The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-17
THE COMPARITIvE PROFIT.

The Providence (Rh0de Island) Jour
nal, commenting on the eurning of q
per cent. by the Granitevile Factory, as
reported by the Augusta Chronicle ami
("nstit"tionoiisf, among other things
says:
But rs the South produces only coarse
or moderately fine goods, and as she has
just now a discrimination In her favor by
the railroad companies, she may believe
that as to this class of goods the east IL
abolished. TO this assumption there are
two answers. In tho first place, the east
ern manufacturer Is not 40 easily crushed
out he IL not, without n struggle, 20
see his valuable ''plant' practically an
nihilnted. In the next place, il this
could he done, the assurance thereof
would put III three yours SO many
spindles in motion in tho South, owned
by Northern men, that the owners there
of would be glad to compromise for u
steady profit of seven per cent. The
editor OF the Chronicle IL philosopher ns
we'll NJ poet. Twenty per cent. profit
being assured-would send into tho
South millions Of money In month.
In tho very nature Of things thore Ia no
stability In u business which pays such or
anything like such profit. Again, does
tho Chronicle really believe that there Is n
difference in the manufacture of common
cotton goods, between tho South and the
North, OF sixteen per cont. in favor Of
The former? For our Northern manu-
iacturers, M rule. have hardly made
more than five per cent. during last yenr.
Since this publication by the Journal,
the Piedmont Factory mas nude it5 an-
nual exhibit, which shows it's earnings
last year to have been 2l1 per cent, clear
OF running expenses We do not now
remember single mill in South CARROLL
ma which has earned less than ten per
cent. during the past year, which is
double the profit admitted to have been
the ruling rate of profit in Northern
mills last year. The explanation that
fTeights ale arranged to discriminate
against the Northern mills IL not correct
in fact, for it costs as much TO ship q
bale of goods from here to New York,
as it does from that point to this. When
this argument is used by the Northern
man. he means to say that the railroads
do not haul cotton to the Northern mills
free of freight. A sufficient supply of
ao:son being raised around Ctr mills,
they buy without paying freights or even
middle men. The Northern mills not
only have to pay the freights on cotton
from the South to their mills, but they
also have 10 pay commissions, insurance,
storage, &C., to at least two sets Of middle
men. Of course, therefore, these mills
start off at disadvantage with the
Southern mills, and then have to en-.
counter the difficulties of rigorous
winter, while our factories are not i'm
peded single day In the year from the
influences Of our climate. Southern
mills cannot expect to make regularly
dividends of twenty per cent, but there
is every reason to believe that they will
continue for years to come, under good
management, to earn from ten to fifteen
per cent. 1t is only question of time
as to all cotton mills for the manufacture
of the heavier lines Of cloth, &C., being
located In the section where the staple
from which they are made is grown. In
less than twenty-five years, the South
will be the manufacturing center of the
Union.