The Oxford falcon. [volume] (Oxford, Miss.) 1865-18??, 1866-09-06
To Capitalists.

NCCAAO WOSnS oSOi oOJS OA1C 0ACAAA-
phis Appeal, we tried to show what
large profits there were upon capital
invested in the fabrication of cotton
goods, and We must be excused for
returning to the subject as q question
of vital concern to the public for
whom we write.
Governor Patton, of Alabama, has
been making comprehensive investi-
cations in the same direction, and we
shall avail ourselves of the results of
his inquiries to support what We
urged in our former article.
He says a pound of raw cotton will
make four yards of brown muslin,
worth twenty cents per yard, or
eiZhty cents far the four yards: and
placing the average price of raw cot
ton here in the South, at twenty
cents per pound, would leave sixty
cents for cost of spinning and weav-
ing, interest on the money invested,
and clear profit.
Under the present system of labor
he does not think that more than
three bales to the hand will be made,
at least for some years, or 5000
bales for 1888, or at least, for $1,000
laborers. Now at Lowell the
amount of cotton consumed an
nually is 100, 900 bales, making some
thing over 100, ,OOO, 900 yards of fabric,
besides yarns, which is effected
only by some 1000 laborers, mostly
women and girls. That is $4,000
women and girls converted the raw
material which it took at least 80, ,OOC
laborers to produce, into fabrics worth
from three to four times as much as
that of raw material.
The process of manufacturing new
cotton into the coarsest, commonest
fabrics with three-eighths the labol
employed in growing the raw mate
rial, more than doubles the value o
that raw material. This viii account
for the fact that the factories at Lo
well and in the North, generally, de
clare, as an average, dividends Of a
least thirty per cent, with instances
largely, above that. And this the,
do though paying much more 70
the cotton, of course, than our man
ufacturers would have to do here.
Our manufacturers would have
material climatic advantage, whic
experienced men rate at the value {
, a halt cent the yard. That is the say
J ing here of artificial means to rails
the temperature Of the atmosphere
necessary both for the cotton an
: machinery five or six months of til
year, which win not be requisite
this section.
At the time Gov. Patton wrote, tt
ruling price of middlings, in Ne
J. York was "a to SO cents per poun
and when that quality could haN
been purchased at "A to 26 cents
= the interior of Alabama, making
! difference Of 10 cents per pound
, favor of the home manufacturer.
= Another advantage to the Eouthe
manufacturer should not be omit
or lost sight OF, that designed for Z
: benefit Of New England by our IA.
cal enemies, when they framed Z
last excise law and put tax Of
cents per pound on raw cotton to
., paid by the ''prOducer, owner,
holder" They also enacted the 8
d. Section as follows:
ct EEo. 6. Asad be It Further esaact,
Do That upon articles manufactn [
j. cIusively from cotton, when expo
(. ed, there shall be allowed as dra
- back, an amount equal to the int
ID nal tax which shall have been
ap sessed and paid upon such articles
"a their finished condition, and In nd
ton thereto . drawback or all0WaI
OF a. many cents per pound, ~
the pound Of cotton cloth, va