The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-22
Industrial Competition.

New Orleans Picayune. ,..t,,r. var,, recen+ly the cotton manuractur. era at Fall River. Mass, voted 10 eue to down the wages of their emPioSeS 'o the extent of IA per cent. out
 The reason given for thls seI.ou r;oe ,r wsees is that, with the present prlce n, raw cotton and the present seIlne nr,ce of print cloths, there is no money ;n tho husiness unless the cost or pro auction can be decreased. The man, ufacturers say they have tried 10 rient matters by curtailing prooucuon' eS pu have not been helped. They have tr'eo other remedies in Valn. ~ .s
 If should be noted that this state ol denression represented to exist III ths New England cotton mills has occuIleu at a time which Is generally oeciareu to be specially prosperous t-nie chosen by employees in other depart wont, of industry to demand higher wages It appears, however that the mills which complain of bad times are not those which nit nufacture fine gooos' hut those which make common faorlcs' The chief trouble of which those mills complain is that they cannot success fully compete with the Southern miis.
 The cotton mills in the cotton States do not, as a rule, attempt the manu- fracture of fine goods. They make the coarser stuffs, and they have adVaht- agea which the Northern mills cahhol possess, and although they do not to any extent compete at present in the making of fine fabrics with the North ern factories, the day is not far dist ant when there will be made In the South every sort and description of cot ten goods now produced by Northern mills, and then the situation wnich IS now reported of the Northern mills making coarse cloths will be realized In all the New England and other North ern cotton factories.
 There are about S0.000 men. women and children working in IT ore than 100 cotton mills in Massachusetts. They are protected by all the tariff they have ever asked for against English and other foreign cotton manufacturers, but no tariff that Congress- can~enset can protect them against the Southern cotton mills in the cotton States.
 The urgency of his competition is going steadily to increase, and the day will como when the New England cot ton spinners will regret that the South ern States of the Union were not al- lowed to set up for themselves. so that the Northern cotton mills would now be protected by that same tariff against the Southern spinners. Doubtless the Northern iron and steel makers will come to some such conclusion also, as the ability of the South to compete and undersell in those staples shall be de- veloped to the full extent of its extra ordinary faciliies.
 But the South is in the Union to stay, and an era of Southern development has commenced. Not only has the day of competition by Southern manufac- lures With those of the North set in. but the white working men of the North have got to compete in labor with the negroes of the South.
 This competition is going to grow in strenuousness every day. and the time will come when t will be unbearabl ble. It will be an evil which the working classes of the Northern States them selves brought upon the country. The wOrkingmen of the North and West made up the rank and file of the great armies which saved the Union in 1861 -65. Many of them will live and ther chil- dren will live after them to regret that the South did not succeed in becoming foreign country.
 As for the South it can work out it's wonderful destiny much better as a par of the richest and m:ghtiest nation upon the planet. Its position is. there