The Russellville Democrat., 1877-05-31
SOUTHERN COTTON MANUFAC.
 TURES.
Why the Ssuth can suceessfu1ly Compete with New Ens1ana fn the Mnnufhe-
 fure 0f CoflOu


 Why the ssuth can successralls Compete
 with New Enslana in tlse Mnaufhe-
 tare of Cotton.
 Baltimore Evening Bulletin, 12th: The last, and perhaps the most interest ing. of the able and instructive papers on !" American cotton," by MT. Edward Atkinson. which have been published in the New York Herald, is that printed on last Monday. It considers the subject of cotton manufacture at the south, and proneunces against the attempt to estab- fish the industry there, believing that it can only be successfully conducted in New England. Mir. Atkinson supports his judgment with an elaborate and careful array of those facts and figures and comparisons which he knows so well the value and use of, and reasons from them in a very close and apparently con elusive way. We have read Mir. 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 at the conclusions to which he comes, and we will endeavor to set forth why not? Mr. Atkinson's fallacy seems to be more or less of the same sort as the Nations fallacy, 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 battalions. So Mir. Atkinson says, with undoubted truth, that cotton-spinning requires for it's permanent slccess large capital, very few operatives. ample banking facilities, thoroughly organ ized system of distribution, a machine shop on one side and 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 la bor can be sustained. Undoubtedly this is every bit true, as it applies to the populations with which MT. Atkinson has been in the habit of dealing. But nevertheless, the view is not only a
 oNE-sIDED VIEW
 Lit is false one. Take an illustration By parity of reasoning the manufacture of flour can only be conducted in the great and costly mills of Minnesota, where the water-power, the processes, the machinery, the operatives, banking facili 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 be done cheapest in Mime sota? 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; dc not lose their profits. Every stream ir the land where there is head enough o water to turn an undershot wheel, every fall where a few logs or stones can make dam, there you will find country mills In flat countries the old turn about wind mill, with it's uneasy sails and its huge rudder, is everywhere to be seen, and il the south there are woodland mills that are not even roofed over nor weather boarded. where dribble of water turnl two diminutive burrs, set upon plat form made of slabs and puncheons; al the same, the mills run. and must run al a 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 cottor 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 tht highly artificial system has been per fectly developed and matured. It is
 A LAW OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
 that in the fields where fine machinery steady labor and large capital are em ployed, the margin both of profit and wages is marked down to the lowest point. This was clearly and satis,ac. 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 MT. Atkinson himself, when, referring to the mill reported upon by MT. Burke which contained six thousand nine hun. dred and fifty-tive spindles operating upon No. II yarn, he says: "It would not be good economy to build mill les than four times the size" Would not be good economy where ? They have proved that it is good economy at the south to build these little thirty thou, sand dollar and forty thousand dollar mills, never costing more than one hun dred thousand dollars or two hundred thousand dollars-proved it by their amazing fecundity in dividends-proved it by building more and more of them, and by intending to build more of them still. Last year, and year before last when the huge Fall river and Rhode Island establishments, with their capitals of from one million dollars up to ten million dollars, were idle, selling their goods below cost in New York, hands starving and interest on debts crumbling the value of all their stocks away,
 THE LITTLE THREE-CENT ESTABLISH
 MENTs.
 down south were busy as bees and merry as crickets, turning out their osnaburgs, muslin and jeans under full pressure, and reaping the rewards in dividends that ranged up from ten to thirty per cent. At this very moment, when the establish ments of the Spragues and Hoyts and Laurences are dying of dry-rot, these nameless little yarn-weavers at the south, in and around Augusta, and every other riparian town, are not only cOining money, but educating the southern peo. pie in the ways and means of new in- dustry which will populate all their