The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-02-05
Cotton Manufacture, North and South.

Harper's Magaziae, draws attention to this IN
teresting subject and its history as follows,
The history of cotton manufacture in the
United States is both curious and instructive
Its rise and growth has been more recent and
rapid than the majority of well-informed per-
i sons suspect. Nominally the first impulse was
given in the year 1914, but practically the great
movement which sbrought the United States
into rivalry with England dates back but fifty
years. AS recently as the year 1910 the manu-
factured products of Virginia exceeded those
of Massachusetts in value S3,5OO,0Oo per an
mum. Every one knows how the comparative
reckoning stands to-day. Theenterprise of one
man, seconded by the energy and industry Of
the community in which he lived, has for the
last half century made the South tributary to
. the-North, aud made the former both producer
! and consumer for the benefit and profit of the
latter. In the war of 1912 q. wealthy and in
tellieent young Bostonian was made prisoner
and taken to England, where he was struck
4 with the inventions Of Arkwright and Har-
graves, as applied to the British cotton manu-.
'faeture. This young man, whose name still
lives, in this connectin, in that great manufac-
turing marvel of Massachusetts, the town of
Lowell, with the, aid of an ingenious, Scotch
man, Samuel Slater by name, returning home,
4 selected Waltham,' on the Charles River, Ia
stream since made famous in song as we'll as in
4 story as the site of his experiment. and from
forest of factories which has since fourished
| on New England soil. Speaking of this mat
| ter but very recently, one OF, the most eminent
citizens of Massachusetts made this remarkable
prophecy, which may be much nearer its full
fitlment than either he or the great majority OF
| his hearers imagined. General Banks used
this language: 'FThe industrial processes dis
covered by Lowell will not have been thor
oughly established until the cotton of the coun-
try shall have been utilized by manufacturers
ON the land where it is produced, as we'll as
iron, over the inexhaustible beds of ore and
coal with which nature has so lavishly enriched
! this country "7ITo General Banks himself, as
we'll as to his auditors, simple recital of what
the, Southern people are doing in this very
| matter, and have done ever since the last unre-
! liable census returns were made four years ago,
will be almost revelation as we'll as confr-
nation, of the correctness of his statement.
The next decade may produce results which
will confound the anxious of the otherwise,
and again reverse the relative positions of the
| North and South as manufacturing centres,
| fulfilling the conditions laid out by the man of
| Massachusetts,, much earlier than even he eX-
| pected, by bringing the raw material and its
manufacture into immediate proximity all over
the cotton States as it is now the case in Geor-
| gia, South Carolina and Alabama" ''.i
Of the young and growing Lowells of the
new South-at Granitevlle, in South Carolina
at Augusta and Columbus, at the eastern and
western extremes of Georgia, at and near
Montgomery, in Alabama-little has been said
or written, and less generally KNOWN as yet;
but these are indeed most promising pioneers
in this mighty industrial movement, and the
rapid though steady progress they have made
in the past three years recalls the similar march
to success aud wealth made in Massachusetts,
and throughout New England, during the early
part of this century.
Tae New York World further indicates the
growth and success of cotton manufacturing in
the South by the timely remarks hereunto ap-
pended: % -,"-i 80. ''i e." ,. ''''''|
/ Cotton manufacturing seems to increase
steadily and even rapidly in! nearly all por-
tions of the South. Since the close of the war
many cotton mills have been erected along the
railroads and in the cities, and each year adds
Ito the numberof those in operation. They are
not confined to the piedmont and up-country
region,: which seems to have been designated
by nature for the manufacturing region of tie
have each their cotton mills, as we'll as have
Columbus, Huntsville and Augusta. But while
the capitalists in the seaport cities who invest
their money in manufacturing stock may pre-
fer that the industry should be conducted in g
measure under their supervision, the greater
number of the. Sodthers cotton mills are situa-
ted in the interior, where living is cheaper and
where the climate is better suited to white
labor. Many of the mills are built entirely on
home capital saved from the earnings of plan
ters and merchants; and accordingly they often
commence operations Oil small scale and in
crease them from the earnings or from addi-
tional subscriptions of stock when the expert
meut has proved successful. In this way the
annual consumption of cotton at the South has
grown from practically nothing at the close of
the war to between 100000 and 100000 bales.
And as the industry becomes better established,
these figures promise 10 be erapidiyincreased by
the erection of new mills and by the enlarging
of those already established. The special ad-
vantages which this industry enjoys at the
South are, first, the exemption from taxation
which several of the Southern States have ex-
tended to capital employed in the manufacture
Of cotton goods and in other manufacturing
industries; second; the mildness of the climate,
which dispenses with the necessity for heavy
clothing, close houses, fuel, and warmth pro-
ducing food, and which therefore makes labor
comparatively cheap; and third, the saving of
freight and other charges upon the raw materi-
al with which the manufacturer at distance
from the scene of cultivation is burdened and
which add so largely to the cost of the finished
product. ! These circumstances are sufficient to
account for the large profits which it is report
ed are everywhere realized by the owners of
Southern cotton mills And the fact that large
profits are realized is sufficient to encourage
the people of the South to diversity their in
dustr.es, both by investing their own money
bringing to the attention of outside capitalists
the advantages to be derived from investing in
them. &C.. -a......
THE New GOVERNOR OF TEXAs-Governor
Richard Coke native of Virginia, and during