New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-04-12
TIE COTTON MILLS OF ST. LOUIS.

Not content with the Asiatic trade be
queathed by the counsels of Benton, St
Louis claims continental market from
the Balize to Buenos Ayres on one side
and to Valparaiso on the other. We like
these gigantic and American ideas. II
expands the heart to- think Of them, and
we cordially cooperate in the hope that
the railroads and river craft Of St. Louis
may carry this continental commerce into
effect. We are constrained to say, how
ever, that the expectation of making St.
Louis principal cotton market is delu-
sion. The position that this will be neces-
sary to the establishment Of cotton mills is
contradicted alike by Manchester and
Lowell. That the mills do not necessarily
follow the market is shown by New Or
leans. 1t is scarcely necessary to explain
why st. Louis can not be an important
centre Of cotton sale and shipment. To
any one who has studied experimentally
J the course Of the cotton trade few words
on this subject will suffice. All cotton is
valued at Liverpool, and is worth the
price paid in that market, less what it
will cost to get the cotton there. By con-
sequence cotton held any where in the
| United States can be realized on the bills
of lading and policies of insurance in the
hands Of the shippers. Cotton then will
| seek a deep water port by the
most direct lines, and will go thence to
Liverpool. The cotton exchange may be
negotiated in one market, while the cot
ton itself is shipped from another. On
this principle the cotton grown in Texas
or Tennessee will not go to st. Louis, be-
cause that city is off the right line
transit to Liverpool. 1t will seek the deep
water ports of New Orleans or Galveston,
or go overland direct to some Eastern At
lantic port st. Louis can, however, deal
in the bills, and sell goods against the
cotton all the same, just as New York
conducts much Of the cotton trade direct
from New Orleans to Liverpool.
There is, however, a far larger field of |
enterprise than this of factorage. 1t is to
build cotton mills, as thus suggested by
the st. Louis Globe:
If we wish to avoid the expense OF two
ocean shipments, of interest and broker
age, and labor lost, and changing tariffs, we
must set to manufacturing where coal and
iron and labor can be found, and where a
cotton market can be established as the
natural result of the interchange of those
commodities which the cotton growers
want.
Exactly So A pound Of cotton may be
converted into three yards of average
cloth, each worth the cost of the pound of
cotton. What works this wondrous ad-
dition to the value of the raw material?
Doubtless it is the magic of the superior
order of intelligence possessed by Europe
ms. But the result of all comparison
proves that the European is not the supe-
rior of the American in mind, body, or
invention.
What, then, really does make two hun
lred and fifty million dollars of raw cot
on worth, when woven and printed, worth
perhaps, one billion dollars? The alchemy
If this transmutation is this: Food, fuel, ;
luman skill and mechanical force are
with this raw material, and the
esult is the valuable fabric stated.
Now st. Louis has, in wonderful
neasure, the principal elements Of this
alchemy. She has two de-
ciencies:
Ei~cf S1-;11oJ 1oIo, -,
Second-A school Of design and en- ;,
raving to print goods.
The first of these wants can be easily
npplied. The mills having been pro- >,
lded, 1t will be necessary to put in the q
nglish market an order for the managers ;,
nd operatives to inaugurate and conduct !
More than forty thousand European :,
echanics came, last year, into the port =,
New York alone, and were distributed =,
lroughout the West. Give the spinners >,
England assurance of home and | ;,
ages, and any number of mills can be CO
ocked with hands. The late reports of .,
e labor commission in Massachusetts, .,
lows that mechanical industry in that &c
lays up very little net .;
oft after paying for imported food and il,
el. 1t would be only necessary to r.,
ace few specimen loaves and bacon IN
les i'll the windows Of Manchester and ~,
DWELL, with label Of the st, Louis =
ices on them, to start ship and car ~;
ads Of operatives to this Canaan of the h
tton serfs. !.
The chief difficulty in establishing -
ost profitable division of the cotton ~,
anufactures lies in the want of artistic ~,
i'll and manufacturing taste in the tints -,
d figures of cotton prints, =,
This, though requiring longer prepare e,
N, may by the aid Of the great polytech- i,
: institution at ST. Louis be soon ac- o.
mplished. =,
1t is in favor OF this elementary stage of ~,
:, that tie people of South and Central &c,
nerica are simple and uniform in their n,
lcies and do not change the styles of "
9ir wearing apparel, as do the fastidious .,
mes Of Europe and America. st. Louis no
s therefore all tie materials for organ n,
ng this and other great industries at her u
mmanG, and as this continental market -,
ats her commerce, We do not see why IA
should not trade with Rio Janeiro, as
II as with Canton. We are aware Of
European competition to be encoun-