The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-02-12
WILL MILL OWNERS GROW COT-
TON?

The Steel Trust FOUND IL necessary W
own the mines and furnaces from which
it obtains its raw material. In Louisiana
and other sugar growing sections, the
men who own the sugar mills also own
the land. and convert the cane into sugar
right on the plantations where the cane is
grown. Chicago meat packers have pur-
chased millions of acres of land IN Texas
and the Southwest where they grow cat
tie for their stock yards. If these things
can be done proftably, why may not the
owners of cotton mills grow their own cot
ton?
Most OF the New England spinners be-
lieve that the rise in the price of cotton
is due almost solely to speculation, and
they are seeking a way to get cotton that
is cheaper and also to prevent such wide
fluctuations as have demoralized the
manufacturing business. Some of them
think the thing to do is to grow their
own cotton by buying or leasing cotton
land in the South. That is the idea of
Col. Albert Clarke, of the Home Market
Club, Boston. In recent speech adj
vancing his idea, Col. Clark said:
1.-THE newest problem in the. South,
which is equally problem in the North,
is how to save the greatest agricultural
| and manufacturing industry from the
caprices of speculation. The present
high price of cotton and the very low
g -i1 rcf h 70
garded as to a degree abnormal. The
idea that the employment of several mil
lions of capital should be dependent upon
the manipulation of few men is abhor-
rent to economical sense.
''The mills of Fall River consume Co.
600 bales of cotton year. Their owners
hardly ever know whether they can run
the mills profitably or not, on account
of fluctuations in the price OF their raw
material. Why can they not form COM
pany with 81 900 capital and buy and
cultivate 120, COO acres of good cotton land,
thus producing economically and making
sure of an adequate supply, free from the
influence of speculation?
''Such a measure under good business
management, would be better for the ag-
riculture of the South than the present
better for the manufacturing interest,
South as well as North. In any event,
there would be no danger of monopoly
and the steadyihg effect of such a means
of self-protection would be of inestimable
value to 1.-The whole industrial commun-
ity''
There is much land in the South suited
to the cultivation Of cotton that now lies
! idle This is particularly true in Texas,
| but it is true also of every Southern
State 1t will not be cultivated until
| there is labor in the South to cultivate
! it. The New England cotton spinners could
successfully grow much of the cotton they
need in the South. The land can easily
| be purchased at very reasonable prices.
| The difficulty in carrying out the sugges-
tion is in securing labor. Already more
cotton is grown in the South than can
| be picked. Every year cotton goes to
waste in fields because there is not labor
| to pick it, If the mill owner can import
| the labor to cultivate the crop, they
ought to make growing cotton for their
mills profitable, but if they depend upon
employing labor already in the South,
they will find that they cannot secure the
necessary labor, and their investment in
cotton lands will turn out disastrously.