The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-04-27
rAtIanta Constitution.

| TO request, | answer Otlo" yum Jus
ton. oWill the cotton manufacturing
business probably be overdone by the
building of SO many new mills in the
South p
| Less than a year ago was at Glenn
son College, in South Carolina, anu
was permitted to look over some old
letters, written by John {. Calhoun
when he was in congress, to his brother
on a plantation in South Carolina.
Mr.. Calhoun told his brother, IN sub
| stance, that it would be necessary to
find something else than cotton to
plant, as the production 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 probably be the
enormous production of SOC, 900 bales
| of cotton.
In this day, when the production
| reaches 5000, 900 bales, it is plain
| that even Mr.. Calhoun, in one in
stance, at least, failed to calculate cor
rectly the increasing consumption OF
cotton goods.
Besides this yet increasing con-
| sumption, there are other reasons that,
to my mind, preclude the possibility
of OVERRIDING the business of manufact-
| uring cotton in the Southern States.
Previous to the establishment of slavery
in the South on a basis that made it
stifle everything else, the South pros
| pcred in manufactures. In the Pied
mont section OF Virginia, the Carolinas
and Georgia the iron industry was in
prosperous condition in the early
part of this century.
The South Carolina railway was,
when it was built, one of the most i'm
portant engineering achievements of
its day. The first steam vessel that
ever crossed the Atlantic ocean went
out OF Savannah
Alter slavery became a fixed insti-
tuition it stIied all industrial growth
and as time went on in the days of
| slavery the idea was put forward SO
much by Northern writers and re-
peated SO often without denial that it
came to be accepted as fact that the
Southern man is not ingenius or me-
ChaniCal.
But no sooner had slavery been
abolished and the political atmosphere
become cleared than the Southern peo-
| pie turned again to manufactures and
in Alabama and Georgia established
an iron industry that worries the Penn
| sylvanians, while in North and South
Carolina, Georgia and other states the
manufacture of cotton has attained an
extent Of development that worries the
New Englanders in some lines.
| can see no limit to the growth of
cotton manufacturing in the South,
except when the end is reached of
manufacturing the entire crop. The
Southern cotton factories have the ad-
vantage of every other cotton factory
in the world. In the days of slavery,
that institution was the one fatal dis
advantage under which the South
labored in any effort to manufacture
and as matters now stand | consider
that the Southern man is just as capa-
bic as his Northern or English brother
to take care of machinery, to handle
labor and to attend to business. He
has the advantage over the Northerner
or Englishman in the saving of bag
9ing and ties, in climate, in saving
commissions, profits, freights, waste,
etc, on cotton sent to the mills out
side the South. The South has cheaper
fuel than the average Of other cotton
manufacturing sections, cheaper build
ing materials, cheaper labor, better
labor, practically unlimited water power
and the saving of cost of comprising
cotton and of opening the compressed
cotton. These advantages are not
matters of theory. Within a few days
strike was ended in England in which
fifteen millions of spindles stood idle
for more than four months, the mills
and the labor being in a quarrel about
a 5 per cent. raise or reduction of
wages. The men and the mills claimed
alike that they could not live without
the 5 per cent. in controversy.
If English mills have been reduced
to the necessity to follow up a bitter
fight for 5 per cent, while the South
ern mills have been running all during
the strike and doing we'll, it looks as
if England would be driven to the wall
entirely before the Southern mills
would be reduced to the point of I'M
profitable operation 1t is not an ex-
lsting Southern mill that feels the COM
petition of new Southern mill so
much as English or New England
mills.
OF course certain special lines of
manufacture can be overdone bv all
the Southern mills being put on too
nearly the same goods. This has hap
pened to a limited extent in coarse
plaids. Each new mill built in the
South should undertake to get into
some line of cotton goods not much
made in the South. Particularly avoid
doing exactly what the other neighbor-
ing mills are doing.
Years ago the New England papers
said the Southern people could not
successfully manufacture cotton. When
1t had successfully done SO to an ex-
tent 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
become finer and finer and the success
OF the new factories continues. 1t
would seem to be only question of
time when the South will make as fine