Birmingham state herald., 1895-12-18
CHICAGO AND COTTON.

The plan of Chicago is for a great cot ton exposition in that city next year. The merchants of Chicago claim that Chicago. being the approximate center of population, is bound to become the dis tributing center of the country. It should without delay become the chief market of the south, thus affording that logical connection with the west which is now wanting. A trade of $250, 900, GOO annually awaits Chicago's enterprising reach, Chi cago in return opening a natural route to the south for the great northwest. Eastern cotton manufacture is dwin- ding. and must ultimately disappear as mill construction in the south progresses, for the reason that the east cannot com- pete with the south in the manufacture of southern products The southern man. ufacturer, having utilized his own raw material, should send his fabrics for dis tribution by a short cut to the natural outlet-the ceAter of population-Chi- cago. With this southern mill develop ment New York and Boston should be compelled to send henceforth to Chicago Tor their cotton goods, instead of drag ging the entire west to the Atlantic sea- board. This system would knock off at least the costs of one transportation from the initial price at which such fabrics can be placed on the market In short, the south should "get in on the ground floor" by accepting the inevitable without delay.
 To effect such a scheme Chicago needs better railroad facilities to the south so the business men of that city say, and they are now devising ways and means to cheapen the rates southward.
 But the New York papers think that Chicago will have a hard time in her at tempt to defect cotton from the eastern ports. The Express says:
 All the southern cotton connections are established in the east Most of the mills in the southern states are owned largely by New York and eastern capi- talists, in conjunction with capitalists of the south. In many cases where ab- solute ownership does not exist mills have been started on loans advanced from the east. Whatever dwindling of cotton manufacture is visible in the east is due to the transfer of this capital to the south, where labor is cheaper and economic conditions more favorable.
 This mill development in the south, cementing the trade relations along nat ural lines, has been in progress for ten SediS' yet CH1cdSO tone suggests that she has just awakened to the fact. Our money and our energy have been pouring into the cotton states while the western town has been absorbed in her own van ity and her own destruction, unconscious that the world still moved without her recognition or her nod. She seeks to re- vive a spirit of sectionalism that has been obliterated largely by the invasion of this very spirit of the east and the resultant amalgamation of interest. She appeals against the east to mills that are founded by the east, and so declares her ignorance loudly to the four corners of the earth.
 Trade alliances and trade channels are not created from wind. and the south will courteously but firmly decline to even entertain the proposition that she shall help to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for this bankrupt and visionary center of left-handed civilization and commercial bunco."