Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-01-24
The Cotton Manufacture.

Mr.. Il. +. Nourse, of Boston, who is an
acknowledged authority in regard to cotton
manufactures, has contributed to the New
York Herald an elaborate statement, from
which we segregate and condense certain
points interesting as well to the general read
Mr.. Nourse is to show the actual and relative
condition of the cotton manufacture, as indi-
eating its future prosperity and proftableness.
most significant fact is met at the outset,
of which more will be said further on In
1860, the number of yards of cloth produced
per pound Of cotton was l-2; in 1870, it
was IA; in 1873, l-2; showing, as the
quality of cloth Of given standard has not de-
| Perforated, that we are making more finer
qualities of cloths. The production was, in
1860, Zoo, DOC, 900; in 1870, LAG, OOO, 900 !;
and in 1873, 1857 ,OOO, 900 yards; or rather
cloth, yarn, &C., equal to such number of
yards. In the year 1873 our export of cotton
goods was the largest ever reached, and
amounted in value to 81 1856 200, as against,
in 1875, S., 4sl 600; and this, too, while in
1875 the value of our exports per pound was
80 cents, and in 1873, 20 cents. This export
in 1873 amounted to 6 20 per cent of our
production.
| Mr.. Nourse, who takes his figures from
mill records, says: "The present production,
per labOrer employed, as compared with the
same in the same kind Of production in 1860,
;e nj in, xba g. -.
and 60 to Go per cent. more in the finer, while
| the labor cost per pound is reduced only 22
to 80 per cent and the weekly earnings of
the operatives are 10 to to 25 per cent. larger
now than in 1860, and the cost of living now
| (of the same kind is less" "Improved ma
chinery, then" says the Providence Journal
''has given increased product, and, as we in
terpret it, with fewer hands, at keener vigil
lance, and an improved rate of wages, cost of
living taken into consideration. In other
words, the tendency is to the use of machines
which, dispensing with proportion of opera
| tives, require in those managing them
greater skill, which is comparatively paid
| This in part at least seems to be shown by
the fact that during the thirty-eight years
| from 1888 to 1876, the cost of labor per pound
of product was reduced 40 per cent, and the
production per operative increased $50 per
cent. The amount of capital invested was
in 1860 (census) sos, OOO, 600; in 1870, (cen-
sus) Sl4l 100000; in 1873, ESTIMATED
s20s, 900, 900; and the average return on cap
ital for 1878, is set down at per cent
SO far we find that the capacity to produce
by machinery has been a factor constantly in
creasing in value; and that wages, as com
pared with 1860, are higher, and that the ex-
port trade has regularly increased in monetary
amount since 1872. With reference to the
production of finer qualities of goods, there is
nothing in the nature of the case to prevent
our making the finest, that is, if price of pro-
duction is excluded, for il is said that finer
thread has been spun in this country than any
ever produced by machinery in England, bu,
as the least instructed understand this matter
| Of making the finer goods, it is one which
must be entered into cautiously, and which will
succeed only after many experiments that il
will eventually succeed is to be predicted a.
confidently as it is that the capital, the inven-
tive energy and the business activity of New
England will not stop short of desirable and
profitable end. Mr.. Nourse assumes it to be
demonstrated that America is now MAKING
cotton goods of all the coarser sorts Mt less
cost Of production than the cost of the same
in England a few months ago, but cannot vet
produce very fine goods as profitably.
4 Besides, we are building now 70 per cent.
or more, of the cotton machinery used in
this country, and the home made machinery
of nearly all kinds is better, as well as
cheaper, than the English. As to the growth
of our exports, Mr.. Nourse puts it upon the
true and familiar ground of mercantile enter
prise, and although he anticipates that Eng.
land will make more genuine article, and
at cheaper cost than before the recent re-
| 0uctlOn in be has canfIanca in
ability to enter the markets of the world,
whenever commercial activity shall take that
direction. with our cotton goods in a success
ful and increasingly successful way.
The testimony of Mr. Nourse, as an ex-
pert, is eplitlad TO high consideration
it is certainly IS favorable for the future pros
poets Of the cotton manufacture rs the ordi-
nary observer would have anticipated, and
lyet il Tpps exactly in the LING Of ths logic Of