The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-05-18

Georgia 225 in Alabama, 500; IN Ienhes-
see sZ22. while In Massachusetts the OPP
eratives in similar mills receive an aver
age of $344 a year.
There is an average difference OF j
cent a pound I'm the price of cotton deliv-
cred at the mills in the South and In New
England, which of itself represents from
Is to 20 per cent. In the total cost OF mate
I rial.
Coal which is the principal fuel, can DC
purC hased for from 81 to $2.15 a ton IN the
mill centres of the South, while in Prov
idence, Boston, Fall River, Portsmouth,
n. H.. and other New England seaports'
it costs from 81 10 $3.50 a ton.
l am informed that there are two mills
Of equal capacity owned by the same
stockholders, one In South Carolina and
the other In Massachusetts, where the
difference In the cost of fuel last year
was $50. COO in labor. $1,000; in cotton, $685.
900, while the value of product of each
mill was about the same.
Taxes in the South, on manufacturing
industries, are ve-y low. Many factories
are entirely exempt from. taxation under
inducements offered for their location,
Willie in Massachusetts, they are very
high and represent a dividend of three
quarters of per cent. year after year. A
gentleman from Massachusetts tells me
that mill in which he is interested, paid
5000 a year taxation, not including the
new income tax, which would probably be
one-third more. He had found during his
tour through the South that similar mills
in that section paid only trifie-s3,O00 or
$4,000. The difference would cover all in
surance, clerk hire, and other expenses of
administration.
But everybody seems TO agree that the
absence of labor organizations in the
South and restrictive legislation Is the
most important advantage the mill men
in that section enjoy. The New England
manufacturers complain that their bust
ness is managed for them by the Leg
slature and the Knights of Labor, who
regulate the wages they pay their opera
tives, the number of hours they work,
the temperature Of their mills, the ages
of their employees, and interfere contin-
ually with their affairs; whereas In the
Southern States there are few labor
unions, and there is no legislation OF any
serious importance. South Carolina has
a law restricting the time of labor in
cotton mills TO sxty-six hours a week.
while the maximum in Massachusetts is
fifty-eight hours. but no attempt has
ever been made TO enforce the South
Carolina law. and the operatives work
as long as they please.
The visiting committees found that the
labor furnished by the poor whites in
the South was not so skillful or intelli-
gent as that to which they have been
accustomed, yet experience develops them
more rapidly. and they are much more
reliable and amenable to discipline than
the foreigners who form the majority of
operatives in the Northern mills. The
Southern girl is much more quick-witted
than the ordinary foreigner, and takes a
greater interest in her work. Whenever
she has had an opportunity to develop her
natural capacity she has proved 10 be
possessed of great skill
There is a movement 10 establish a tex
tile school at Charlotte, n. c., which
would be of great assistance and import
ance to the operatives as well as to the
owners of the mill
The comparative consumption of cotton
I'm Northern and Southern mills of late
years furnishes an interesting study for
the statistics show a falling off among
the Northern mills. while those in the
South have doubled
The following table shows the number
of bales of cotton consumed each year
by Northern and Southern mills for sew
en- years: