Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-02-08
COTTON MILLS NORTH AND SOUvu


COTTON MILLS NORTH AND SOUTH.
Samuel Gompers says the strikers
in the New England cotton mills must
stick together or fail The strikers,
themselves, are rather confident of
winning. Gompers has doubtless
more of the right in his view than the
strikers, because he looks at the mat
ter as a comparatively disinterested
expert. 1t is more than likely, how
ever, that they are both wrong. They
have other things than the mill own
ers to fight, and it isn't Southern
competition, either, although the cot
ton mill bosses persistently declare
that it is. They have sought to pro-
duce an impression that they and the
southern manufacturers were produc-
ing substantially the same kind of
goods, for if it were not the COMPETE
ton between them could not be kill
ing matter. Then they have claimed
that the southern mill bosses were
paying extremely low wages, making
it necessary for them to reduce wages
in order to hold their own.
The Chicago Chronicle states that
the truth is they are engaged in diff
ferent lines of production. The fact
reduced to a general statement is
that the southern mills turn out the
coarser fabrics and the northern mills
the finer ones. Each class of mills
has it's very we'll defined field and
neither encroaches much on the field
of the other. Therefore, they are by
no means fierce competitors.
Coming to the matter Of compar-
ative wages, we soon find why each
class of mills has its own field and
why southern competition is not
valid reason for reduction Of wages
in northern mills.
No doubt it is true that the ply of
operatives per week or month is
higher in northern than in southern
LILLE, Jul thC SIdtCACht VI lulplICdClOA
that southern operatives are more
efficient than northern is almost GER
tainly untrue. The unquestioned fact
that the southern mills produce the
coarser fabrics proves it to be untrue.
If the southern operatives were super
ior they would not be kept at work
producing inferior goods. 1t is quite
safe to say that the southern oper
atives get lower wages because their
services are not worth so much.
1t was one of the most experienced
men in Fall River who said not long
ago that the southern competition had
very little to do with the present con-
dition of the cotton industry in New
England He undoubtedly stated the
truth when he said that the New
England mills were turning out more
OF the kinds Of goods they were pro-
ducing than could be sold in the home
market and that they must find for
eign markets or curtail production.
He did not say so. but it is true
that the British gold standard. aided
by the present monopoly tariff, has
brought about the present state of
affairs. The tariff with its promise of
excessive profits wrung from Ameri-
can consumers in the home market,
overstimulated production, while the
gold standard, which gradually bears
the prices of all products and labor
by increasing the value of money
has done the rest Prices have been
forced down nearly to the world s
level for such goods or, perhaps, lit
tie below for the time being. Then
the mill owners found it necessary
either to curtail production or re-
duce expenses so that they could pro-
duce at the lower prices for the
worlds markets without losing money.
They could not reduce expenses on
account of plant and materials, be-