Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1866-04-14
LABOR-sAvING MACruNEs NEEDED
AT THE SOUTH.


The use Of machinery in the perform
ance Of labor at the South has been verl
much underrafed, fer two reasons. First
from the nature Of agricultural pursuit
IN which most Of our people have beer
engaged. which necessarily require nor.
immediate exercise Of manual labor thar
other pursuits; and, second, from tn,
character Of the labor employed, which
being that Of slaves, was unskilled anC
abundant enough for the purposes "a
which il was applied. A man whose
/ wealth consisted i'm land and negroes wa
satisfied with that profit which arose
! from the Increase Of his slaves, and the
rising value aecruing 70 his lands by this
very increase Of slaves, whose time was
/ entirely devoted 20 agriculture.
But how stands the case now? When
laoorers must be persuaded and hired,
when the land is lying idle for want OF
sufficient hands 70 cultivate 1t, every
machine that promises to diminish the
amount Of labor required must certainly
be advantageous. II, with a cultivator,
one hand can do the work Of two-if,
with a loom, one woman can clothe the
entire family-how much better is this
than 70 feed and pay wages for the
greater number required under the old
system2 Every machine used Instead
Of humsn hands is 2 double saying-it
saves wages and provisions beth Take
for instance the new invention Of Men
denhau. Whereas by the old loom all
the women in the country would be
required (as we learned in Confederate
times, to clothe the people, with this
loom one man may clothe a hundred or
five hundred. But perhaps the planter
replies that he does not now have to
clOthe his negroes, and consequently
does not care how much they must
pay for their clothing. Let Us suppose
this planter to become 10 a limited ex-
tent the manufacturer Of his own
raw material. He buys a spinning
jimmy, which by one process separates
the staple from the seed (which Is now
done by ginning, and also con-
verts it into yarn; he thus saves his five
cents per pound on his cotton, to be paid
if exported, or else taken out of his cot
ton if sold 10 the Northern manufac-
turer; he saves the profit Of the manu-
facturer plus the tariff of twenty or Z
thirty per cent. added As a bonus 70 en- :.
able him to compete with foreign fab 4
rics; he saves the cost OF transpOrta- I
tiOn to the North and back again; he 4
saves the profit Of the factor who sells I
his cotton, Of the broker who buys
il, of the dry goods merchant who brings
it back, and thinks he sells his manufac-
tured article for three or tour times the
worth Of the raw material at his own
plantation. And all this is effected
by a small investment OF a few hun
ired dollars for a spinner and q loom
hat can be managed by a negro girl or
BOY.
Take a bale of cotton weighing five
hundred pounds, and now worth in New
York two hundred dollars. Five hum
lred pounds Of cotton will make one
hOusand yards Of cloth, worth forty
'ents per yard, equal to four hundred
l0llars. But one of these machines will
,r0bably work up ten bales Of cotton per
nnUm, equal to ten thousand yards Of
10th, or four thousand dollars. All this /
ccOmplished with less labor than was
1rmeriy bestowed on an ordinary hand
0om.
We know how slow planters are to
dopt Improvements, but the exceeding
implicitly and cheapness of this invest
lent, together with its extreme prOfita-
leness, it seems to US, would commend
10 every man. As 4 people, We are
0yerned by our political and commercial
nemies. To enrich themselves they
ave destroyed our labor system and
lXed our products. Shall we not render
at least pecuniarily, independ-
nt Of them The way to effect this is
, become the manufacturers Of cur own
O0ds.-SelHia { (AbG. Messenger.