Evening star., 1924-01-10
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
GREATLY. MENAcED
High.spot- Cotton Causes More Big
=, Mills to Reduce Work. :
An6 AANS. ~. s...t
BLOW TO NEW ENGLAND
Manufacturers Cannot Sell Goods
at Present Prices.
BY J. c. ROYLE.


Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, January 10.-An-
nouncement of drastic curtailment
OF operations in New England cotton
mills has not served, at least as yet,
to alter the firm attitude of the hold
ers of spot cotton in the south.
Many of the latter profess to see in
the shortened schedules of the New
England mills an attempt to force
lower prices for the raw staple and
declare that if the New !. England
manufacturers feel they can afford to
keep their plants idle In whole or in
part the southern cotton holders are
equally able to hang on to their bales
until they get the prices they. have
set. For their part. the mill owners
in New England declare that they
cannot sell goods the price Of which
is based on the present quotations for
raw cotton, and that they cannot con-
tinue to make goods they cannot sell.
Sees Long Depression.
One of the largest Rhode Island
manufacturers declared the curtail-
ment would continue until business
improved and that he looked for no
such improvement for six months at
least He anticipates that more
manufacturers will reduce output.
Considerable anxiety is being ex-
pressed in some sections of the south
over the extreme optimism of the
cotton planters and dealers. In Texas,
where they had wonderful year In
financially than for several years.
Most of them have not only wiped
out old debts but have comfortable
balances at the banks. Some careful
al, Srnf is H11 rnr
they will be influenced by the pres
ent optimism regarding cotton to OBJ
tain more land tha 4. they can well
cultivate or pay for and to sacrifice
feed crops and live stock production.
Mill Situation Serious. --e.--.r
The curtatlments in effect today In
New England are undoubtedly of
great Importance. Eight out of ten
OF the E. B. 6 r. Knight Company,
q subsidiary OF the Consolidated Tex
day-a-week schedule. The Arctic,
Centerville, Grant, Nottingham, Pom
tiac, Royal Valley Queen and White
Rock mills are other Rhode Island
Their executives claim many Rhode
Island mills have been unable to sell
their full production for the last four
or five months
Company, of Saco, the Bates and An
droscoggin mills at Lewiston. and
the Edwards Manufacturing Company
at Augusta have most of their units
Nashua Manufacturing Company of
Nashua. N. H, closed today for an in
definite period and the Cocheco plant
of the Pacific mills Is idle. In Massa-
chusetts the Ipswich and Merrimae
mills are running at half capacity
and the Fall River print cloth mills
at 55 per cent TO rs per cent. while
the New Bedford yarn mills are about
on similar basis.
Southern Mills Still Busy.
Southern mills are still working al
most full time and their executives
express no anxiety about ability to
sell good sized output at a profit in
spite of high cotton prices. The New
dicated they attribute their situation
to southern competition, although !
they admit lower labor costs and
longer working hours give the south |
ern makers the advantage.
Textile experts employed by con
Germs with plants in both sections, |
however. are using every argument |
to induce the New Englanders to /,
costs without lowering the scale of |
wages. They claim that by improved |
methods of factory practice and new !
and better machinery some processes
and that every process is capable OF
Improvement il the operatives will
cooperate with the mana cement. 4
Power Proposals Vital.
In the south all other topics were
overshadowed today by the ~super- |
power proposal regarding Muscle !
Shoals by the combined southern !
hydroelectric power companies. South :
ern business men expressed the belief !,
that this offer would bring about a !
speedy disposition of the property
either to Ford or the associated inter !
ests and that this would mean the !,
entrance of the south on a period Of .
industrial expansion hitherto un-
dreamed Of The Possibility Of cfea o. !.
fertilizers for the farmer. as we'll as |
cheap electric power. have long been
recognized in connection with this de-
velopment.