In 1890 there were nearly a million and three-quarters spindles in the South compared with less than six hundred thousand ten years before.
It seemed as though nearly every mill was profitable, and the occasional failures did not seriously check the movement, which developed about 1900 almost into a craze in some parts of the South.

In these sections every town talked of building one mill or more.

The machine shops of the North, which had been cold or at least indifferent to Southern development, woke up, as Southern mills began to double or triple their equipment out of their profits.

Agents were sent to the South to encourage the building of new mills, and to give advice and aid in planning them.

The new mill-owners were good customers.