The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-09-11

lneIn DOWN Win the precious product OF
the fields they sail straight for Liverpool,
made, and then return again for another
load 1t is during this season that the
tramps and their crews have steady en-
ployment and full cargoes. The feet Of
tramp steamers engaged in carrying cot
ton to Europe in the fall of the year is
large, and in the present depression of
business rapidly increasing. They are
making heavy inrosds into the business
of the regular liners, as they cut prices
and reduce the cost of transportation to
the lowest possible figure Savannah,
Charles ton, New Orleans and all the
coast city harbors are full of these Eu-
ropean tramps at this season of the year,
and their coming and going give an APP
pearance of great activity to the harbor.
In addition to the army of original pur-
chasers in the field and the firms en-
ploying them there are the captains and
crews of the tramp steamers, the leaders
and carriers along the wharves, and the
clerks and general employees required to
keep track of the stuff, who are all
benefited by the great crop. Before the
cotton has reached this stage of its jour-
ney three times as many men as the farm
ers who have raised it get wages, salaries
or commissions from the crop. In all of
the coast cities there are thousands of
men almost entirely sustained by the cot
year. Wharves, warehouses and stock ex-
changes that have been dull and deserted
for half a year suddenly become scenes
of great activity
New York city is. after all, the great
centering place for the cotton crop, and 1T
moves toward this city from all parts Of
the south as steadily as iron filings are
attracted to magnets. If it were not for
the fleet tramp steamers engaged in ocean
cotton carrying nearly all of the annual
cotton crop would come to New York, as
in former years. ost of the cotton is
brought here by the regular coasting
steamers, and is then shipped Immediate
ly to Liverpool, New England or else
where. New York does not consume the
product, but merely acts as the great dis
tributing center for the country and Eu-
rope. The cotton wharves of New York
are extensive affairs, and just as soon az
the harvesting season opens a great army
of men is set to work on them to handle
the fieecy product of the south.
In the southern cities negroes load the
vessels with bales OF cotton to the tune of
old southern melodies, but in New York
white 'longshoremen take their places, and
Ii is rarely that a negro Is found among
them. The cotton 1ongshoremen hang
around in groups at the different street
corners, and when vessel Is ready for
unloading a shrill whistle calls them to
their duty. Every man is a strong, strap
ping fellow, for the bales of cotton weigh
500 pounds and more. The 'longShoremen
are not on salary nor are they regularly
engaged by the day or season, but most of
them find steady work from certain firms
the year round. They receive from 20 to
25 cents an hour, and they generally make
more in a week in the cotton season than
most freight handlers.
A great deal of the cotton consigned to
New York is sold before it reaches the city,
and upon it's arrival 1t is Immediately
transferred and shipped to some other part
of the world. Some goes into storage to
wait for customers, but most of 1t is
quickly sent to the consumer. There is
consequently a great deal of transferring
from wharf to wharf, and in this work
the truckmen and workmen on the light
ers find employment. Another entirely
new class of employees numbering thou
sands thus find that the cotton harvest
ing season brings them money and steady
work for another season. The truckmen
take the cotton that is transferred from
one wharf to another near by, but the
lighters are employed when the bales are
sent any distance. The trucks generally
carry about twelve to fifteen bales at once,
while the lighters are capable of trans
ferring in each load from 1000 to 800 bales.
The price is Is cents bale In either case,
or. after the cost of loading and unload
Some of the largest cotton dealers have
their own truckmen and lighters, and they
reduce the cost TO a smaller figure in this
way Other owners of lighters and trucks
charter their plants to the large compa-
MES for the season, or a boss truckman
owning dozen trucks will make some
contract with the companies to transfer
their cotton at q fixed sum for the season.
The amount OF handling the cotton re-
ceives in New York is great, and fully
10000 men are employed in the various
lines of the work. The regular cotton car
rying ships have machinery for loading
and unloading the heavy bales, and they
save a great deal of labor. The heavy
derricks pick the bales up from the ships
hold and swing them TO the pier, where
the trucks are ready TO load and carry
them away
The staple product OF the south could
be followed further in its progress, show
ing how at each step IL brings work TO a
new army OF men, but enough has been
said to make II clear that the cotton far
mer is only small part of the many az
fected by the crop. From New York the
bales go to Liverpool or New England
factories, where they are woven into
cloth. Here the employees are numbered
by the hundreds of thousands. Incident
ally employment is given also to the men
engaged in manufacturing jute bagging
iron hoops and farm implements and ma
chinery. On the various exchanges there
are hundreds OF men who make their liv-
ing in specializing in cotton, and they
must be classed among the great numbers
who are dependent wholly or in part upon
the cotton yield for their bread and but
ter.