The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1870-02-26
southern Manufactures.

Once in a while the people of the South
are encouraged by honest Northern journals
and conscientiously advised to go to work
and grasp the splendid opportunities they
possess for becoming manufacturers of the
raw materials they produce in such vast
quantities. Referring to the subject, the
New York Economist of late date says
The South, as we have seen, has made
gratifying progress in the manu- facture of
cotton, as we'll as in its culture, during the
last few days. And in view Ofthe probabil-
ity of an early recovery from the wastes of
u war, propositions for the Southern States
to work up their fine long cotton into yarns
for the English and other foreign markets,
instead of exporting the bulk of the raw
staple, as in times gone by, have been ie-
vived, and are meeting with great favor.
Such an industrial development, it is seen,
would be equivalent to a positive increase of
the active labor on the plantations, since it
would utilize class Of the population not
available for the field, but which is at present
measurably useless, and to some degree, a
positive drug on society.
The South, it is well known, has import
ant advantages in the manufacture of cotton.
1t has the raw material at hand, an sbund-
ance Cf food within easy access, an un-
limited water power, an unsurpassed climate
in many sections, plenty of timber and coal,
together with extended and extending
facilities for communication and transpor-
tation. The only present drawback, or ina
| pediment, of any importance, is the lack of
adequate capital; but this is already sup
Piled, there would seem to be no good reason
why manufacturing industry should not at
| once take deep root, since it has been demOn-
strated that the relative cost of converting
cotton into yarn, as between England and
the South, is in favor Of the latter. The
! Superintendent of the SaIada Cotton Mills,
at Columbia, South Carolina, has furnished
some interesting facts and figures on this
| point He assumes, by comparison, the
| price of cotton at Columbia to be 20 cents
! per pound; at New York, 24 cents, which
he assumes are fair proportions. On this
basis, tha cost of making "a pound of cotton
into yarn at Columbia would be 9 cents.
while in New York it would be l3 81 cents,
| and in Manchester 1l-35 cents Taking
into account the freight and Insurance from
Columbia to New York, and the carriage,
commission and other charges here, the
cost of manufacturing yarn is found to be
fully cents per pound cheaper at Columbia
than in New York, assuming that the article
is worked up here. A similar calculation
having been entered into, IS between
|
manufacture Of cotton yarns can be done
cheaper in the South than in England, by
about the difference in the value of currency
and gold. The figures ofa manufacturer Of
yarn In Manchester show the cost Ofa pound
of yarn there-taking 24 cents per pound
as the cost of the cotton, and 1l.25 as the
cost of conVersion-at 35-25 cents. The
cost of the transfer Of the pound of Southern
yarn-costing in the South 90 cents-from
the South to England is, including both
freigh: and insurance, barely Is cents
This added to the preceding cost, makes the
cost to England 30.5 cents, whereas the
pound manufactured in England costs 35. %
showing that the Southern manufactures
can put his yarns down in England 4. 7;
cheaper than the English manufacturer car
make them there. If these figures, which
refer to No. 20 cotton yarns, are substantial
ly correct, they surely afford very strong
argument for pushing the manufacture 0
cotton at the SButh, as well as its culture
By working up the surplus cotton int
yarns, for expectation, 1t has been rOughl
estimated that profit of twenty dollars
bale would be realized over and above th
profit of growing the staple In a crop c
three million bales, this would afford a