Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-08
A PREJE PICTURE, THIS.
 < It Is So.thin the Pale of Possibility
 ( Moreover.  SJT FAITH BY WORKS
Is What We Must ShoW-The Massachusetts Mill Com
 mittee at Raleigh, N. c.

RALEIGH, N. o., April 7.--The Massa- chusetts mill committee arrived in Raleigh tonight over the Seaboard Air Line railroad
 in the special train provided by that road.
 The day was pleasantly and quietly spent,
 and with the exception of two mile walk to the Lockville water power site, not far from Raleigh, the party did not leave the train.
 The mill men left Augusta this morning by the Port Royal and Western Carolina
 road, and at Clinton connected with the
 Seaboard Air Line, along which there are quite number of prosperous cotton mills.
 The eastern manufacturers during the day conversed about the handsome and profit able mills that they saw in the Carolinas and Georgia, and by the time they return
 to Massachusetts they will be in possession
 of fund of very valuable information re- garding the industrial situation in the south.
 MT. Lowering, president of the Arkwright club of Boston and the Tduton mills, said that it was likely that the only use that
 would be made of the valuable information that had been obtained would be to present them to the Arkwright club, which was
 close organization, but that it was likely that something would get out bout the re- port. While the committee does not in- dicate when or where large cotton mill will be located as result of the iuvestiga- tion, the mill men who accompany the party say that it would not be good business tact to say anything upon such matters, but that they are thoroughly satisfied that the careful and systematic inquiry that is being made will result in the building of at | least one large mill in which New England | capital will be largely interested. The committee has expressed itself as be- I ing particularly struck with the favorable conditions of the factory labor, and were deligh ted to know that there was so much available native labor which seems to be so well satisfied with it's work. The investi- gations of the committee extend from the percentage of wastage to the rate of taxes, the number of yarn, the profit per yard aud every other question of detail.
 Mir. R. H. Edmonds of the Manufactur- ers' Record, who has been with the party since 1t left the south, has given the corre- spondent of the News and Observer some valuable and pertinent statistics upon the mil situation, which indicates that there is plenty of room for cotton mills in the south. He says:
 "There are in the world about 80 ,000 900 cotton spindles. It is claimed that cotton | is the largest single industry in the world, and thatlt has an. aggregate investment of about g, ,000, 900, GOO. The south raises about 60 per ceut of the entire crop of the world, but has only 3, 900, 900 spinoies, less IQaQ per CeuU Ot lDb6 OptTdCtQ III tue world. Southern cotton mills at present, notwithstanding the great increase of re- cent years, consume less than 10 per cent of the southern cotton crop.
 "slt is estimated that the capital invested in the cotton mills in the south aggregates
 little oyer $l00, ,000, ,00o. These figures enable us to form some conception of what the development of some of the cotton ln- dustry in the south means in the advance-
 meut of the prosperity of thls section. The uar fraa al $500, coo, ,000 in value, while if manufactured at home, the aggregate value would be over S1 ,000, ,000, QUO.
 '.It IS not to be expected that the south will for many years to come, if ever, con- sume in it's own mills all of it's cotton crop, but if the future increase in cotton manu- featuring can be centered in tbe south, It
 will mean very rapid rate of growth in
 everything connected with our industrial
 interests.
 ssThe inc crease of cotton mills means the
 building up of industrial towns and cities,
 the creation of home marker for the dl-
 versified agriculture, thus making southern
 farmers more independent than they can in
 any other way become. It also means
 steady and profitable employment for
 thousands of hands that would otherwise
 be forced to remain in ldleness. No other
 industry in the south is attracting such
 general attention. While ths south has
 coal and iron aud timber, in greater abun-
 dance and more susceptible of utilization
 than any other section, nevertheless 1t does
 not have monopoly in the raw material in
 these industries, but In cotton the south
 has an absolute monopoly. in production,
 so far as America is concerned, and 1t is
 almost e certainty that it will for some time
 to come, be able to maintain it's present
 position as the chief cotton producing re-
 zion of the world.
 "With the development of industrial
 towns furnishing a local market for far:n
 poducls added 10 the very general. increa
 In the production of food products during
 the last two years, the south is steadily
 strengthening its ability to produce cotton
 at a low cost, thus insuriug future against
 foreign competition. Under these condi-
 tions 1t is Of the utmost importance that the
 south should devote it's energy and capital
 to the development of it's own textile inter-
 ests, and thus prove its faith in it's own
 business. This will be the strongest argu-
 ment that can be advanced to the capitalists
 of other sections 10 prove the south's pre-
 eminent advantages.
 .'The census oi 1880 shows that the south
 had about 660, ,000 spinoles, with capital of S21, ,000, ,0O0. By 1890 this had increased to S6l, 900, 900 of capital aud about ,0OO, ,O06
 spindles. At the present time there are,
 including mills now under construction, about 5000, 900 spindles, and on the basis
 of the capitalization of the census of 1890, this would mean an aggregate capitalization of about S100, 900 ,000.
 "The great part of this remarkable de-
 veIopment has been made by southern
 people with southern capital. When to the work the south is doing ia building cotton mills shall be added the mills that
 New England people will doubtless build
 in the south during the next fe W years, the
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