The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1881-11-19

eeSsive. If we do not have a rail-
way panic or some other temporal
~ check to our prosperity, in the
three years named, the normal in
crease of our population win not
be far from i.5OO,O00, to which i'm,
migration will add l 500, 600 more
100000 in all. The normal in
crease of spindies required would
therefore, be 100000 without
counting ON new uses for cotton
fabrics, or increase of exports.
Such win cost not far from $50, 900
O0e complete, with their requisite
dwellings and auxiliary buildings,
and they viii require about 225,O0
bales of cotton in each year at the
present average.
That you will share in this in
crease is the wish of every man,
but that you can, as yet, share even
in a measure that will much more
than compensate for the increase
ofpopulation in your own section
is not much to be expected, taking
the whole three years into account
but your prospect will be vastly
better in three years, when the
normal increase must be 100000
spindles.
Let me sayn a few words upon
the subject of greatest moment to
you and to us. What you have
lacked most in the past have been
means of mter-commInication.
Your country has been inhabited
by a sparce and widely scattered
population-the area of your land
under cultivation in cotton has
never exceeded 3per cent. of the
area Of the specific cotton States.
Your former system of labor for
babe diversity of occupation and
confined you mainly to the pursuit
of agriculture, and you know your.
selves better than | do how large a
share of every crop is swallowed
up in freight and charges.
There is nothing in the world sc
important to you as the reduction
of the cost of moving, baling
pressing and disposing Of youl
cotton. 1t is Of the utmost impor
tance to us and to you that the
cotton shall pass from the farm tc
the factory at the very lowest
cost.
What we need most is middlinl
cotton at 10 cents q pound or less
and what you need most is that
the biggest part of the 10 cents
shall go into the pocket of the mal
who raises the cotton
When middling cotton is 0 cents
a pound in New York drills can b,
prottably made and sold at 7 conti
a yard. If, then, a wide marke
is open at that price, the point a
which the grower of cotton shoul,
aim would be to diminish all th'
intermediate charges between tn,
farm and the market. What ar,
those charges
1. Your costly and wasteful sys
tenn of ginning and baling with al
old fashioned country press.
2. Heavy expenses for gcttin,
your cotton to a railroad.
3. Comprising and factors
charges.
4. Freights to the principal mar
kets twice or three times as high
as those which prevail, between
East and West.
What portion of the 10 cents il
New York do these charges alb
sorb \ quarter9 Yes--a third
Yes, often. And at every poin
on the way. in the gin, in the press
on the wagon and on the rail, you
cotton is deprecated. The onl,
thing that saves you is that yol
possess the only land yet open t.
civilization which can produce thC
staple needed.
Egypt, under English rule, whicl
may be near, could equal you ever
at that.
IF the northern Italians, who art
now moving in force 100000 las
year, mostly to the Paraguay ant
Parana rivers of South America
should take up cotton growing
they may possess a land equal tC
your own.
No monopoly can long be sus
,ained upon the face of this earth
and even you must be prepared
for competition.
| have said that there is no bet
ter single standard than the pro
portion of railroads to the square
mile of territory of any State, by
which to guage the condition anC
prosperity of the people.
But look at Ohio, Illinois, Iowa
consider these lines which repre-