St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1881-11-26
SOUTHERN PROSPERITY.

SOUTHERN GkVSIEhllIs
Wonderful Growth of the Southern states
Since the Wharf.-The bright Future u,
store for Them-Cotton Products ana
Prospects, etc.
The following are extracts from the
address of Mr.. Edwin Atkinson, OF Mas
sachusetts, delivered at the Cotton In
hibition at Atlanta:
If in my devotion to the principle OF liberty
l have ever offended you, forgive me Tor my
cause. 1t is the great and central 1d'h ny
which this nation lives. 1t Is in its spirit and
moved by its impulse that the Foundation OF
this exhibition has been laid. Even YOU Your
selves do not yet know how deep hold 1t mas
upon US all Why, gentlemen, am al,l"se
appalled, by what see and by what You nave
accomplished in less than Il single year since
the mention of this undcrtakinG-in less than
six months since the first practical measures
were taken in los days from the beginning OF
the work to the opening day. think thai w
who are from the North way we'll return honis
and ponder Il little on what this means.
may not conclude that erred when we
helped YOU lift the burden OF slavery from
your shou ders. which has kept you back SO
lung in your competition with us. suppose
we should go home and muster once more an
armed force. three times your number. ana
come down here again to establish slavery.
Could we it? Never! Never! Never
You have deprecated every crop of cotton
y
care and attention III ginning, bailing. press.
ing and caring for the cotton between the held
and the factory. You can save hall your labor
and add 10 per cent to the value OF your crop
if you will use the new tools and machines
here on exhibition and heed the words which
now speak
The Southern planter and farmer has no
knowledge, As yet, outside OF the Sea Island
district, of the merits of true roller gin
Clark's cleaner has just been introduced, and
is only known within narrow limits. There
pose, which are not here at all. Yet the be-
ginning of Improvement and profit Is here
and the growth will be rapid
Now, am going to touch tender subject
cotton manufacturing. What is manufacture
ing? According to the Latin derivation OF he
word it is to make something with the hand.
1t is a singular tact that cotton fabrics are the
only ones which can actually be made by the
hand, and from this may infer that cotton
fabrics are the oldest of any. Our Aryan an
cestOrS came from Il section OF Asia where cot
ton is indigenous. and although the linen
mummy cloths of Egypt are the oldest textile
fabrics now in existence. cotton must have
been used in prehistoric times. 1ou or can
do what our Arynn ancestors may have done;
we can spin thread with our fingers from the
boil OF ripe cotton; holding it by the middle
in our teeth: we can double and twist it into
Il strong cord We can tie the ends OF the
walp to a set OF bamboo reeds, even the
Chinese do now; with a sharp flint implement
from another length of bamboo We can make
&: shuttle, and without much difficulty we can
weave Il web of cloth. If we need t. card our
cotton first, can Il fish S jaw, as the East
Indian women do to this day, in working the
finest fabric ever made. Every other fiber
needs some preparation: wool must be
cleansed. fax must be II tied and separated
from woody fiber silk must be reclcd, but
cotton may he truly manufactured have
here pictures of the primitive processes In
this plate. taken from work upon the cos
TUNES of India. are pictures of the most plin-
tive. even prehistoric methods, which are
stil in use in the fabrication of the Dacca
muslin known as the Woven Wind" No
work of machinery has ever cqualcd it.
There are some small bits OF the finest kind.
The card is but the substitute of the fish
bone. The rollers of ArkwIight aie still i'm
perfect. Whoever can find a seamless snbsti-
tute for the leather cot with which the top
roll of the spinning frame is covered will add
from five to ten per cent. to the capacity of
every MILL and may make a great fortune.
The merit of the saw gin Is in its capacity
rather than in the quality OF its work. Some
OF the most valuable kinds of green seed cot
ton in that field, and Others of the same kind
which have been sent me, can not be 2lnned
on a saw gin. You are well aware that there
is great difference in the lenaclfv with which
the fiber adhercs to the seed. and in those Va
reties in which the tenacity is great the roller
gin must be used-teaZle burr-each spindle
OF the thousand on a frame is the same rs he
single one attached to the wheel. Who in
vented the loom no man knows. The saw
gin of Eli Whitney and the extension OF the
strand by means OF rollers, attributed to
Arkwriglt. but really invented by Hyatt.
constitute the two original inventions; and
the OZier cotton pee1er and other similar
kinds are ruined by the saw gin, and when
mixed in the same bale or lot with common
staple, they iniure the whole for our use. As
/ have said. we must haze uniformity. but we
want these fine long cotton midway between
Sea Island and upland tor q great variety OF
use.
Now let me call your attention to the fun
dalnental principle on which your success in
spinning and weaving cotton must stand or
fall. 1t is not q question OF wages-no wages
can be measure d in less money than the earn
ing of these Indian women or these Chinese
laDorcrs. Goods are made at the lowest C 'st
by those who cam the highest wages, Wher-
ever modern machinery is applied to their
fabrication. The wages in your southern fac
tories are much lower than in ours OF the
North, but you employ thirty more hands
than we do to a thousand spindles With their
proper complement of looms. In some of
your best mills you work as economically as
we do, but isolated mills, scattered ut far dis
tances are at Il disadvantage anywhere. So
far as you undertake cotton manufacturing
with a view to anything more than local de-
mand, concentrate your mills and let all the
appliances and subsidiary employment grow
up around Them / have never taken the
ground that there were any climatic difiicnl.
ties in many parts of the South. The real
ditfiulty is that the margin OF profit is very
small on a very large profit, and unless YOU
can work. in the long run. on very small
margin, you can not succeed. These, times
are no criterion; 1t is "hard times" that test
ability ana relative conditions. Let this he
borne in mind: The yarn of which the stan
dard coarse, sheeting or drill is made. No Is,
weighs three quarters of Il grain to the yard
The warn of which summer lawn is made, No
so, weighs one quarter of a grain to the yard.
Those are substantially the limits of the use
full cotton manufacture. All work above SOS
is fancy work Our range is therefore within
the limit of half Il grain TO the yard of yarn,
of which cloth is woven. A variation of a
fraction makes the profit or the loss. We mnst
use every precaution and save at every point,
or else we fail. May say that the true prep
aration for success in cotton manufacturing
must be in knowing how to save tile fraction
or starve We have no alternative. You can
not spin cotton when you do not know the
difference between a cent and a nickel.
We have now a little over II 600 spindles
in the United States, and have at my office
a list of new mills which l either insure now
or expect to insure. all of them north of the
Potomac, which will contain nearly million
more spindles when completed; some are
built already, others will be built next season.
At the date of the census we had i, 200, GOO