Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1872-08-24
Raising, Manufacturing, and Selling
Cotton.

NNLa 49, I
The writer says:
Cor a nation to become a manu-
facturer, she must possess an over.
crowded population, in order that
she may obtain cheap labor. In the
South it cannot be denied that Agri-
culture yields to the masses a better
return than manufactures, The
South is sparsely populated, labor
of any kind commands high wages,
and skilled labor is utterly unattain-
able
1t would be difficult to compress
more errors, or errors Of wider APP
plication, than those expressed in the
above brief sentences. Machinery
of great perfection, driven by water
or steam, is placed in the bands of
persons who card, spin and weave
cotton; and to say that a nation
must be o~rtr-crowded with popula-
ton before any of this wealth-creat-
ing machinery can be proftably set
at work, is theory contradicted by
the cotton mills at Augusta, Granite
vile and Columbus, and by the his
tory of the United States.
At the beginning Of any branch
Of productive labor, skill does not
exist; but does this fact forbid an
honest effort to stu dy and practice
the new and useful art, learn and ac-
quiro all nee dful skill? This theory
striFes all human progress and i'm,
proyement u death dealing blow on
the head. In point Of fact, it takes
twice the skill and ten times the
learning properly to convert and
transform air and water into q bale
of cotton fibre, that are needed TO
twist this fibre into thread, and
weave the thread into cloth. Mod
ern machinery that spins cotton
does not exact 50 much experiences
in a factory girl as our grandmoth-
ors displayed in spinning u flax
thread on Il little wheel driven by
the foot.
This mistaken hostility to the gen
eral introduction of lubor-saying
machines to pick, card, spin and
weave cotton III the Cotton States
tends to impoyerish all the cotton
lands in the South and, ultimately,
to depopulato every district where
cotton grows
Shall we add one field to another,
wear them all out Il second and third
time, and finally " make a desert and
call it peace This is not the mis-
sion of the Caucasian race in the
sunny South.
When | came to reside in Angus
ia, Ga, they were digging a canal
to bring water to the city for manu-
featuring purposes, croakers said
shat skilled labor is utterly unat-
tainable;' " agriculture yields to the
masses a better return than manu-
fa%ctures;" the canal will be an enor-
nous waste of money; and much
more of the same sort. The writer
said; This ditch is too small for
Augusta enterprise and business tai
ent, and, like the Erie canal, it will
have to be greatly changed"
Which was the correct view Of this
embryo manufacturing interest?
Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island,
is said to be worth thirty million
dollars. His father laid the founda-
ton of this fortune by employing
unskilled labor .~forty-six years ago
no other could be had to tend fac.
tory machines that never strike for
higher wages, never consume bread,
meat and clothing; but work on till
polished, welloiled steel is WON out
in his service. Laborers Of this
character, performing the work of
thousands and millions Of human
hands, are invaluable. Why should
there be a middle man in the South,
between one that raises and one that
manufactures cotton? These bust
ness men should be neighbors and
friends then all trouble about sell
ing and holding cotton for better
prices, would be at an end. The
whole theory that cheap labor is
necessary to successful mining,
manufacturing, agriculture, COM
merce, or working railways, has be-
come obsolete by progress in know
ledge. Capital can pay for labor ac-
cordins to what it has to pay with.
Science has vastly increased pro-
duction for the common benefit of
all. Science will not and cannot
permit any monopoly Of these bene-
hts; nor will 1t accept a bull-tongue
pillow with q mule tied to one end
and a negro to the other. as the last
and best expression of tillago as an
art, and the final step before we en-
ter the millennium, Real power and
productive capital lie in knowledge
not in gold, nor dead machines,
nor living plants like grain or cot
ton. When the ignorant and blind
lead persons like themselves, all are
in danger; for they neither see MOI
know that old roads have been torn
up to make room for new viaducts,
aqueducts, iron ways and water ways,
till every one needs two eyes wide
open to insure his safety. What sig
Nifty the Indian trails, or bride paths
of by gone days to u children, and
our childrenB children ? What is
the present value of ideas which
support more wild rabbits than tame
sheep on a plantation, and believe,
kind souls, that Is The true way 10 ad-
rance Southern Agriculture Allan
Ia Plantation.
E%LECTRlCITY has achieved q new