The Portland daily press., 1877-11-14
New England and the Cotton Interest.

In manufacturing circles an apprehension
has been felt of late that the manufacturing
interests of the North, of New England
especially, are on the decline, and that the
South, once more prosperous and aided by
Northern industry and shrewdness, will
hereafter make her own wares. The appre-
hension is more particularly felt in regard to
cotton goods. 1t has been said the South
will perceive that it puts itself to unnecessary
expense by sending its raw staple to the
North and then buying it back, at the added
cost of many profits, in the shape of manu-
factured goods. This idea has been the more
generally accepted because of the reported
success of the Georgia cotton mills. But the
conclusions drawn by those who entertain
the belief that the manufacturing power is
passing from New England are based upon
insufficient premises.
The South has many and fine water-powers
it is true; but something more than water
powers are needed to make mills: To begin
with, much accumulated capital is necessary
for the starting of manufactures which can
hope to compete with rich and long-estab-
lished corporations. That capital the East
possesses, but in view of the many instances
of Southern and Western bad faith il will re-
fuse to lend it for employment there. Nor
will it readily try ventures there of which it
can control the management; the chances of
success are too small, the prospects of fail
ure too evident. The South in the first place
lacks the laborers needful to the success of
manufacturing industries. Mills cannot find
employees in any section where work upon
the land gives better wages than manufac-
turels can afford to pay. So long as men or
women can earn as much by working upon
the soil as by working in the mill they will
choose the soil; for there they are independ-
ent of confinement and encouraged by the
hope, not difficult of realization, that they
may become owners of the land themselves.
In the South nearly the entire laboring pop
ulation is made up of negroes, and negroes
are notoriously poor mill hands. Then, too,
the water-power of the South though good,
Is wholly unimproved and to improve it
would cost more than would New England
water-power equally as good and ready to be
used. Until the water-power of the is
all in use no Eastern man of experience will
buy or attempt to improve the water-power OF
the South.
The truth is the history of the Georgia
cotton mills has been msrepresented. Those
at Augusta were built before the war, and
have gained nothing since. Those at Atlanta
have been built within the last decade, and
to day they owe the East for their machinery.
They cannot make goods which compete in
any market with those of New England, they
confne their manufactures to coarse stufs
for plantation wear, and their profits have
never been large enough to enable them tc
pay the expenses of their esta ablishment.
There are not now in all Georgia as many
the machinery of the town Of Manchester, in
the neighboring state of New Hampshire
During the last decade there has been con-
slant increase in Northern manufactures oil
this sort, while Southern manufactures show
little if any progress. We of the North
make up twice as much cotton as we did al
the close of the war. Our manufacturers
have no reason to fear. AS well might we
fear Russia in the leather trade because ot
the hides she sends, or Texas because OF her
herds. Across the water old England, labor
ing under the same disadvantages as New
England, importing her raw material and ex-
porting her manufactured goods as we do, is
the workshop of Europe. The position she
occupies in relation to the markets of the
Eastern continent, we occupy in relation to
the Western-and it will be long years hence
before our supremacy is seriously disputed.