The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-03-29
THE SPINDLE IN THE SOUTH.
a Straw Showing the Way tho Wine. ..,.,,,
From The Neu York Times

From The Ner York Times.
The appeal %! the Ne~ England. co::ot
manufacturers to the trunk line railroad,
! to help .liem by reductions in freigb,
chargea to meet the increasing competi
tion Of the Southern mills is natural and
characteristic. a benefcient and pater
nal government protects them by n high
customs tariff from foreign rivalry thew
now ask the railroads to be equally be-.
neficent and paternal, shielding them
from domestic competition by giving
them low rates on goods shipped to the
West. They want a high tariff on ons
side and low tariff on the other. Luck.
ny, the Constitution fortids the lowing
OF duties by States without the consent OF
Congress. Were it otherwise, they might
beslege the Legislatures of the Western
sni Northwestern States TO shut out the
products Of the Georgia ard South Caro-.
lima mills by prohihitory duty. The
spirit OF helpiessness engeudered by ha.
oltual reliance upon a protective tariff
naturally and inevitably inclines these
New England manufacturers to seek out.
SIDE ald the moment their comfortable
monopoly y is threatened from any quar-.
ter; and the growing but dangerous Gus
tom among great commercial interests of
forming offensive and defensive alliances
with the railroads suggested to them the
source from which the most effective help
was to be eXspected. A mnnful contest
with the Southern mills for the pussess.
ION OF the Western field is about the last
thing they would think Of The enerva.
ting 3S per cent. duty on their goods un
hts them for such cxer;ious. Mr. John
Roach would have our ships built at
home though they cost twice as much as
on the Tyne, and the manufacturers of
New England and their representatives
in this city would cheerlully beggar all
the railroads in the country bef0re the
natural advantages OF the South an a
cotton manufacturing region abould he
allowed to turn the productive energy of
Fall River and Pawtucket iuto other
channels.
The special favor asked of the railroads
is chance in the classification of domes-
tic dry goods and reduction of charges
These "domestics" are now shipped as
first- class freight on the railroads of the
trunk line pool. AT the present rates the
Eastern merchants aud manufacturers
complain that they caunot compete in
Cincinnatti, Louisville, st. Louis and
other distributing centres in the West
with the Southern manufacturers, who
have not only the advantage of working
with their raw material ut their very
doors, but are able also 10 effect con.id.
cradle further saving in commissions, as
their sales are made to Western MGR
chants by their own agents. The margin
OF difference is already wide enough to
cause genuine alarm for the future Of the
cotton manufactures of the New England
States. What thia margin will be when
the Southern manufacturer has learned
by experience to axe fuller use of his
advantages the Eastern mill.owners have
as yet scarcely dared to inquire.
Iet this is point which neither the
railroad managers nor the manufacturers
can afford to overlook. 1t was made
sufficiently clear at the conference in
Commissioner Fink's Office on Wednes-
day, the proceedings of which were re.
ported in the Times, that the relief afford
ed by lower freight rates from New
England TO the West must be temporary
i'll character. The Southern railroads
will make corresponding reductions, and,
as their rates are high, they can 20 fur
ther in such war than the trunk lines.
But the rapid extension of manufactur-
ing in the South and the introduction of
improved methods, added to the advan.
tages already mentioned, must within
short time leave the New England mile
out of the race tc- those :narser .nd
heavier grades of cotton goods in which
the value Of the material employed, rath-
er than the labor expended upon it, de-
termiues the selling price of the finished
article. The competition of the South
ern mills is not as yet formidable in the
amount of product. The Northern
States had, in the census year, 69l cot
ton Mills, running l0O94, 1920 spindles
and 2l4,962 looms, and consuming
] 1881 ,598 bales of cotton while the
Southern States had $50 mills, running
583, ,696 spindles, and consuming l8S,744
bales of cotton. The rate of yearly in.
crease in consumption, az shown by Mr..
Atkinson's supplementary inquiry, and by
more recent unofficial reports, is consid.
erably greater at the South than ia the
Northern States.
So long as the New England mauufac.
turer must pay from 81 so to 81 bale
for freight on his raw material, making
his yearly freight bill on the Same
amount of cotton from seven to ten
times that of his Southern rival so long
as he must pay also considerably high.
er rate of wages, and, on the average, a
higher price for the power that drives his
spindles and looms, he cannot reasonably
hope to compete, on similar grades of
goods, with the milla of Georgia and the
Carolinas. The advantages at present
enjoyed by the Southern manufacturers
are, moreover, certain to be increased.
Many OF the Southern mills are now
equipped with old and wornout machine
ry, and few of them huve well.trained or
operatives. But even under
these imperfect conditions the profits of
cotton manufacturing there are far great.
er than in New England, as is shown by
the high dividends of some Of the lead
ing Southern mills. But the New Eug-
land manufacturers have field of their
own in which they may defy Southern
rivalry. On the finer yarns and plain
goods, on prints and fancy woven fabrics,
they will have little difficulty in main.
tanning their supremacy for long time
to come. It would be wiser for them to
defeat on the coarssr grades
of goods in which the Southern manufac.
turer finds his chief profit, instead of
attempting by scarcely legitimate means
a hopeless resistance, and to turn their
attention to brsnches of manufacture
in which climate, a moro skilful class of
oper atives, and far reader market give
them an upquestioned superiority.
-"Stole any chickens dis week, Brud-
&c: Jcaes?" inquired class leader
of member OF suspiciously thieying
proclivities. "No, sah.tank de Lor' ;"