Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-24

mill gets cent pound more for lie yarn
than mills generally do. The years profit
Of 1881 was sixteen per cent, of 1882, s Z per
cent. The cause Of all this, Mr.. II snson
says, was unusually high cotton and low
yarn prices last year. To this is added mig
mar agement 10 the mills, inexact cslcula-
lions OF expenses, ignorance Of how to buy
and seIl, incompetency in the management
OF Southern mills and factories; the ma
chinery is cheap and inferior; mile are not
always properly constructed; labor is def
Gent in skill; there is want OF economy.
With all this against the Southern manufac-
turer, the only advantage he has against his
Eastern rival is the difference OF one cent
pound in the selling price of cotton. A
pretty formidable array, but-except the
high price of cotton aud the low price of
ysrn-au array Southern manufacturers
can put TO fight for the most
part when they choose TO carry on
their business business fashion, keeping
down unnecessary expenses, paying the
price Of good material and competent
labor, employing agents that can be relied
upon BY paying good men To perform the
service, and by the managers studying their
business 30 as to be proficient in the per-
Torrance Of their duties and competent 10
meet their Eastern rivals in the market.
Cheap machinery, ill-psid managers and un-
derpaid labor will not bring permanent
profits either to cotton-mills or gold mines
Another thing: Did all this incompetence
and waste and ignorance come into existence
in the cotton mills Last year only, that 1882
was so far behind? OF course net All
that is said of these things deserves atten-
ton, if Southern cotton-spinning is TO be
permanent business, but they do not ac-
count for the new associations funereal
declaration about the gloomy condition OF
the Southern cotton-mills. II cotton was
high and yarn low in price, that accounts for
the difference OF profit during the two past
years; but in this respect has the
Southern cotion-spinner stood alone
ain anything but \ prosperous con-
dition," while all the rest of
the manufacturers were fourishing? Mr..
Hanson and his twenty associates all know
that profits have been low, prices sinking,
and demand decreasing for many months
past. They also know that a mandatory
that made eight and seven-tenths per
cent. on its capital last year, while
many concerns went into bankruptcy,
has no good reason for grumbling. If the
cotton mills did worse last year than the
year before, they simply shared in the gen
sral decline OF trade that has run up the
years list of bankrupts so high. All that is
alleged in the associ stion's circular and the
presidents interview does not explain the
sudden sinking of all the strong assurances
as 10 the success of the Southern cotton-mills
and the melting away of the bright prospects
of the future. They give no proof of the
almost reckless declaration as 10 the gloomy
condition Of the Southern cottsn-mills. The
strength Of the allegation and the inArmity
of the proof indicates that there is more in
the assertion that "the cotton.spinning bust
meas in the South is in anything but pros
porous condition" than meets the ear. L. it
not possible that the Ways and Means Com
mittee of Congress might devise remedy
Tor The new sssocjation's suferings?