Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-11-15
Cotton Mills North and South.

n MI Ineueys VI new ua'ihs
turned prophet and predicted ruin to the cotton
manufacturing interest, the editor Of the Manches
ter Mirror called upon ex-Gov. f. A. Straw Pres
ident of the New England Cotton Manufacturers
Association and agent OF the Amoskeag Compa-
ny, and asked him his opinion of that prediction
The Mirror says:
"Mr. Straw is, and has been for twenty one
years. the agent of the largest cotton mill IN the
world; he knows as much about cotton mauuiac
turing as any man, and he is thoroughly iamli'
lar with the water power and all otner advantages
of both the North and South, and he is therefore
better qualified to give reliable opinion upon tne
matter than any other man. The following Is
substantially his view of the case as he was under
stood in brief conversation FIRST, IL Is not lrue
| as stated nv Mr.. Cheney, that more mills nave
| been built 10 Georgia since the war than are now
| in operation in New Hampshire. On the contrary,
there are not in Georgia to-day as many splndles
| as have been added to the machinery OF Manches-
| ter alone since the war. When the war closed
| the Amoskeap Company was running 81 800 spin
| dies; to-day it runs 10000. The Manchester
coronation, which at the close Of the war ran
| about 10000, now runs over lOOOOO The htst
| goods made on the Langdon were of cotton grown
| after the war broke out and the splndies on the
Stark have also been increased. This increase in
the Manchester factories exceeds, rs has been SAID
the entire number of spndles now running in
Georgia, and is constantly going on The IN
| crease in New England manufacturing during the
last ten years is unnOtced and unknown by a
large share of the pnblic, because 1t has taken
place not by the increase in the number OF mills
but by the enlargement of those already built.
There are no more Amoskesg companies now than
there were in 1860, but the one of that name
turns out twice the cloth 1t did before the war
There are two mills in Manchester which use
one per cent. of the entire cotton crop of the
country, and New England now uses more than
twice as much as she did when the war closed.
"Secondy, it is not true, az stated by Mr.. Che
new that the cotton mills in Georgia are all pay
ing In fact, none of them are paving except
a few which supply the small local demand ioi
goods especially adapted TO their section. The
cotton mills at Augusta Ga. were built before the
war, and since have enjoyed comparative degree
| of prosperity, because they have made goods
| for which there was demand in their immediate
| vicinity, the market there having been en-
tirely stripped during the war. But of the new
mills built since the war those at Atlanta will
serve as examples. They were built to compete
with those OF the North. The machinery was
made by Lowell company, which has never been
able to get pay Tor it, aud which Is debating
whether to advance the money to run the mills in
the hope of getting enough out of them TO pay
| for the machinery. No goods are manufactured
| in the South which are able to compete in the
| New York market with those of New England
make, and whenever there has been an attempt to
make these cotton fabrics to supply foreign de-
mand il has failed, as at Augusta. An item has
| been going the rounds to the effect that Massa-
chusetis machine shop had recently shipped to the
South 500 gingham looms. These looms not
| for the making of bingham, but of coarse checked
| goods for negro
| "The increase in the cotton manufacturing
of Manchester and other towns of New Hamp-
| shire has been the result of natural and
healthy growth, and is warranted not only
| by the growth of the market for goods, but by
the advantages which the mills enjoy, while
the establishment of factories in the south has
been an experiment which has thus far resulted in
failure. The South has plenty of water power, but
| it is wholly unimproved and to improve it would
cost more than New England power equally a
good and ready to be used can be bought for, and
until the improved water power in New England
is all in use, that of the South is not worth taking
| the gift of.
at may be stated as general proposition that
manufacturing cannot prosper in a locality in
| which men or women can earn as much by work
| ing upon the soil as they can in the mill. They
| prefer to work for themselves and be independent
of cd lament. This is true even upon the ster-
| lie S9F New Hampshire. The Amoskeag Com
pany has lost more men, whose services it would
have been glad to retain, by their leaving and GO
ing upon farms, than it ever lost by their leaving
to 20 to other mills In the South the soil and cir
mate are of such character that work upon the
land will give better wages than any manufacture
er afford TO pay, and this fact alone renders il
| impossible for that section to engage largely in
| manufacturing.
| Again, the character OF the Southern people uu-
fits them for the service which factory requires.
The only people there who ever do what call
| a days work. that is, who work ten or eleven
| hours in succession, the negroes, who cannot
| be good mill hands. Included among the advan-
| tages which Northern manufacturers have, are
| the surroundings OF these mills, the churches
school houses, society, and other privileges which
| accrue to their operatives, and which they can
My be drawn away from at all by wages ruinous
| to employers. Before Southern mann facturers
| can get good operatives they must supply these
advantages, and their cost must be added to those
of their water powers aud mills. Industries, like
plants, require localities specially adapted to them.
We cannot raise cotton, for while we have soil
enough and demand for it, we lack the peculiar
| conditions necessary to its production The South
can raise it, but cannot manufacture 1t, for the
| same reason. England imports her raw material
and exports her manufactured goods. She sbors
under the same disadvantages in respect to trans
portation as New England but it has taken GEN.
fury for us TO rear people and establish mills
which enable US to successfully compete with her
in markets. and in those of Europe she is still
mistress.
To sum the matter up. The South has water
power and raw material. She lacks capital and a
market, which she might possibly get. She lack 5
the soil and climate and the men and women nee
essary 10 successful manufacturing, and these il is
not possible for her to get aud keep. She caunot,
therefore, compete with New England, which has
the climate, water power capital, men and women,
a reputation, and hold upon the markets.