The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-04-01
VOLUME X.---NO. 81.
Too Much Capital REQUIRED.

The old story about the necessity of estab-
ing manufactures is being told by the press and
the people in every part of the South. All
agree that home manufactures would multiply
Southern wealth, increase the supply of money,
relieve our depressed agriculture, and improve
our general condition. But the invariable re-
ply is, too much capital is required. The Mis-
souri, Republican, in discussing this question,
says: ut takes far less capital to start man.
ufacture in favorable place than is imagined !;
the business requires labor more than it re-
quires capital: and there is not a county in
Missouri out offfty that can be named that does
not possess unemployed labor enough to stock
dozen factories. Successful manufactures are
not generally established; they grow from
small beginnings. If company of foreign
capitalists were to 60 into county of this State,
erect large buildings, fit them up with appoved
machinery, and invest one hundred thousand
dollars in particular industry, the probabili-
ties are that it would fail but if the citizens
of the same countyswere to embark in the same
industry on small scale, with eight or ten
thousand dollars employing such labor as they
could get in the vicinity, conducting their op-
erations with economy, feeling their way as they
went along, and enlarging their business as the
demand for their fabrics increased, the exper-
iment would probably grow into prosperous
industry, employing pro6tably one hundred
Thousand dollars. It would make its own cap
ital, and then invest it in an enlarged business.
The enterprise would expand with its annual
profits. Other enterprises would be attracted
by its success, and in few years the place
would be recognized as thrifty manufacturing
community. This is the history of nearly all
the successful industries in this country, and it
is full of encouragement. 1t proves that for
eign money and imported labor are not neces-
sary to the development of healthful and
prafitable system of manufactures, and that
willing labor, energy and determination are
the chief prerequisites. Manufactures are gre
garious; there is a sympathy between indus
tries that cause them to group together. A
busy community irresistibly attracts both cap.
ital and labor; an idle community repels them.
1t is sheer waste of time for an idle popula-
tion to point to their rich soil, fine timber, wa
ter power and beds Of coal and ore, and call on
somebody in the East or. in Europe to come
and work up these cheap materials into fabrics;
the solicited labor and capital will not come,
because they will argue that if the boasted ad-
vantages really exist in the vicinity, the resi-
dent population would improve them. But
let that population 60 resolutely to work
to make fortunes out of their own resources
inaugurating manufactures on small scale
putting in little money and plenty of work
employing all the idle persons in the vicinity,
and managing their business with frugality and
Judgment and they will be surprised and de-
lighted at the result; their example will be
noted abroad; the hum of their operations will
resound far and wide, and the wealth and i'm
migration that avoided them before will eager
ly come forward to assist them"