The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-25
Consular Service and Cotton MiiIs.


Mr.. w. j Mercer of the staff of the
New York Journal of Commerce and Cons
mercial Bulletin, who recently made a
tour through the South for the purpose of
Studying the cotton mill situation. deiiv-
cred before the Merchants Association OF
New York few days ago an address bas-
ed upon what he had seen and the conclu-
sions he had reached. Mr.. Mercer very
pointedly put the North upon notice that
the South is in the cotton manufacturing
business to stay, and that it win continue
to increase its operations. And not only
that, but it Will manufacture the finer
grades of cotton goods. such as New Eng
land has been fattering itself 1t had
virtual monopoly Of. Up TO 1892, said Mr.
Mercsr, the South devoted itself to the
coarser cloths. Now 1t is taking up print
cloths. and those other finer cloths more
particularly known as "Fa}l River goods"
''At the present time" said he, there are
10000 spindles in the South running on
that class of goods"
Mr.. Mercer contends, however. that
there are certain advantages possessed by
New England over the South for the man.
ufacture Of fine goods. One of them,
which may be well based, though it is open
to question, is that climatic conditions in
the North are more favorable to fine text
lie manufacturing than those IN the South.
zone more disadvantage the South has to
contend with" said Mr.. Mercer. sis the
character of the soil in several of the
states. The soil of North Carolina, Geor-
gia and Alabama, is not adapted to the
growth OF cotton for yarns as fine as so
turers have to bring it from the Mississippi
valley, and in that competition they are
decidedly at a disadvantage with the New
England Mills He gave data to show
that the New EnglaSd mills can buy cot
ton In the Mississippi valley and deliver
it at their mills for less freight than can
the manufacturers of the Southern states
mentioned. 1T appears that perfectly
simple manner Of discounting this mat
ter of freight and turning it to the ad-
vantage of the South, would be to build
mills for the finer goods in the Mississippi
valley, where the cotton wanted is grown.
Mr.. Mercer reaches the very sensible
conclusion. however, that the enactment of
labor and time laws designed to re-es-
tabHsh the supremacy of New England in
cotton manufacturing will not have the
desired effect. What is needed, he says,
is the enlargement of the markets for
American manufactured goods This en-
largement can be best brought about
through the Improvement of our consular
service Vigorous effort should be made
in behalf of our export trade. The con-
sular service should be reorganized Upon
a business plan similar to the services OF
Great Britain, Germany and France, Even
Russia has a more business-lil1e consular
service than the United States, and she
is reaping benefits from il in the extern
sion of her trade. The Morning News has
for long time advocated taking the
American consular system out of the 20
i litical grab bag, and operating it upon 9
scientific plan for the advancement o.
American trade. When this has beer
done, a long step will have been made to
wards the end of relieving the American
mills of the evil consequences of over-pro
duction in a restricted market.