The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-20
southward Movement of Cotton Mills

From the New Orleans Picayune.
 singular and decidedly instructive narrative is presented in the Worlds Work for January in regard to the effect upon a New England town by the re- moval of it's cotton mills to a southern state. It Is briefly as follows:
 Last August and September the large cotton duck mills were moved from New Hartford, Conn, to some point In Ala bama. The result was that nearly one thousand person of the 2300 in the place were compelled to leave the town. Nearly hundred houses were boarded up and rents were offered free.
 And thus the story goes on: With the population cut almost in half, the merchants of the place thought they saw ruin before them. The pay roll of the mills had been more than s175, 900 a year, and with the spending of this money stopped 1t seemed as If the community must die. The income of the churches was cut down. a large part of the fof eign congregation of the Catholic church disappearing as if swept out by a cy- clone. There were fewer children for the schools. The value of real estate declined and those who had put their savings Into homes found themselves unable to get rid of them. There were too many mer-
 
 barbers-and, one and all. they sat down to see who would go away or go to the wall first Gloomy forebodlngs as to the increase of the poor fund of the town arose; the bells of the mills ceased to ring; the town band, that gave a public concert every week, ceased to play; a water-power estimated as worth from S200, 900 to S3OO, ,000 lay idle; the machinery of the mills was being shipped to the trusts mills in Alabama; only the four walls of three large buildings remained"
 The people who were left behind laid the blame for their misfortune upon a trust that owned the cotton mills, but the fact remained that the sole and only reason for removing the towns principal industry, was the truth that cotton could be manufactured more cheaply and ad- vantageously in Alabama than in Con- necticut. The New Hartford mills were closed because they were losing money, and the industry was removed to Tallas- see, As, because 1t could be made to pay there.
 This is an interesting and instructive object lesson. The cotton mills in north ern states engaged in making coarse and heavy fabrics cannot compete with southern mills where wages are lower, where the expenses of living are lower, and freight charges are lighter. The northern mills making fine cloth can still hold their own. because competition of southern mills In those lines has not yet become serious; but the time Is not far distant when the highest class fabrics will be made in the south, and the com petition will become so urgent and stren- uous that the northern mills will not be able to endure the strain When the ma chinery shall become old and worn and need to be replaced there will be a move ment southward This result is inevi- table. It will be in obedience to inexor- able laws of industrial economy.
 There is no desire to forecast evil for any of the people or states of the union. Their prosperity Is the prosperity of all, but industries will gravtate to those To- calites where the best facilities for their conduct exist Population will assemble where the industries give employment, and where the conditions of subsistence are most advantageous and supplies of raw material and food are cheapest and most abundant. These movements are in accordance with laws of trade which can not be annulled or set aside. They en- force their requirements with absolute certainty and irresistible power.