New Orleans Republican., 1875-11-18
OUR COTTON EXCHANGE.

into the principle of cooperation rs to
combine their market dispatches and en-
| ploy their corporate influence in simplify
ing and economizing the receipt, transfer
and shipment Of cotton, in reporting the
condition of the current crop and fur
nishing the most prompt and accurate
information to the planter and the buyer
which can be afforded. This combination
of labor and cooperation of effort is
1 something new in land where there has
been so much of isolation and competition
in the pursuits of trade.
There were many who thought the Ex-
change could never have effected what it
has done and predicted the not uncom-
mon result of Southern enterprise, a tenn
| porary interest and failure We con-
slider the Cotton Exchange of New Orleans
permanent institution, so long at least
as it shall continue, as at present, to meet
the wants of the cotton trade.
There is, however, far larger and more
important enterprise ahead which falls
within the scope of its powers and Of its
interests. 1t is the domestic manufacture
of cotton goods. Should this great inter-
est be properly planted in the United
States, the planter, laborer and factor will
have the advantage of domestic and for
eien competition for the raw material.
The price of raw cotton is just one-third
that of manufactured cotton. The planter
receives fifteen cents and the miller forty
five cents for pound. This is large
margin, and upon this the millers have
become millionaires, while the planters
are beggars and borrowers of capital. The
Cotton Exchange should then look to the
interests of its constituents and its own.
Events have recently occurred to prove
that cotton goods can be manufactured in
the United States on such terms as to
meet European competition in the mar
kets of the world. More than this, the
astounding fact is published that Ameri-
can cotton goods have been imported into
Manchester, England! We may give the
proofs if our space permits, first from an
American paper, the New York Times, and
secondly from Liverpool England
paper These extracts show by detailed
calculation the profit which American
goods will pay in foreign markets.
The publication in the Liverpool paper
confirms the prospect by showing the
equality of resource in the two countries.
We have published these extracts also in
order that the merchants may consider the
facts and arguments from both an Ameri-
can and European standpoint.
Our cotton factors will thus see that an
immense impulse will be given to the de-
mand for raw cotton, and this must have
the effect of advancing the price by COM
petition. We have known comparisons of
the English and American goods made in
the Mexican market from which it ap-
peared that English weighted drills lost
thirty-three per cent on washing out the |
sizing, while American goods lost less
than ten per cent Indeed, We may see |
that the mixture of inferior cottons is |
beginning to tell in the diminished |
strength of the goods, while goods manu.
factured from American cotton alone, |
which surpass in weight and strength, are
preferred by even the uncivilized wearers
of India and America.
With these encouraging facts comes an |
other inquiry. Can not cotton goods be |
manufactured in New Orleans? The cost
of machinery is the same here as else.
where. The cost of real estate is as cheap |
here as elsewhere. The motive power of
steam will depend here, as in Manchester,
England, upon the cost of coal. Labor,
composed of the elements of subsistence,
food, clothing and fuel should be as cheap
here as at any other place. We have not
only large unemployed population of
whites every way fit for the cotton mills,
but we have a colored population whose
women and girls could tend looms and
spindles, and tie knots as easily as they
can pick cotton. Mexico manufactures
$780, 900 bales of cotton, exclusively with
native operatives, and we have the same
to import the skilled labor of
England with other American communi-
ties. There, are some peculiar advan-
tages which may be found of importance
in this inquiry.
!. The spinner here would not be COM
PEELED to lay in and hold stock Of cotton
on interest and insurance. 1t would be
held by the shipper.
2. There would be saving of commits
sions and freights in the cotton COM
pressed into cloth. We number 5,OOO,-
900 of cotton wearing people on this con-
tinent, to supply whom Europe must
send across an intervening ocean.
We can not omit remarking that if the
supremacy of American cotton fabrics
should be established and the manufac-
ture be confined to the Northern, Western
and Middle States, cotton for home manu-
facture would take direct overland and
coast transportation to those mills, which
would diminish their tendency to seek the
New Orleans market and outlet. A local
and home demand in the immediate coun-
try above and around New Orleans, as in
the city ITSELF would preserve the GEN.