The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1901-01-09
OUR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The South to Raise Fifteen Million
Bales of Cotton and Manufacture
Five Million Bales In 1910.

baleS OF cotton and mauufaCtur
Five Million Bales In 1910.
Progress made by the South in cot
ton manufacturing during the past tel
years is likely to be duplicated durin;
the next ten years if certain condition
are met. The outlook in this direction
Is discussed at length in last week
issue of the Manufacturers Record b,
Dr. Charles w. Dabney, formerly as
sistant Secretary of Agriculture, now
president of the University of Tennes
lee, and recognized as an authority il
matters affecting the industrial auC
agricultural advance of the South. In
his paper he contends that undue
weight should not be given natural re,
sources, but that the people who must
convert them into wealth must also be
considered. Among the natural re.
sources he rcckons the soil and climate
OF the South, the best in the world for
the growing of cotton it's WATERPROOF
from rivers running eastward, south
ward and westward from the Appala-
c'nan Mountains TO be used directly
or through electric transmission; album
dant coal from $1,000 square miles of
workable fields, of which less than a
thousand square miles have been de-
'eloped up to the present time, and an
equable climate, in which are the de-
desired conditions for the most refined
kinds of cotton manufacturing. He
flnds that to these natural resources
must be added an intelligent and rca-
sonably cheap labor, largely made up
OF young people, and on tha, point he
says
st Is well known that the white
people of the Piedmont section of the
South form an excellent manufacturing
population. They come from an in
telligent and kindly race, who learn
rapidly TO be skillful mechanics. With
proper training they make as expert
artisans as can be found anywhere.
There is less opportunity for unions
among this domestic population: these
mills are owned largely by local people
and modified cooperation promises to
keep out the vicious walking delegate
and all his kind. The negro has not
been much used in the mill 50 far, but
there Is little doubt but that he will be
employed in particular mills or in those
lines of manufacturing which require
cheaper labor, with less ability to think.
The negro is by nature an initiative
creature and rapidly learns any process
that is shown him. He is thus well
aoapted to all those forms of manufac
ture that do not require originality or
forethought.
The only thing that we need in the
South for an almost indefinite expan-
sion OF cotton manufacturing is more
capital and more technical experts,
both in the business and in the manu-
fac,uriag departments. The capital
Will be forthcoming, as ii always is, as
soon as the men are found to take care
OF 1t aud use 1t. The Southern people
are getting richer every year, and will
acknowledgements their spare means in
cotton mills as fast as 1t accumulates.
The great need of The South to-day is
men to organize and conduct the busi-
ness OF manufacturing, Eut especially
men who know how to build and Oper-
ate the lton mills themselves. The
movement for technical education, and
especially that for textile schools, is
going to supply these experts at an
early time. Our conclusion, then, is
that the only things we need in order
TO operate many more cotton mills in
the South is more education for the
masses Of the people, from whom the
laborers will be drawn, and more tech
nical training for the young men who
are to build and operate the mills. All
these things arc surely coming, and
they all betoken the prodigious develop
ment OF cotton manufacturing during
tho next ten years.
" The Southern States now produce
more than GG per cent. of all the cotton
consumed IN the world and manufac-
turc about per cent. of it, while the
Northern States manufacture about Is
per cent. With China and Africa both
opened to our trade, with the canal cut
between the Atlantic and Pacific, | pro-
phesy that III ten years the Southern
States will have trcbled the number of
their spindles and will be manufac-
turing at least 20 per cent. of
the cotton of the world, which by
that time will be at least 10000 900
bales. The South manufactured about
l 800, 900 bales last year this means,
allowing for improvement In machin-
cry, that she must prepare to manufac-
ture 100000 bales, half her present
crop, by 1910, when she Will be PROB
ably growing at least 100000.
When we consider her past progress
and her magnificent resources in con.
nection with the opening up of the
East, and the general advancement
OF civilization, we cannot expect any
less"
TuE RIrNrNrIAr1, an II r,n M