The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-18
LETTERS TO EDITOR.
Cotton Mills.

RagIand. Ala, November 16, 1900.
 To the Editor of The Ase-Herald.
 I notice in your issue of the 14th what you have to say regarding encouraging the cotton mills in the State of Alabama
 1 endorse fully what you have to say As to the press of the state given as much publicity to the exemption from taxation of cotton mills for a period of years as nossible. The exempron does not exempt from taxation foot of land and, cotton mills are usually located on lands Inf very little value. As author of the bill 1 had three reasons for putting IL through the legislature
 l. The state of Alabama has more peo-
 ple engaged in growing cotton than any
 other industry, ther is no other class or labor in the state that needs to be en- couraged more, and none so poorly pald. Lei IS see what cotton mills could and should do on this line? We will say we have no cotton mills in the south as has l been the case, and all prices on cotton
 are based on New York and Liverpool,
 say middlings quoted at 1Oc. per pound. AL New York the merchant would pay the farmer about 9Iac.. loss of one-half
 cent per pound or $2.50 per bale. Take last years crop as d basis, ten million,
 four hundred thousand bales would amount to the round sum of $26,0oo0O loss to the south. Now take the cotton grown in the state of Ala bama, last year about l. .400 GOO bales al S2. 50 per bale loss to the farmers in the state would amount to S3, 500 eOO.00. Now, say there should be cotton mills located sufficient to consume all the cotton grown in the state, take
 our farmer basis, and just refer to any
 community where there k sufficient cot
 ton mills to consume all the cotton raised
 in radius of twenty miles. The farm
 CTS in this territory have no trouble in
 getting l4c. per pound more for his cot
 ton than New York prices, this lAc. or S1. p per bale would amount to $l.750006.
 Add this to S350O,OOo and it makes q tota.
 of g.. .250OOO that would go into the pockets
 of men. women and children who are raising cotton in the state of Alabama annually This amount would be con siderable more if all the cotton raised in
 the state was consumed here, say noth-
 ing Of the increase in the value of farm ing land by cotton mills being located
 in the cotton districts.
 2 Cotton mills are permanent fixtures.
 Every mill builds up small town around it and the taxes begin to increase on
 the value of lands at once and at the eX-
 piration of ten years the tax increase from this source would be double many times over. Cotton manufactured into goods instead of $50 per bale would range from over S1G0 to $500 per bale. which, of course, would go into all channels of bus mess, and the manufacture of cotton goods at home would naturally give us | a cheaper price for cotton goods used by the farmers.
 q. Alabama is in the heart of the cotton growing district of the south She has the fuel, the climate and all the raw ma l terial necessary as well as railroads for l handling the business and with the i proper encouragement cotton mills will be 1 located all over the state, not only by l home capital but foreign capital as well. 1 The cooperative plan has past the experl- 1 mental station and proven 10 be one of
 the most profitable plans of bnidng and
 operating cotton mills. South Carolina has succeeded wonderfully on this line
 and mills in Alabama have been started
 on the cooperative plans and proven to | be valuable Investments. l refer especially | to falladega, Ala, and hundreds of other | places in the state offer just as good op- | portunites. If energy and capital is | only put together within the next few | years cotton mills in the north and east | will have to look out for locations with | better advantages. Ala bama has all the advantages and invites them here. We ! should leave nothing unturned to have them locate In the state of Alabama.