In comparatively few cases does one man, or one family, own a controlling interest in a mill.

The ownership is usually scattered in small holdings, and there is seldom a Croesus to excite envy.

This wide ownership has had its effect upon the general attitude of the more influential citizens and hindered the development of active disapproval.
The chief reason for the inertia in labor matters, however, has been the fact that the South has thought, and to a large extent still thinks, in terms of agriculture.

It has not yet developed an industrial philosophy.
Agriculture is individualistic, and Thomas Jefferson's ideas upon the functions and limitations of government still have influence.

Regulation of agricultural labor would seem absurd, and the difference between a family, with or without hired help, working in comparative freedom on a farm, and scores of individuals working at the same tasks, day after day, under more or less tension was slow to take shape in the popular consciousness.