The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1895-06-20
COTTON IN THE UNITED STATES.
SOME FACTS NOT GENERALLY
KNOWN.

The Production and Manufacture of
the Great StapIc-Thc Progress of
the Nineteenth Century.
Shipping and Commercial List
The younger generation finds it i'm
possible to conceive OF any time when
men and women did not wear cotton
clothing. Yet that period is not so
very remote. 1t is doubtful whether
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
ever wore garments made Of this ma
tcrial, and it is almost certain that
Benjamin Franklin and George Wash
ington never id. Woolen 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
heing the attire on important occu.
siOns. In the Colonies there were
! frequently to be seen men clad entirely
! in deer skins, while in the mother
country leather was not unknown for
q mans uumontOnables. George Fox,
tho founder of the Quak ers, who died
in 1891, wore leather so generally and
SO long that he was known IT'S 1.-THE
man with the leather brccches."
Nothing excited more terror in the
ordinary church than to know that
" the man with the leather brccchcs"
was coming, for he took the words out
of the minister's mouth, roundly de-
noun"ing him and his worship. Nor
could he be stopped.
The introduction OF cotton was grad
ual From the rcmOtcst antiquity il
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. tstiIl remained in this category
up to the end OF the last century. ui-
though not an haut nouvcautc, the
art of manufacturing it having been
learned in England and France. The
cotton could not, however, he turned
into cloth at a low price, as all the
weaving and spinning must be done a
single thread at IL time, and as tho
product was scanty in those countries
which were available to. Manchester
and Lyons. The ingenious inventions
Of Hargreaves, Cartwright and Ark
wright enabled the two main processes
in cotton manufacture to be accom-
plished in far less time than before,
while Ell Whitney invented u machine
could easily be separated from the
seed. Before this was developed a
great deal of labor was required be-
fore Il pound Of cotton was ready to be
sent away to the spinners. After
these inventions, this cost became
inlinitcsimal. Already American cot
| ton was known to be the best in the
world, and the improvements in hand
| ling thus initiated caused the planters
to put under cultivation all the land
they could obtain.
THE BEGINNING or FACTORIES. 3
a prodigious increase in the manu-
facturc at once took place. Before
1890 no American cotton was used in
Great Britain, and the quantity de-
rived from other countries in that
year was 81 100000 pounds. In 1900
jG, 900, 600 were required, more than
half coming from America, and in
1870 1872, 900, 900 pounds. In the mean
time the manufacture had begun here
One Of the chief movements in modern
industry, and that which particularly
distinguishes it from that of tho
Middle Ages or of antiquity, came ur
cOncurrently with the improvements
in spinning and weaving this com
modify. Before 1860 there were nc
factories in any line Of business. The
number Of employers who had ut work
in any manufacturing occupation as
many as q hundred mon and women at
one time probably did not exceed a
dozc' in Europe, and those who re-
Quircd so many had u highly divcrsi
fed industry. Occasionally IL new
building, Il bridge, or ship, might
require q hundred men for q short
time, but most Industries were carrie:
on in little shops, with half n dozen OF
d Oxen hands, or even much fewer
There was no employment for womcl
except in house or on a farm, no
was childrcl's labor needed except II
these places. Whom the making 0
cotton cloth was begun on q large
, scale, and great buildings were re
, quircd, women end children were il
, request, receiving high wages, a
, compared with servants. a migra
'tion began Of families with man