The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1866-10-25
Manufacturins Iurelcsls south.

The Philadelphia Age has seen 3
letter and publishes extracts from II
written by Gov. Patton of Alabama,
and addressed to the manufacturing
companies of that State and Georgia,
showing the industrial interests and
capacities of our section and urging
the establishment of our own manufac-
tories. As the Age observes although
the local application of the Cover
nors letter is intended for his own
State, still his general conclusions are
for the most part as applicable to the
people of Mississippi and to large por-
tions of Louisiana and Texas, and we
therefore briefly run over the leading
points for the benefit of our own citi-
zens who should be taking active steps
to establish factories all over the
State. After full and minute survey
of the general situation and future
prospects of Alabama with respect to
labor, Governor Patton declares that
it will not be wise or expedient for the
people to depend upon immigration to
supply the deficiency occasioned by the
diminution of black agricultural labor.
He thinks it will be necessary for an
indefinite period to rely mainly upon
the growth and cultivation of cotton
in negro hands, no matter how dimin.
ished the numbers may be by recent
occurrences. The Governor urges
the use Of all the laborers of the State.
Those not available for the cultivation
of cotton, he says, may be turned to
good account in the local manufac-
ture of cotton goods after the raw
material has been produced. The adj
ditional value which may thus be inn
parted to cotton seems almost fabu-
lous. But the results attainable are
matters of statistical certainty. The
value of cotton can thus be doubled,
at the lowest calculation
For says Gov. Patton, in the article
of brown muslin the manufacturing
process adds sixty cents to the value
of one pound of cotton.
Taking this quality of goods as a
basis or calculation, we can plainly
see how the value of a given amount of
raw material may be increased in val
ne, until, in the finer article, a single
pound may be made to yield several
dollars. Hence we may take our two
hundred and fifty thousand bales,
worth twenty five millions of dollars,
and if we manufacture nothing but the
most ordinary articles, we may in
crease its value 70 fifty millions.
The Governor argues that it is the
policy of the people living in the cot
ton growing region of the South to
swell by every means in their power
the ultimate value of that production.
To do this in the most thorough and
remunerative manner, they must com
bine manufacturing with planting, and
thus reap profit from both.
The natural advantages for manu-
featuring which exist in the South are
then presented, in plain and forcible
manner. One Of these is difference
of climate, which relieves the South
ern manufacturer of large expense for
the creation of an artificial tempera-
ture necessary to the successful run
ming of machinery and the comfort of
the operatives. In regard to water
power and fuel, the South is favored
by nature in a remarkable degree
But the most prominent of all the adj
vantages possessed by the South in
the business of manufacturing, Gov.
Patton finds in the fact that she pro-
4
duces all the raw material needed for
that purpose on the spot. The Age
thinks, and very properly too, that
within five years, if the Southern peo-
pie act upon the suggestions of Gov
ernor Patton, they can supply Mexico,
the West Indies, the South American
States, and even Philadelphia, New
York, Boston and Baltimore, with cot
ton goods, such as are needed and
wilt command a ready sale at paying
prices for the manufacturer.
Our DEAD PRoPHETs.-Webster and
Clay are dead, but their prophecies
survive them. They foresaw that The