San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-08-03
COTTON FACTORIES IN rpr
SOUTH.

ryihS '"a' eo.,oh Is KING, says il !,
our great staple which by EXPORT
sures us the balance against Ena,.u u,
in exchange. That country works 90
100000 spindles to our $4,000 0Oo
we run less than 33 l-3 per cent
the number employed in British g.
tories. Since new factories in corr'
of construction in New England snS
the Southern states this year will aSS
100000 spindles at work BY Nss
Years, and authentic Statements do
monstrate that investments in cotton
mills located in the South have na;d
and are paying round 90 per cen,
dividend on the average, with eood
bad and Indifferent management. W.
can see clearly that, with increased
area and improved cultivation and
handling, and such exceedingly large
profits in manufacturing, our spindlss
will increase in numbers, especially in
the South, so rapidly thai we shall, in
the next half decade of time, count
PROBABLY 100000. SO unprecedent.
eddy large are the dividends of mills
and factories of the South that not
American capital only, but English,
French and German funds are being
invested, and new fields for investment
searched after. There are lS,5OO..
600 horse-powers on the rivers and
other streams of the Southern states
not utilized and available for factories
Still, were there no such cheap reserve
power, the fact is proven by records Of
the Mississippi mills, at WessOn,
southern Mississippi, which are run by
steam power, that these have paid the
enormous profit of 30 per cent on the
investment. That this country has
advantages over England is
shown by the figures representing. the
product of the mills Of the two couu-
tries for the past year. Nearly one.
third of the cottons crop of lSSO-Sl-
the largest ever grown-was manu-
featured at home. The production Of
our mills for 1881 is $223,2SO,OOO
while the mills of Great Britain yield
ed $437, 100000. That is, our ~
spindles produced upwards Of
half as great a sum as was productivity
the 100000 spindles in that coun'
try. The number of operatives in the
American mills last year was $4,000.
The number which operated in the mills
of Great Britain was 479,l This
gives as result product Of Sl26S Of
material for each Amer
lean operative to 1912 worth for each
operative in the mills of our mother
country, English sales of cotton
goods to old Mexico and Central Amer
lea declined 81, 22l, 900 last year, and
the sum of $l,2l2,47l in Canada.
The fact is that English manufactures
have not cleared any money operating
cotton mills during the last two years.
While Englishmen are shutting down
their mills two weeks in the month In
order to lessen production, the greater
number of the mills of the Southern
states are running day and night
The whole number of spindles In our
country average a consumption eacn
Of G5 pounds per annum, while the
,nindles of Great Britain average ~
pounds only, or less than % per cent
If the American.
These figures of the Chicago paper
ire in the main correct. If Southern
legislatures this winter would agree TO
send expert commissioners abroad TO
ay the claims of their states before
ioreign capitalists and ask them to In,
vest in Southern cotton mills, 1T would
De great days work. They can go
iorth armed with truth. and confidence
md say this is the finest field in the
world to make money. 1t is no I'M
solved problem as the above statlSVlV'
will show.
Above all cotton mills are what tae
outh wants. We need no more rail-
Ways at present, save here ana there
hort branches to agriculture and MN
raj districts. Unlike railways, cotton
Mills directly help everybody. Ihey
,ring population and money wherever
ocafed They keen money at home
They enlarge, they enrich, they Ell
tighten, they concentrate ana Ins3
trengthen communities. They sven
he aggregate wealth of a state ana Oi
lation. =,
As we raise right here at home tns
.rst and main ingredient of a COTTON
nil, which is cotton itself, there Is ~
uestion about such enterprises "nsn
properly managed, paying better 'n lla
nywhere else on the face OF 'H'