Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-04-21


power is unfailing and easily improved, or
where faelis cheap and abundant, mills are
IN the course Of erection. or II not being built,
the question Of building is agitated and sub-
scriptioq papers are circulated, am pleased
to say that where ever have been in the cot
ton states The men we're talking of investing
southern capital in the manufacture of cotton.
The desire Is to build up this industry with
southern money, but northern capital will be.
welcomed in all portions of the south if invest
edin cotton mills. Georgia leads the south
in this industry, as she leads in all things po-
litical or material; but all the southern
states are making healthy progress.
The danger that threatens the New Eng
land manufacturers is imminent. The signs
sharply indicate that they are to be forced
into a competition with an established and
active industry that Will fatally cripple them.
The advantages the southern manufacturers
hold over those of New England are many;
and any one of them used to the full ex-
tent, as all will be, will be sufficient to over
come the northern industry.
Out of the system of African slavery arose
belief in, and q practice Of paying low
wages in the south. Free white men could
not successfully compete in the labor market
with black slaves. In endeayoring to do so,
cheap food used by the negroes, and to wear
cheap clothes; and it was imperatively neces-
sary for them to accept the rates Of wages
that were customary In hiring slaves from
dpced = race Of poor whites in the southern
states. The old shareholders, the aristocratic
thieves who meanly lived on the unpaid labor
of black men, speak scornfully of this race as
CRACKERS )" and they apparently ignore the
fact that on their industry the future prosper
ity of the south depends. In no cotton mill
did see negroes at work. These poor
whites have been schooled by the degrading
competition with slaves forced on them by the
old slsyeowners, and by being pushed on to
the poor, lean lands, to subSist on food that
northern mechanics cannot live on. The
close Of the war found these people stripped
of all their possessions. Being poor and de-
spised, they had great trouble In getting
start! They owned poor land. They had no
credit. They We're discouraged: 1t was u
recently freed blacks, who keenly competed
with them in the labor market. The blacks
obtained control of the market by being better
adapted to field work and being better able to
live cheaper than the whites. This compete
| tion, not keen or the part of the whites, has
established a rate Of wages in the southern
states that effectually bars out foreign labor
/ ers and forbids all immigration Of northern
laborers into the southern states. These con-
ditions Of southern labor being true, and they
were and are true, the manufacture of cetton
! was established at arlopportune time. :.
/ He would have been bold man who
prophesied that the overthrow Of the slave
holders would suppress the cotton manufac-
Itprapgd industry aof New Epgland.- This
fsouthetn Iidustry has sprung into active com
| " founded on low wages to operatives. In
1850, 1929 operative were employed In
southern cotton mills. They were paid S2,-
81, ,847, or an average of S189 dollars each.
tives were paid S259, and those of Maine 1851
each. The northern operatives received an
average sum OF SS5 per year more than those
| employed in the southern mills. There is
doom in these figures.
| 1t must be borne in mind that the old sys-
TEN of slavehoiding has a living effect on all
questions affecting the material prosperity of
southern states, and through them on Us.
We are far from being through with the evil
effects of slavery; indeed, in my opinion. We
are just about to realize that the abolition of
| that system is going to affect US in various
ways that our statesmen did not forsee. We
now see the effect of it in the difference in the
cost of Influencing the cotton manufacturing
| industry of the north. We will further see,
and sharply feel It, in the rates of railway
transportation in the near future affecting the
1 control Of the markets for manufactured pro-
ducts. The southern Railways were built by
cheap labor. Before the war slaves, who
were cheaply hired, were largely employed
the war poorly paid free men and con-
yicts, the state slaves, have been largely EN-
ployed. The roads were cheaply built and
eheaply equipped, and they can be cheaply
| operated. There is no snow to obstruct
them in the winter. All men working on
these lines are poorly paid. When the traffic
increases, these roads can carry freight for
less money than any northern road, where
the higher rate Of speed hammers the rails
| into splinters, and the comparatively higher
rate of wages eXhausts the earnings and the
SHOWS of winter eat up the surplus earned in
busy times.
Already the New England manufacturers
of cotton are clamorfng for different CLASH
fication of their products so rs TO obtain
cheaper rates of transportation from their
mills to Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Lonis,
Chicago, and the southern trade. Without q
cheapening of freight rates on the northe: n
trunk lines they forsee that the southern man.
u!a.turers will speedily drive them from the
western markets. The eastern manufactur.
ers acknowledge that they have on coarser
goods, lost control of the southern market
and that they are threatened with the lOss OF
the western market. There is another point
that sadly affects this threatened loss Of
market that the northern manufacturers have
southern product which is now being intro
duced into the west is q better article thar
any that comes from New England looms
In all portions of the agricultural west where
the tillers Of the soil have used southern
ginghams, honestly made and unweighted
that the retail dealers keep the superior
southern goods for sale These goods are
more durable and give far better satisfaction
than the products OF New England mills. II
Is possible that the southern manufacturer.
may In time lower the standard of their pro
ducts; but, being men of intelligence, 1t is moi
probable that they will commit that act o.
folly now. when they are encroaching on the
most desirable of all markets, and when theil
mills are earning from ten to forty per cent.
per year.
In the south the power used to drive ma
chfnery Is generally water. 1t is q good anC
cheap power. There are long continued
cold spells TO thickly coat the streams with
wheels. The supply Of water is comparative
ly steady. 1t is unfailin2. The mountains
have not been denudel Of trees, nor ha- M
the agricultural land been stripped OF forests
The water is stored in the sponge-iike sol! Of
the forest lands. aud nature deals i, out grad
ually. Wherever there is u very valuable
water power in the cotton states il is being
improved. Canals to lead the wafer to desir:
able mill sites are being dug. Notably is tlli-
the case at Columbia, S. c. There the state
using convict labor, is engaged in construct
ing large canat that Is expected 10 have
sufficient capacity TO supply power to several
extensive eottcn mills. $ nth Carolina, anx.
ious to attract capital TO her soil. passed d
law exemptin2 G!i capital invested in manu-,
featuring from taxation for ten Years. The
southern manufacturers buy the cotton they
use from hrst hsnIs. In many case, they
buy from the planters wagons, thus sarin.
all transportation charges. They also saye
the cost oi comprising the bales. The two
charges for COMPRISING and transporting
amount. from any southern point to New
Ennland, to over cent per pound. 1t is
plain that the transportation charges on the
cotton from the south to the northern mills
and the freight charges on the manufactured
product from the north To the south, is pro.
lection that give the southern market to the
southern manufacturer. There is much con.
solatory talk among the northern manufactu.
rers about the southern mills not producing
the finer qualities of goods. This is undoubt.
cry that produces fine goods in the north will
produce equally fine goods in the south, and
the southern operatives are fully as intel.
ligent az those Of New England. When the
demand is made on the southern manufa tu-
rers for u fine quality nf goods they will sure
y supply it, and supply 1t cheaper than sny
northern mill FRANK WHKEsoN.