The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1873-08-24
Factories at the South.

Recent discussions of the success which
has attended manufacturing enterprises at
the South has drawn public attenti to
field, comparatively unoccupied, in which
such profitable results are attained. The
| success of the Columbus, Augusta and Ma
con cotton mills are notable and some of
our exchanges are alluding to the fact in
very hopeful terms. The Baltimore Sun,
for instance, thinks that the results already
made public clearly establish the capacity
OF this section to compete with any other
in manufacturing yarns and certain classes
| of fabrics, in which steady improvement
is apparent. 1t gives useful employment
to deserving and otherwise comparatively
helpless persons. There are many who are
OF necessity idle, and others whose labor is
cept there be the light employment which
manufactures afford. 1t is stated that an
active girl finds no difficulty experimenting
four power looms in cotton factory, and
can earn more than she (or any substitute
for) can by picking cotton in a field. Farm
interest on capital, while manufactures are
paying in some localities from Is to 20 per
cent. The multiplication of manufactures
would better the farmers in the same locali-
ty and diversity their products. At pres
ent farms are worn out and their value
deprecated by the perpetual cultivation of
one staple, while manufacturing industry,
without the aid of costly manures, pre-
| serves its powers of recuperation. On the
| face of 1t it seems unwise enough to trans
port cotton thousand miles from the place
where it is grown to a harsh and rigorous
climate to be carded, spun and wove, when
it might be done on the spot, in the most
genial winter climate of the country, where
the water-courses are never interfered with
| by the rigors of cold and ice, and means of
subsistence for operatives could be raised
| in abundance on the spot. Hence it would
seem reasonable that more capital should
be devoted in the South to the manufac-
ture of cotton. At the same time, the Sun
thinks it cannot be expected that the en-
tire cotton manufactures of the country
should centre in the South, and continues
The interests involved are too heavy to
warrant the idea of any such transfer be-.
ing effected in a short time. The produc-
tion of fine goods especially, and even in
some varieties of heavy fabrics require eli
matte, market, labor and social conditions,
as we'll as o nearness to financial centres,
which are widely different from those that
belong to the growth of cotton. While we
say this we fully appreciate the vital i'm
pOrtance of diversifying Southern labor by
late account of the Vienna exhibition the
intelligent and inquisitive Emperor OF
Austria is said to have expressed admira-
tion and interest of the productions of the
|, South, specimens of whose cotton, tobacco
sugar and hemp were on exhibition. There
is no land on the earth in the possession oi
q civilized people which has such variety
, of agricultural and mineral wealth as the
Southern States. All that is necessary to
complete it's prosperity is its political re-
habiliment; and the wise application of
machinery and science in the development
of its physical resources and advantages
, Savannah Ne,cs.