The age-herald., 1900-01-28


 to the writer as if there were too many inl fants at work tending them. Many of them were so small as to be scarcely fit for anJ but baby clothes The manager of the miH when asked how much the calildren earned said that they made las much as 50 cents a day." For small children this may have been tempting, but I was sustained by Columbia man in my opinion that the operatives included too many immature South Carolinians.
 The Principal Mills
 "The two mills looked at were the prin- cipal ones, and typical only of the five in operation in Columbia or near it consum- dng upward of 5000 bales of cotton. Nexe year the consumption in present and add ed mills will reach 75,0O0 bales. The gain to Columbia in manufacturing that cotton, instead of shipping it to other states or to foreign countries, is not told when one hears of the percentages of profit reaped by the stockholders of the mills Trade of all kinds has developed wherever the working populations has been enlarged and furnished with the means of indulgence In better food, better clothes, more luxuries, and some thing to save besides. These may seem ordinary occasions for rejoicing, but in Columbia and some other southern localities the are boon, and not only present blessing, but "a promise of future improvement and prosperity. To conduct commerce railroads must be provided.
 "ColImbia is already pretty well sup piled with railroad transportation, the far reaching Southern railway system tapping 1t and enjoying much business. Faith in the future is exhibited by the enterprise backed up by capital of the Seaboard Air Line. which is making plateau of wide ravine at one side of the city, and will be- fore long occupy it with its yards and erect a fine station for its passenger service. This location is considered advantageous, and Columbia delights to watch hundreds of men with grading implements and horses hurrying the work toward comple- tion. It suggests a reason for the increas- ing number of wholesale and retail stores, the erection everywhere of new houses, and the talk that persists in being heard of municipal Improvements to make the city look as if it's most active men were at last on the way to success.
 "Columba, confident of her ability to hold on in the future to her share of the important lead that South Carolina has already established as southern manufac- turing state, keeps her eyes open to follow the statistics that tell the story of her sold advancement. Some of the latest hg- ures are eloquent. During he year ending August 31. 1899, South Carolina manufac- tured nearly 4440 900 bales of cotton, or 1000 more bales than during the year preceding. The increase in North Carolina was about 500O0 bales; that in Alabama 31 900 bales; that in Georgia 13,000 bales. The whole south manufactured ,399, ,399 bales, an in crease of 170,O79 bales South Carolina, far behind Georgia in undertaking the manu- facture of her chief crop, stands fully 112,- 600 bales ahead of that state in its con- sumption of cotton. The mills of the state worked up 31.7 per cent of all the cotton consumed in southern mills. Of the in creased consumption in the south the state of South Carolina consumed 3S.7 per cent.
 If in 1899 South Carolina consumed 43-9 per cent. of the amount of cotton grown s,, h rtatA n h. server Of the consumption of the mills, 1t is evident with a continuance or the pres ent demand for cotton goods ot the sort made in the state, that a much larger part of the crop will be spun and woven at home than before. Senator Tillman says. she will manufacture her whole product in ten years. In September, 1899, there were under construction in the south mills with a capacity of 823,000 spindleS. To feed these spndies will increase the southern consumption of cotton, it is estimated, 20 per cent This will mean about 100000 bales Of cotton kept at home, and added to the amount required during the last year, 1t will make the southern consumption something like 6,000,000 bales, or an amount equal to more than two-thirds of tine crop of 1899. Those who estimate the crop of South Carolina in 1900 at 720 900 bales say that the mills will require from 525000 to 530,000 bales for home use. This is huTying Tfllmans prediction at amazing, rate.
 There is confidence in a continuance of the demand for cotton goods. Everywhere one hears accounts of dividends that jus tify the effort of new capital to share in profitable business During the year there have been chartered here and fully or ganZed twelve new cotton mills, capital ized at s3,375, ,00O0, with fully 20 per cent of the capital paid in. In 1898 but six mills were organized, with but $510,000 capital In addition, sixteen mills in operation have increased their capital S2,429, 900, and four teen mills have applied for incorporation during the year and promise an increased capitalization of s2,27500O The grand total makes up a prospective and actual invest ment in cotton mills in a year of $9,079,000 according to Hester, of New Orleans, one of the most highly respected authorities, with a record of forty-one mills"