Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/649

 SOUTHERN COTTON-MILL COMMUNITIES 629

caprices of dress that her little Vanity Fair may flaunt, while the father and brother can scarcely tell whither their dollars speed on such swift wings.

Yet this wastefulness, too, is but a phase, destined to grad- ual elimination in the evolution of the process by which an agricultural people are converted into a manufacturing class. With all their illiteracy, they are not devoid of understanding ; and when a certain bewilderment of these early years is past, it will be borne in upon them in countless ways, by their school privileges, their larger experience, their clearer views of the outside world by their own innate manhood, indeed that there are far other uses for hard-earned money than to be lavished on mere food and clothing and shelter. Many of them are already opening their eyes to the fact that for an abundance of things to eat and wear they have bartered a certain independ- ence and manliness which are fostered by agricultural pursuits, even the lowliest, and which breed sturdier virtues than they can now transmit to their children. Awakening perceptions such as these will lead to different results : to a rescinding of extrava- gance always ; often to a return to the farm ; but far oftener to a steadfast purpose to work straight on where they are, saving every cent possible to educate the coming generation and set their feet in the path that leads to freedom.

How can they save money? clamor those who have been studying the comparative wage-scale of northern and southern factories without acquaintance with the actual conditions of the latter. By reasonable economy, is the answer here as elsewhere. From $20 to $30 per month is paid good weavers throughout this section, while the average spinner draws from $10 to $16; and these are regarded as good living wages in a country where the prices of necessaries range much lower than in the East or the West. Houses are to be heated only about four months of the year, and fuel is cheap, in many places less than $ 1.50 per cord for wood and $2 to $4 per ton for coal. Clothing costs far less in this warm climate than in a cold one. Farm and gar- den supplies are bought for what seems to the northern mind an absurdly low price, and dairy products are never high. Besides,