The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1895-01-10

uSuluSI NlliISlcl 1tllNiA'
THE SOUTH THE GREAT CENTEE
OF MANUFACTURE.
Everything connected with our heec!
staple indicates strongly that the man
ufacturers of cotton must come South
The desertion of New England by the
cotton mills is as inevitable as was tho
desertion of their rocky and unproductive
farms by the agriculturalists of
that section. BY the energy
of the population of New Eng
land and their contiguity to the coal
mines they have been able to reverse the
natural order of affairs and divert from
the economical channels the manufacture
Of cotton. As long as the South was
content to submit to this it was success
full. The kind of labor in the South and
the productive power of the soil in va
riety of crops soothed the South into a
content altogether prejudcial to its inter
est as far as manufactures were con-
cerned.
Just as soon as the water power Of the
South began development the fact be-
came more pronounced and more gener-
ally entertained that it was cheaper to
manufacture cotton goods in the South
than it possibly could be SO remote from
the locality that produced the staple and
the South entered into rivalry with New
England and other Eastern states in this
industry. We became at once alive to
the fact that while this country was cred
tied with raising 60 per cent of the cotton
product of the world, that the South pro-
duced every pound of it and that it could
be manufactured at its native place much
cheaper than it could be shipped North
or to Liverpool and manufactured into
cotton goods and returned to us. who were
liberal purchasers of it. Freights both
ways entered largely into this considera-
ton, and the development of water power
IN different sections of the South was an
other consideration. Then, too. labor
could be obtained in the South cheaner
than in the North. These facts were so
obvious to the New England manufactu-
bers that they began to take advantage
OF them by moving their plants South.
which encouraged the formation of com.
panies of Southern capitalists to follow
their example. We have in the United
States 100000 spindles, of which the
South will have about 5000 900 when the
mills now in the course of construction
are completed, and although the South
has comparatively few mills, nearly half
OF the cotton last year was consumed by
the mills of the South. This was attrib-
utable to the fact that the mills of tho
South made coarser goods, and on this
account consumed more in proportion to
spindles. The foreign trade, it is under
stood, demands this coarser material. and
not long since the cotton manufacturers
OF Lowell, Mass, were compelled to put
$ooO,OoO i'll cotton mill in the South to
supply their foreign demand, which has
just been followed by the Dwight Manu-
featuring company of Chicope
Fails voting to put $500. 600
in a mill in Alabama.
when 1t is understood that all these
products compete abroad with the MANN
tacturers making these goods then it will
be seen that the items of expense must
be closely calculated, and the result of
that cancellation is that Northern manu-
facturers find it to their interest to es-
tablish plants in the. South.
The United States has never entered
into the rivalry of manufacturing cotton
with other countries that its production
OF cotton warrants. While that product
is To per cent of the whole cotton crop of
the world, we have only 100000 spin-
dies to the 100000 spindles in other
lands. This has been because the manu-
facture of cotton in this country has new
or attained its most favorable conditions
1t has only recently attained these favor
able conditions by the inauguration of
cotton factories in the South. Nowhere
i'll the world can cotton be manufactured
under better conditions and at such mar
gin of profit than in the cotton states of
the South. That has been demonstrated
Then what will be the natural and iney-
liable result? Certainly it would rcouire
no prophet Ia tell us that the South il
destined 10 be the great cotton manufact-
uring center of the world. That is inst
as certain and as fixed fact as the laws
of trade are certain and fixed. and under
the pressure of this development it would
be folly to say that Austin is not TO share
in this great development The fact is
just as certain as the other facts men,
toned that Austin will succeed in this
respect just to the extent that it offers
by its great water power superior facili-
ties to other localities in the South.
THE CITY'S MONTHLY EXPENSES