This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX Augusta, Georgia--Municipal power canal--The King Mill labour dispute--A well-informed Baptist minister--His version of the quarrel--Character of the operatives--Visit to a strike commissary--The men's version--A determined resistance--The plan of campaign--Camping out by the Savannah River--The end of the strike--Work and wages at Augusta and the Horse Creek--The Enterprise Mill--Insurance and taxes--Raw material and freight. AUGUSTA, just within the borders of Georgia, and sixty or seventy miles south-west of Columbia, is one of the oldest and most considerable seats of the Cotton manufacture in the South. The city was founded beside the falls of the Savannah River in 1735, and it is mainly to the power of these falls that it owes its nine cotton mills and the comparative prosperity of its 40,000 inhabitants. The construction of the Augusta power canal was begun by the city in 1845, and its enlargement was completed in 1875. Fourteen or fifteen thousand horse-power are developed and sold to the industrial establishments of the city at %sY DEGREES (22s. 1 1d.) per horse-power per annum, a rate which is said to be the lowest in the United States. The nine mills within the boundary of Augusta contain 193,000 spindles and 5,650 looms, the largest being the King Mill, with 60,384 spindles and 1,812 looms, engaged in the manufacture of sheetings, shirtings, and drills. The other mills make, in addition, ducks, checks, plaids, batting, waste, and yarn. A few miles from Augusta, in a district of South Carolina called the Horse Creek, are five other mills with 154,500 spindles and 4,674 looms, making drills, sheetings, shirtings, and print-cloth. At Clearwater, about three miles from Augusta, a bleachworks with a capital of about.