The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-23
THE FACTORY MOVEMENT
Ii Is Good Indication of Pros.
perity.


'bditor Morning News: The movement
winch has been Started in Savannah for
the purpose of fostering local manufactlIr-
ing enterprises is the best indication of
tuture prosperity for that city. which has
come to the surface for some time IT is
10 DE hoped that the fires which have been
Klndled upon that altar may burn brightly
to the very end of time.
IL pays to go around and study the con-
dItions existing in other places. They
serve as object lessons to guide us in de-
termining the causes which lead, to certain
eHects; and there never has been time
IN the history of Savannah when a close
STUDY OF the means for its future up-
building was more important than now
Our old sister city, Charleston was at
one time one of the best business points
In all the land. Large fortunes were
made there; but its present decadence is
admitted by her own people. 1t is a sad
thing to visit that historic old city, walk
about its quiet streets, view its many
handsome and important buildings, and
contemplate the change which the last
quarter of a century has wrought. So
~
the people of Charleston less enterprising
than they once were? The answer is: BY
no means There are in that city some of
the brainieSt, most enterprising young
business men to be found anywhere men
from whom Charleston has reason to ex-
pect much, and who have accomplish
and will accomplish a great deal for
their city in future But. the trouble lies
in the fact that old lines of business have
been adhered to too long. 1t may be as
simulated to man failing in business and
holding on until every resource is ex-
hausted before closing his doors. His old
grip is lost and he finds it all the harder
20 get a new one.
The people of Savannah may not realize
it, but the time is rapidly coming when
Savannah will be confronted with the
same problem which has given the people
of Charleston so much concern of late,
If, indeed, her people do not exercise that
foresight which will enable them TO sub
stitute for the business which is now pass
ing away, under the conditions which now
, exist, other and totally different lines.
lit will not be denied that the naval
stores and lumber business has been one
of Savannah's chief supports for many
years. but the AK has been applied to al
most every pine tree in Southwest Georgia
and Florida, and soon the material will
have been exhausted, and what then?
The cotton crop is no longer made or
handled as 1t once was, and the large
planter and cotton factor are things of the
past All the advances which the small
farmer wants for the purposes of making
his crop he gets from his neighbor the
country storekeeper, and in the fall the
country storekeeper gets his crop and
sells it to the broker. This disposes of
the quondam COTTON factor. SO, also, the
jobbers are beginning to suffer almost a
much by reason of the fact that all goods
travelling salesman, and the country mer-
chants buy just when they please and
without leaving their premises often from
Northern houses direct.
Now is there a remedy? 1t would seem
so if one will only reflect little The
South is rapidly becoming the great man.
ufacturing, as well as agricultural, Sec
ton of this countryside Eden-the garden
spot of Gods creation-the place where.
we not only make the many millions of
bales of cotton produced annually, but
where we Will manufa cture them into cloth
as well. The time should come, and PROB
ably WILL when not a bale of cotton nor
barrel of rosin will pass through the
port of Savannah except in the form Of
manufactured goods. If there be a profit
in manufacturing, why should not the
South get the benefit of It? We make the
cotton. we pick it, we gin 1t, we pack IL
and why should We not manufacture IL
into cloth?
1t has been said that factories cannot
be made to pay in Savannah. 1t may be
true that they have not paid, but who
will undertake to prove that they cannot
be made to pay? Has Augusta, or Column
bus. or Atlanta, or Spartanburg, any better
business talent in them than Savannah !?
Is there any one prepared to say that the
best business men i'm Savannah now en-
gagged in other lines would make a failure
were they 10 direct their talents to manu-
featuring? Manufacturing has not been
made business OF IN Savannah, but put
1t upon the level with cotton, naval stores
and jobbing in that city, and no one in his
proper senses will even doubt that ii would
be made TO pay.
Build all the factories you can, large
ones and small ones. Make everything
that the country needs and uses from a
hoe handle to a circus tent. Make a busi-
ness OF the business. Make a Fall River
Of the grand old town. the loveliest and
best Of them ALL and in the years to come
her people will be able 10 look back ana
smile at their wisdom and foresight.
j. Lawton Whatiey.
Augusta, Ca, Feb. q, 1900.