The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-03-11
Increase 81 Southern ManpfActurins
Industries. -. a5s,

WITHIN the twenty years WHICH nav
elapsed since the war, cotton factorie.
have sprung up in every part Of TIN
notably In. the two Carolina
and in Georgia. And the activity and
success of those mills that have been
built are little less than astonishing
Examining the present census returns,
find that the five principal cotton-lnan.
Qfacturing States of New England
Maine, Massac husetts, New Hampshire,
Connecticut and Rhode Island-are
estimated to have in their factories
1856, 1929 spindles; and that the five
principal cotton manufacturing States
Of the South, namely, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and
Alabama, have only .4O5, 937: that is,
that the New England States employ
about seventeen times as many spindles
as do the five Southern States named.
And yet the former consumed, accord
ing to these same tables, only about
eight times as much as did the latter.
The New England States are said to
have used 1,132,268 bales; the five
Southern States mentioned, 154, 1879.
In other words, while the New England
factories consumed about one bale of
cotton to every eight spindles, the
Southern factories used about enc to
every three and half spindles., More
over, I am credibly informed that dur
ing the last decade the increase in the
consumption Of cotton for manufactur-
ing purposes in New England was only
80 per centum, while in the
South it was 120 per centum, and
that the actual amount con-
sumed during the same period by
New England and Southern mills re-
spectively was in about the proportion
of five to one. And the profits realized
from Southern mills seem to have been
great in proportion to their activity.
The average gross earnings of the Au-
gusta (Ga.) mills are stated to be ~ per
centum of its capital; during the last
ten years the average profit of the fac
tories at Langley, S. c., have been 8
per centum upon their capital, and IN
that period there has been an accumu-
lation of surplus amounting to about
one-fourth of the whole capital invested;
and last year the Van Cluse mills Ecf
South Carolina) realized 81 per centum
profits; those of Greenville, s. c., Is 1-2
per centum. - " r an V,92tN.
Another, striking indication of the
rapid industrial progress of the South is
the recent growth of her towns both in
wealth and In population. Some in
stances of this are scarcely less astonish-
ing than the birth of cities which has
followed upon mineral discoveries in
the West. learn that ten years ago
the present site of the town of Birming-
ham, Ala, was cotton field. Now it
is brisk manufacturing town, with q
population of six thousand. The town
of Wilmington, N. c., has by industrial
enterprise almost doubled its population
since the war, and it is only
following the example set it by number
less other towns of the South, as, notably,
by the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which
since 1860 has grown from village in
to city. In 1860 the town Of Atlanta
had q population of about 9 800 in 1870
her population had increased to 81, 789;
in 1880 she is reckoned in the census
returns to have considerably more than
thirty thousand. This extraordinary
growth is. due in part to the fact that
she is the center of an extensive railway
system which connects her directly with
every quarter of the Union; but it is
principally attributable to her activity in
trade and manufacture. Its chief man
ufactures are iron, -four and tobacco,
though others are fast assuming a place
among the first.
Hitherto coarse goods only have been
made by most Southern mills, because
of the want of skilled labor, in which
alone they are lacking. But with the
influx of capital which is certain to
come soon, where it can find its most
facile, and therefore most profitable,
employment, will come skilled laborers
as well, and then there need be no limit
to the production of cotton goods of all
grades. Indeed, some Southern mills
are already producing the finer fabrics.
The Wilmington On. CO. mills make
and supply in large quantity the cloth
on which calicoes are printed; and the
Augusta (Ga.) factory has long en-
ployed skilled hands in the production
of fine goods. Then, too, the South is
found rich in an abundance of ores
which, invite to the building of other
manufactures such as have for years
fourished in Atlanta. = Wilmington N.
CO.. Cor. N. 2. Ecening Post.
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