The age-herald., 1898-03-22
THE SOUTH'S SUPREMACY ! Over New England In Manufac- ture of Staple Cotton Goods  AS MIR. CHALIFOUX SEES IT The Establishment of Textile Schools Is the Only Means to Regain Lost
 Prestige. 
AS MR. CHALIFOUx SEES IT


 member of the firm of J. L. Chalifoux & Go, with a large branch store in this city.
 has recently returned home from trip to the south, and in interview with Low ell Mail reporter expresses some pertinent views upon the textile situation. MT. Chalifoux is an earnest advocate of
 textile schools as a means or redeeming New England from the disadvantage in which she has been placed by southern competition in the manufacture or cotton goods.
 ''When the Avondale Cotton Mills Corpor- alton of Birmingham, Ala, was organized" said MT. Chalifoux, three pub lic-spirted men in the city gave twenty acres of land in a suburb, which is almost as close to the city of Birmingham as Gen. tervie is to Lowell. In addition the cor poration was given valuable water privi- leges, capable of furnishing millions of gal Ions of water absolutely free. The state legislature passed a bill last year exempting from taxation for ten years all new cotton corporations. The corporation has erected a mill which has no superior in the com peteness of detail and compactness of it's plant or in any ether feature. It Is a model mill from the basement to the roof, and gives employment to 500 hands. The brick of which 1t is constructed cost $450 per thousand. The corporation has erected near the mill ninety tenement houses, to be let to the operatives at the rate of $1 per month per room. The houses contain from three to six rooms.
 "It can be seen what a surprisingly low rent this would mean for any family. Not withstanding that, those tenement houses will show profit of 10 per cent. Each house cost at the rate of $S3 per room. The abundance of the best quality of lumber throughout that belt explains in meas ure the low cost of building, but other things help to keep down the expense. The climate is all that can be desired, and then the houses are built without cellars and one story in height Even then they are in every way better than the opera tives had before entering the employ of the corporation, and they realize 1t. They are furnished with water from the mills source of supply without cost, and they are soon to have fuel gas for 50 cents
 thousand feet. The corporation will be
 supplied with coal delivered on the prem
 ises for 90 cents per ton, and the price to
 the operatives will be proportionately low.
 "The work week is seventy-two hours.
 The idea that it Is a hardship to work in
 these mills has been greatly exaggerated. True, northerners would find it burdensome in the mills located in the extreme south,
 but it is different near Birmingham It
 must be remembered that the temperature in those mills is artifclal-the requirements
 of the proper atmospheric conditions ren-
 ders it necessary to keep the temperature low. Immense fans maintain comforta- ble temperature at all times. On the whole it is doubtful if the thermometer would register much higher in the Birmingham mills than it would here in Lowell.
 "The operatives can buy poultry for half what it costs here, and meats and vege- tables at a. less price. In addition to that their expenses for clothing are almost one half less than that of New Englanders. The men rarely use overcOat nor the wo- men cloak. Therefore it can be seen that the operatives have advantages as well as the manufacturers, and with their much lower rate of wages they can have
 just as many of the necessaries and com forts of life as the operatives of New Eng land with their higher wages.
 Birmingham last year had 105,000 bales
 of cotton marketed there and this enabled
 the Birmingham corporation to buy its
 raw material at first cost without the ne-
 cessity of paying freight and other addi-
 tional charges which must be paid in the
 north
 "It follows then that having improved
 machinery, being free from taxes, having
 free water privileges, coal at 90 cents a
 ton, help working 72 hours per week at
 lower wages than New England and run
 n.ng machinery at practically the same
 speed as it is run here, the southern manu-
 lecturers can sell staple goods at lower
 price than cur manufacturers can afford to
 at the present time. It does not take one
 long to see that some great uphftlng m
 huence for our New England cotton in | the form of thorough textile instruction As an illustration of the difference Tn prices on a specified class of goods MT. Chalifoux said: "To my surprise when looked over "a, certain line of staple goods which I have been buying for my Lowel and Birmingham stores in Boston and New York I found it would be to my advan- tge to buy in the south. The same state ment also applies to the lower grade of hosiery. Having thost facts in mind l would be led to think that the days of New Ergland's textile industries are numperea were dt not for the one great agency which | I can see looming up in the distance as their resouer-ther textile school Necessity is the | mother of invention there are too many brainy men in New England and too much capital invested and an alliance of these two forces is sure to find way out or the threatening trouble and re-establish our mills upon the firm footing which they | enioyed before southern mills were thought | of The problem will be solved quickly if | the people of New England will realize | the importance of giving to the textile