San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-11-24
SOUTHERN COTTON HILLS.
Priests q Manufacturing In ossssis ssd sh'
Carslisas.


Csrsiisss.
New yorh Times.
ATLANTA, Ca, November 2.-The
best proof that the advantages enjoyed
by Southern manufacturers arc not
merely theoretical, but real and SOLID,
will be found in tho balance-sheess OF
the mills in this part Of the country.
The art Of juggling With figures is 30
easy that even an inexperienced hand
might demonstrate satisfactorily on pa
per the superior profitableness Of spin
ming aud weaving in the South MS COM
pared with New England without once
referring to tho results worked ont in
actual experience. Indeed, il there
we're not to-day a spinning.jenny or
loom in the whole South it would be
quite possible to convince any reasona-
BILE man that cotton manufactures not
only ought to pay here, but would pay,
and handsomely.
At Lowell, CASTOR County, N. O.,
the Wood-lawn and the Lawrence Man
ufacturing Companies, making cotton
warps, Nos. 10 to "a, ana yarns, and
shectings, have paid dividends Of from
IL to 10 per cent. These companies
own large tract of land, mostly i'm
proved, near Lowell, for which they
are seeking settlers. There are now
about 10000 spindles run at Lowell,
and water-power is offered free to new
mills. The Atlantic Cotton Mill, BOW
in the hands of Ex-Governor Bullock
as receiver, not from precuniary failure,
but on account of disagreements among
the stockholders and management, is
running night and day and earning di-
vidends ct the rate Of 20 per cent. The
factories 1 have selected for mention
are not exceptional. The July divi-
dends of the forty-fve mills in Georgia
were at the rate of from 10 to IS per
cent, and averaged fully IL per cent.
These facts show not only that manu-.
featuring is very profitable busin, IS
in the South, thus giving an idea of
the opportunities to be found here by
the capitalist, but they prove that the
Southern people have in their midst an
unequalled field for the investment of
their savings. Mill stocks are hardly
to be bought in the market here, the
quotations Of the best paying mills be-
ing from $50 to IT'S, with few or no
shares offered, but in putting up the
smaller mills yet to be built along the
water courses of Georgia and South
Carolina local capital will be sure to
bear its part, though it be small one.
The accumulation of capital in the
South for many years to come will be
too slow for the demand. For most OF
the moneyto build her railroads and
canals and factories she must call on
the North, and with the inducements
she can offer in the way OF dividends
the call will not be disregarded. But
in almost every town where factory is
needed and would pay, foundation of
Southern capital might be had, and
there could not greater blessing
come upon this section of the country
than the growing up of class of small
investors, aiding in the industrial de-
velopment of the country, and at the
same time increasing their individual
wealth.
The South will derive profound
moral as we'll US material benefits from
the growth of villages and the diversi-
lying of labor-two results which will
surely and speedily flow from the
growth of manufacturing interests.
Mr.. Hammett, of the Piedmont fac
tory, in South Carolina, whose opinions
have quoted before, says that most of
The well-organized mills in the South
Of from 1000 to 10000 spindles make
. profit of from Is to 20 per cent on
their capital. This is not the xtreme
limit. SO many mills pay better than
this that Mr.. Hammett's estimate may
safely be accepted as an average. The
of the Eagle and Phoenix Mills
at Columbus in 1877 where IL per cent,
on an actual capital of 81, 100000. THIS
is good test, for these mills we've built ,
in 1868, when labor and building ma
terials were much higher than now, and
the year 1877, in which this dividend
was paid, was the reverse of favorable
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