The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1873-01-29

Salary rs IN your WISDOM you may
think proper, and that the sum Of tel
thousand dollars be appropriated fol
the payment Of such salary and othe,
expenses incident to the purposes o.
said Office, namely: The dissemination
throughout the Northern States oI
correct information in regard to oul
climate and agricultural resources
The Commissioner of Immigration
should be selected with tho sole view
to his especial qualifications for the
position, and one Of his duties should
be to travel in the interior of the
Eastern and Middle States, and invite
immigration through occasional pub
lie lectures, setting forth the value
and location Of our most desrble
lands, with exact information in re-
gard to the mineral wealth, vegetable
products, climate, and sanitary condi
tion Of our State.
The duties now devolvcd on the
Commissioner OF Agriculture should
be performed by the Commissioner OF
immigration.
ENCOURAGEMENT TO MANUFACTURES
1t is q matter of vital and growing
Importance that the General Assem-.
bly, should encourage and foster the
establishment of all classes of useful
manufactures in the State. Especial.
ly is it essential to our material pros.
pcrity that the manufacture of cotton
goods among us should be speedily
and largely increased.
The more varied the industries Of
people are, the more general is their
prosperity. By diversity of occn.
patious all kinds of labor are utilized,
and thus employment is given to
thousands of men, women and chill
dren who would otherwise be uncm-
ployed in any beneficial pursuits.
Authoritative statistics warrant
the opinion that not less than nine
millions of persons in the United
States, or nearly one-fourtA of the
entire population, derive their sup.
port, directly or indirectly, from
manufacturing employments.
The proportion Of that class in tt.ls
State is exceedingly small, as is also
the number who own or rent lands,
whilo the number Of agricultural
laborcrs is enormously great. =.
According to tho United States
census of 1870, the whole number of
persons engaged in agriculture in
South Carolina is as follows:
A griculturaI laborcrs, ' l63,52S
Farmers and planters, ..... 42,546
Farm and plantation managers, l79
Dairymen and dairywomcn, l6
Gardeners, nurscrymen and
vine growers, .... lOo
Stock rusers, 2
Stock hcrders, IL
Turpentinc farmers, 3
Turpcntine laborers, 249
Total, 2oG,651
The whole number Of our people
employed as operatives ip cotton and
WOODEN manufactures is only 1,0G4, or
less than l in 700 Of our population.
Yet we produce the raw material
in abundance-s shipping abroad annu.
ally about twenty-five millions of
dollars in cotton, which we buy back,
with an enormous tariff added, in
the form Of the manufactured article.
This failure to manufacture any
considerable portion Of our cotton
product is not due to any want OF
material resources for manufacturing
purposes. We have an immense sur
plus Of the requisite labor-supply, well
adapted to this occupation, which
can be chcaply obtained, while We
have vast water power, which is
the most economical Of all motive
forces applicable to the machinery for
manufacturing.
1t requires no laborcd argument to
prove that the nearer the location Of
the mandatory is to The fields that
produce the raw material, the cheaper
(othcr things being cqual) can the
manufactured articles be supplied to
those who arc engaged in the produc-
ton Of that raw material. One pat
ent reason Of this result is that the
himself receives the
raw material at so much cheaper
a price, saving the COS: of transporta-
ton. insurance, DC.
Yet our magnificent waters are
running to waste, within view of
Of prolific fields, white with
the fleece Of the cotton plant. Our
streams that now-like Ten
nyson's "brook" Ego idly on forever"
should have the sound Of their falling
waters drowned in the music of a
million busy spindcs. These streams
arc never locked up in the icy grasp
of winter, but they flow on pcrpetu.
ally, warmed and frightened by the
Of mild and genial climate.
This splendid material resource
has hitherto been doomed to disastrous
neglect by the unwisc policy fostercd
in the State. Our people have too
long concurrcd with Thomas Jcffer-
son in his not sagacious hope, uttered
in 1903, that "therc should never be
in the United States, and, least Of all,
in Virginia, any manufacturing estab-
but that they should be
confined to the hirelings Of Europe"
The world, however, was wiser
than that great statesman. The
pulses of an advancing civilization
are throbbing in every stroke of the
multiplied machinery applied to man.
ufactures that minister to the comfort
and the higher tastes Of man.
With proper number of manufac-
4 IL, -. H.,