The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1897-12-17
THE OWOSSO TIMES.
TEN PAGES.
EDMUND o. DEWEY. EDITOR.
OWOsSO. FRIDAY. DEC. II. 1897.
Congressman sayers, of Texas, life-lon

Congressman Sayers, of Texas, lifelong
democrat who has always supported the
low tariff doctrines and measures of his
party. evidently recognizes the growing
protective sentiment among democrats, and
especially its rapid growth in the south. In
recent statement announcing his candi-
dacy for the democratic nomination for
governor of Texas, published in the Dallas
News of Nov. 81, he said:
II am earnestly of the opinion that the
people should countenance and support any
reasonable and proper policy that would
tend to secure the construction and opera
ton of all kinds of industrial and manu-
featuring establishments within the State.
Present conditions imperatively demand it.
In the other southern states, notable
In Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina, very many manufacturing
enterprises have been successfully inau-
gurated and proitably conducted, convert
ing the raw material into the unfinished
product and furnishing remunerative en-
ployment to labor in many forms. The
policy of our people, 1t occurs to me, should
be to export the manufactured article, rather
than the raw material. Such policy
would open up and multiply the opportuni-
ties for our own citizens to find profitable
employment, and would obviate the neces.
sity Of annually paying many millions of
dollars to other communities for what we
must have
However large the aggregate of our
production in point of quality, our peO-
pie can not and will not be prosperous If
labor cannot find constant and remunera-
tive employment and if the money realized
from the sale of such production is alto
gether expended in purchasing from other
communities such articles of wear and use
as might be pro6tably manufactured with
In our own borders. In Georgia there were
in 1880 employed in the manufacturing
establishments BASIS persons. La 1890
the number had increased to 5S, 1856.
The wage account ran from $5,266, 122
in 1880 to over ST., 200, 900 in 1890, and the
value of the product was increased from
1886, 900, 900 to over $685. 600, 900. And not
withstanding the severe and continued
financial depression since then, an increase
In the number of establishments. in the
wage account, and in the value of products
has steadily gone on. In South Sarolina
during the last six months the number of
spindles has increased from 100000 to
1,3O0,O 900, while many mills of the east
have been compelled to shut down on ac-
count of the depression in such products.
In North Carolina there are 206 cotton
mills, operating 1,016,247 splndles, 24,621
looms, and l41O knitting machines. They
employ about $4,000 hands, and consume
practically the entire cotton crop of that
state.
/ have gathered these facts from official
sources, borrowing the language used.
When 1t is recalled that these states were
the battle-ground between the contending
forces In the late war, and that they
emerged from that great conflict in an ex-
hausted and desolated condition, their
progress has been indeed wonderful.
Texas is greatly superior to any of the
states named in extent of area, In fertility
of soil, in variety of resources, and in
situation, yet she lags behind them all In
manufacturing pursuits. In the matter of
wooden mills Georgia has five, Kentucky
eighteen, North Carolina thirteen, Tonnes
see twenty five, and Virginia twenty -four,
yet Texas, with largely more sheep than all
combined, has only one.
The hides, horns. and hoofs of all cat
tie slaughtered In our State as we'll as our
cotton. wool. timber, iron, clay, and other
natural products should be converted into
articles of manufacture by our own people
and within our own borders, thereby en-
HANGING tile value of the raw material and
creating a large and constant demand for
the produce Of field and garden. can not
think that there is any country where the
conditions for successful manufacturing en-
terprises are so inviting, and where they
would be as profitable and beneficial to
all classes Of society as IN Texas. When we
consider the present cost of sending the
raw material to other states and countries
for conversion into the finished product
and of returning that product to ourselves
for consumption. the drain upon our re-
sources Is frightful to contemplate-to say
nothing of the loss to the State in the sm-
ployment Of its own citizens in manufac-
turing pursuits and to the farmer In the
price Of his farm and garden products"