The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-08-06
THE TEXTILE INDUSTRIES
South Carolina Has the First
Place in the South as to the
Cotton Mills

II Place in the South as tO III
o Cotton Mills
The United States census report o.
3 cotton manufactures, gives South Ca'
q olina the first place in the South amonI
' the cotton mills. 1t gives the compare
3 tive strength of the leading States Il
| be in 1900 i:
D Spindles. Looms
1 South Carolina... 1,431,349 4286
D North Carolina. :. 4 ,133, ,482 20, ,46
, Georgia. SIT,345 1899
, Alabama 411,328 S54
Texas. 1876 1,0l
, The report shows that the produc
l in South Carolina is second only t.
that of Massachusetts, in value III cloths
sheetings and twills, and that the value
of the product in South Carolina OF
cloths, sheetings and twills is 800
1913 ,919. The census bulletin has tn.
remarkable and certainly most inter
esting statement
"It was not possible, of course, to
account for all the exports declared
upon the clearing of vessels for foreign
ports, since considerable part of the
domestics sold abroad are made for the
home market and are purchased for
sale in other countries after they have
passed wholly out of the control and
the knowledge of manufacturers but,
so far as the managers of mills are able
to trace their products, they furnished
goods for export during the year 1S99-
1900 to the value of $15, 1857 ,502, or
about five.eighths of the value of cloth
exported during the fiscal year. Almost
go per cent. of the. total value repre-
sents the product of Southern mills
| and nearly 81 per cent. the goods of
New England. 1t is an interesting
fact that South Carolina, which was
Historically and politically during the
years preceding the civil war theSmost
conspicuous champion of policy fa-
vorable to the expectation of raw cot
ton, upon which the planters most re-
lied, and opposed to the fostering of
manufactures of cotton, spun in it's
own mills in 1900 a quantity of cotton
exceeding the half Of its own crop and
exported close upon one-half of all the,
cotton cloth reported to the census as,
having been dispatched to foreign
countries. The exact percentage of
South Carolina of the total export re-;
ported was 45.5"
The Atlanta Journal, in commenting
upon the census report concerning cot
ton statistics, has the following peril
nent comparisons
If anybody had predicted twenty
years ago tho by this time the South
would have at aimed her present inn
pOrtance in the textile industry he
would have been laughed at. There
has been nothing in the same line any
where comparable to this advance in
the part of the country that has been
called slow by those who either know
little about il or intentionally misrep-
resent it. The actual facts and figures
tell story Of the South's progress in
textile manufactures during the last
two decades that is more eloquent than
any words that could be used eon the
subject.
The official figures of the last, cenausA
show that the capital invested In the
South in the 1 textile industry, was but
$25 1873, ,140 in 1880 and bY 1900 had
grown to STAG $40, 1866. The capital
in the same industry in Now England
IN 1880 was 1851 ,5G1, lat. @In 1000 1t
was 1924 800 1862. Thus while the
capital IN sthe textile industry of the
South had increased 478 per cent. in
tweny years that of New England had
increased only LOG per cent. &
The actual and relative increase In
the value of the textile products Of the
South was quite as remarkable. 1t
grew from $25 ,888 ,246 in 1880 TO
$114 1887 ,G68 in 1900. s The figures. for
he New England mills were $310 ,642,-
352 in 1880 and $412 ,S75 ,975 in 1900,
The value of the textIle product of the
South INCREASED in twenty years 34e
per cent. and that of New England
only SO per cent. The increase Of the
whole country in these two items O
capital invested i'm the textile industr,
and the value Of it's product for th,
speriod mentioned was 142 per- cent. TO
the former. and .G5 per cent. for th
latter. =, - ~
In 1880 the !iavestments Ia the In
dustry in the S6aSth represented g pc
cent. of all in the country, and in 190'
:, Ia per cent. jln the same period tn
/ proportion Of the value of the product
. in the South advanced from TO i
per cent. OF, the total for the country
The South has gone much furthe
forward In the textile lndustry thai
che was in June, 1900, when Ties
figures were taken. The next censll
3 will have report to nlake of Souther
industsial pfogress that will be eve
more marvellous than that at which til
: world is now wondering.
Il y ~ .