Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-03-24
actual market rate, nearly three millions of

per cent. gear upon the capital employed.
This has been accomplished under most un.
favorable circumstances. There was q want
of peculiar kind of labor required. There
was lack of experience in management.
There was not sufficient knowledge of the
changes in organization made necessary by
local circumstances. Yet as we said before,
the Carolina Mills have uniforml y made large
profits, have increased the value of their
property, and are now in a condition which
can only be described as one of unexampled
and amazing prosperity.
The South Carolina Factories have 95,938
spindles, with 1888 looms They produce
101 1888 yards of cloth, and II ,483 pounds Of
v?rn each full working day, and consume for
each such day 54,394 pounds of raw cotton.
This, it will be noticed, is equal, on the basis
Of 300 full working days in the year, to an
annual consumption of l6,3l8,200 pounds,
or 36,262 bales of $50 pounds each. The
producer of the cotton finds a market at home,
and the manufacturer obtains the cotton at
the low rate which, with other favoring cir.
cumstances, makes its manufacture so pro6ta-
BILE.
An army of ten thousand persons are sup
ported by the South Carolina Cotton Mills
There are 2,6lz operatives, upon whom 81 43
persons are dependent for support. The
amount paid out in wages monthly is $38, ,159,
and the rate of wages for spinners ranges
from 25 cents to 78 cents day, according to
the situation and the character of the labor.
A striking feature of this business is that,
upon the present basis, every S22S invested in
cotton manufactures in South Carolina supports
one person, either by his own labor or throug h
that of the operative upon whom he is depend.
ent. We contend, therefore, as We have done
for years, that there is no other form in
which capital can be invested in South Caro-
lima in which it difuses as many and as rich
benefits as in the manufacture Of cotton.
Employment is given to white women and
children who could find no other work equal
ly we'll adapted to their strength, and produc.
ing as large return for their labor. 1t is
found likewise that their engagement in this
work cultivates their intelligence. and by
bringing them together in groups, where they
are subject to elevaling social influences, en-
courages them to seek education, and i'm
proves them in every conceivable respect, as
future husbands and wives, SONS and daugh-
ters, parents, and children in South Caro-
lima.
The point Oh which we lay the most stress
is that, to the extent in which cotton produced
in South Carolina ia manufactured in the
State, the whole of the profits upon that cot
ton, from its first stage to the last, remains
in some form within the State for the benefit
of its people, While the cotton is produced
here and manufactured elsewhere, South Caro-
lima is in the position of furnishing the ele-
ments which makes other communities rich.
EDgland's wealth came from the manufacture
of raw material supplied to her by the United
States and other countries, which were indus
trially dependent upon her land nearer home
we know. that the wealth Of New England is
due to the profit made upon the manufacture
of the raw material which the South sup
plies, and which the South, selling to New
England at the average cost of produc.
ton, buys back from New England at a
high price in its Manufactured state. We are
changing all this. The pound of raw cotton
which is worth in South Carolina ten cents, is
converted. in South Carolina mill into
quantity Of yarn fifteen per cent. less in
weight, which fifteen per cent. represents the
loss in manufacturing. This yarn will sell in
a South Carolina or Northern market to-day
at an average of % to % cents per pound.
The whole Of this difference between the 10
cents for the raw cotton and the % cents,
which is the price of the yarn made from it,
is additional profit reaped by the people of
South Carolina, on every pound of cotton
which they can manufacture in this State. 1t
is easily calculable, therefore, that upon the
36,262 bales of cotton annually consumed by
the eighteen cotton mills in South Carolina,
the additional benefit to the people is some.
thing enormous. These 36,262 bales of cot
ton, at ten cents pound, are worth 81 ,63l $50
in the raw State, and in ordinary yarns, sell
ing at % cents a pound, the manufactured
goods produced from this amount Of raw cot
ton would be worth $3,932,l50, after deduct.
ing fifteen per cent. for waste in the process of
manufacture. This is, perhaps, the simplest
form in which to exhibit the advantage OF
cotton manufactures in the South, for it must
be borne in mind that about the whole OF the
difference, less commissions, freight and trans
portaton, between the value Of the raw cotton,
Sl,631 ,82O, and the value of the manufac-
tured article, s3,932,l5O goes directly to per-
sons living in the State, and, in helping them,
helps the State itself. What does not remain
with the factories themselves, in the shape of
dividends and interest upon the capital en-
ployed, goes out in wages, rents and other ex'
penses to people living here. With the finer
goods the difference between the value Of the
raw material and the value of the manufac-
tured article is considerably greater. In other
words, cotton manufacturing in South Carroll
ma, without in any way affecting the profits of
the producer, will make fortunes and build up
large cities and thriving towns, with happy
and intelligent populations, in this State, in.
stead of giving these things, at the expense of
the South, to the people Of New England.
The probability is that for many years to
come the bulk of the cotton mills in the South
will be making yarns and coarse cloths, so
that the extension of cotton manufacture in
the South will not necessarily destroy the in
dustries of New England, but will merely
change the character of the work. They will
have to devote themselves to the finer class of
work, just as England has been forced by
New England to do, until, in the fullness OF
time, they shall find some other means Of en-
ploying their capital pro6tably, and the South
shall successfully control the cotton manufac.
lures of the country.
Of course the report we publish is confined
exclusively to the cotton manufacturing in.
terests of the State. There are great many
other classes of manufactures in the State,
and it needs no argument to see that, with
the general. establishment of cotton factories