By the early 20th century, most of the US textile industries had moved to the south, the industries remained in growth mode and established their center of operations in the Southeast to save on costs. North Carolina alone for instance had 177 mills in 1900. Previously, most of the textile industries were located in the northeast. At the turn of the 20th-century in the United States mills and factory conditions earned the attention of progressives, Immigrant women and children did much of the work done in factories and mills as well as the piecework performed in apartments.v