Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1898-01-07
COTTON MILLS CUT WAGES.
PROBLEM CONPRONTS NEW ENG.
LAND MANUFACTURERS.
MILL MEN LOOKING SOUTHWARK.
Present Conditions Force Them 70 Slash
Wages Of Operatives- Conditions
North and South Contrasted.

A Boston, Mass, special states that
notices were posted Tuesday morning
at the. Naumkeag cotton mills, in Sa-
lem, announcing that beginning jan
uary 8, 1898, there will be cut Of 10
per cent in the wage scale Of the oper-
atives. More than fifteen hundred
hands are affected. The conditions
which confront New England manu-
facturers are growing graver every
day.
Touching the above dispatch The
Atlanta Constitution OF Wednesday
says:
The agitation among New England
cotton manufacturers over the labor
question and various other issues as
they bear upon the business in Massa-
chusetts is the all-absorbing topic in
business and industrial circles here.
Managers Of mills in Atlanta and
throughout this section of the cotton
belt are daily in receipt OF letters from
Massachusetts, legislators, members OF
congress from all states and politicians
generally asking for something definite
concerning the true situation that con-
fronts the cotton mills of the south,
with the further request that these
conditions be compared with those
which environ the New England mills
and discussed as to the outlook.
The cotton mill managers are now
at the point where they really don't
know what to say, or what TO do about
it. Some of them think the agitation
in New England is born of a political
motive. If they enter into full and
free discussion of the labor question,
they run the risk of agitating to their
disadvantage question which is not
being raised by their own operatives,
and might awaken issues needlessly
which have always been sleeping in
the south-issues that labor raises
against capital so often with frightful
results in the north and west.
That the south has advantages over
New England in the manufacture Of
cotton goods is conclusion too we'll
established for argument. The fact
that in twelve southern states since
the census of 1890 the number of cot
ton factories has increased from 254
to 4S3 goes long way toward show
ing that the conditions are here in the
nature of an inducement to capital
The further fact that these factories
in the south are doing we'll and ore on
o paying basis, although new, is a
clinching evidence of the favorable
auspices under which they have been
planted.
Taking these general observations
to go upon, it is interesting to inquire
more closely into the details of the
management Of the southern mills in
order to arrive at some straightforward
plan of estimating the real differences
between the conditions that surround
southern mills and New England mills.
In plain words, the real advantages of
the south lie in these prevailing facts:
i. The southern states have not leg
islated cotton manufacturers out of
the land.
2. Southern laborers are native
southerners, in greater part contented
in their daily pursuits, frugal and
thrifty and never annoyed with the
restless spirit of the wandering wage
Garner whose first notion is to go on a
strike.
3. Southern factories catch the cot
ton fresh from the fields with first Sc
lection, minus the freight.
These three conditions tell the story
OF the south's success in competing
with old established mills Of New Eng
land. 1t may also be added that
the southern mills are scattered about
in vast area of territory and this has
much to do with the discipline among
operatives as we'll as the other issues
that arise with the labor question in
the north.
In the large cities of the south the
wages paid the operatives OF the cotton
mills do not differ materially from the |
wages paid in New England since the |
recent reduction there, the chief diff
ference being that in the south the
weavers work an hour or two longer.