Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-06-16
THE NEW SOUTH.

against the radical regime, the New
York Herald makes the following en-
couraging representations regarding
her future.
''In the general progress that the
South has made since the war the
growth of its cotton industry appears
as the most striking, promising and
significant. The greatest cotton crop
known in the days of slavery was
that of 1880, which footed up more
than four million eight hundred and
twenty thousand bales and exceeded
any preceding crop by q hundred
thousand bales. But since tie war
the yearly production has steadily
and rapidly increased until the crop
of last year reached the unprecedent-
ed figure of 5,757,397 bales each of
which was twenty pounds heavier
than the bales of the greatest ante
war crop. The aggregate yield of
this great staple during the fifteen
years following the war was larger
by ten million bales and more valua-
BILE by nearly seven hundred million
dollars than during the fifteen years
preceding the war. The crop of the
present year will be the largest yet
raised and is expected to amount to
more than six million bales. There
are vet no signs of any arrest
of this onward movement, and there
is every indication that the future
will bring forth crops that now would
seem marvellous.
"But more significant than this ex-
traordinary progress in the culture of
cotton is the advance made by the
South in its manufacture. Since 1870
the capacity of Southern mills has
increased from eleven thousand to
more than fifteen thousand looms,
and from four hundred thousand to
seven hundred thousand spindles.
Within the same period the con
sumption of cotton has more than
doubled. 1t was forty-five million
pounds in 1870 and in 1880 it had in
creased to more than one hundred
million. The census returns show
that during the past decade the South
has made more rapid strides in cot
ton manufactures than either the
country at large or New England,
the great centre Of the industry in
America. The progress that it has
made and promises to make,
suggests the very important inquiry
whether the South has not at last set
out upon that course which in time
must lead to the achievement of one
of the great possibilities that nature
has put within its reach, That the
American cotton crop should be sent
raw to English mills and returned
manufactured to cisatlantic markets
is as abnormal and unnatural as that
water should run up hill. The SUI
premacy which England now holds in
the manufacture of cotton must SOON
er or later-sO far, at least, as Amer
lean cotton is commemorative trans
terred to this country, where it prop
erly belongs. The time may be dis
tant. but its coming is inevitable.
The consumption of cotton by Amer
lean mills is steady and rapidly in
creasing, and will continue so to i'll
crease until the entire crop is manu-
featured in the United States.
"While this supremacy may first
pass from old England to New Eng
land it is question whether it will
not then shift from the latter to the
Southern States. To this ascendan-
cy New England has no peculiar right
or claim. The South has natural
advantages which New England has
not, and it can acquire all the advan-
tages which New England has. Its
climate is favorable to the manutac-
ture of cotton, and it has abundance
of water power and fuel. Machinery
and skilled labor can be imported,
while capital and enterprise must be
forthcoming when the advantages
that undoubtedly exist are seen and
appreciated. In addition to these
! considerations the GREAT cOminp de-