The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-10-08
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1897.
THE PROGRESSING MANUFAC.
TURING SOUTH.

The New York Dry Goods Economist
must be edited by another Edward
Atkinson. A few years ago the Boston
humbug prophesied boldly that the south
could never become a cotton
turing centre. Toy the New York
Solomon has found out two very impor-
tAnt things: first that the south was
already OVERRIDING cotton milling, and
secondly that the smaller factories wauld
mot, could not pay or rather that they
can not successfully compete with the
larger factories. Well, a fac is always
better han a theory. We remember
that long ago, in the first decade or so
nj this teeming inventive century, that
a distinguished Englishman Of science
was featuring before a London audience
in which he demonstrated the utter i'm
possibility of a steamboat ever being
able to cross the Atlanti ocean. At
the very hour he was speaking a
steamer was crossing the Atlantic and
made the trip successfully. Atkinson's
absurd prophecy was knocked into the
limbo of cranks. A few years ago there
were some $50 mills and some 100000
spindles in all southland. Now there
are not far from 500 mills with not
far from 1900, 900 spindles, consuming
nearly LOO, 900 bales. o. Atkinson!
What a foolish false prophet!
The contention of the New York man
will not be sustained beyond the fact
Sbat a big factory in the south may and
perhaps does realize more largely than
a small mill, but the mall mill will
make better profits in the hard times
than many or all the large New Eng
land mills made. They kept on run
ming when the big mills cup there"
were shut down or losing money. North
Carolina has more mills han any
southern state, and most Of them are
small as compared with the enormous
New England mills. We do not doubt
that there are quite 100 of these. We
believe a comparison of expenses and
profits for the last five years would
show that the actual results were
larger and more satisfactory h those
that come to large mills in Massachu-
sets. This has been done by reason of
the many and greater advantages the
south has over New England in cotton
milling. New England milling men and
its all-wise political economists have
been slow to earn of the south. They
have shut their eyes to the patent facts,
ignored the arguments so often iterat-
ed and reiterated in southern wspa
{ pers and have gon or in confidence
sneering at the fool talk of the south
erners "who know nothing of skilled
manufacturing and all that But there
is at last an awakening. New England
experts and capitalists visited the south
and returned wiser if disappointed
men. Some have been very candid,
very clear-eyed, and have given to the
New -Tnglanders much information they
stood much in need of. The result is
that some mill men of that section
have invested already in the south and
others will do SO before the century
ends. We feel sure that the south will
continue to advance gradually and
surely in cotton manufacturing until
its present business will be doubled or
~trebled-that the manufacture of all
grades of goods will be engaged in, and
that many men from the north will be
among those who shall help to swell
the cotton milling industry in the
south. The consumption Of southern
cotton steadily increases. North Caro-
tina mills now require all the cotton
$1,000 --.Als- 49,. 0,JOr yXYr;fin~ rf
the growth in the south in this impor-
fant industry, the Augusta (Ga-)
Chronicle, published in a city of many
cotton mills, says this:
eff this small result in injury to mills
now operated in England and in New
England that is one of the unavoidable
incidents of the development of a new
section. 1t is the old story Of the sur
vival of the fittest. If her proximity
to the cotton fields and her climatic
advantages shall enable the south to
manufacture cotton goods cheaper than
it can be done anywhere else, then
those sections which have long enjoyed
prominence in this industry must ex-
plot other enterprises. Whether this
priority of the south in cotton manu-
featuring shall prove near at hand or
remote, we do not know, but that it is
inevitable we do not doubt"
In another article the Chronicle refers
TO southern made blankets, and that
the best blankets for the price are now
made in a southern town, and that town
is in North Carolina. At Elkin there is
n mill that is turning out a good article
made out Of southern wool, and the
Chronicle says they are really equal
tn the best" They are not shoddy, but
the genuine article-wool! 1t says:
MI P. D. Horkan. who hi been
selling dry goods for many years. and
d a competent judge, has been hand
Hing their goods, and he declares he
cant buy as good blankets anywhere
else, for the same money, as those he
Kefs from the Elkin Woolen Mills.