The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-15
CUT OF COTTON WAGES
BULL PRICES IN RAW COTTON IS
 FALL RIVERS VERSION.
Manufactures Say They Can't Raise Print Goods Prices and Keep the Market-Another Version Is
 That Fall River Can't Com-
 pete With Southern Mills.

New York Sun.
 The reduction of 10 per cent in the wages of some 5000 cotton mill operatives in Fall River, Mass, of which formal an- nouncement was made yesterday, caused no surprise in the cotton goods trade in New York. In fact, some such move as this had been looked for for some time.
 The trade seemed to be especially in- terested, in view of the cut made in what are known as the association mills, to know what Mathew c. D. Borden would do with the wage scale in the four mills he owns. MT. Borden was not at his of- flee yesterday, and at his house it was said that 1t was not known whether he was in town or in Fall River.
 All the mills in Fall River not owned by MT. Borden are referred to as "asso- ciation'' mills, because the owners act together in all important matters. Several months ago Mir. Borden made big ad- vance in the wages of the operatives in lis mills. It was said at that time that he did this in order to force his competi- tors to raise their wages to a point where they could not successfully compete with the Borden mills, or to bring on a strike ia the "association' mills
 Since that time the price of raw cotton has advanced so much that many mills in
 
 shut down. They said that they would lose less money with the mills idle than to run them with the price of raw cotton elevated beyond all reason by the spec ulators in New York, New Orleans and Liverpool.
 It was thought that, after the specula- tors had made or lost all the money they could, tho price of the raw product would drop so that money could be made in spin ming 1t into cloth. The speculators have not been inordinately active for some time, it was said yesterday, but the price of raw cotton has remained firm.
 ''The principal reason for this,' said one of the largest print goods dealers in the world yesterday, lis that, according to the best information We can get, the new cotton crop is going to be small. Con- servatives estimates are that the crop will not yield more than 900 bales. These estimates have had the effect of keeping the price of raw cotton firm, quite apart from the operations of the speculators, the result of their manipulation is still felt.
 Cautiously enough, the price of print goods has not advanced. It now costs, roughly speaking, about one cent pound more to produce print cloth than 1t can be sold for. The manufacturers situation Is rendered more pleasant by the fact that although the price of the new material remains high, and although all the indi- cations are for a small crop, the buying orders for the manufactured product are by no means up to tho normal.
 Buyers of print goods throughout the are holding off. They do not be- lieve that the condition of trade warrants heavy advance purchases. It must fol- low, though, that, if the advance reports on the new cotton crop prove true, the price of print goods must advance.
 'As to trade wages, even with this cut of 10 per cent, the operatives will still be getting the wages of normal times"
 While the cotton mapufacturers of New England are having their troubles, the Southern manufacturers are happy. The big mills at Huntsville, Birmingham and other places in the South are working full time and the Now York representative of one of them said yesterday that there was no prospect of any cut in wages.
 We think" said this man, that, de- spite the prestige of New England as the centre of cotton manufacturing, the South has away the best of the game, and that, sooner or later the world must come to us for its cotton goods. Take, for in- stance, the item of labor; In Fall River eight hours Is days work. In our mills the working day Is eleven hours.'
 But can you compete in freight rates to Northern markets with the New Eng. land mills?" asked The Sun reporter.
 "The best answer to that is to quote figures" was the reply. 'It costs us 48 cents a hundred to deliver our print cloth in New York. It costs the New England manufacturer 74 3-4 cents a hundred to get his raw cotton to New York. It seems from that that we ought to be able to compete doesn't it?''
 If the Fall River operators can't ad- vance the price of their products and get it. certain operators in other parts of the country, apparently. have been able to raise the price of their products. For in- stanse if was announced yesterday that W. II. Rowe & Son. who operate large mills for the making of cotton shirts ia Amsterdam, N. Y, and Huntsville. Ala, had advanced the price of the output of tha Amsterdam mills 10 per cent and that tbe mills are working full time.