The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-04
NEW ENGLAND IS
FACING A CRISIS
Menaced by Southern Cot
ton Corporation.
THE CAPITAL AT STAKE
Remove to Dixie New EngIand's Cot.
ton Mills and Industries Depend
ent on Them and You Deprive
Her of Six Hundred Mil
lions of Wealth.
Editorial Correspondence


New York, Sept. 3.-Col. Benehan
Cameron, who is here today, had a
long interview with Mr.. Morse, who
is President of the Southern Cotton
Corporation. He is former partner
of Sully. Mr.. Morse and Mr.. Bell and
Judge William, who are leading the
movement for Warehousing cotton, Will
all be present at the Southern Cotton
Growers Convention at ST. Louis on
the 9th of September. Col Gamer
on says that he talked with leading
bankers in Boston who say that cot
ton warehouse receipts offered the
very paper they would like to handle.
1t seems that this movement has
alarmed the New England manufac-
turers as is manifested by the follow
ing from the Board of Trade Journal
published at Providence. Rhode Is
land:
rs the business life of New England
at Stae? Does the sword of Dances
hang over it's head? These questions
are not idle thoughts, nor are they
written without a full appreciation of
their meaning; they are written in
soberness and truth with the hope that
they may awaken the people of New
England, the bankers, the individual
capitalists, and the merchants, as well
as the manufacturers, to serious
consideration of the possible danger.
Decline OF New England.
POSSIBLY the public at large has not
quite understood how absolutely es-
sential to the business life of New
England is our cotton industry. For
years we have faced it's relative de-
cline; we have seen southern consump-
ton increase in ten years from 6OO,-
600 bales to 10000 bales, while New
England has stool still, it's consump-
ton being only 100000 bales now
against 2,000,UU0 bales as far back as
1891 We have seen the Dwight, the
Merrimac, the Massachusetts Com
pany. and other great corporations for
a generation or more the pride of New
England, build great mills in Alabama,
Georgia and other southern states,
and now we face a new crisis greater
than any of the past in the organi-
cation of the Southern Cotton Cor
poration. Let us seriously study, for a
moment, the plans of this company as
they may be made to affect the future
of New England unless we are wise to
meet the situation We know the
character the power and the imam
cial strength of some of the men back
of this organization, men who nave
done a mighty work for New Eng
lands development and who, after a
most patient investigation of the
plans of some Of the far-seeing lead
ers in southern development, nave
oined in an undertaking, which, pc
sides the capital it has at its COM
mand. has also the greatest mechan-
zeal and engineering skill available in
this country. These people propose to
improve the ginning and COMPRISING
of cotton. AS this will improve the
staple, Iessening the cost Of insurace
and bring the cotton to market in bet
ter condition than heretofore, this
feature of their plan is of importance
to every cotton spinner in the world,
so that this feature of the work of this
company does not initiate against
New England.
The Warehouse System.
"In addition, however, to the i'm
proved methods of ginning and com
pressing, the company proposes to es-
tablish throughout the South a system
of ware houses whose receipts are to
be made gilt edge collateral In any
money market of the country. That
means the storing of the cotton IN the
South by Southern farmers and South
ern mills at a low rate OF interest,
thus absolutely destroying one great
advantage now possessed by New
lower rate of interest which our mills
enjoy as compared with their COM
petitors in the South. It means,
moreover an immense increase in
Southern banking business, as cotton,
which in itself is the best possible
basis for banking collateral, will be
financed by Southern banks through
these ware house receipts with more
safety and more profit to the banks
than the present system, and at the
same time bring greater profit to the
grower A leading New England mill
man, at one time president of the New
England Cotton Manufacturers Asso-
citation, is quoted as having recently
said that in his opinion this is the
greatest and most far-reaching bust
ness proposition that he has ever seen,
and although having no personal in
terest in it, he realizes its tremen-
dous significance, and it's vast influence
on the worlds cotton trade.
1--WE are advised that the Southern
Cotton Corporation is to be absolute
ly free from speculation, that it does
not intend to buy or sell cotton. that
it will not in any sense be a trader
in cotton, but it will simply in addi-
ton to it's improvements in ginning
and COMPRISING provide warehouses
for the public, and issue to the farmer,
or any one else, a receipt for cotton
placed in its warehouses, and then
guarantees. if desired. to provide loans
against these receipts.
Southern Banks and Cotton.
Naturally Southern bankers will