e discharge materials used,
hence, a whole series of beautiful colors can be printed on goods
previously dyed with black or colored grounds, each color being mixed
with a suitable chemical for discharging the ground color, and thus the
colors of the printed pattern come out as desired.

Another important process which is applied to both cotton yarn and cotton
fabrics is that known as mercerization, called after "Mercer" an English
chemist who introduced the process. Cotton when subjected to the action
of strong, caustic alkali contracts violently, but when again stretched
and straightened it is found to have acquired a distinct silkiness of
appearance, and under the microscope the twisted ribbon-like fibers of
the material--already referred to--will be found to have become straight,
glossy and rodlike, just as a bicycle tire would appear after air was
blown into it.

Cotton may be mercerized either in the yarn, warp, skein, or in the
piece, the first being more effective. The best and most satisfactory
results are achieved when the material treated is made of fine long
staple cotton, either Sea Island or Egyptian, the shorter cottons being
relatively much less improved by the treatment. The mercerizing does not
diminish the strength of the material, and gives to it a greater affinity
for dye stuffs.

Internal Organization
of Cotton Mills

The foremen are specialists in their particular departments. The
warehouseman, at one end, is a judge of cotton stock, and the foreman of
the weaving room at the other knows how many automatic looms may safely
be trusted to each weaver on his staff.

In between these two there are, according to the individual mill, a dozen
or more other foremen, all reporting regularly to the superintendent, all
captains of their own companies of workers, and all keen, in the
interests of their own reputations, to operate their departments as
intelligently, as efficiently, and with as little friction with their
individual operators as possible. For it is generally recognized
throughout the cotton industry that profitable business depends as much
upon the whole-hearted cooperation of the wage-earners, as upon any other
single factor.

The Question of
Individual Efficiency

As for the operators themselves, they are so varied, there are so many
problems which they have to face, and such difficulties which those who
employ and direct them have to solve, that anything like adequate
considerat