The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-05-31
SOUTHERN COTTON MANUFAC-
TURES.


win New sng Innd In the NnnWinc'
imrc Of Cotton.
Baltimore Evening Bulletin, 18th :
The last. and perhaps the most interest
ing of the able and instructive papers
on American cotton" by Mr.. Edward
Atkinson, which have been published in
the New York Herald, is that printed on
last Monday. 1t considers the subject OF
cotton manufacture at the south and
proncupccs against the attempt 10 cstab'
Ish the industry there, believing that it
can only he successfully conducted in
New England. Mr. Atkinson supports
his judgment with an elaborate and
careful array of those facts and figures
and comparisons which he knows so we'll
the value and use of, and reasons from
them in very close and apparently con
elusive way. We have read Mr.. Atkin-
sons paper with at least the attention it
deserves, and have been deeply impressed
with the force Of much that he says.
We have not, however been able to ar
rive Mt the conclusions to which he
comes, and we will endeavor to set forth
why not? Mr.. Atkinson fallacy seems
to be more or less of the same sort as the
Nations ialIacy, which we pointed out
Yesterday in regard to the Turks and
Russians that because things are not
done in the most scientific way, they
cannot be done at ALL The Turks can.
not defend their country, because they
have not the best arms and the finest
battali0na. SO Mr.. Atkinson says, with
undoubted truth, that cotton-spinning
requires for its permanent success a large
capital, very few operatives. ample
banking facilities. thoroughly organ
lied system of distribution, a machine
shop on one side and a paper mill to
work up the waste on the other; but,
more than all, it requires habit and
training for it, or other like occupations
in the mass of the community, and a
cool or cold climate, in which long hours
of persistent but not arduOus indoor Ia
Dor can be sustained. Undoubtedly this
is every bit true, as it applies to the
populations with which Mr.. Atkinson
has been in the habit of dealing. But
nevertheless, the view is not onlya
ONE-sIDED VIEW
it is false one. Take an illustrations:
By parity of reasoning the manufacture
of -four can only be conducted in the
great and costly mills of Minnesota,
where the water-power, the processes, the
machinery, the operatives, banking iacili'
ties, means of consumption for waste,
system of distribution, etc, are all more
perfect than anywhere else. Why, then,
do not mills elsewhere stop, because
milling can he done cheapest in Mime
sofa? The Minnesota flour comes to
Baltimore to Richmond, to New York,
but the other merchant mills which sup
ply these cities do not stop running; do
not lose their profits. Every stream in
the land where there is head enough OF
water to turn an undershot wheel, every
fall where few logs or stones can make
a dam, there you will find country mills.
In fiat countries the old turn.abOut wind
mill, with ils uneasy sails and its huge
rudder, is everywhere to be seen, and in
the south there are woodland mills that
are not even rooted over nor weather.
boarded, where dribble of water turns
two diminutive burrs, set upon plat
form made of slabs and puncheOns; all
the same, the mills run, and must run at
profit, or the business would be discon-
tinued, since there is no capital invested
in them to enable them to sustain loss.
So it is, and so it will be, with the cotton
manufacture, for the reason that every
enterprise must have its rude beginning
in the rude way, and with the rude ap-
pliance. Capital, fine machinery, skilled
labor, organized system, and competition
taxing every energy to keep the margin
of profit from crossing over the border
and turning into loss; these do not come
until long afterward, and when the
highly artificial system has been per
fectly developed and matured. 1t is
LAW OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
that in the fields where fine machinery
steady labor and large capital are EN-
ployed, the margin both of profit and
wages is marked down to the lowest
point. This was clearly and satisfac'
torily demonstrated by General Franci.
A. Walker. in his able and instructive
introduction to the industrial statistics
of the ninth census. The points here
made are unconsciously illustrated by
Mr.. Atkinson himself, when. referring to
the mill reported upon by Slr: Burke,
which contained six thousand nine nun
dred and fifty-fve spindles 1Peralnh1SS ,,1S
upon No. IA yarn, he says, 1T ", WoI.u 1aOa
not lie good economy to o1I'd y WouId mid not not
than four times the size; Ttou mou have
be good economy where ,,omv nney at " the
proved that it is good, eeoag%y &c ,hirtv AZ thou
soui" sou5 dollar and forty thousand dollar pi
T',HI miIIs never never costing more than one hun