USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: North Carolina biography, Volume IV > Part 5
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
in turn answered the call of death, the great Cone industries were left to the administrative skill and experience of his brothers, Bernard and Julius, and his oldest son, Herman Cone.
Estimating his place in southern cotton manu- facturing, a writer in the Wool and Cotton Re- porter said: "Ceasar Cone was the largest denim manufacturer in the world. It has been currently reported that oue-third of all the denims of the world are manufactured in the White Oak, Prox- imity and Revolution Mills at Greensboro. . . . Ceasar Cone was a salesman, a merchant. Per- haps his greatest work was not his manufactur- ing plants, extensive though they were, but his merchandising projects. The Cone Export and Commission Company has been of great value not only to southern mills but to the industry as a whole. A considerable number of cotton mills not owned and not controlled by the Cone family merchandise their goods through the Cone commission house. To a very large extent, the outside mills who sell through this commission house depended upon the Cone Export and Com- mission Compauy for many years, and upon Ceasar Cone himself to a very great extent, not only for the distribution of their products but for the financing of their mills, for the money with which raw materials were purchased, for the money that met the pay roll on every pay day. No commission house has ever attained a higher reputation than this one, not only in the trade and with its competitors but with the finan- cial authorities of downtown New York. And the policy of the Cone Commission House was the policy of Ceasar Cone. Its merchandising activities and ability, its financial guidance, its ethics, all rested upon him."
The late Ceasar Cone expressed the best ele- ments of his life and character in his devotion to his great mills at Greensboro and to the gen- eral civic welfare of that community. He served as president of the Greensboro Chamber of Com- merce, president of the American Cotton Manu- facturers Association, aud he and his family were identified with practically every large wel- fare movement in the city. His brother, Moses Cone, gave a large portion of his estate to build a hospital at Greensboro. One of the last acts of Ceasar Cone was offering a large sum to be used for the proposed Guilford County Tubercu- losis Sanitarium.
Many writers have commented upon the exten- sive welfare program planned and carried out in the mill villages of the great Cone Mills. The proper point of view in regarding the material and social conditions prevailing in these mill vil- lages is not how far they measure up to the most ideal theoretical standard, but how far they bring the inhabitants above the planc of exist- ence in moral and physical comforts which the people had enjoyed before they became factors in the mill communities. It has been pointed out and is a well-known fact that most of the manufacturing centers of the South are recruited from the poor and backward hill sections, where the people representing an undiluted strain of Anglo-Saxon stock have lived for generations out of touch with modern schools, religious privileges, and most of those comforts and attractions which go to make up the wholesomeness of Amer- ican life.
A writer describing the welfare work of the Cone mill villages says: "The manufacturers
with whom Ceasar Cone was always a leader fur- nished the place to work and a fair profit in wages, furnished comfortable homes in which the operatives lived, supplied the schools in which the children are educated, saw to it that the school teachers were efficient, supplied the churches and preachers according to the religious trend of the mill workers, furnished the mill hos- pital so that the mill village doctors could sat- isfactorily take care of the health of the workers' families. In fact, these manufacturers have made it a part of their business to insure more than a living to the men and women who are working with them. The Coue mills at Greens- boro are not typical of the industry-they are larger and better and more profitable than the average. The mill villages and the advantages of mill village life at Greensboro are not typical of the textile manufacturing industry. The cot- tages are better than the average; so are the educational and health and living couditions. In the villages at the Proximity and White Oak and Revolution cotton mills there are perhaps 8,000 or 9,000 people who are wholly dependent upon the past and present and future work in these Cone mills for their livelihood, the education of their children, for the savings that will take care of them in their declining years-in fact, for all, their financial, social and religious advantages."
One of Ceasar Cone's last public appearances was as one of the principal speakers on the pro- gram of the St. Louis convention of the Na- tional Association of Garment Manufacturers in the fall of 1916. A more concise description of his high standing in the textile industries it would be difficult to imagine that the brief sentences the president of the convention used in introducing Mr. Cone. He said: "It is my privilege and great pleasure to introduce to you a gentleman known personally to many of you and by reputation to all of us. This gentleman stands so highly in his profession that he speaks with that authority that one who knows always commands. Long years of fair dealing and fair play have made this gentleman dear to many of us. I may say that all of us stand ready at all times to render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's. It is with pleasure that I introduce Mr. Ceasar Cone of America. "'
In 1894 Mr. Cone married Miss Jeanette Siegel, a lady of rare gifts and attainments, who survives him. They had three sons: Herman, Benjamin and Ceasar Cone.
MOSES H. CONE. The career of the late Moses H. Cone was so intimately associated with that of his brother Ceasar Cone in the building and operation of the great mills around Greensboro that no special comment on his business achieve- ments is required to supplement what is said in the sketch of his brother published elsewhere. The following paragraph is a brief recital of the main facts of his personal history.
He was born at Jonesboro, Tennessee, son of Herman and Helen (Guggenheimer) Cone, both of whom were natives of Bavaria. He was one of thirteen children and acquired a fair education in his youth, and was identified with his father in the wholesale grocery business at Baltimore for a number of years. In 1890 he was the primary factor in organizing the Cone Export and Commis- sion Company, which made contracts with many of the largest cotton mills in the South to handle their products. In 1895 Moses Cone and his
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
brother Ceasar bought large tracts of land ad,ja- cent to Greensboro and successively erected the Proximity, Revolution and White Oak Mills. He and his brother also put into operation the Southern Finishing Mill, the first institution of its kind in the South. Incidentally it may be stated that through the operations of these brothers Greensboro took a new lease of industrial pros- perity and from that time forward its strides as a southern industrial center have taken it to a foremost position among the .cities of North Carolina.
Though never a resident of Greensboro, Moses Cone was well known in the city and his work and influence have been vital factors in the state as a whole. About 1900 he bought a large tract of land near Blowing Rock, and there built the palatial home which he loved so well and which was the scene of his last days. The Blowing Rock estate is a wonderfully interesting place and under his direction large areas of vineyard and orchard were developed. In that home Moses H. Cone died De- cember 8, 1908. He married Bertha Lindau, who survives him.
THOMAS HENRY BRIGGS. The character of the men of a community may be correctly gauged by the standing of its business houses whose growth has been stimulated by intelligent and progressive methods, or held back by lack of proper develop- ment. No city can attain its highest standard lacking the co-operation of its citizens in all lines in giving honest service for value received. The real progressive and helpful men of a community may be counted upon to promulgate and support worthy measures looking toward the securing for their community of solid improvements; they are to be found actively engaged in church labors; they give a solidity to commercial organizations, and when the need arises contribute liberally toward charities. Judging from all these standards, the City of Raleigh is fortunate in the possession of such sterling citizens as Thomas Henry Briggs, who ' has been identified with the commercial life of the city since 1870, and who, during his long career, has labored faithfully in church move- ments, has maintained a high standard in his commercial relations, and has consistently and continuously worked in behalf of better education, better morality and better citizenship.
Mr. Briggs belongs to one of the oldest families of Raleigh, his grandparents, John Joyner and Elizabeth (Utley) Briggs, having been among the founders of the city in 1792. He was born Septem- ber 9, 1847, and is the eldest son of Thomas Henry and Evelina (Norwood) Briggs, and secured good educational advantages in his youth, attending the celebrated school of Mrs. James F. Taylor, Love- joy Academy and Wake Forest College, from which he was graduated in 1870. In that year began his connection with the commercial life of Raleigh, an association that has continued throughout a period of more than forty-eight years. Mr. Briggs has been engaged in the wholesale and retail hardware business and interested in various other industrial, commercial and financial enterprises of the community, and at the present time is a direc- tor in the Commercial National Bank, of which he was one of the organizers, and the Wake County Savings Bank.
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As a supporter of the cause of education, Mr. Briggs has served as school committeeman for Raleigh Township as trustee for the Agricultural
and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, at Greensboro, North Carolina, during the adminis- tration of Governor Elias Carr, and for twenty- five years as treasurer of Wake Forest College. On his resignation from the last-named position he was elected a member of the board of trustees of that institution, and still holds that position. He is also president of the board of directors of the Raleigh Cemetery Association. John Joyner Briggs was one of the organizers of the First Bap- tist Church of Raleigh, hence Thomas Henry Briggs is the third generation of the family in this church, whose successive pastors have had no hesitancy in calling upon him for aid in forward- ing the work of the organization. He is otherwise closely identified with the religious life of the city and with mission interests, both home and foreign, and is recognized as one of the state's leading Sunday school workers; his efforts being directed particularly in the training of boys and youths. Mr. Briggs is known and honored in the commun- ity as a man above reproach, of integrity and of high Christian character.
On October 21, 1874, Mr. Briggs was married to Miss Sarah Grandy, daughter of Willis Sawyer and Elizabeth (Ferebee) Grandy, then living at Oxford, North Carolina.
THOMAS WALTER BICKETT. In every state and country friends of enlightened progress in politics, those who are prayerfully and hopefully looking and struggling for the light while occasionally admitting doubt and cynicism over ineptitude and selfishness, must find encouragement in what has been achieved so far during the administration of Thomas Walter Bickett as governor of North Caro- lina. While it is too soon to measure and estimate ultimate effects and results, it can be confidently asserted that as a rational program now in progress of fulfillment no state in the Union can present a record that is more completely an expression of political wisdom and practical idealism.
Since he became governor, Mr. Bickett has truly demonstrated leadership which leads. While at every point it has been democratic leadership. He has compelled attention and has gained support for his proposals through the cogency of clear and sincere presentation. It may be ventured that no public paper relating to the state of affairs in North Carolina has been more widely read and will be more frequently referred to in the years to come than the inaugural address of Governor Bickett. It is a wonderful appeal to the spirit of progress, to constructive co-operative endeavor and to that unselfishness which makes the interest of the many superior to the interest of the few. It would be no disparagement of those who loyally co-operated with Governor Bickett in carrying out his plans to assert that the clear and forceful man- ner in which he presented the different items of his program quickened and vitalized popular support all over the state, so that the results in formal legislation were almost inevitable. Someone has well said that Governor Bickett 's inaugural address delivered in January, 1917, was his platform, and that in January, 1918, though he had been in of- fice only a year the address had become his record.
Considered either as literary or as a political document the most notable feature of the inaugural address was the specific and direct language in which the various propositions were outlined, and the almost total absence of generalization and rhetoric. The address falls into two parts. The
Vol. IV-2
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
first is an outline of nine measures, all directed to the improvement of rural life: Assisting the tenant to become a landlord by constitutional amendment exempting taxation notes and mort- gages given for the purchase price of a home; the conserving of fertility and the regeneration of the soil; legislation to relieve the farmer of the evils of the crop lien; development of the water powers of the state; establishment and extension of rural telephone systems; making the schoolhouse the so- cial as well as the educational center of rural com- munities; maintenance as well as construction of good highways; constitutional amendment requir- ing a fixed school term throughout the state; and incorporation of rural communities. Governor Bickett in addition to these nine measures urged a uniform system school administration both in counties and for the state at large. On the subject of manufacturing his proposals were three in number: A reasonable minimum requirement that manufacturers should provide for the convenience and comfort of mill operatives; permission to combination by manufacturers for advancement of trade; and industrial and technical education in manufacturing districts. Other proposals were for a commission to submit a comprehensive plan of taxation, for the enlargement of the scope of work and adequate appropriations for the state board of health; provision for absentee voting; limita- tion of state officers to two successive terms and of county officers to three successive terms; urging the wisdom of the short ballot; consolidation of boards of management for state hospitals; central- ized management of the state agricultural depart- ment and the College of Agriculture; and modi- fications and reforms of state prison management.
It will now be in order to notice briefly how Governor Bickett's suggestions were enacted into law by General Assembly of 1917. A brief sum- mary of the specific acts is as follows:
The act submitting a constitutional amendment calling for a six months' instead of a four months' public school term. The act follows the declara- tion in the governor's inaugural address that "the children are entitled to have the voter cast a single ballot, whether he is or is not in favor of a larger opportunity for the child."
The act submitting a constitutional amendment exempting from taxation, notes and mortgages given in good faith for the purchase price of a home. The purpose of this act is to bring the money in reach of every homesteader.
The crop lien act designed to give the small farmer a chance to "break out of jail."
The act providing for the teaching of the basic principles of good farming in every rural public school. The machinery of this act is well adapted to serve its purpose.
The act to encourage the installation of run- ning water, electric lights, telephones in country homes and communities by furnishing expert ad- vice and assistance free of cost.
The act to make the schoolhouse a social center and to provide for wholesome entertainment in country schoolhouses that will be both constructive and relaxing.
The act providing for the medical inspection of all children who attend the public schools that physical defects may be discovered and corrected in their incipiency.
The act providing for the incorporation of rural communities to the end that thickly settled com- munities in the country may take such steps for
their own betterment as they think wise and proper.
The act forbidding the sale of the advertise- ment for sale of medicines purporting to cure incurable diseases and forbidding the sale of me- chanical device for the treatment of disease when the state board of health may declare such device to be without curative value.
The act providing for the improvement of high- ways by expenditure of automobile tax for this purpose under the direction of the state highway commission.
The act that permits and regulates absentee voting.
The appointment of a state tax commission to investigate and report a comprehensive system of taxation to the next General Assembly.
The act consolidating the management of the three hospitals for the insane and establishing a purchasing agency for the seven state institutions.
The act limiting the time for which a convict may be sent to a chain gang to five years. The recommendation of the governor was for two years, but owing to the inadequacy of quarters at the state prison the time was made five years for the present.
The act authorizing the construction of modern sanitary quarters for the convicts on the state farm.
The Turner bill, which fulfills the recommenda- tion of the governor in that part of his inaugural address in which he says: "I am convinced that the only justification for the punishment of crime is the protection of the public and the reformation of the criminal. Anything that savors of vin- dictiveness is indefensible in the administration of the law. When the state sends a citizen to prison he ought to be made to feel that his punish- ment is a just measure imposed for the purpose of preventing himself and others from committing further crimes, and that pending his imprisonment the State desires to afford him every opportunity to become a good citizen."
Governor Bickett has proved as fearless and progressive in his purely administrative and execu- tive functions as in promoting a liberal and well rounded legislative program. One example only can be considered here. It was a matter which attracted attention beyond the borders of the state, and was made the subject of an article by a writer in The Survey. It told how Governor Bickett exercised his executive clemency in writ- ing out pardons for six boys, whose average age was a little more than twelve years, who had each been convicted for some criminal offense and the sentences ranging from fifteen years to a life term in the penitentiary. In doing this he was acting upon the principles that he enunciated in his inaugural and at the same time was overturning precedents and setting new ones, and was revers- ing the will and decision of the state courts. While Governor Bickett accepts and approved the partisan system of democratic government, is him- self a party man, it is true that he has as little partisanship in the narrow personal sense as any man who has ever been governor of North Caro- lina. He is proud of what has been accomplished during his term, and yet the credit for all those varied achievements he generously assigns to the state administration as a whole in which he is merely the executive head. The spirit of this is well indicated in an article which he gave to the public press reviewing the work of the General
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Assembly of 1917 and as his personal impression of the results which have already been outlined it has its appropriate place in this article:
"The finest commentary on the General As- sembly of 1917, will be found in the simplest state- ment of its record. The outstanding feature of that record is that it deals entirely with industrial, social and educational problems. Only in a nega- tive way did the Assembly touch the domain of politics. The big, constructive measures were con- sidered in patriotic fashion, and it is due the members of the minority party to say that on these questions they refrained from playing politics and gave vote and voice to the support of what they conceived to be the highest good.
"The record discloses that the Assembly recog- nized two fundamental principles :
"1. That every citizen is entitled to a fair chance to make his bread.
"2. That a high grade citizenship cannot live by bread alone.
"The constitutional amendment exempting home- stead notes from taxation, the crop lien law regu- lating the penalty imposed on poverty for its in- ability to pay cash for supplies, the act providing for the teaching of the fundamentals of good farm- ing in every country school, the law providing for medical inspection of school children so as to discover physical defects in their incipiency, the act to protect the citizen from being defrauded by the sale of nostrums for incurable diseases, the establishment of the home and school for cripples, the state wide quarantine law, this law providing rural sanitation were all designed and are calcu- lated to aid the citizen in the world old battle for bread. They deal largely with the physical neces- sities of men, but in addition to their commercial value they are shot through with the spirit of humanitarianism.
"On the other hand the constitutional amend- ment calling for a six instead of a four months' school, the act authorizing the incorporation of rural communities, the liberal appropriation for moonlight schools, the expansion of the work of rural libraries, the act providing for a system of state highways, the act to encourage the installa- tion of running water and electric lights and tele- phones in country homes, the appropriation to relieve the loneliness of country life by giving wholesome, instructive and entertaining exhibitions in country school houses, the establishment of the home for delinquent women, the creation of the State Board of general welfare and public char- ities, the special act for the building of a new home for the blind, the three million dollar bond issue to encourage the building of better school houses in the country, and to provide adequate quarters and equipment for our educational and charitable institutions, all recognize the truth that man cannot live by bread alone, but requires for his proper development the enrichment of his social and intellectual life.
"In addition to these measures that so vitally touch the life of the people, the administration of the State's affairs were placed upon a more in- telligent and humane basis by the prison reform bill, the consolidation of the three hospitals for the insane under a single management, the act to establish a new and modern system of accounting in the State departments and institutions, the law creating an educational commission to consider the entire school system of the state, the act providing for a State Board to examine teachers and conduct
educational institutes, the creation of a sub-com- mission to devise an equitable system of taxation, and the law eliminating unnecessary and cumber- some reports of State departments.
"I do not have before me any list of the acts of the General Assembly, and I may have omitted some important measures in this outline. But in the record above given there will be fouud twenty- one separate and distinct acts of dealing with new subjects or old subjects in a new way. And the fine thing about the record is that not one of the acts named was written in a spirit of hostility to persons or property, but every one of them rep- resents a proper conception of public service. The General Assembly made scant use of the hatchet, but was very busy with the trowel, the hammer and the saw. In the early days of the session there was considerable lost motion and there were a few grave errors of omission, but the record in its entirety reveals the Legislator of 1917 as a 'workman that needeth not to be ashamed.' "
It now remains to review briefly the career of this honored public servant of North Carolina, whose earlier years well justified the record he has made in the office of governor. Thomas Walter Bickett was born in Monroe, North Carolina, Feb- ruary 28, 1869, a son of T. W. and Mary A. (Covington) Bickett. When he was thirteen years of age his father died, and as the oldest of four children he had heavy responsibilities and in pro- viding for their support he acquired much of the self-reliance and the sturdy manhood which have always distinguished him. He attended the Monroe High School, and in 1886 entered Wake Forest College. He paid his way through school, and at the same time was one of the leaders in col- lege life, gaining honors as a debater, winning a wealth of school associations and lasting friend- ships, and graduating A. B. with the class of 1890. Then followed a period of teaching, principally in the graded schools of Winston-Salem until 1892. He had spent the vacations studying law in the office of his uncle, D. A. Covington, and in the fall of 1892 entered the University Law School. Receiving his license to practice in February, 1893, he spent 11/2 years at Danbury, and since January, 1895, his home has been at Louisburg in Franklin County. In his practice there he was soon noted as a leader of the bar, a man of ade- quate scholarship, of splendid resourcefulness both in learning and in wit, and with an integrity of character that caused his clients to trust implicitly in his judgment.
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