The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-05-17
The Cotton Industry.
..,o,.e nnn,,t,rcturers, record.

value. From recent lecture of Mr.. Thos.
PRAY, Jr., of Boston, we gather some inter
esting facts regarding the cotton industry.
MARYLAND seems to have had the honor of
being the first of the colonies to raise cot
ton, the earliest record being that in 1736
this staple was cultivated on the western
shore of this State. In 1874 afew bags of
cotton were exported from South Carolina
to England and as this was the first ship
ment made its hundredth anniversary will
be commemorated at New Orleens by the
great Cotton Exhibition, the preparations
for which are now in progress. In 1871,
Moses Brown, founder of Brown Univer-
sity, wrote in regard to the necessity of
finding some method of taking the fibre
from the seed. In 1898 the invention of
the cotton gin solved Browns problem.
The first mill established was at Beverly in
1889, In 1888 fancy weaving started in
Rhode Island. In 1910 we had "a mills
in the United States driven by water power
and II driven by other means the aggre-
gate capital employed being S4,S00,00O.
In 1911 the power loom was invented, and
in 1913 the first complete mill for produc-
ing cotton cloth from the bale was erected,
with LOO spindles and 36 looms. In
1916 there were 10000 spindles in the
United States, 6S,142 being in Rhode
Island and 34,46S in Massachusetts, By
1887 we find that the capital invested in
cotton mills was S60, 100000, the number
of spindles having increased to 100000.
From 1S57-61 the largest increase in
manufacturing industries that has ever oc-
Cured was realized From 1876 the
prices varied very largely, creating great
confusion among the manufacturers Good
middling upland cotton started at 109 cts.
and got as high as 81 80 to 1872 and from
that extreme price down to 30, %, and then
settled at 20-23 cts. The rates of wages
also advanced with the raw material. In
1881 women in Lowell received S2.31 to
$3.50 per week, 1864 women earned So
to S14 per week To-day the average pay
of women and children in Lowell is $3.50
to $500 per week. From 1S67-73 we
were on an even keel, the only thing inter-
fering with prosperity being the inability of
the mills to make goods enough, although
wages and values were fiuctuating In
1865, 1866 and 1867 men who were build
ing machinery and making goods could not
make all that was wanted When you
commence to increase your production, as
was done at that time, general reduction
of quality is found, but diminishing the
production of quantity you also increase
your cost of producing. In 1873 goods
commenced to find actual values. Mill
property which cost 100000 in 1865
81 during the depression following 1873
sold at $4,000, and under such circum-
stances it is no wonder that many mill
owners went out of the business. For
twelve or thirteen years business had been
managed by incompetent men. A large
part of our depression to-day is due to the
enhancement of values about the years 1867
and 1868 and bad management on falling
market-using up surplus and not keeping
up quality and production.
The best cotton from the South is carried
out of the country because somebody else
is able to work it up cheaper than we can.
We are lacking much in the knowledge
requisite for working up the best qualities
vi SDDtlS. w U uluSI bldIb anu uCdCI III
every practical branch and detail of the
business The touch and eye require an
education similar in fact to that necessary
for professional career. We must give to
the South all they can do, as they can
manufacture at home, and must turn our
attention to taking the place of England
and making such goods as our skill and eX-
periencc will allow us to do which has
heretofore been imported. Cotton spinning
as business has succeeded, taken in the
aggregate. But the men who have best
understood their business have given the best
dividends to their stockholders. The CEN
sus of 1880 gives interesting facts to think
about; l,510,3I4 bales Of cotton were used,
costing $50, 100000 The supplies neces-
sary were 1G,000,000 and the product was
OF the value of S192,000,00 1880 was
not an extraordinary year, yet there was
considerable of margin between the cost
and the product. The power in 1880 was
14S,750 horse power of water and 100, 900
horse power of steam. Aggregate steam
power to-day, however, largely exceeds that
of water, even in Lowell and Lawrence.
In 1881 there were sol establishments in
the United States in 1851, 1,094 in
1860, 1,091 in 1870, $50; in 1880, 1856.
A mill of 100000 spindles is not an extra
ordinary one to-day Manufacturing cs-
adjustments are decreasing in numbers,
while the spindles are increasing. In 1881
the capital engaged was $4,000, 900; in
1870, S140, 900, 600; in 1880 S208, 225, 900.
The survival of the fittest is being shown
in these establishments as in other indus
tries The decrease in the number of es-
adjustments by absorption by the larger
and the lack of union among the manufac-
turers are among the chief causes for the
peculiar condition of the industry to-day.
In the United States, differently from
foreign nations, there lisa lack of consonant
action to keep down production. Every
one is bound to make the most out of his
neghbor. .--.
Prof. ii. Darlington Bolton, Of Trinity
College, Hartford, said in the course of
some remarks at the Academy Of Sciences,
New York, the other evening, that 'some
time since, at Manchester-on -the-Sea, near
Boston, was much surprised to find that
each step l made on the sand elected a dis
tinct sound. The most sonorous sounds
were obtained by taking the sand and rub
bling it rapidly through the hands, when,
under ordinary conditions, the sound could
no hoard from 120 IN 140 feet fnur or