The San Francisco call., 1899-09-24
THE NEW ENGLAND COTTON
INDUSTRY.

c OUTWARD the New England cotton mills
take their way, and unless some means be found
- to prevent it is probable that within com
paratvey few years the great bulk OF the cotton
cloths OF the country will be manufactured south OF
the Potomac and the Ohio
The Drift OF the mills away from New England has
long been noted and in that section has been studied
with considerable care For time it was believed
the Southern mills would never be able to compete
with New England in the manufacture OF any except
the coarser fabrics but that belief which founded
on hope rather than reason, has proved talacous
Some of the biggest mills in New England engaged
in manufacturing the best class of goods have moved
south and the end is not yet According to late re-
ports arrangements are being made for the removal
OF the Springvale Cotton Mills (Springvale, Mane)
to Fort Valley, Georgia. This will be the second
migration from York County, Maine, the first being
that Of the plant and business OF the Portsmouth Cot
ton Mill OF South Berwick, about year ago The
Springvale mills operate 300 looms and $500 spin
dies, making sateens principally.
The economic forces that draw the mills to the
South are many, and in the aggregate constitute a
great power The Southern mills have and
better machinery than those of the North; they get
the raw material cheaper because the cost OF trans
portaon is less; they obtain cheaper labor, because
the cost Of living is less in the South than in New
England and in ADDITION TO these natural advantages
on the part of the South there others OF egisla
ton not less effective. Competition and high taxes
are driving the mills from New England, and induce
mcnts in the shape of remission of taxes for long
period of years, grants OF land (in free of
cost, free water rights, etc. attractive forces
which are drawing the evicted mills toward the South.
1t is significant fact not generally known, that
many Of the largest newest and finest cotton mills in
the South have been erected with New England capi-
! tai
As means of counterbalancing the advantages of
the South and thus preventing what threatens to be a
wholesale migration of the cotton industry south
ward some New England capitalists have suggested
the advisabty OF organizing great trust to operate
the mills of that section. The scheme has been much
discussed Some authorities pronounce it "consoli-
daton run mad but others affirm has already been
virtually accomplished in all essential matters and is
absolutely necessary for the preservation of OF
the greatest of New England industries.
To form the purposed trust will require capital
of S15o 900 ooo-or at least that is the amount OF
capital stock suggested for the enterprise Comment
ing upon it. the New York Tribune says: "The
theory that centralized management will not only
get rid of all sorts of leaks and weaknesses resulting
from local influences but will effect radical and long
needed Improvement in methods and machinery being
no longer restricted by desire dividends the
plants which need reconstruction, and will stop the
competition which has been found destructive
Whether the man or men can be found who have the
faculty the strength to accomplish what the best
men in the business have failed to accomplish Is oi
the question on which everything depends and
which no theory can possibly answer