The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-06-18
COTTON IN THE UNITED STATES.
SOME FACTS NOT GENERALLY
KNOWN.

- a-.l \,
SOME FACTS NOT GENERALLY
KNOWN.
The Production and Manufacture of
the Great Staple-The Progress of
the Nineteenth Century.
Shipping and Commercial List.
The younger generation finds it Inn
possible to conceive OF any time when
men and women did not wear cotton
clothing Yet that period Is not so
very re1ote. IL Is doubtful whether
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
yer wore garments made of this ma
terrell, and 1t Is almost certain that
BENJAMIN Franklin and George Wash
ington never DID. Wooden garments
were worn all the year round, under
garments being made Of linen. There /
were cotton clothes In the last century
which were fashioned into pretty
shapes for ladies, but they were costly,
and the poor could not wear them.
The fair sex were supplied with their
ward-robes chiefly from linen and
wool, silk in one OF its numerous forms
bsing the attire on important occa-
sions. In the Colonies there were
frequently to be seen men clad entirely
in dec skins, while in the mother
country leather IA not unknown for
a mans unmentionables. George Fox,
the founder of the Quakers, who died
In 1901, wore leather SO generally and
30 long that he was known as "the
man with the leather breeches."
Nothing excited moro terror in the
ordinary church than to know that
the man with the leather breeches"
was coming, for he took the words out
of the minister's mouth, roundly de.
nouncing him and his worship. Nor
could he be stopped.
gVka f,,t, DJ,, ~ ~ ~ -Ak .-.~l
ual. From the remotest antiquity it
has been used in India, China, and
other Eastern countries, but except as
an article OF luxury was unknown in
England or France two hundred years
ago. 1t still remained in this category
up to the end of the last century, al
though not an haut ~nouveaute, the
art of manufacturing it having been
learned In England and France. The
cotton could not, however, he turned
n cloth at a low price, as all the
weaving. and spinning must be done q
single thread at a time, and as the
product was scanty in those countries
which were available to Manchester
and Lyons. The ingenious invention.
OF Hargreaves, Cartwright and Ark
wright enabled the two main processe.
in cotton manufacture to be accom-
plished In far less tune than before
while Ell Whitney invented a machin,
by which the rlamentous materia
could easily be separated from tn,
seed. Before this was developed ,
great deal of labor was required be
fore q pound Of cotton was ready to b.
sent away to the spipners. Afte
these Inventions, this cost becam,
infinitesimal. Already American cot
ton was known to be the best in TIL,
world, and the improvements in hand
ling thus initiated caused the planter
to put under cultivation all the Ian
they could obtain.
H BEGINNING OF FACTORIES.
A prodigious increase in the manu-
facture at once took place. Befor
179O no American cotton was used i
Great Britain, and the quantity de-
rived from other countries in tina
year was $1,000, 600 pounds. In 1906
66,OOO,OO0 were required, more tina
hall coming from America, and i
1910, 1872, 000, 900 pounds. In the mcaI
time the manufacture had begun here
One OF the chief movements in moder
industry, and that which particular
distinguishes it from that of tin,
Middle Ages or of antiquity, came Il
concurrently with the Improvement
in spinning and weaving this cOm
modify. Before 176O there were n
factories in any line of business. Tn
AoAAco " ihpioJSlo lldu dU "OIl
In any manufacturing occupation a
many as a hundred men and women a
one time probably did not exceed
dozen in Europe, and those who re
CURED so many had u highly diversi
fed industry. Occasionally a ne,
building, o bridge, or u ship, Nigh
require u hundred men for q shor
time, but most industries were carrie:
on In little shops, with half q dc zen O
n dozen han1o mr. nUnn rp,nh fay,D,
There was no employment for womel
except In a house or on a farm, no
was childreL's labor needed except il
these places. When the making O
cotton cloth was begun on a larger
scale, and great buildings we're re
CURED, women end children we're il
request, receiving high wages, a,
ton began of families with man,
children to the manufacturing dis
tricts. Old towns increased thcii
population rapidly, and entirely new
ones we're founded. The same rule
prevailed here. Lowell, Fall River
Cohoes, Manchester, and Paterson
W their development to the facilities
which they afford for the gathering
together of machines on q large scale
and Of a population accustomed to
~laboring in s~pecialties.
The earliest successful manufactur-
err of cotton in the United States was
Samuel Slaterin Providence. He was
an Englishman who had learned the
proper methods in hat country. The
general use OF the power loom In
Great Britain gave it a decided id
vantage over tn country in u.any
respects, labor also being cheaper.
This loom was not much used here
until about 1922, when the civ of
Lowell was founded. At the present
day Fall River Is the centre of
American COTTON manufacture.
EXPORTS OF COTTON.
1t is evlaent therefore that the cot
ton trade In New York must nave had
Q late beginning. Until 1920 or 1880
h commodity was sent abroad chi, Hy
from the ports of Charleston, Savan.
nah and New Orleans. The plant
does not grow well except in three
States on the Atlantic coast, and four
on the Gulf. At that time. too, Texas
was not in the Union, and produced no
cotton. In the three cities mentioned.
and In Mobile, were the cotton factors.
lordly men, who advanced money TO
the planters before their crops were
ready, n made great profits out of
their trade. New York acquired its
present distinction i'm COTTON bandlino