The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-11-18
NEWENGLAND'SGROWTH
SERIES OF LETTERS TO THE MAN
 UFACTURER's RECORD.
Published as an Inspiration to the South and Analysis of the Rea- sons for Northern States
 Prosperity.

Baltimore. Nov. 17.-(Special )-Spe- cial correspondence in this weeks is- sue of The Manufacturers Record from Boston, continuing, as an inspiration for the South, the searching Into the reasons for New England's industrial growth, says:
 Tt would seem to be inevitable that New England can only maintain its su- premacy by bold and aggressive lead ership, and where that is lacking a fatal deficit exists, In how many cities, institutions or lines there has been failure to keep abreast of the times I do not know; but that such cases must ultimately manifest themselves there can be no doubt, just as conspicuous in-
 stances of enterprise evidence them selves without fail. case in point is New Bedford, once the center of the greatest whaling trade in the world Sometimes as much as $10,000.000 a year was received for New Bedford's s whaling catch, and her fleet at one time numbered some 400 ships. Tn those days the New Bedford peo- pie drowned down on cotton manufac- | turing and factory population, just | as an occasional misguided community | ir. the South is doing today. It was | long after Fall River had built up a fiourishing cotton industry before New | Bedford capitalists would listen to any | talk about cotton mills for their city. Not till 1S46 was there anything at | tempted in that line, and even after
 the famous and still leading Wamsutta
 mills were started there was no great tgrowth in cotton manufacturing until | the war and the introduction of kero- | sene wrought havoc with the whaling
 industry and capital was forced into | other channels. Then began in earnest
 the developments of the cotton indus l try there. and enterprise and push have
 marked every feature of the business | since.
 | sarIl.
 mills In New Bedford, with a capital of
 more than S20,00O,000. New Bedford
 mills have about 100000 spindles-
 second in number to Fall River alone
 hands and use 25O,O00 bales of cotton
 a year. Two new mills have recently been built and another one, with 60,000 | spindles, Is under way. These mills
 paid last, year dividends of all the way | from to Is per cent. And almost ev- | eryone of them is equipped with the very latest and best machinery. so that | New Bedford ranks first as a producer
 of fine and fancy cotton goods in this
 country, and even stressful conditions
 produce no serious disturbance.
 | With 75,0O0 population at best there are some $23,000,000 in the savings
 banks, which is $3,000,000 more than | Fall River savings banks had before
 the strike, with a claimed population | of 114,000. l fancy New Bedford is as | fine an example as may be found of | what has been enthusiastically ac- claimed as the marvellous adaptability
 of New England men to changed con
 ditions. Just how much of that same spirit and ability prevails throughout
 New England Is the question at issue. | That it very widely abounds there is | ample proof in almost every commu-
 n'ty. That 1t is not universal. how
 ever, there are numerous evidences. | Tt Is out of the question that there | Is to be a disintegration or a general l IEnnnhnf,nn z al m Ia NaNr tncr lat ff
 in the near future if in thousand years; but that there is a. limit to
 adaptability would seem to be axiom
 atic, and if the South is prepared
 through technical training, energy and vim, to take advantage of the oppor- | tnnities, 1t is evident that in some of the changes which conditions will force, there may be an increasing num- | Der of developments there on lines par
 allel with the investment by New Eng | land cotton mill men in mills in the South. The South will develop through | the energies of Its own people and the
 day has gone by when it Is believed to
 be desirable to pick any kind of a | plant up bodily and move 1t from the | North to the South.
 "In the growth of this country and the spread of civilization throughout
 the world there will doubtless be room | for many years to come for the opera . ton, with ability, of every kind of in-
 dustry the country contains. If. by IHc uSS Ol tue OOS( lAApIONOO ),
 methods and management Southern cotton mills may prosper where a Northern mir not so conditioned does not. there can be no just complaint against the South; and If the rapidly developing and richly resourceful South offers many and great opportunities for the investment of capital, 1t would seem
 to me an attractive proposition to any
 man. be he in New England or wholly
 of the South. and that the benefits
 would be not alone to the South. but to the entire world.
 How soon and in how many lines outside of cotton manufacture the South may follow in New Englands s
 wake is as interesting as 1t is difficult