New Hemp Mill Promises to Keep Welfare of Entire Community in Mind, 1924

“Hemp Cotton Mill Will Soon Start” from the Friday, October 31, 1924, issue of The Pilot, Vass, N.C.

One of the Most Modern Plants…To Make Fine Goods

The new cotton mill at Hemp will be in shape to start by the beginning of the new year if not sooner. Machinery is rapidly getting into place, and finishing touches are put on here and there every day. In a short time one of the most modern plants of its kind will be in operation, and it will turn out a fine grade of woven goods.

The mill is about an acre in size on the floor, one story high. It will be a weaving mill, making the finer voiles and similar goods. It is setting in place 300 loams, and the necessary equipment to operate them. The building is in the form of a square, with lights from all sides and from the top. 

Automatic sprinkling arrangements in the latest pattern takes care of fire risk and other demand that may be made for water in any form or any quantity. Power comes from the lines of the Carolina Power Company, with the driving machinery of ample capacity. The design of the mill was to utilize the most efficient machinery and to get the best results.

 The looms are of the most modern pattern and are set in blocks in such a way that every facility for labor saving accomplishment is possible. Every time a pound of material moves from the receiving door of the factory it will be moving in a direction it should go until it is in the packing cases in the form of finished product ready to be loaded on the cars at the railroad siding by the door of the mill.

In building this mill the company has not only planned for an efficient and modern mill, but has considered the comfort of the operatives who will be employed. Health conditions have been regarded as much as productive capacity. A number of houses are built about the mill, and more will be built as the demand requires, and the houses are designed for the comfort and happiness of the mill force. Much work remains to be done in establishing the mill village, and much dependence necessarily will be placed on the accommodations afforded by the village of Hemp adjoining the mill property, for the cotton proposition is a community development as well as an industrial promotion. 

The mill will always keep in mind the welfare of the entire community, and carry on in a way that the original town and the new addition may be in harmony and mutually beneficial.