Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-01-08


Since the war, or from June 13, 1866, to
June 80, 1868, the company has added to
its machinery by 800, 6s6 rs, and paid to
its stockholders the sum of $3.50, 900, be-
sides adding to its surplus account 1924,
O52 CT, thereby swelling that fund to 1924,
I79S % Aud this, it is claimed, is the re-
suit of but $50 900 capital The gold cash
value of the company's property on the
| 3Oth Of last June, was 5000, 900, irrespec-
tive Of the S224.799 %.
| During the same time the company have
Bales goods. made, %, 545; aggregate sales
81, 765, 80; so aggregate wages paid, 1922,
$50 Is; average yards per loom, per day,
IS 90-10O; average number of hands en-
ployed, 57S. Production for three years
Pounds, 6,261 ,655; pieces, 528, ia; yards,
&c, 1854, 919.
! The Augusta Factory property was pur-
chased ten years ago of the city, for Sl4O,
! 900, on ten years credit, the purchasers
paying i'll. as commercial capital, $50, 600.
Since the purchase, the entire property has
been paid for, new machinery has been
bought, and the capital increased to 5000,
| 900 by the addition of a portion of the sur
plus, regular dividends having been paid
in the meantime. During the war, the
dividends of this company were enormous.
After examining all the facts, a Nashville
paper asks, in all earnestness, whether
any cotton manufacturing company north
of Mason and Dixon's line may not be
safely challenged to make such a showing ?
We do challenge any and all OF them to
comparison of operations. Let the cotton
lands of New England look-not to their
laurels, but to their pockets ; for there S
no need of any statistical prophet to de
monstrate that, if we of Nashville, and OF
IL, holf 10 nr n
resources in helping ourselves which We
now devote to enriching those who are our
bitterest political prosecutors, decade
will not have passed before our industrial
independence will have become an accom-
plished fact"
WHAT ANSWER ?"
The Augusta Cotton Factory is an excep-
ton. Its success has been wonderful. We
know of nothing like it in the history of
cotton manufactures. But it is obvious
that the showing of it's success is not fair
criter On by which to come to tho conclu-
sion that cotton can be manufactured at the
South, during the next generation, cheaper
than it can be at the North. Within the
past five years we know of cotton mills in
New England that have failed, while there
are others that have paid for themselves
twice over, besides affording fat dividends.
The success of the Augusta establishment
is due entirely to skillful management. Its
President is one of the best business men
in the country, and its Superintendent is
equally as capable. If we are not mistaken
they are both Northern men, and conse-
quently they have infused Yankee ideas
into all their operations The goods Of
the Augusta factory command from one
half per cent. to one and one-half per cent.
more per yard than those of other similar
mills. The best Of stock is used, because
its buyers are right at home IN the market,
and they always take advantage of the
prices but they are not more shrewd than
some of our Northern buyers have BEEN
During the war, when the Augusta mill
was using cotton which cost eighteen cents
per pound, there were several mills IN New
England that had six months supply at
the same price. It is safe to say that the
comparison of the Augusta factory is an
isolated one, SO far as the cotton mills of
the South are concerned. The testimony
of many of its manufacturers shows that
the dividends of the cotton mills are gen
orally small, and that during the past three
years many of them have passed their small
dividends.
ADVANTAGES OF THE SOUTH TO COTTON MANU-
FACTURERs.
No one will pretend to dispute the fact
that certain sections of the South offer
cotton. They have climate and wages in
their favor. For three months in the year
the total cost of fuel is less than one-tenth
of cent per pound on manufactures of
those months, and as to wages, land is
cheap, and the manufacturer is enabled to
give each family of operatives large gar
den, large enough to enable them to raise
their years supply of vegetables. Wages
are consequently low Then there is the
matter of freights. The Southern manu-
facturer can save the freight on bagging,
rope and waste, and he can sell his waste
to local paper mills at quite Northern
prices. If the freight on one bale of cot
ton from Charleston to New York is two
dollars and fifty cents, for instance, on
yarn, worth say one dollar and twenty cents
bale, it is only sixty cents, there would
be difference of about two and half
per cent. on the value, providing the cot
| ton was worth eighty dollars. The South
producer Or his agent, thus avoiding COM
missions, brokerage and other charges
paid by Northern mills.
WHAT THE SOUTH WANTS.
Just what the South needs more than
anything else is capital and skilled labor.
! The time is net yet come when Lowell or
Manchester can be taken up bodily and
set down along side auy of the splendid
v-poWers of the Southern States. The
people of the South cannot realize in a
few years that which it has taken New Eng
land generation of years to achieve. The