The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-01-07
Of transportation and distribution by

| DEAuCu OI 9ik uDuuuIactuteSs 'WS4laVS
an advantage over the. North. thet Id
time will surely give MS pre-eminence
in production, and enable us to rule
the markets, We can spin and'1ceare
cotton on Tie ground ,rhere il is raised.
To illustrate this advantage, suppose
that sets OF jerks spinning ma
chines-which are nearly automatic,
and require but little labor, aud that
not Of the class called 'skilled'-were
set up in Columbia, s. c., to make
yarn = cotton is grown all around
that city, and could be hauled direct
" from the gin house to the factory.
and there turned into thread, and
then shipped North at the same
freight that cotton in the bale pays,
leaving behind the dirt and waste,
which amount to fifteen per cent. of
the crop, and saving fifteen per cent.
of the charges of transportation.
The expenses would be only on the
pure article, and the saving Of ma
nure by the operation would not be
despised by any man who has intelli-
gently studied agriculture or political
economy.
"But where shall the labor come
from? Just where it came from in
Rhods Island, when the beginning to
spin cotton was made in that State.
We have this labor, both white and
blnck. It would increase from year
to year, under the influence of wages
and the persuasion of example. and
the growth OF that social sentiment
which always honors and sustains
profitable employment. This labor
need not be as skilled as it was for
merly, for machines such as Mr.. jerks
makes at Bridesburg, Pennsylvania,
are almost self-tending. Moreover,
the labor now employed in cotton
spinning and weaving, in New Eng
land. is principally of a coarse kind.
It is mostly Irish and Canadian; and
it has to be renewed, too, constantly.
The steadiest operatives do not stay
in the mills, on an average, over six
years. They then draw out. of the
savings banks their accumulated
wages, quit the business, and go
away. not to return to it. So that
the advantage supposed to be enjoy
ed by the Yankees, in regard to a
supply Of labor, is more imaginary
than real. When Mr.. jerks made a
machine so intelligent, that it notices
the breaking Of the finest thread run
ming through it, and stops till some
body mends it, he brought old manu-
featuring Massachusetts, pretty near
ly to level with South Carolina, in
respect to stock of skilled labor,
and made the business of spinning
and weaving cotton cloth practicable
allover the South. It is just so with
the manufacture OF wool; cassimeres
and broad-cloth are woven on looms
that are substantially automatic.
"From the carding of the wool to
the production of the finished web,
the work is principally done by iron
and steel, with a power derived from
a water-wheel or a steam engine.
Machinery every year more and more
emancipates labor, and emancipates
capital from labor. The apprentice
ship system is at an end, and the
education OF labor to produce the
staple mechanical products is almost
at an end. Surely it ought to be
unnecessary to argue at length the
policy Of the South to do her own
manufacturing, to save the profits on
labor she has heretofore paid away TO
the North and to Europe, to furnish
her population many ways of earn
ing their living, to largely add to her
population, to impart greater value
to all the products of her soil, and,
by consequence, to increase the mar
ket value of her land; to give new
comforts and better life to all her
sons and daughters. It should be
manifest that diversified industry is
the present imperative need of the
South. She cannotany longer "play it
alone" on cotton planting. That busi-
ness has lost it's prestige and its profit
ableness, in the loss of the control of
the labor that carried it on. It will no
longer sustain the number of people it
once sustained. The capital invested
in the business, too, is mostly lost.
Cheap farm labor can no longer be
had in the South. Wages will ap-
proXimate more and more to the
standard of those paid in Illinois and
Iowa; and the profits OF planting
seem destined to steadily fall to the
level of the profits of farming in
both of those States.
eve hare got to go 10 mannyactu,i,,1
TO SAGE OWselreS. We have got to 90