The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-01-21
MoRE ABoUT COTTON MANUEAcTURING
Mobile Regis er.l

Mobile Regiserl
Returning to a subject which has bee
canvassed among the people of Mobile TO
half century without substantial resulte
it is not amiss to cali attention to it one
more. The life of Mobile at present hans
upon the handling of bales of cotton passing
through this port. This business will al
| ways m aintain city of a certain population
| upon Mobile Bay, but it liz not sufficient tt
give employment to the increasing popula
| ton of this section of Alabama. 1t 10 fa
from sufficient to build up such city as oul
capacious harbor and our extensive rivel
system justify. We must have cheap Goa
from the Warrior coal6elds, and We mus
| have factories to spin our cotton. That
| eminent stRtistician, Mr.. Atkinson, of Bos
| ton, has recently shown in detail the ad-
vaptages possessed by the American manu-
| factories of cotton over the English. These
advantages are possessed in pre- eminent
degree by the Southern manufacturer. The
English spinner pays one cent pound
more for his cotton than the American.
This is an advantage to the latter equal to
twenty five per cent. higher price of the
labor required TO manufacture. Ocean
transportation of manufactures to Central
and South America gives US another advan-
tage equal to ten per cent. of the price of la
Dor. Labor ia not actually much higher here
than in Eugland now. considering efficiency
of management. In England more mills are
run by steam-Ours mostly by water power,
which is cheaper. Interest is not much
higher to the American than to the English
cotton spinner. Oar disadvantages, he
says, are in our cumbrous tax system, our
deprecated currency, and our navigation
laws, which pervent us from having com
mercial marine. But be thinks we ought
at least to supply the Central and South
American States.
Few of our people stop to enquire as to
the amOnnt and valua Of axn0rta from Enp
land to countries at the very door of Mo
bile. Great Britain supplies Canada, South
America, Mexico, Central America and the
West Indies with $50 600, 900 yards of goods
in year, nearly equal TO one third OF the
whole production of the United States, while
we supply these Ststes only about 10, 900, 900
yardsT Is there any reason in the nature
of things, that our next door neighbor, who
would be only too glad to enter reciprocity
treaties with us, should buy of Great Bri
tain cotton cloth equal in number of yards,
though perhaps not in pounds, to over
thirty per cent. of the whole production of
the country, while we sell to these countries
in yards little over a half of one per cent.
of our production What is there in the
nature of things that should cause the trade
between the United States and Uruguay to
be conducted in this manner Uruguay sells
US large portion of her great supply of raw
hides. The hides are tanned in New Eng
'ouap tio leatneE 10 OK pOEJou W . WNZcElduOs
where 1t is manufactured into shoes lined
with cotton fabric made of American cotton,
and the shoes are then sent back to Uruguay
aud other South American States to be sold.
Furthermore, Uruguay gets her pay for the
hides from us in money, this money is sent
to London in sterling bills, and there inves
ted in British cotton goods manufactured
from American cotton, and these goods are
exported to Uruguay.
Brazil buys an immense quantity of flour
from Great Britain, paying her in coffee
and fruits which find their way to Boston
and New York. The -four is manufactured
from wheat shipped to Great Britain from
st. Louis. Mobile should ship cotton man
ufactures and -four to Cuba, to Brazil and
to Mexico direct in exchange for coffee and
sugar. Mr.. Atkinson asks whether it would
not, perhaps, be well to urge upon Congress
the expediency of entering into treaties OF
reciprocal trade with all the States of the
continent of America, and for time at
least permit US to try the virtue of re-
moving rather than imposing restrictions
upon our trade with our immediate neigh.
bora.
These suggestions have an especial inter.
eat for the Southern manufacturers, as Their
fabrics are mostly of the coarser kinds, ab
sorbing heavy weight of cotton, and it ie
in these fabrics that our relative al vantage
over Great Britain is the greatest. The
demand of Canada and South America is
for cotton goods of heavy weight and firm
texture, and as we even now import raw
hides and other commodities from South
America to Il considerably larger amount
than we export goods, there can be but
little doubt that treaties of reciprocity
would immensely increase our commerce.