State

The South’s City ol Spindles located in (lie very 1ньаг I of flic textile in¬ dustry in lliis purl of flic country, Gastonia lias every right to lie proud of the splendid progress that it lias made. YOU drive through paved streets and observe handsome brick schools and churches; attrac¬ tive. "homey" residences with tall shade trees brushing their roofs: velvety lawns and well tended flower gardens. . . . You sec the playgrounds teeming with chil¬ dren. the swimming pools, the popular tennis courts, and the golf courses. In the business district there's a characteristic hustle, the usual uickened tempo of a modern in- ustrial city. . . . You visit the great industrial plants where ma¬ chinery hums night and day. and as the work-shift changes you watch while thousands of workers pour from the doors. It seems incredible that only fifty years ago this industrially important city was just a tiny cross-roads settlement. You think it must have been something like a miracle that transformed a back- woods county — tagged in the 1850’s as the banner whiskey¬ making county of the Carolines — into a world-famous manufactur¬ ing center. By STEWART ATHENS Where liquor stills stood, there are now churches and schools and industrial plants. . . . Rutted im¬ passable roads are now shining ribbons of concrete linking Gaston with the nation's thickly populated consuming areas. . . . Enormous hydro-electric plants distribute power for home and industrial use. . . . And towns and villages are strung out along the highways like a strand of beads. All of this would never have come about if the natives had waited for prosperity to come knocking at their door. . . . They recognized that the county had rich natural resources, vast quanti¬ ties of raw materials, and an abundance of electric power; that the native-born labor was intelli¬ gent and dependable and the cli¬ mate ideal for year-round produc¬ tion. They simply added the enterprise and capital needed to establish industrial leadership. You realize what amazing prog¬ ress the city has made when you learn that within Greater Gas¬ tonia's limits there are 60 textile plants and many smaller diversi¬ fied industries. Today Gaston County has 143 textile plants and at least 100 other plants — some contributing to the needs of a well balanced, self con¬ tained community; others distrib¬ uting their products far and wide. Textile machinery, for instance, is exported to almost every foreign country on the globe. This rela¬ tively small county manufactures 80 per cent of all the fine combed cotton yarn made in America and is known the world over as "The Combed Yarn Center of America." The annual industrial payroll in Gaston County exceeds 65* million dollars and the value of manufac¬ tured products is estimated at 200 million dollars annually. In Gaston County and Gastonia there is a growing diversification and today the community’s list of manufactured products is long and varied; Carded and combed cotton, synthetic and worsted yarns, silk and rayon throwing, rope and twine, winding, twisting and ball¬ ing, hosiery, shoe laces, knit goods, woven labels, tire fabric, florist ribbon, sewing thread, banding, tubing, house dresses, motor oil- filters, mattresses, upholstered furniture, esnaburg. shirting and broadcloth, chenille bedspreads, bathrobes, mats, print cloth, sheet¬ ings. army twills and gabardines, damask, processed cotton waste, ginghams, piques, seersuckers, sateen, crepe, taffeta, voile, blend¬ ed fabrics, brooms, cement blocks and miscellaneous cement building materials, clay brick, ornamental steel, gears, drives, castings, comb¬ er reneedling, textile brushes, card clothing, roller covering, ring travelers, weavers' knotters, skew¬ ers. sheet metal products, clearers for textile mills, leather belting, textile aprons, roller varnish, dye¬ ing machinery, warpers, slashers, beams, creels, and other textile machinery and parts, lumber and millwork. bread and other food products, business forms, chemi- COCKER MACHINE AND FOUNDRY CO. ★ World's Larues! Designers <iii(l Builtlers of COMPLETE WARP PREPARATORY EQUIPMENT Gastonia : : : : North Carolina THE STATE. DECEMBER 4. 1948