The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-01
CLOTH ny THE MILE.

CLOTH Ht THE MILE
 Unless one should study the statis- tics 1t Is difficult te form anything like a fair estimate of the immense auan- tity of cloth manufactured in the Uni- ted States. Tn a recent issue of The New Bedford standard that paper states that careful inquiry has been made into the quantity made in that city with the result that for every minute that the mills are running one mile of cloth is turned out. The means. if the looms all run during an average work ing day of twelve hours. one city turns out 72o miles of cloth each day. That would require but little more than one month to make a web of cloth that would reach around the earth.
 It is by such comparisons or Illus trations as this that we are able to form something like a fair idea of the manufacturing industries of the coun- try. New England is the great cotton manufacturing section of the Union, and Now Bedford is one of the centres of that industry. but when we remem- Der that in other New England States this work is going on as 1t is in the city named. and that in many of the other states the same industry is flourishing. we can begin to see the sx..w s4A n( kkn al L. frrr ness in the United States. By reading that one city is turning out cloth at the rate of mile minute we can bAter appreciate the work being done than we could by seeing a report of the total annual output of all the mills of the country.
 When we read of what is being done in New Bedford, to take it as a fair sample of New England. we are forci- ply reminded of the slow progress made in the South in the utilization of it's opportunities. It is true that much thread and cloth are being made in the Southern States. and 1t is also true that the industry is developing and spread ing, but not as it should. There are three good reasons why such manu- factories should flourish in all the cot ton States. One is the convenience of the staple. the second the favorable climate, and the third is the almost unlimited power that can be developed since electricity has come to play such an important part in all the mechani- cal trades and operations.
 The inconsistency. to use no harsher term. of sending the raw cotton thou sands of miles to be made up into the cloth and thread that we must have is apparent when we think of it little. It fs much as if farmer should have his corn shipped to New England to be ground into meal and shipped back to him. It Is as if the mine owner in Alabama should ship his ore to Pitts burg to be turned into iron and steel. manufactured into articles of necessity and then shipped back to Birmingham.
 Our mild climate makes 1t both pos- sibIe and practicable to operate cotton mills all thS year. which cannot be done in New Ensiand. It is not as bad there now as it was when they used water water power exclusively and the streams and ponds were frozen hard and fast several months in each year. but even now there are times when the mills cannot run because of ex- treme cold. Here there need not be one day lost on that account.
 When we had no available power but water the cotton mills could only be established and operated where the water power was located. but now that electric power can be generated on al- most any stream and transmitted prac- tically without limitation it is very dif- feTent. It should be so that the farm CT in almost any locality could have his cotton made into cloth and thread almost at his own door. It may be a long time before we have 6 town Ot city that can turn out mile of cloth every minute but there is no good req son why the time may not come