The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-08
DECLINES TO REDUCE
 RATES ON COTTON TO MILLS

State requiring cotton of different quality from that produced at the sup- ply points in Alabama to bring such cotton from without the State at T very low transportation charge. We further find that the interests of the Alabama mills are protected in the adjustment of rates upon the hn- iehed products from the mills to for efgn markets. The combined rate on the raw material from the supply point in this State by way of the near est mills in the State, plus the rate on the finished product from the mills to the East. being so adjusted with reference to the through rate on the raw material from points In Alabama to the Eastern mills, as to enable the Alabama manufacturer easily to com pete In the foreign markets. both East and West, with the Eastern mills. the advantage In a great majority of in- stances being in favor of the Alabama product in the foreign markets, so far as the question of rates is concerned. AEabama Product Protected. Another advantage enjoyed by the Alabama finished product is that the rate on this class of goods from the East back to the markets of this State is higher than the rate from points n this state to. the East. thus protecting the Alabama product in it's own ter ftt0ly.. Ill iA WQfus tnc TdtC tS 6O dQ- justed that the Alabama product can compete in the East and the West with the product of the Eastern mills. and is secure in It's home market from foreign competition.
 Tt further appears that the Ala bama mills for the most part are ex- periencing an unusual degree of pros perity. and that the growth of this industry in the State is most pronounce cd and rfXnr m aufdanaa n having been denied reasonable encouragement. the testimony showing that one of the larger mills in the State in 1905 earn ed sixteen per cent.
 The following figures from the Uni ted States Census Bureau (twelfth censusl. Manufacturers Volume TX. part Iii. pages ffty-six and fifty-sev- en. are interesting and significant: Tn 1890 there were thirteen cotton mill establishments in Alabama, with q cap- ital of s2,S53.015, employing an average of 2.0Ss wage earners. turning out a product. including custom work and repairing of the value Of $2,190,77t. In 1900 the number of establishments had increased to thirty-one. with a capital |of $11,63S.757, employing an average number of &,332 wage earners. with 2 product valued at ss.f53.t3e. Between 1890 and 1900 the capital invested in Alabama cotton mills had increased by about 400 per cent. The increase in Georgia for the same period was forty per cent. in Mississippi ten per cent. in Tennessee thirty-fve per cent, in North Carolina 800 per cent. in South Carolina $50 per cent; Ala bama easily leading all of these States in~the percentage of increase.
 '"rhe Textile Directory for 1905 shows that there were In Alabama fif- ty-five cotton mills. an increase of about eighty per cent. over the. num- Der in 1900. In South Carolina the increase was about fifty per cent, in North Carolina and Tennessee about thirty-five per cent, in Georgia up- wards of ninety per cent.
 SOuth's Mill Bualness.
 Tt further appears from the testi- mony that in 1881 the Southern mills used only 221 900 bales of cotton, while the New England mills used 1,5T4,000 bales. In the year ending August 3i, 1905, the Southern mills used 2,140,15i bales. and the New England mills used 2,13S.S59 bales, the Southern mills | having consumed in the period last mentioned 8 small amount in excess of the New England mills.
 We further find from this investi- gation that reasonable, and in many. instances very low rates. are made from points in Alabama to mills with
 
 by no means consume the entire prod. uct of the State, and this ad- justn4ent of rates-to foreign mills is undoubtedly in the interest of the cot ton producer in Alabama, as 1t gives him more markets in which to sell the excess of his product over the amount consumed by the Alabama mills, and places him nearer the Liverpool or Eastern base at a reasonable rate. It Is to be conceded that the value of cot ton is what 1t Is worth in Liverpool, and the Eastern markets. less the cost of getting 1t there, and so far as the producer is concerned his interest Is best conserved by the most reasonable rate which puts his product nearest the Liverpool or Eastern market.
 "An adjustment which considers only local rates would inevitably tend to confine the producer to the Alabama market alone, and this would obviously be to his great disadvantage.
 "A low interstate rate on cotton from Alabama to points without this State Is not a proper basis for the determin- ation of the rates on a proportionate mileage scale. The logic of such a course would be to establish all rates, both local and interstate, on a purely mileage basis--and to this extent the most ultra sentiment has never gone.
 Reasons For order.
 fne present adJustmeDt or cotton rates therefore, in our opinion protects the Alabama Mills, inasmuch as first, it affords reasonable rates from the cotton supply points In Alabama to the mills; second, 1t affords a reasonble rate on such grades of cotton as the mills of Alabama require to bring from without the State; third. the adjust ment is such as to enable the Alabama mills 10 compete in the markets of the world with the Eastern mills which draw their supply of material from this State, the combined rate on the raw material to the mills in this State, plus the rate on the finished product to the East being arranged to this end with reference tn the lhrnlIeh raj n,, IL.