Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-04-20
COTTON MILLS IN THE SOUTH.
ATLANTA Constitution.

pursuant TO request, L answer UcioW
your question, "Will the cotton manu-
featuring business probably be overdone
by the building of so many new mills in
the South?"
Less than year ago was at Clemson
College, in South Carolina, and was per
mitted to look over some old letters,
written by John c. Calhoun when he was
in Congress, to his ir:other on a planta-
ton in South Carolina. Mr.. Calhoun
told his brother, in substance, that 1t
would be necessary to find something
else than cotton to plant, as the produc-
ton of that staple would evidently be
overdone at very early date. He went
on to state that he was confirmed in his
opinion by the news he received from
his associates in Congress that in the
year in which he wrote there would pro-
baby be the enormous production OF
100000 bales of cotton.
In this day, when the production
reaches 100000 bales, it is plain that
even Mr.. Calhoun, in one instance, at
leas., failed to calculate correctly the
increasing consumption of cotton goods.
Besides this yet increasing consump-
ton there are other reasons that, to my
mind, preclude the possibility of over
doing the business of manufacturing cot
ton in the Southern States. Previous to
the establishment of slaveryin the South
on a basis that made it stifie everything
else, the South prospered in manufac-
lures In the Piedmont region of Eir-
ginia, the Carolinas and Georgia the iron
industry was in a prosperous condition
in the early part OF this century.
The South Carolina Railway was, when
it was built, one of the most important
engineering achievements of its day.
The first steam vessel that ever crossed
the Atlantic ocean went out OF Savannah.
After slavery became a fixed institu-
ton it stihed all industrial growth, and
as time went on in the days of slavery
the idea was put forward so much by
Northern writer's, and repeated so often
without denial. that it came to be accepted
as fact that the Southern man was not
ingenious or mechanical.
But no sooner had slavery been abol-
ished and the political atmosphere
become cleared than the Southern people
again turned to manufactures, and in
Alabama and Georgia established an iron
industry that worries the Pennsylvani-
ans, while in North and South Carolina,
Georgia and other States the manufac-
ture of cotton has attained an extent OF
development that worries the New Eng
landers in some lines.
can see no limit to the growth of cot
ton manufacturing in the South, except
when the end is reached of manufacture
ing the entire crop. The Southern cot
ton factory has the advantage of every
other cotton factory in the world. In
the days of slavery that institution was
the one disadvantage under which the
South labored in any effort to manufac-
ture, and as matters now stand con-
slider that the Southern man is just as
capable as his Northern or English bro
ther to take care of machinery, to handle
labor and to attend to business. He has
the advantage over the Northerner and
Englishman in the saving of bagging and
ties, in climate. in saving commissions.
profits. freightS, waste, etc, on cotton
sent to mills outside the South. The
South has cheaper fuel than the average
of other cotton manufacturing sections,
cheaper building materials. cheaper
labor, better labor, practically unlimited
water power, and the saving of cost Of
composing cotton and Of opening the
compressed cotton. These advantages
are not matters of theory. Within few
] DAYS strike was ended in England, in
which fifteen millions OF spindles stood
idle fornore than four months, tie mills
and the labor being in q4arrel about a
) per cent raise or reduction of wages
The men and the mills claimed alike that
they could not live without the5 per cent
in controversy.
If English mills have been reduced to
the necessity to follow up such bitter
fight for per cent. while the Southern
millszaave been running all during the
strike and doing well, it looks as if Eng
land would be- driven to the wall entirely
before the Southern mills would be re-
duced to the point of Improbable ope-
ration 1t is not an existing Southern
mill that feels the competition of a new
Southern mill so much as English and
New England mills.
OF course certain special lines of manu-
facture can be overdone by all the South
ern mills being pus on too nearly the
same Goods This has happened to a
limited extent in coarse plaids. Each
new mill built in the South should un-
dertake to get into some line of cotton
goods no. much made in the South, par
ticularly avoid doing exactly what the
other neighboring mills are doing.
Years ago the New England papers
said the Southern people could not sue
cessfully manufacture cotton. Wien 1t
had successfully done so to an extent to
put the fact past dispute, then they said
it could only make coarse goods. But
as the years go on the quality OF goods
made in the South becomes finer and finer
and the success of the new factories con-
tinue. 1t would seem to be only ques-
ton of time when the South will make
as fine goods as any other manufactur-
ing region or country. In the process of
development it would seem as if the ap-
prehension of over-production was as
groundless as vas Mr.. Calhoun's appre-
hension about the over-production of
cotton.
In the manufacture of cotton the South
has to rely, first, upon the constantly in
creasing consumption of cotton goods,
and, second, on the fact that she can pro-
duce cotton goods cheaper than England
or New England or any other country.
The competition OF the South with the
South is the very thing to check the
growth of cotton manufactures. Certain
Enes NAV he temnorarily oyerdone from