The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1874-04-08
COTTON 1IANTFACTURE,
NORTH AND SOUTH.

! 11OuS 1uo 1uSG1 llSGifO- Aeo AAsoS e@1Ao
growth has been more recent and
rapid than the majority of well-in-
formed persons suspect. Nominal
ly, the first impulse was given in
the year 1914, but practically the
great movement which has brought
the United States into rivalry with
England dates back but fifty years.
AS recently as the year 1910, the
manufactured products Of Virginia
exceeded those of Massachusetts, in
value S5,500,000 per annum. Every
one knows how the comparative
reckoning stands to-day. The enter
prise of one man, seconded by the
energy and industry of the commu
nifty in which he lived, has for the
last half century made the South
tributary to the North, and made the
former both producer and consumer
for the benefit and profit of the lat
ter.
In the war of 1912, a wealthy
and intelligent young Bostonian
was made prisoner and taken to
England, where he was struck with
the inventions of Arkwright and
Hargroves, as applied to the British
cotton manufacture. This young
man, whose name still lives, in this
connection,iu that great manufactu-
ring marvel of Massachusetts, the
! town of Lowell, with the aid of an in
genious Scotchman, Samuel Slater
by name, returning home, selected
| Waltham, on the Charles River, "a
! stream since made famous in song
as well as in story,} as the site of
his experiment; and from that
grain of mustard seed has sprung
the forest of factories which has
since fourished on New England
soil.
Speaking of this matter, but very
recently, one of the most eminent
citizens Of Massachusetts, made this
remarkable prophecy, which may be
much nearer it's fulfllment than
either he or the great majority
of his hearers imagined. General
Banks used this language: ''The
industrial processes discovered by
Lowell will not have been thor
oughly established until the cot
ton of the country shall have
been utilized by manufacturers
on the lands where it is produced,
as we'll as iron, over the inexhaust-
ible beds of ore and coal with which
nature has so lavishly enriched this
country"
To General Banks himself, as well
rs to his auditors, simple recital
OF what the Southern people are do
ing in this very matter, and have
done ever since the last unreliable
census returns were made four years
ago, will be almost q revelation as
well as a confirmation of the correct
ness of his statement. The next de-
cade may produce results which
will confound the anxious of the
otherwise, and again reverse the rel
ative position of the North and
South as manufacturing centres,
fulfilling the conditions laid out by
the man of Massachusetts much ear
lier than even he expected by bring
ing the raw material and it's manu-
facture into immediate proximity al
over the cotton States, as it is now
the case in Georgia, South Caro-
lima and Alabama.
Of the young and growing Low.
ellis of the new South-at Granite
vile, in South Carolina, at Augusta
and Columbus, at the Eastern and
the Western extremes of Georgia,
at and near Montgomery, in Ala
bama-little has been said or writ.
ten, and less generally known, as
yet; but these are indeed most prom,
ising pioneers in this mighty indus,
trial movement, and the rapid
though steady progress they have
made in the past three years, recalls
the similar march to success and
wealth made in Massachusetts,, and
throughout New England, during
the early part of this century.-Ed'
,cin de Leon, in Harper's Maga.
zine for February