St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-11-02
THE SOUTH'S COTTON MILLS.
A Great Increase in Cotton Manufac-
turing Interests.
OH Mills ENLARGING AND NEW MILLS
BEING BUILT VERY RAPIDLY.

That the South, which produces the cot
ton. is destined to manu- facture it, admits
Of no questioning. The South has The
natural advantages necessary for success
in this business, and whatever difficulties
there may be in the way are easily over
come when practical experience, backed
by capital, is brought to bear upon the
matter. There may be times of depres
sion, but this will not stop the sure snd
steady growth of this great industry. Coco
operatives, it has been said by some, can
not be had in the South, and this section
| can never hope, so some of our New En-
gland friends claim, to do anything more
| than manufacture coarse goods. But
| few years ago these same people were just
as ready to claim that cotton manufactur
ing. even OF coarse goods, would never
amount to much in the South. Forced
now to admit that Southern mills contro!
| this branch of the business, they fall back
on the threadbare argument against the
possibility of the Southern mills ever sue
cessfully competing with New England
mills on the finer goods. Before many
| years have passed they will be forced to
| admit this. Every cotton mill that goes
! into operation in the South he ps to make
more certain the future supremacy of this
| section in every branch of this industry.
| With the increase in this business the
number of trained operatives increase, and
the skill necessary for the production of
finer goods will be found ready at hand
when the cotton manufacturers of the
South decide that the time has come for
devoting more attention to fine goods. 1t
was but few years ago when the state
ment that the South would, in time con-
troll the iron market of this country was
ridiculed, and the reply made that, while
the South might produce large quantity
of low grade pig iron, it could never hope
to compete with the North in the finer,
finished products of iron and steel, where
an abundance of ca Dital and skilled mechan-
les would enable that section to still con
troll this branch of the business. At first
the South demonstrated that it could make
pig iron cheaper than any other part of
this country. Having done this, attention
was turned to the building of enterprises
for producing the finished goods, and loco
motive works. car and car wheel works,
tack factories, stove foundties, hardware
factories, nail mills, engine works, saw
factories and hundreds of kindred enter
prises are daily proving that the South
can manufacture every variety of fine pro-
ducts, from pins and lacks to locomotives
AS in iron, so it will be- in cotton. When
the time is ripe, and the time seems to be
at hand, for the South to turn its attention
to finer qualities of cotton goods, it will do
so, and do it successfully. This point is
well enforced by the following letter, re-
published from the Manufactnrers' Record
of few weeks ago, written by Mr.. G. R.
Makepeace, of Providence, R. l., one of
the leading mill engineers and builders in
the country. Mr.. Makepeace has designed
and built many of the finest mills in the
South, and, as New England expert
thoroughly conversant with the cotton
manufacturing interests of the whole coun-
try his views carry great weight
What kind of goods will the new mills
built in the South during the next five or
ten years be equipped for making? This
is a Question which interests both the
manufacturers of the North and South,
but for different reasons, and | bad almost
said for opposite reasons, but it is not
wholly so. Never before in the history of
manufacturing in the South were her man
ufacturers so wide awake to the impor-
lance of surrounding themselves with
every possible advantage they can secure
in the way of the most improved styles
and methods, not only of economic con-
struction, but in the equipment of their
mills from the spindle, or might say from
the lapper to the cloth.
They are building well; they are pur-
chasing as low as cash will purchase, and
they are planning and having their mills
arranged for converting the raw cotton
into the finished fabric at the lowest pos
sible cost. Now the question as to what
the mills that are Contemplated for the
near future throughout the Carolinas,
Georgia and the Gulf States will mike
interests the Southern mill owner, be-
cause he is strongly DESTROYS of making
something different from that he is making
at present, and is on the alert to find some
thing for which there is a steady demand,
and at prices that will secure him fair
profit. The manufacturer in New Eng
lard is interested in this question because
he is perfectly aware that it is useless to
try to compete with a well equipped and
ably managed mill land there are many Of
them) located at any favorable point in the
cotton belt and making coarse goods. By
coarse goods | mean such goods as stand
ard sheetings, drills made from an average
number of Ii yarn, and the Southern mills
will take from them any style of goods
they may select to manufacture, as COM
pletely as they have standard sheetings.
Let US consider this moment and see
what conclusion we arrive at. Now it is
we'll known that one of the chief advan-
tages in favor of the Southern mills is
cheap cotton, and for this reason alone
they have made only coarse goods, or in
other words, have had an advantage and
made the most of it; but in so doing have
they not and are they not to day losing
sight of another advantage worth equally
as much? l refer to cheap labor. 1t is
true they have at all times had this ad-
vantage and used it, but not so as to make
the most of it, and because, chiefly, they
were not making a class of goods that
would allow them to make the best of this
advantage.
The statement is often made, ''But the
South cannot make the tine goods, as they
have neither the help or the climate that
is necessary"
Well, it is all talk, and the talk of men
who never were outside of their own town,
or perhaps mill, aud certainly have never
visited the Southern States and seen for
themselves. Will a mill on fire goods,
say average No. 80 yarn, pay in the SOUTH
es. Have they the climate and the help
necessary for the manufacture of such
goods? Yes. Is there good demand for
such goods? Yes. Will. it always con-
tinue? Yes, or it always has, and the
country as well as the world is growing.
But will not the bailding of so many mills
in the South overdo the thing2 No, not
if it is simply transferring the location of
the mill from one point to another. Then
why do not the Southern mills make finer
goods as well as the coarse goods? l do
not know fully why, but know that they
will and strange TO say, it is because they
are forcing themselves to do so. Fifteen
years back, the competitor of the Southern