The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-05

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 -BaleS- Year. North oou.n. Ln. 1ooo .2.O6s, 300 1597, 112
 1ooz 9 13s 829 2140, 151 | As these figures show southern mills In 1896 consumed 35 per cent of the raw 1 cotton manufactured in this country; in 1900 their consumption had increased to
 4s Der cent. and in 1905 1t had risen to a fraction over 50 per cent. In other words the mills of the south used more raw cot
 ton than did those of the north during the past year. To put it In another way, the | increase in the consumption by northern mills has been only about 31a per cent dur
 ing the past five years, while in the south | it has been more than 34 per cent.
 | This of course, Is not the whole story, for five-eights of the total spindles are
 still in the north. The average produc- tion per spindle in the north is Gil pounds
 and in the south 125.5 pounds.
 These figures illustrate the familiar fact | that the south is crowding out the New i England mills so far as the trade in | heavy goods is concerned, and that the New England mills are being forced more l and more into the manufacture or the | finer grades. In medium grades the south | has come forward rapidly and is pressing ] the New England mills more and more | every year. The showing is the more re- | markable when one considers that the
 south has had to win Its way against
 keen competitor strongly entrenched in | the market, much nearer to the points | where mill machinery Is manufactured
 and to the great marketing centers, and lx.. ,-s,ft f,f | labor.
 | Not only is the steady advance of the | cotton mill industry in the south indicated | by the government figures. but 1t is | shown by the careful observation of act
 ual conditions which I have made dur | ing a recent trip through the south. These
 observations and talks with leading man.
 ufacturers do not justify the pessimistic l utterances regarding the southern mill industry which have found their way into | print from time to time of late.
 To Solve Labor Problem.
 The labor problem is a serious one but | active efforts to solve it have been set | on foot in different parts of the south by | the leading railway lines and by associa- | ions of business men. The work that is 1 being done in this direction deserves a 1 story to Itself, but. of course, time will | be required to enable 1t to produce any | considerable degree of relief.
 | Aside from the scarcity of labor the | factor most threatening to the. southern | mill industry in the opinion of most of it's leaders is the agitation now going on
 to give control of rail transportation rates | to a federal commission. Whatever may | be the opinion of other classes, or other l parts of the country. the cotton manu- | lecturers are in most cases against any
 such revolution in the transportation | business as Is involved in the proposition which Is to be urged before Congress this
 winter to take away from the railroads | the power to fix their freight rates. Some | of the manufacturers complain of ine- | qualities in local rates, but even these, as | a rule seem to be against government | rate-making Their reasons, as they ex- | plain them, are very simple.
 | "If rates are fixed by government au- | thorty," they say, I've have been told by both the supporters and the opponents of the proposed legislation that they will | be fixed on a distance basis. The princi- | pal difference of opinion between the | friends and foes of the different bills | which are to come before Congress seems | to be as to the extent to which the dis | tance standard will be applied. That does | not interest us. however, for we know | that we are further from the great con- l suming points than are the northern
 mills and that most of our goods must | travel long way to market. Anything | approaching mileage rates, therefore, | would hurt us. It would also make our | machinery more expensive. We admit that | the railroads now give to southern mill | products slightly more favorable rates
 than to those of the north. That is only | just, for the northern mills have other
 advantages and this Is the only way in which we can compete with them'' | Opinion of Jordan.
 1 G. Gunby Jordan, head of the Eagle | Phoenix mills at Columbus, Ga, the | largest mills in the state. explained the reason for maintaining the present ad- | justment of rates fair both to the | south and north. MT. Jordan is one of | the pioneers in the industrial development | of the south. and has done more perhaps l than any other one man in securing rates from the railroads which give the south | ern mills access to the markets of the l north and west
 When I started in the business" said | MT. Jordan, "the few mills in the south all | shipped their product to New York and | sold 1t there at a disadvantage as con- pared with the old and firmly established l New England mills. Along in the seventies | I started out to do business directly with | the dealers of the middle west. I sent | out a man equipped with stereoptcon | views of our mill and water power to tell | about the advantages of our location and | the excellence of our goods. When he succeeded in getting few orders I went l to the railroad men to find out what rates 1 I could obtain on shipments to middle | western points. At that time there were | no rates on cotton goods between the southeast and the west and no traffic of | this kind moving in that direction.
 "The railroad mems answer to my first | application was. Ship to New York as | everybody else does By persistent efforts | I finally convinced them that I meant | business. I pointed out that the roads | were bringing down beef. hay and other l freight from north of the Ohio, and that | it would be to their interest to have l freight to fill their cars for the return | trip.
 "At length they established rates that | enabled us to ship to Ohio. Indiana and | Illinois points in competition with the New York jobbers. We pushed the bus | mess hard other southern mills began to follow our lead and presently the | traffic grew to such proportions that the railroads saw its possibilities. After that l 1t was easy Whenever we asked for 8 rate to a new point. as we opened up new territory. the traffic men practically | said: Tell us what rate will enable you | to put your goods there Tn competition with the east and you shall have it. l Pretty soon the New York jobbers began | to feel the competition and put lip a | big fight through their roads to force up our rates. but the southern railroads