The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-07-19

r the countries from which it draws its SUI
: plies, through increase OF population an
advancement in skill come TO col
: sumo AT home all their raw materii
and grain, the manufacturing nation
: distressed. This has now taken place i
e New England. While their gres
) factories are suspended because they car
: not sell their cotton cloth for what
$ costs them to produce it, the factories c
; Georgia and Mississippi are increasin
! their dimensions, and overlooking wit
orders which they fill at handsom
{ profit. What is the wise course for on
Northern countrymen but to recogniz
the obvious fact that the power loom ant
spindle are no longer valuable except whel
set down beside the cotton plant and gil
stand
A country which finds its marke
abroad, so soon a. the people whom i
supplies come to produce ut home tn,
articles which they use, will transfer t.
them part of its skilled labor and capital
We get from the middle States our nipple
ments, utensils, vehicles and furniture
But when we shall begin to convert oul
walnut aud magnolia into chairs, table.
and wardrobes, our hickory, white oak,
and pine into barrels, plows and carriages,
a portion of the artistic labor now en-
ployed in those States in furnishing these
things to our IN trket will be transferred
TO us, to convert our great forests into
manufacturing cities The Northwest
sends US grain, provisions and live stock
But when we shall! change our rich fields
into sources of wheat, maize and rye, our
| vast prairies into stock farms and pasture
lands, part Of the wealth employed in
that country in producing those things
for our use, will be transferred TO our
land of lighter work and quicker profits.
The next fifteen years, if the South
was true to herself, might see mass OF
manufacturing wealth, and skilled arts
tic labor transferred from other countries
to the Southern Gulf States.
Convinced it is feasible aud desirable
to originate industries in our State, our
people entrench themselves behind the
lmpregnable barriers of poverty and ig-
noranee, urging that it will require great
skill and large capital to originate and
sustain those things, and poor farmers,
merchants and professional men are not
equal to the undertaking. But they
and sustain these enterprises.
Why do they educate themselves for
lawyers, doctors, politicians, farmers and
merchants, when we have already a
superabundance of each of these classes?
Thesam time and labor which is required
to learn one of those old pursuits would
initiate one into the mysteries of new
industry. And because Of the want of
competition, aud the encouragement
which would be given it by grateful
people, the profits of the new business
would exceed any of the old, He who
would him self be skilled artistic work
man, or would give to the State son,
versed in Il new pursuit, would accom-
plish more than has been attained by
many an orator, soldier and statesman.
In making a fortune for himself or
his child, he would contribute to the
general wealth.
In introducing new industry into
country like ours an individual with
small means has the advantage ola great
corporation with vast capital The pro
ducts of new industry are candidates for
public favor. They must become fash
ionable and build up market. While
the market is being made the great Joint
stock company, with its mass of machine
ry and army of skilled workmen, is an
unproductive outlay. But the individu-
al, with no unremunerative expense, in
process of creating his market is increas-
ing his capacity for supplying it.
1t is dangerous thing in new coun-
try to start a new industry on too great
a scale. That is the cause, | think, of
the failures in originating enterprises in
our State. But while in the hands of
their originators those schemes have
sometimes failed, we observe other men
a ways ready to buy out the business. |
And in the hands Of these other men,
they have uniformly proved successful. !
Industries may be introduced in either
way. But the company must have sur
plus capital to sustain the enterprise
until the market grows up to the supply.
While the individual can with small
means originate sustaining industry
with equal chance of success.
The greatest industries on earth have
originated with small capital and individ
ual effort Rhode Island is one of the
chief manufacturing States of the Union.
But the first industry in Rhode Island
was a skilled Englishman from Man
chester weaving cloth on a single hand
loom. Passing through North Carolina
some years ago one would have been
surprised to find on manYspring branches,
griSt mills with small factories in the
upper rooms, run by the same machinery.
Those mills have grown into elaborate
structures and the manufacturing wealth |
e hos M tol
importance. Some gardeners in Dele |
ware began sending fruit and vegetables
to the Philadelphia market. The pur
suit has continued to advance and ex
pand until the traveller through that |
State, passes miles and miles among OF
chards, vineyards and gardens, while on
every side are great buildings for canning
their vegetables, preserving and drying
their fruit,
The orIgination of new industry is
all important. Then it becomes mag !
net. Labor, capital, population, COM
merce, wealth. liz iron filings, come and
cluster around it. Its progress is rapid
as that of flower in one Of our Southern
gardens. The morning breeze which |
kisses the dew-drops from the petals of
tender bud, returning at eventide, is
laden with the perfume of the full-blown
rose.
Within the memory of men now living,
the site at the junction of the Concord !
and Merrimac rivers was a country of
small farms. Delapidated homesteads,
decaying fences, rugged country roads
and wasting fields were the features OF
the landscape. In 1914 Josiah Fletcher
established there a cotton mill Sixty
feet long, fifty feet wide, running eigh
teen hand looms aud employing twenty