German schoolmaster with whom he had boarded; and filed their letters. His busy life was cheered and warmed by constant episto- lary greetings from countless lady friends, whose letters were filed away among his treasures, some humorous, some abounding in good fellowship, some full of happy reminiscences, some teasing and banter- ing, some abounding in grateful appreciation of generous assistance, all warm with admiration, regard, and genuine friendship. His women friends admired his strength of mind, body, and character; and were charmed with his never-failing courtesy and gene- rosity. Every woman to him was an object of rever- ence, or admiration, or affection. He aided many girls to an education, preferring to develop their character by loans rather than by gifts. But he would not accept interest, and in proper cases the loans became gifts. He would take women and SUMMARY OF UFE 389 girls who needed building up on vacation trips to the seashore or to Northern cities. He was a con- stant sender of flowers, books, and small gifts of money to lady friends in hospitals, or in needy circumstances. Struggling artists were encouraged with generous orders for portraits; authors were assisted with loans; sick girls were sent as his guests to hospitals and afterward during convalescence to seaside or other resorts "During his frequent visits to Kaleigh, savs his sister, "he never took dinner without having as his guests a bevy of Charlotte girls, who were pupils in St. Mary's or Peace Institute. In New York he would hunt up girl friends and acquaintances from the South, and drive them around the city and through the parks and take them to theatres He loved the whole sex and enjoyed intensely female sympathy, female presence, and the female touch. "Few people understood my brother s affectionate disposition and his desire to be loved and petted. The last few years of his life, during his semi-invalid- ism, I always helped him undress; and often when he started to bed he would call all the girls m the house and say, 'Come and put me to bed. VVe would all come, and he would heartdy enjoy it, as one would unlace a shoe, another take off his coat, etc Then he always wanted to be kissed good-night and kissed good-morning. After he was m bed, it 1 was sewing or reading, he frequently asked me to sit in his room near Us beside, so he would feel my pres- ence in his sleep." , His fondness for children was equaUy marked. "I never saw any one," said his private secretary, "who enjoyed children as much as Mr. Tompkms. Whenever he came to Mr. Fred Oliver's, where I lived in Charlotte, he would get on the floor, or on 390 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH the couch, and the children would romp all over him. He said it was a great pleasure and a diversion for him after being all day in the drawing room, work- ing on engineering plans. His fondness for children and his entertainment of them lasted all through his life. He frequently would invite three or four little girls and take them on a day or two stay at his High- shoals Mills. He liked little boys also, but was especially fond of little girls and young school girls, and young lady college girls. If he went any place where any of his girl friends were attending college. North, South, or anywhere, he found time to give them some little outing, a meal at the hotel, or an evening at the theatre, according as they were al- lowed, and as he could arrange for a chaperone for them. He always knew the right way to do this sort of things. He often took ladies on pleasure trips with his sister Grace as a chaperone; and very seldom sat down to a meal anywhere that he did not have some lady take it with him." "My brother loved children with a very strong affection," writes Mrs. Ennett. "He frequently came in the hotel at Charlotte and brought a child with him whom he had picked up on the street for a meal. When he lived at Montr eat our neighbor's children were all his pets. They would sit upon his knee and thoroughly enjoy him as much as he en- joyed them." In correspondence with his friends Tompkins rarely failed to mention by name each child in the family; and, if there was a girl, she was sure to be the centre of his thoughts. "My dear Bryant, First of all, give my love to Betty, then if there is any left you and Mrs. Bryant can divide it between you. I enjoyed the visit of the ladies exceedingly, and I SUMMARY OF LIFE 391 enjoyed Betty in particular, because she was such a sweet, natural, and guileless child, she is neither for- ward nor backward but whose manners are charm- ing as they were born in her." It is a wise man who chooses well his friends. In this wisdom Tompkins was very wise. His lady friends, old and young and little children, warmed his life with joy and sunshine, lifting him many times out of the shadows. There was one whose benefi- cent influence, never-failing loyalty and invaluable help began with his life work at Charlotte, and never relaxed until he closed his eyes in death at Montreat. For more than thirty years, first as his stenographer, then as private secretary, and finally as private book- keeper, treasurer, and close friend, Miss Anna L. Twelvetrees devoted herself absolutely to the pro- motion of his interests. Her fine mental ability and training, with rare talent for details, enabled her to familiarize herself with his voluminous business and immense correspondence, and to attain such a degree of efficiency, both of management and of counsel, that she became not only his indispensable assistant, but his alter ego. His high regard and esteem for her and his confidence in her character and ability were attested by his making her one of the joint heirs of his large estate and appointing her as one amongst his executors to carry out his last will and testament. In selecting friends Tompkins was wise; in dealing with them he was kind and just, unselfish and gen- erous. He sought out Joseph P. Caldwell, brought him from Statesville to Charlotte, and made possible his great career as editor of the Charlotte Observer, financing that paper through struggling years of poverty and heavy expense. But Tompkins did more than this: he wrote almost daily one or more 392 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH columns of editorials, or news, or comment, to be published in the Observer without credit to him. He loved Caldwell like a brother, took care of his financial interests with the tenderness of a father, and joined in the public applause which credited him with the entire achievement. Tompkins was sat- isfied with helping to produce for the South a model, independent, industrial daily newspaper. He neither wished nor sought credit for his own endless work in this great production. Even his own career Tompkins would habitually attribute to others, who had influenced his plans and purposes, or given him opportunities for work: Prof. E. P. Alexander of the University of South Carolina, who recognized his constructive talents and advised him to go North for technical training and educa- tion; Alexander L. Holley, the great engineer, who inspired him with confidence and ambition on his graduation from college in Troy; John Fritz, iron master, who gave him the severe training essential to his future success ; and George Westinghouse, who made him agent for his vast interests in the South- eastern States. He rarely made a speech without re- ferring to one or more of these men. Among his unpublished papers is a pamphlet entitled "My Four Bosses," in which he sketches the lives and works of Alexander, Holley, Fritz, and Westinghouse, testifying his gratitude to them for molding his life and crediting them with all the achievements of his career. His friendship with Fritz grew warmer and stronger every year, and culminated in his selection by Fritz to write his biography. This work was prevented by failing health; and on the urgent ad- vice of Tompkins, Fritz dictated his autobiography, SUMMARY OF LIFE 393 adopting the plan and style suggested by Tomp- kins. Many strong and lasting friendships, based upon mutual esteem and confidence, enabled Tompkins to form business connections of the greatest import- ance to himself, to Charlotte, to the Piedmont South, and to Southern industrial development generally. His early partnership in Charlotte with R. M. Miller, Sr.; his agency for Westinghouse; his business connections with the Mason Company of Taunton, Mass.; and the Vaile Co., at Dayton, Ohio; his friendship with R. H. Edmonds, editor of the Manufacturers' Record; with the oflScers and leading spirits in various State and National industrial and financial associations; with leading editors and news- paper publishers throughout the country; with college faculties and presidents; with members of the National Congress and of various state legislatures, formed a strong chain of influence and power in promoting and extending Southern industrial enter- prise, in educating Southern sentiment, and in arousing the Southern people to action along many lines of work. His life is a lesson in the value of friends and the power of friendship. The last five years of the life of Tompkins were spent in a condition of semi-invalidism after a slight stroke of paralysis. It was during this period that his finest and most lovable qualities were mani- fested: abounding hospitality and love of humanity, patience and cheerfulness, breadth of mind and human sympathy, interest in everything pertaining to life. After partially recovering from the stroke of paralysis, Tompkins built a home at Montreat, Buncombe County, N. C, at the foot of the Black 394 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH Mountain range. His cottage was on a spur of the mountain overlooking the beautiful Swannanoa Valley and affording a grand view of distant moun- tain ranges. This was the first home that he ever had. The untimely death of his fiancee, followed by a life of ceaseless labor and much travel, with daily shifting residence, had crushed his hopes for a home and made him a dweller in hotels, sleeping cars, and club rooms. But rest had come at last — rest most welcome and most unwelcome. Unused to rest and longing for work, he fought for awhile against fate, seeking everywhere remedies and treatment for his illness. But soon, in spite of hopes and assurances from friends and physicians, his clear mind saw the truth, and his brave, cheerful spirit accepted it. "When he finally knew he would never be well," says Mrs. Ennett, "he took it most beautifully. He began to interest himself in his home, reading and making the most of what was left for him in life. He told me that he had made up his mind definitely that for his own sake and the sake of his friends, he must be cheerful and throw off the worry of bad health. I never saw a gamer, braver spirit than his through the five years of his invalidism." . . . "When we went to housekeeping, he interested himself in everything, even in cooking. He bought five different cooking stoves just to experiment with: they were a fireless cooker, a coal and wood range, an oil stove, an electric range and an Alladin's oven. He often said -4ie would have been a cook if he had his life to go over; and cited the wonderful scientific possibilities connected with cooking. He explained what a wonderful field cooking had, and how he would have started right at the foundation of cooking, just as he did at machine work, and gradually have worked SUMMARY OF LIFE 395 himself up to one of the biggest hotel men in the United States. His patience and hopefulness were never exhausted. He would encourage me to carry through to successful end whatever experiment we undertook. *Just keep trying,' he would say, *you may fail forty eleven times, but you are bound to succeed if you just keep trying.' He used to have a story he was fond of telling about a ship becalmed out at sea in the mouth of the Amazon River without drinking water. This ship sighted another and began to signal for water. The answer came, *Let down your buckets where you are.' It was done, and fresh water was found right there, where the crew thought they were going to die of thirst. He frequently said everybody had opportunities right where they were, if they only looked for them, and tried to use them. "My brother was one of the most hospitable persons I ever knew: he very seldom sat down to a meal in his Montreat home without guests. He would actually sit down and try to think of some extra guest to invite in. The table was always set with extra seats so that company could be invited in without a moment's notice. But he was fond of plain food, plain dress, and plain hving. He liked Southern dishes and Southern cooking. I always felt that he enjoyed reproducing in his Montreat home our father's South Carolina home." To his Montreat home Tompkins cordially invited his many friends, North and South. "You forget that I am seventy years old," replied one of his life- long lady friends. Many could not come, from sickness, old age, or business, but sweet letters of love and friendship blessed and cheered his heart. And guests in large numbers did come almost daily: 396 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH artists, authors, teachers, preachers, editors, bet- terment workers, trained nurses, manufacturers, col- lege presidents, mill workers, statesmen, and politi- cians, old and young, rich and poor, mothers, matrons, and pretty girls. *' I remember sitting down to dinner at my brother's home in Montreat with over a dozen lady guests," says A. S. Tompkins, "I being the only gentleman and feeling somewhat abashed by the brilliant galaxy of lovehness and beauty." "His home at Montreat was rarely without lady guests," says his secretary, Miss Twelvetrees. "He would talk to them on all kinds of subjects, not only literature, music, and current news, but gardens, flowers, building homes, cooking, making tea, educat- ing children, etc. His company when out driving was usually from among his lady friends, young, middle aged, or old, married or single, according as he felt at the time." His life at Montreat exhibits Tompkins as master of himself, making the most of the powers that he had, enjoying the life that remained, and serving humanity. With devoted and congenial friends as his guests and daily companions, with nature in majestic grandeur and beauty to gladden his eyes and elevate his soul, with books, magazines, and news- papers picturing the daily life of the world with letters to and from absent friends, with intellect strong and clear, with spirit sweet, cheerful, and responsive to life, he was a beautiful illustration of the superiority of the soul and the mind over the physi- cal body. Nor was he idle. Each day he kept a stenographer busy, as he dictated letters, newspaper articles, personal memories, and business directions. With bodv weakened and disabled, he was still a SUMMARY OF LIFE 397 good soldier of humanity, fighting bravely with brain and heart. His mind struggled with all the problems of life. He was fond of analyzing his own sickness. "Since I have been sick," he wrote in his memoirs, "I have had occasion to reflect upon the multitudinous phases that exist in the nervous system of the hu- man body and the multitudinous ways in which these may get out of order. A life that is strenuous, but not the best balanced for exercise and recreation, is liable to lead to a sort of general breakdown of the nervous system. I have been astonished to see how many people suffer from general debility, or break- down. In most of the cases the mind does not give way at all, but is handicapped with a weakened body. The probabilities are that at the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon's energies and vital forces had been simply overstrained; and, therefore, he lost the Battle of Waterloo. While he was on the Island of St. Helena, his vital energy seemed to be low. He was many times peevish and fretful, which is nothing but a general breakdown of one of the phases of the ner- vous system, due to overwork and over-exertion and not sleeping enough and not rest enough. "The doctors don't seem to study these sort of cases as they ought to. The average doctor knows what to do if you have snake bite or smallpox, but in the case of a complicated nervous trouble they don't seem to try much to diagnose the case. This re- mark must not be construed as making light of the doctors. It is simply that they have no way of know- ing how the weariness of the body may become in- capable of taking care of the activities of the mind; and, therefore, the mind becomes crippled and can- not get its ideas executed. It seems to me the X. 398 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH remedy is wholly Nature's remedy. The primitive man is building up mental and physical strength, which are wasted in the process of civilization. The only way to recuperate them is for a man to go into the mountains or a cool Northern climate, and return to the primitive life, as it were. Even in this situa- tion the process is very slow. The greatest difficulty is for the man himself to get his own consent to pull himself loose from his life ties and life activities, and return to the simple life away from civilization. Someone has said, *0h, for a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where wars and rumors of wars could never reach me more.' "This describes a sort of retirement that a man has got to enter upon. The feeling of many a man is that this is such a revolution he might as well continue the old way, and die, rather than enter upon retirement, and lengthen out a useless life." A useless life! Nothing could be more repugnant and more impossible to Tompkins. He preferred to die in the harness. Unable to walk, he dictated to his stenographer newspaper editorials, comments, and criticisms on every subject of interest to hu- manity. The following are samples of the topics he discussed in various newspaper articles during his invalidism: Panama Canal Tolls, Morris Plan of Banking, Harry Thaw, Life Insurance, Ulster and Irish Home Rule, Mexico, Rural Credits, Cotton Planting and Marketing, Diamonds, Tuberculosis in North Carolina, Boy and Farm, Export Trade, Women as Mechanics, Building and Loan Associa- tions, Sand Clay Roads, School Declamations, Philip- pine Independence, Lynching, Merchant Marine, Parcel Post, System of Taxation, N. C. Constitu- SUMMARY OF LIFE 399 tional Amendments, Recent Books, Freight Rates, Initiative and Referendum, The Tariff, Good Cook- ing, Immigration, Cotton Pickers. He was deeply interested in current events, es- pecially the national elections, the amendments to the North Carolina State Constitution and con- gressional and state legislation. His interest in life never flagged. He still longed to make contribu- tions to human knowledge, power, and happiness. Even his own illness was occasion and material for studying the mystery of human thought and human conscience : "The reason that I cannot walk is not that the strength of my limbs gives out, but there is a sort of backward charge, apparently, over the nervous sys- tem to the brain. In other words, the nervous fluid, whatever it is that is sent out by the brain, does not reach the muscles of the limbs in full force, but surges back to its origin in the brain; and the limb refuses to move. A cloud may be heavily charged with lightning by some means which nobody yet knows. Such a charge can induce another charge in an adjacent cloud, or on a wire more or less adja- cent. "Nature seems to be full of forces that we don't understand; the forces of love and hate amongst others. The mind has a faculty of selecting these forces and binding them together in such quantities as seem fit. Or selecting them as between good and evil. Herein is where the Creator has made the individual responsible. As there are twenty-six letters in the alphabet which by multiplicity of arrangement can be made to mean a multiplicity of different things, so a multiplicity of forces in Nature and in the brain may be capable of producing 400 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH mental or psychic combinations that give direction to each individual life. It occurs to me that there might be millions, or even an infinite number, of such forces; and that possibly the human mind might be endowed with ability to select such thoughts as constitute any ordinary motive. In fact, other animals as well as man may be so endowed, with or without the volition to select. If there is such an endowment in man, a proper exercise of it is what constitutes the responsibility of the Christian religion and human life." The deep problems of life impressed Tompkins more and more as physical activities ceased to employ his mind. He was not a church member, although he had always been active and generous in helping to build and support churches. "He was not a church goer," says Miss Twelvetrees, "but thought it good for others to go. He was fond of saying that he was doing work which the church did not do. He believed in the principles of the Bible, and during his last years he gave more outward expression and inter- est in talking of and the study of the Bible. It was read aloud daily around his family table at Mon- treat." Among his favorite guests at Montreat were two fc41ow workers on the Charlotte Observer^ Howard A. Banks and H. E. C. Bryant. The latter, at this time Washington correspondent of the New York World and also of the Charlotte Observer, shared with Tompkins the pleasures not only of friendly reminiscence and philosophic meditation, but also the undercurrent of news in the national capitol and the newspaper world, not omitting the choicest gossip and brightest stories. Tompkins loved Bryant and his family almost as his own kindred. Howard A. SUMMARY OF LIFE 401 Banks, now associate editor of the Philadelphia Sunday School Times, was also very near and dear. His last visit to Montreat, two months before the death of Tompkins, was followed by a friendly letter containing an appeal for a confession of Christian faith: *'I have been intending before this to drop you a line to thank you for your delightful hospitality and for the opportunity to become acquainted with the lovely women of your household. I cannot close without saying (and I hope you will not consider me bold nor impertinent) that I trust you are putting your faith in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who only can save us from our sins through His atone- ment accomplished on the Cross. "I know you have always had the highest respect for genuine Christianity, but I never heard you say that you were on the safe side of the line yourself. K you are, no harm can come from my writing this; if you are not, I trust you will, by the act of the will, take the easy step over the line and get the all-need- ful vision of 'The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.' Forgive one who has learned so much from you, to say this much." The following reply was made by Tompkins about a month before his death : "My Dear Banks: I have not intended to neglect your kind letter referring to my spiritual con- dition. I have never been unmindful of the Creator, nor of His omniscience or omnipotence. For good reason He has withheld from mankind a full knowl- edge of the mysteries of His divinity, but for the benefit of mankind Christ intervened and atoned for some of these deficiencies. Through Him and by faith we may or may not, according as we make an effort, be allowed ultimately to participate in the per- 402 A BUILDER OF THE NEW SOUTH feet plans of the Creator. I know that I have not done the best that I might have done, but with the knowledge of Christ's atonement and with simple faith, my mind and heart are put at rest on the sub- ject of the future." His paralysis now began to extend over the body, and soon reached the brain. The end came with- out pain or struggle at noon of October 18, 1914. On his death there came from the North voices of sorrow and admiration. The Northern estimate of him was expressed in a message from the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers, through the secretary: "We had come to regard him in the in- dustrial world as the foremost citizen of the South." The judgment of the South had already been ex- pressed two years before by the Manufacturers* Record: "During the last twenty -five years the South has had many great leaders in business, in finance, in educat'onal work, in newspaper control, but in all the list — and a long one it is of men who have proved themselves giants indeed — there has not appeared a greater or more unique character, or one who has done a vaster amount of work for right thinking and right training and right development on broad and safe lines, as opposed to speculative opera- tions, than D. A. Tompkins." As a little white master during the days of slavery he had wandered with negro companions through the big woods and played in the cotton fields and slave cabins. He had listened to the stories of Uncle Remus, and slept in the arms of a negro mammy. The memory of it all thrilled him with tenderest emotions. But he lived to rejoice in the overthrow of slavery and secession, to champion ship subsidies and pro- SUMMARY OF LIFE 40S tective tariffs, to dethrone King Cotton from the fields and enthrone him in the mills. He raised liis native State and his adopted State to first and second rank respectively in the number of cotton-manufacturing establishments among the states of the American Union. He was known as a missionary of cotton, but his tireless energy and versatility, his broad vision and universal sympathy made him speaker, writer, or worker in every field of industrial activity. He built a New South — of mills and factories, of skilled labor and machinery, of diversified and intensified agriculture, of improved railways and highways, of savings banks and building and loan associations — a New South also of public schools, technical colleges, and expanding universities, of in- dependent journaHsm and independent thought — a New South of universal education and democracy. THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N. Y. UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00032703325 FOR USE ONLY IN THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECT: Fr^rr.,