Mr. ROBERTS. Oh, yes; it takes a pretty big concern to do that. Senator ROBINSON. The ordinary mill is not run on that basis? Mr. ROBERTS. In a way it is.

Senator LIPPITT. I would like to ask if that is not the whole tendency to provide those sort of things?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes; and I will be frank enough to say it is to the interest of the owners.

Senator LIPPITT. Is it not done more and more absolutely voluntarily by the owners of the mill?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, because it pays them to do it.

Senator LIPPITT. Not only in the South, but in Illinois?

Mr. ROBERTS. I do not know about the North, but they are doing it a great deal in the South.

Senator ROBINSON. A mill which only employs 100 persons could not maintain those facilities for amusement; and it could only be a mill where the output was so great and the number of persons employed so great that it would justify an expenditure of that sort; a small mill could not do it; and they do not do it, do they? Mr. ROBERTS. In effect, they do.

Senator ROBINSON. What do you mean by "in effect"?

Mr. ROBERTS. We do everything in the world that we possibly can to help their condition.

Senator ROBINSON. Have you got a swimming pool in your mill? Mr. ROBERTS. No, sir.

Senator THOMPSON. Have you got a gymnasium?

Mr. ROBERTS. No; we have a playground.

Senator ROBINSON. Do you have a baseball team among your workers?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes; they have a baseball team, and they play baseball while the work is going on. You can see it there any time. you go.

Senator ROBINSON. How long have you been in the business?
Mr. ROBERTS. Ten years.

Senator ROBINSON. Do you keep any statistics as to the health, the number of accidents, and number of deaths among your employees? Mr. ROBERTS. We dealt with that as to accidents here at some length.

Senator ROBINSON. You have already stated that?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir.

Senator ROBINSON. All right.

Mr. ROBERTS. But, as to the vital statistics, we have kept none; but in the 10 years that I have been there I can truthfully say there has been no death of any child over 5 or under 21 from any cause. Senator ROBINSON. Not one?

Mr. ROBERTS. Not one over 5 or under 21. There may have been some infants and some older persons.

Senator LIPPITT. You mean no deaths?

Mr. ROBERTS. In the village.

Senator LIPPITT. Nobody has died between 5 and 21 years of age? Mr. ROBERTS. Not in the 10 years I have had it.

Senator LIPPITT. I guess we all had better go and live there. Senator THOMPSON. I thought you said between 5 and 21 years of age?

Mr. ROBERTS. So I did.

Senator LIPPITT. He said between 5 and 21 years in that village in 10 years.

Mr. ROBERTS. In the 10 years I have been there. I can see nothing remarkable about that statement.

Senator ROBINSON. Then you have never had a child employee of the mill to die since you have been operating it?

Mr. ROBERTS. Not one.

Senator ROBINSON. Do you know of any cases of tuberculosis among your people.

Mr. ROBERTS. Not one.

Senator THOMPSON. Have you had any severe injuries in the plant-accidents?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes; one. A boy of 19 had his hand seriously injured in our card room four or five years ago.

Senator ROBINSON. About how many children, all told, have you had employed during that 10 years? I want to find the value of that statement that there has been no mortality whatever among them during 10 years. You say you have approximately a dozen now?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes.

Senator LIPPITT. How many people have you in your mill to-day below 21 years of age, approximately-75?

Mr. ROBERTS. I should say 50 of them.

Senator LIPPITT. One-half of them?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir; just about.

Senator LIPPITT. What number of yarn do you spin?

Mr. ROBERTS. Twelve to twenty-four on the cones knitting.
Senator LIPPITT. Do you export it?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir; try to.

Senator LIPPITT. Where to?

Mr. ROBERTS. I have only made one shipment; it went to South America since the war.

Senator LIPPITT. But before the war you were not in the habit of exporting?

Mr. ROBERTS. No, sir. I am very glad you spoke of that also, as I have no doubt that if this law goes into effect and children under 16 years of age are excluded, which they will be, gentlemen, that I shall suffer from the competition of foreign-made goods. I think we are going to suffer, anyhow.

In this particular it might: I would like to have a fair fight with them. I do not want them to have any particular advantage over me. Gentlemen, I think I have about covered the situation, if there are not some questions you would like to ask me.

Mr. KITCHIN. I will now introduce Mr. J. M. Davis, from Newberry, S. C.

STATEMENT OF MR. J. M. DAVIS, SUPERINTENDENT NEWBERRY COTTON MILLS, NEWBERRY, S. C.

The CHAIRMAN. Please state your name, occupation, and residence. Mr. DAVIS. My name is J. M. Davis. I am superintendent of the Newberry cotton mill, Newberry, S. C.; age 44.

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Gentlemen, I assume I am the practical end of this corps of wit

nesses.

I have been in the cotton-mill business 30 years. I went into it when I was 13 years old, and I have read a good deal in these investigations before Congress about the "widow," and I have noticed the expression on the faces of those present whenever the widow is mentioned; they would smile; but I want to tell you, gentlemenI made up my mind not to mention the widow question-I feel this way about it: I am the son of a widow. My father died when I was 2 years old, and I have a sister one year younger than myself, and I went into the mill when I was 13 years old. I have charge of the Newberry Cotton Mill, and have had charge of that mill for 15 years, and I want to call your attention to a few things in connection with this bill. In the first place, I want to try to make it clear to you what is required of children in a cotton mill. I think that is something that would be vital. The question of ring spinning has been brought up here at this meeting time and again. So I have a ring with me. [Exhibiting ring to the committee.] Spinning and doffing is the work that the children do in the cotton mill. spinners are the girls, and it is their duty to keep these threads [illustrating] in running order. This ring is fastened onto a rail the length of the spinning frame, and this thread is passed under a traveler. I have quite a number on that ring, but they only use one traveler to each ring. This thread is passed under the traveler and placed on rolls delivered to this bobbin. That is the kind of work that a spinner will do.

The

The stock is being delivered through these rolls, and if this thread is not running is broken down-that stock is coming through just as well, but it is not spinning. Therefore it takes an expert to be enabled to connect this thread with the stock coming through and at the same time not allow it to break down. The doffer's-the boy's duties require him to take these full bobbins off and place empty ones on this spindle; and he does not have to do that except when they get filled up. When they get full is when they doff. They work just about one-half the time.

My mill is a coarse mill; it is a large mill; it is, perhaps, one of the best mills-I am not going to tell you gentlemen it is not; I believe it is; naturally, I do. I have been there 30 years and I have had charge of it 15, and I would be ashamed of it if I did not think it was one of the best.

We have facilities for the improvement of our people not found in all mills; but I want to call your attention to this fact: The very fact that we have them indicates the attitude of the management toward the help. If the management-the corporation-the concern. that is worth $1,000,000, working 700 people, looking at it from a cold business standpoint-viewed those people as machines and nothing except machines, to acquire the greatest amount of production in the smallest possible time, do you suppose that they would have expended thousands of dollars for the purpose of improving these people?

Naturally, we have none of the children here that this law wil affect to exhibit, and I do not know whether you would be interested in seeing the photograph of them or not. When I was asked to come

here on Saturday morning-we closed down at noontime, just the same as other mills in the South-about 8 o'clock, and I conceived the idea of presenting to you gentlemen a photograph of the children. I had in the mill that this law would apply to-and I have 78, to be absolutely correct. I made an effort to get every one of those children in four groups. I succeeded in getting 43 of them, in groups of 13 years, 14 years, 15 years, and up to 16 years. I would be very glad if you gentlemen would like to see these photographs.

(At this point Mr. Davis produced four photographs, which were examined by the members of the committee.)

Senator THOMPSON. You say you have 78 children?

Mr. DAVIS. I have 78, but I only succeeded in getting 43 photographed at that late hour.

I have indicated on those photographs by cross mark the children who have come from the country in the last three years. A large percentage of my people have been with me for many, many years. In fact, recently I investigated and found 37 families that have been connected with our mill for 35 years continuously. At the same time we get some country people every year, and we have some people who move to the farm occasionally. Those are the photographs of actual children working in the very cotton mill I am superintendent of. The ages are indicated on the back of the photograph.

Senator ROBINSON. Are these pictures taken in the clothing worn when at work?

Mr. DAVIS. They were not; they were taken on Saturday afternoon. Senator ROBINSON. A holiday?

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir. In fact, those people would not want their pictures taken that way any more than any one else.

Senator ROBINSON. I understand that.

Mr. DAVIS. They have a certain amount of pride. It is not necessary to wear fine clothing in a cotton mill; in fact, it is expensive and absolutely unnecessary.

Senator POINDEXTER. These cross marks indicate one coming from the country within what period?

Mr. DAVIS. Three years. There is one in particular I want to call your attention to. I think it is in the thirteenth year, which has two cross marks.

Senator THOMPSON. A girl?

Senator POINDEXTER. Fifteenth, I think, is it not?

Mr. DAVIS. Look at the thirteenth.

Senator POINDEXTER. Here is one with two cross marks [indicating].

Mr. DAVIS. That is it. I would like to tell you about that boy and his father.

Senator THOMPSON. This is the boy here [indicating]?

Mr. DAVIS. The father of that boy came into my office about the middle of November.

Senator POINDEXTER. This last November?

Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir. He asked me for a position. I told him that I was filled up; I did not have any; could not put him on. He came back December 1st and asked me to find him a place. I told him I was filled up; I could not find him any place; I had absolutely no empty house in the entire village.

On December 10 I came into my office and found Mr. and Mrs. Mills sitting there. The father of this boy is about 50 years old; his wife is about 45, I should judge, and she said to me:

Mr. Davis, Mr. Mills has returned from your place two different times reporting that he was unable to secure work. I have come now to tell you that we must have work. I do not want you to tell me that there is no room vacant in your village that you can give us, because it is a matter of desperate necessity. We live 20 miles out here in the country. We have almost nothing in the home; no clothes; and we are on the point of starvation.

Gentlemen, it would be of no interest to me to stand here and tell you that unless it was true, absolutely. The man and his wife and children are at my place to-day.

I told that woman: "I will provide a place for you. Come."

In three days she came in, and in the meantime I had secured a three-room cottage for them. She said:

Mr. Davis, if you find another family in bad shape as we are, and have no empty house in which to put them, you let me know it and I will make arrangements to let them have one room of my home, because I feel that if there is another family in this whole community in such straits as we are, that somebody ought to take them in.

To-day that family is with me. That father has two sons, one in his fifteenth year; and the reason I did not get his picture is because he was off with the Boy Scouts. We have the Boy Scouts there in our mill village, and I would have secured quite a number of other boys for the picture, but they were off on a hike, and I was unable to get them. They had already made the arrangements to go when I conceived the idea of getting the photographs. That son there [indicating on photograph] is making 50 cents a day, his brother $1, and the old gentleman $1; making $2.50, or $63.50 a month, and they are paying $1.50 house rent.

Senator POINDEXTER. $1.50 a month?

Mr. DAVIS. $1.50 a month; and he feels richer to-day, perhaps, than any of us, because he was right at the place where he felt, and his wife did, too, that they were in a desperate condition.

I am not telling you gentlemen that this is universal in our community; no. But I tell you this, that in the past 10 or 15 years I have had charge of the Newberry Cotton Mill, I have got more pleasure out of doing things for other people along that line than I have in operating the mill. There is an obligation, gentlemen, that we are under to humanity. Whenever we bring a crowd of people together in close proximity we are responsible not only for the character of the employment, but we are responsible for the environments of those people. We provide the homes; we design the homes; we select the lots and the size of the lots; we provide the sanitary conditions; and we are responsible, to a large extent, for the entire environment which surrounds these people. If I had to operate a cotton mill on a pure, cold-blooded business basis, just simply to make money for the stockholders--and that is the primary object, of course, and that is one of my duties-if I had to do that just from a sordid business viewpoint, I would resign to-day. But it carries with it the humane thought of being able to do something for others that are unable to do for themselves.

We have at Newberry Cotton Mill a good mill, and we have provided for our people.