The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-12
From Annual Review of Secretary He's

From Annual Review of Secretary He's
 ter.
 The actual consumption of cotton by the mills of the South during the com mercial year just ended has reached total of 1s2,77s bales more than ever before recorded, and is 244,35s ahead of last season. Every State shows an in- crease but Louisiana which Is 2,04b bales behind last year. North Carolina leads with an excess of Tls336 bales followed by Georgia with 63.774 gain, and South Carolina with 62,2l0 increase; 80 S-10 per cent. of the net aggregate excess being in the three States last named.
 Compared with the unsatisfactory and depressed conditions of last year this handsome showing is a source for con graduation, but 1t Is shadowed by the fact that large as the total is, 1t Is less by more than 250,000 bales than con- dftions warranted. AS stated else where, under head of American Mills" from every State comes the platnt or scarcity of labor, the supply having been depleted by the removal of many families to farms, a result of high nrices for raw cotton. while the in- crease of spindles called for more help than could be obtained even without this depletion.
 The growth of spind1es still continues at handsome rate. In the active mlils s23,1e3 more spindles are recorded' the permanently idle spindles have been re- duced from 27S,603 at this time last year to 210.7o2 and there are being erected 30 new mills which, with the additions to old concerns will embrace 520.556 new spindles.
 The total consumption for the year is 2,f63,505 bales against i,sl9,252 last year and 2O00,729 the year before, an increase over last year of 244,25S bales and over the year before of lBZ,1Io. Most of the gain in consumption was during the last half of the year, many establishments still feeling the enects of last years scarcity and depression during the first three or four montns' hence, while the average consumption ner month for the first eleven months was 179,4s7 bales, that of last month (AuRust) had increased to 1Ss,l44, or an equivalent for a twelve months con sumption of 2,269,T2S. At the August rate of consumption the present oapac- ity of all the spindles In the south, oiu' idle and not complete (and many or tne latter will be ready for operation early i'm the coming season) is over 2,45O.OOO bales But even this is not up to the capabiIity of the Southern mills as dur ing the past three years, with the large additions at no time have all the spin dies in going mills been fully occupied; and with fairly good conditions and suficient labor the annual outturn could readily be made to surpass 2,bOO,OOO 10 2, ,600, 900 bales.
 The labor question to which reference is made more fully than elsewhere m this report has created more or Iess of uncertainty as to the immediate fu- ture In reference to new mills and in- crease of spindles in existing establish ments I am informed of several in- stances where projects and improve ments have been delayed to await TUT ther developments.
 Referring to the details given in the tables annexed, desire to emphasize the fact that there has been no guess work in this report The list Of mills in the South was made up aIter many weeks of patient and careful inVestl- gation, by correspondence in every State iications of the "Textile World" the "American Textile Directory" and "Blue Book" just issued, which are con stdered standard authorities as compil- CTS of mill directories. so that nave had the benefit of their investigations as well as of my own experience or many years in locating the mills. Ev- cry mill in the South has reported to me direct but fifteen out of TT regular cotton mills, and these (of which have obtaIned data sufficiently close to cover all the purposes of an actual censusl used but an infinite simai fraction or inc total quantity consumed. In addi- tion I have secured returns from every woole1 mill, batting and mattress tac- tory and every knitting mill that has snindles and used raw cotton. In fact have knocked at the doors of every instituticn of my kind in the South that uses raw cotton tnd have invari- ahIv met with kind and prompt re- sponses.
 Consumption of Foreign Cotton sn the