The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-22
investing fotton Growing Profits.


Cotton Matufacturer," of Charlotte.
Southern prosperity is manifest.
Two bigfcrops of cotton at gooo
prices hive lifted the farmer out of
almost 9hronic in ebtedness and made
him Acquainted fvith that-to him
strangf phenomfnon, a bank account.
His material (weifare will be still
1urtnSer enhanced. If this years yield
averages te/ cents a pound and
sucn a basisf the south will collect
suc1gf a bbays the south will collect
IrofEn the rfst of the world approx
hlaSately s661.000. 900 for the staple and
sgd Mich of this will be clear
PiToht andf will go to swell the bank
Ifcounts of the planters. Idle
Ihoney 4eing useless. another novel
Txperienfse is before the agricultur-
riiist He will have to decide on the
smerits fof the many ways in which his
surplus may be giver an earning ca
pacit9. He enters the class known
to tile business world as Investors
Tfking seven cents a pound as COW
eriIfs the cost of growing and mark
etf4g cotton, including wear and tear
Off implements. use of live stock,
fartilizers. wages and rent. the profit
on this seasons work on the basis al
4eady taken will amount to the stu
kpendous sum of $275. 100000. more
(by some $115, 100000 than the cost
4 Of every cotton mill in the southern
~ps today.
THAT will be done with this enor-
Gus surplus? Already small national
,anks are springing up throughout
[he south. The planter and the en-
tire south is in this way becoming
4 less and less dependent on the finan-
cial help Of the larger money centres.
After all his has been done there
will in all PROBABILITY be a large sur
plus of investable funds, and this will
most likely be augmented by hun
dreds of millions season after season.
For so long as the worlds hunger for
cotton is not fully satisfied there is
little likelihood of Improbable prices
being forced on the producer He can
now afford to wait until the user
must have supplies. He has no clam
Orous usurers waiting to gobble up his
crop as soon as it is picked He is
manumitted and the manufacturer
ought TO keep this hard fact con-
stantly in mind.
To multiply his own prosperity the
agricuIturalist should use his invest
able funds to create such industries
as will turn the raw products of the
farms and mines into finished mer-
chandise. This obviously means that
the cotton grower should develop into
the cotton manufacturer. But until we
find Il market for the goods turned out
by the mills, reckless building will only
make worse a situation already acute.
Export growth will n day be ours,
but it will never come to US. We must
go after it just as intelligentIy and
determinedly as we now scramble for
orders in our home market. In the
it is oppOrtune to ay, that
taken by and large, the south is max
ing the common or garden varieties
of goods so extensively as to render
the ACCESSIBILITY of rapid growth in
TX direction a question of much
doubt. There are. however, many ways
in which her growth may be quick
aud profitable. Southern yarns are
shipped away in millions of pounds
annually to form the raw material
for other manufactures. Here hen
is the line of least resistance.
Mills buying their yarns and weav-
ing s~pecialties, knitting mills, shoe
and corset lac factories. curtain and
embroidery mills, braid manufacture
ing plants. lamps and candle wick
making. thread converters, dyeing
bleaching and finishing works, waste
factories and a multitude of other
openings are available to her peopIe
as sound investments. There exists
no reason for any arbitrary geograph-
icaI cleavage between the maker and
user of sale yaruS. When our mer-
chants and manufacturers have arous-
ed from their lethargy sufficiently to
move in a determined way to en-
large their market, then, and not un-
til then can it be truly said that every
dollar of cotton profits, can be put into
cotton mills, with a reasonable pros
pect Of satisfactory direct returns or
the investment being obtained. The
indirect gains are OBVIOUS and GER
tain. There are riffs in the clouds
\ few pioneers are blasting the trail
in foreign lands. but the bulk is inert
Not a Sick Day Since.
Il was taken severely sick with kii-