Semi=weekly graphic., 1896-04-18

the capital stock, $75O,00O. and to confine their operations Hereafter exclusively to the hosiery depart ment of their business. The sheet ing department, which is to be closed, now operates about 75.000 spindles.
 Mr. C.. P. Baker, the treasurer of the company, who recently went south with the view to locating cotton mill in that section, in an interview with the Lowell Citizen, said:
 We intend to stop the manufac- ture of cotton cloth at Lowell for good. At present half of our pro duet is hosiery. and the balance is cloth. We intend to keep on manu- featuring hoisery. Outsideof hosiery, the Lawrence Company has always been manufacturer of coarse cloth, it's largest product being shooting. The Southern mills have ecome very large makers of this kind of goods, and we see no hope, with their low wages, of being able to meet it at profit here. Instead of going there, as some corporations have. or spending q good deal of money here to fit mp for the mann- fracture of fine goods. the directors of the company considered it best to return part of the capital tu the stockholders retaining at Lowell the hosiery business only.
 This crises has been pending for three or four years, or ever since the south commenced the manufacture of coarse goods largely"
 Replying to the question as to what advantage the South has over Lowell in the cost of goods. Mir. Becker stated that it was from one and one-half to two cents per pound, and this is on account of loW-priced labor, which formerly worked at farming 3 '"Their cost of manufacturing, said Mr. Baker, which is the cost of labor, is 30 per cent below ours, which is due to a very large surplus of help; and as this is nearly all paid for by the piece, it does not make much diff ference in the cost whether the labor of the South is skilled or not. While the Southern mills do not manu- facture enough goods to supply the American trade, they manufacture enough to make the price, and we have to meet il. These goods neanly all go to West and South. The treasurer of one of the New England mills, who lately returned from the South, in reply to q question which asked as to the amount of surplus labor in the South, said 'that there was enough to last for generations"
 he action of this old-estabiished company, which has been in success ful operation for SD many years, in deciding to sell it's entire equipment I devoted to manufacturing slT77tEtfgTzs | 'tAtt v tiAV II oiti Aiidb itdiL Ot tiit DliS- mess permanently. shows that all the Manufacturers Recurd has ever claimed and ever predicted in behalf of the Soufh and it's advantages for cotton manufacturing is now-beihg demonstrated. Ridicnled as the pre- dictions of this paper we're for so many years, it's statements'r receiving ten or twelve years ago but scant credit, even i'll the South, the$.World- is finally being forced to resilize-b by the stern logic of events 0iat this section producing eotton,godds~at a lower cost than any other place, is setting the price for the world, and | following this the business must in- evitably cometo the South- It is only. another demonstration of the uneq1aled advantages of this section | for manufacturing advantages l which have brought about the fulfill | ment of onr predictions in regard to | iron making, as wei! :.s ii; reestI'ti to | cotton manufacturing, and of many | other lines of industry, us well as of | immigration. The Southis day is at | last daNning.
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