The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-05-18
ROANOKE, VA, MAY is, 1893
SOUTHERN STATES AND COTTON
MANUFACTURES.


1t has probably been source of sur
prise to not q few who have considered
the question that the cotton industry Of
the American continent instead of hav-
ing established its principal habitat in
the localities where the cotton has
grown, should have taken up it's chief
location in the New England States.
And it must have surprised good many
moro that Great Britain, which has no
raw cotton at command, and has to
import every ounce of it's raw material
from foreign countries and chiefly from
the Southern States, should have taken
the lead in this industry for so many
years.
On the face OF the matter it would
naturally be supposed that cotton could
be most cheaply and conveniently manu-
featured on the spot where it was grown,
just as iron and steel are most con.
veniently produced where the raw coal
and iron ores are at hand. The main
reason, OF course, for the supremacy of
Great Biitain in the cotton manufactur
has been the fact that it has been the
home Of the most important applications
of machinery to that industry, and CON
sequently the center in which tho
mechanical appliances required for its
development have been most readily &C
cessible.
According to the most recent returns
at command the supply OF raw cotton
furnished by the world has grown from
an average of 1.11O,7O0, 600 pounds in
the five years ending 1850, to 1907, aoO,-
600 pounds in the year 1891 OF the
former quantity the United States sup
piled 100000 pounds, or 81 per
cent, while of the latter quantity that
country provided 4,o6s, 900 coo pounds,
Or so per cent In spite of the fact that
other countries have been supplying
raw cotton in increasing quantities
there appears to be no country so well
suited for furnishing the requirements
of the world as the Southern States of
America.
But while America furnishes eighty
per cent of the raw cotton consumption
of the world. that country retained for
its own consumption in 1891 1915, 6O0,-
OoU pounds, Or little more than one
third of the total quantity there pro.
duced. The rem ainder was used by
England and by the continent of Europe
in almost equal proportions. Why
should not the United States alter this
condition of things and become the cot.
ton emporium for neutral nations as
England has hitherto been? II we look
closely at the facts we shall soc that
this event is probably nearer than is
generally supposed, and that it is to the
South that the rest of the world is likely
to LOOK in the future, as the center of
the Americon cotton manufa .ture.
The recent statistics of American
cotton manufacture issued from the
census Office shows that great strides
have been made by the Southern States
between 1880 and 1890. The amount OF
capital invested in that industry in the
Southern group has advanced from
SCI, 976,713 to ssl. 124 ,Oa6 the number of
hands employed has advanced from
20,s27 to 41,4s1, and the value of the
manufactured products has been raise
from $21,o3s,712 to S46,07 SOB. This
compares very favorably with the pro-
gross made by any other group OF States
within the same interval.
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