Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-30

In all these years everybody who worked
at all raised cotton and many found tt
difficult to make living of any kind. The
competition In cotton production was re-
lieved by the development Of mechanical
industries In the fourth decade the south
made no more cotton than 1t did In the
third, but the price went up to u cents
instead of 6. Therefore we got $500, coo GOO
for our 100000 bales of cotton instead
of 100000, 600. This gave us q capital of
1906, COO, 900 annually out of cotton alone
besides the 500. 000,o00 which we got for
cotton-seed products, which were formerly
wasted
Cotton Seed Oil Industry.
1.-The cotton mills seem to stand out
conspicuous among our factory interests
As matter of fact. while cotton manu-
facture is the largest industry In the Pied
mont region 1t Is far from being all inn
portant. The most unique industry we
have isIt came like Topsy did-ft Jest
grew Cotton seed supplies an oil as
wholesome and as palatable as that made
by crushing olives. This industry, evolved
out of the local climate and soil without
any suggestion or guidance from else
where, has become one of the greatest
value. The business has grown to such
a MAGNITUDE that the price of lard butter,
olive Oil and other greases have distinct
relation TO it. 1t furnishes a supplementary
food product which holds the market for
other oils steady
packing house cities in the west take
10000 barrels annually for the adultera-
ton OF other food products; 500, 900 barrels
go to Marseilles and Trieste to be refined
and sold as olive Oil: 100000 barrels go to
Holland to make butter; $4,000 barrels go
to the coast of Maine to pack sardines. The
inferior grades are used for cutting threads
In pipes and bolts; much of it is frozen
and the liquid winter oil Is pressed out
for use in the lamps of miners.
we have twenty cotton mills and three
cotton seed mills In Charlotte. The latter
give the railroads ten times the freight
that the cotton mills do. They consume
about 800 tons of seed per day. After the
oil has been pressed out the meal is valu-
able as feed for cattle both for milk
butter and beef. Many cattle are now fat
hull and the meal furnishing all the food
that Is necessary The meal is also very
valuable as fertilizer, being particularly
rich In ammonia. and is one of the most
convenient forms in which nitrogen can be
bought for fertilizing purposes.
Manufactures Of Charlotte.
I'VE have in Charlotte seven machine
shops. One of them Is mostly occupied in
building mining machinery, and has made
number of shipments to Mexico. An
other builds machinery to prepare cotton
Tor the market-gins, presses engines,
boilers; another builds cotton seed oil
machinery and cotton mill machinery gen.
orally The D. A. Tompkins Company has
quilt more than a hundred cotton mills
and more than two hundred oil mills. We
nave exported considerable oil mill ma
chinery and are now executing an order for
Brazil There are three other contracting
firms in our town who build cotton mills
complete. Any of them will take a con-
tract TO Mt out complete cotton mill any
where In the world Charlotte is the only
place in the United States where such a
contract can be made. We have four firms
VINO VIII design, construct and equip a
cotton mill complete for a given price.
Charlotte has five trousers factories
which employ about five hundred people.
During the Spanish war the government
mao trouble in getting uniforms for the
soldiers, but Charlotte could have made
enough trousers for the whole army in
thirty days. There are varieties of mis-
cellaneous manufactures there also Our
people build organs, make mattresses, cot
ton batting harness, leather betting pipe
and do all sorts OF things"
I called the attention of Mr. Tompkins to
a number of advertisements of firms In
Philadelphia, New York, Providence,
Boston and other cities in the Charlotte
paper and asked his explanation
These advertisements in the Observer"
ne replied, are not so much q voluntary
actlon on the part Of the manufacturers
ana commission men as a business trans
action, to keep in with the moving tide. 7
nave told you about our firms in Charlotte
VINO make business Of taking contracts
TO erect and fit out mills. Sometimes a
particular kind of machinery is specified:
sometimes the specifications are general
therefore,, the large manufacturers of ma
chInery in New England and other parts
OF the north find 1t advantageous to keep
their machines constantly before the ewes
OF me contractors, and also before the eyes
OF the ultimate purchaser, with the hope
OF either selling to the contractor or hay-
ing the purchaser specify that particular
Kind of machinery. Within one hundred
miles OF Charlotte are perhaps four million
splndies. and our city Is the commercial
center at which the business of these mills
Is largely done. The dry goods commission
merchant meets the mill man at Charlotte,
and he puts an advertisement in the paper
70 Keep himself and his business in the
minds OF his customers. Such advertise
ments are unusual in a daily newspaper.
they are usually limited to trade papers.
but they are made necessary by the pecu.
liar situation down here"