The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-25
Ny win T. sheehan.

But there is such an industry in Liv- ingston. live, vital and prosperous. From the heart of the Black Belt. where it's white fields of cotton grew ub to the very door of the factory, quilts and comforters are made to pro- tect the people of Minnesota and North Dakota from the terrible cold of the
 Northwest blizzard. Day after day the wheels turn, the machines rattle and huge cases are trucked out into waiting cars. Day after day the prod ucts of the cotton fields of the Black | Belt are sent to the North, to the ! East and to the West. in a finished arr ticle, always welcome to commerce. 1 The Livingston Manufacturing Com pan, operates the industry. It is three years old and money maker.
 We went into the business of manu- l featuring comforters and mattress ma terial because 1t was a business in which there is no competition in this section," said Manager T. F. Smith. | We were looking about for some bus
 mess in which the competition was not keen and destructive. So we went in- to making comforters and mattress ma terial. Already our experience has shown us that we acted wisely. We
 have had to increase our equipment
 in the two years in which~we have been in active operation, and if our business
 
 to enlarge the plant in the near fu-
 ture. As it Is our output is sold un- til the end of the season, which closes with September"
 Only Factory in State.
 It is the only industry of it's kind in the State. At least If there is another Manager Smith has never heard of it. The Livingston institution beyond doubt is the pioneer in Alabama of it's kind. And It's conception was a happy thought for the man who laid the plan in looking for business in which the competition is not so keen. When one looks at it's success, when he considers the great demand for It's goods only recently introduced on the market he Is surprised that there are not more of its kind ia Alabama. Such business is an inviting prospect and worth Investigating at any rate. Manufacturing comforters Is a Con- necticut enterprise That State all but has monopoly of it. Managar Smith
 estimates that more than seventy-hve per cent. of the comforters put upon the market are sent out from Con-
 necticut Cotton raised in the Black
 Belt of Alabama is sold for, say ten
 cents a pound, and shipped to Con-
 necticut. There 1t is hurriedly run
 through the machines, the cover IS
 stitched on with big machines and the
 nn1Sned QTOuuCL IS SnlppSu DdCA tO
 Alabama where it is sold for say, sev-
 enty-ffve cents a pound. Freight charg-
 es both ways are paid and the Con-
 necticut man makes a handsome profit
 on his enterprise.
 He makes a handsome profit even
 when he fills his comforters with
 good cotton. But alas, Connecticut is
 the Nutmeg State" And Yankee in- genuity that could conceive the scheme of making wooden nutmegs is quite capable of evolving sundry and divers other schemes for laying up dividends The same Connecticut enterprise which
 turns out wooden nutmegs Is shrewd enough to turn out cotton comforters that are not filled with cotton. Now
 rags are cheaper than cotton. So. what
 Is the use of filling a comforter with
 fine cotton at ten and twelve cents
 pound when rags can be had at two
 and three cents a pound? Business is business if nutmegs are wooden ana If comforters are filled with rags t
 The Connecticut comforter is not made exclusively of cotton no more
 than a pound of nutmegs IS made up exclusively of wooden nutmegs. The
 true Connecticut business principle is to mix things. So wooden nutmegs are scattered in the pound for commerce and rags and cotton go together In the makeup ofthe Connecticut com forter.
 Remember Imported Comforter One whose travels are punctuated with periods in country hotels has very feeling recollection of the Con necticut made comforter It is not so | much, that when he wakes in the morning he finds the imprint Of a huge red century plant on his lert cheek, a memento of his association with the imported comforter. He IS k. haHAna0 l the comforter, which on cold nlgh' seemed so thick and full of warmth proved to be a hollow mockery In it's filling there seemed to De l cliaues and clans, parts of the interior arrangement refusing nD associate with other parts. These factions within | the comforter apparently refused to bava anvthing to do wsh each other and draw as far apart as the limits off the . yer permit And each fac- | tion seems to solidify so compactlS l thai +he noor wayfarer as he losses on l his uneasy couch wonders if they nave | filled the comforter with shingles, That's on account Of me rags ln .l'e lcomforter. They congeal into the nara
 nIaces which are so annoying to the | Ivovfarer underneath and who mutters | anathemas upon them in the long hours | of the cold night But profits In con l necticut must be maintained. l Because of this EraSplnS poiicy oi Connecticut manufacturers, however the Sumter County product has had
 warm welcome in the market or the country. The Sumter County people have not been reduced to the rag pick | ing style of doing business. Some or the best cotton grown in the world IS l grown right at their doors. There IS | plenty of it to be had and no freight l charges are to be paid. The Alabama comforters can be filled with the whit ] est and huffiest of Black Belt cotton
 and profits made at tbe same time.
 The trade is finding this out. The l demand for the output of the Living ston factory is steadily increasing. The
 demand is especially strong from the West 4 peculiar feature of the bus mess of the Livingston Manufacturing | Company is that most of it's output is l sold along the Pacific Coast between Los Angeles and Seattle. The Living I ston made comforters finds market, too in other Western States and it's
 sales increase wherever it is given a chance The con pany rds on the road five travelling men ho are constantly l sending in orders
 The plant of the company sits to tine left of the main line of the Southern
 Road as it hears the Livingston depot It looks like a cotton mill. The plant is a two-story brick structure with
 spurs and sidetracks running to the doors and loading platforms about It's walls. A one-story engine room with tall brick chimney hardby emphasizes the likenes oF the guilt factory to a
 cotton factory.
 Sumter County Enterprise. | The whole thing is a Sumter County