The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-12-28
The @essenger.


business revival has not meterialized
r1up there" The organs Of THE republi-
1ams, helped by democratic ~tooters,
turned their cranks and played Justify
Prosperity is here" But alas! THE
best laid plans OF men and mice gang
NIT agley." There is trouble with tine
cotton lords. Prices are low, sales are
slow, ov~er-production is ruinous, the
south is in the way. What must be
done? The answer comes-shortening
OF time, cutting of wages. For twenty
years this writer has been urging the
superior advantages of the south over
che north in cotton manufacturing.
There is not one argument used, not
one point made now in the public prints
as to those advantages that we cam not
show to have been used by us in edi-
torials since 1876, with an intolerable
Iteration. When such economic luna
tics as Edward Atkinson were prodding
the south and Steadfastly denying it's
great advantages over the north in cot
ton milling, southern dailies were urg-
fng those advantages and proving them
to be a reality. Now, none is so blind
in New England as not to see and to
realize the truth of all that was urged.
If there be one doubter left 1T is proba-
bly, that over-rated, dogmatic humbug,
Boston's Atkinson.
You a not open a northern daily
now scarcely hat you do not find some
thing about the advantage possessed
- M -z.4l - XLo A~1,I1nu -1-
upon New England cotton men. New
Englanders now confess the corn"
yield supremacy, throw UP the sponge,
and cry for mercy. They see it at last
that boaStful, rich, interpreting, DOM
dnating New England is but a second
Dower They have been weighed and
found wanting. Ichabod is written on
h walls of the cotton mills. The
Arkwright's Club, of Boston, held g.
meeting quite lately to consider the
situation. "A report as ITO the south's
competition was made and adopted. 1t
is very long, but it is a surrender. 1t is
NO doubt intended to affect home legis-
lation. But it is too late to prevent
the south from forging ahead and ITO
get more and more in the lead. The
time lis not a decade ahead when the
south's output in its mills will rival
those of New England i'm all particu-
fars-in production, in quality or
goods, in size of mills, etc. We make
a few suggestive extracts from the re-
port of the Arkwright Club. The COM
mittee had visited the south and in
spected for themselves. They say, and
we think what lis said is not only in
forming up there" but encouraging
down here. Read:
"Our principal point of observation
wtas at Charlotte, N. c., which is the
centre of the manufacturing interests
of the piedmont section. 1t has extern
sive supply stores, a good machine
shop and several mill engineers Offices,
each with it's force OF draughtmen,
ready at the shortest possible notice
to furnish complete plans for a modern
cotton mill of the most approved con-
sstructiCl, and to close a contract TOR
"a complete equipment OF machinery.
Up to within a recent period
nearly all the mills built in the south
were arranged to make three and
AOuT ydIu puC HeAA
East three or four years the tendency
has been to put new mills on yarns as
fine as No. 40. The SOutherner fndS
that, with the advantages he possesses
he can make these goods at a cost
which will allow him to undersell our
mills, and still leave him a margin or
profit which is sufficient to induce the
fnevstment of capital. = In our
Oprnion the cheap labor, long hours
and freedom from Legislative interior
ence are the chief advantages, and
the others are unimpOrtant and of
doubtful value. = = There is a de-
cided opposition on the part of manu-
facturers in the south to any restrlc-
tive labor legislation whatever, and
the alertness with which they combine
to oppose and discourage it is worthy
OF attention. 8 y The mills We Wis
ited are among the largest and best
managed i'm the south Without eXcep-
tion the executive officers whom we
met are native southerners. They are
men we'll qualified by education and
experience and are putting into their
work an earnestness and close appll-
cation to business that will go far to-
ward insuring success.
We obtained prices for labor in sew
eral mills, and feel that we are akl
a conservative statement In saying
that there is a difference between the
prices paid there and in MASSACHUSETTS
OF at least 40 per cent.
In one of the newest and best ar
ranged northern mills the same num-
Der of spindles of each kind is run the
same length of time for 1854, a price
"a per cent more than in the southern
mill. In another northern mill, not so
well arranged and older, the same work
costs $43. 20, which is SO per cent more
than in the souther mill.
In regard to the amount of cloth pro-
,duced per spindle and per loom, we
find the first class, well managed south
ern mill compared favorably with sim
flar mills here.
The total cost of labor in several we'll
run mills was found to be under 4 cents
per pound. We do not know OF any
mill in Massachusetts making similar
goods in which the cost is less than o