An essay on the practicability and profitableness of manufacturing the cotton crop of the South within our own limits

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AN ESSAY
On the Practicability and Profitableness of Manufacturing the
Cotton Crop of the South Within Our Own Limits.

From the Atlanta New Era,
February 19th
.
To present facts to sustain, or arguments in support of the PRACTICABILITY of the successful manufacture of the cotton crop of the South within our own limits seems to be entirely superfluous. All the conditions for the successful prosecution of this branch of industry are so fully met, and the favorable combinations of natural resources are so numerous and great throughout the greater portion of the cotton-producing area of the Union, as to place the question almost beyond debate. If practicable anywhere, it is pre-eminently so in the South; if impracticable here, it is matter of astonishment that the business has been successful or profitable anywhere.
Extending southwardly from the northernmost limit of the cotton-producing portion of the South Atlantic States, along the eastern base of the Blue Ridge, in North and South Carolina, and Georgia, and westwardly, through large portions of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, and west of the Mississippi River, in Arkansas, Northern Louisiana, and the northern and western portions of Texas, is a belt of territory, (embracing the isothermal line between the cotton-producing and non-cotton-producing region) not less than one hundred miles in breadth, the aggregate capacity of whose water-powers it is bewildering to the mind to contemplate, and which may be said to defy computation; while labor is abundant and cheap, and the climatical conditions, as to general even temperature and humidity, are not surpassed in the world.
In Georgia, this belt lies on, and mainly north of a line beginning at Augusta, on the Savannah River, thence drawn to about Tenneille, on the Central railway, and thence, via Macon, to Columbus, on the Chattahoochee River, embracing some of the best upland cotton-producing countries in the State. There are many very fine water-powers south of this line; but north of it they are numerous, grand and of great volume.
In proof of the foregoing statements, as to the peculiar—
in reality unrivaled
—adaptation of the South to this branch of manufacturing industry, a few out of many localities in Georgia, presenting a remarkable combination of advantages, are referred to with the remark, that, modified by climatical conditions, similar natural combinations and advantages are common to the several States already mentioned above.
For instance: In Clarke county, in Georgia, according to a statement which has been published, over twenty falls have been enumerated, embracing an aggregate of nearly three thousand horse-power. The largest, on the Oconee River, a few miles south of Watkinsville, (known as Barrett's) is estimated at five hundred horse-power; the next largest is on the Middle (South Fork) of the Oconee, on which Princeton Factory is located, about midway between Athens and Watkinsville, is estimated at four hundred horse-power; the next, on which the Georgia Factory is located, on the North Fork, (or main) Oconee, about four miles south of Athens, is estimated at three hundred horse-power; the next is at Athens, on which the Athens Factory is located, is estimated at two hundred horse-power. These four falls make an aggregate of fourteen hundred horse-power, or about one-half that of the county. Only about four hundred horse-power, or one-seventh of the total of the county, is actually employed.
It is believed that the assertion may be safely hazarded, that there are not less than forty counties in Georgia of water-power capacity equaling that of Clarke. When it is remembered that Northern Georgia abounds in water-falls—that the Savannah River on the east, as low down as Augusta; the Chattahoochee, from its mountain sources as low down as Columbus, on the middle western boundary of the State; the broad Oconee, Ocmulgee and Flint Rivers between; and the Etowah, Oostanaula and Chattooga Rivers in the northwestern portion of the State; and their numerous tributaries, all have falls varying from five to fifty feet of constant flow and great volume; and when it is remembered, also, that all the cotton-producing States possess almost equally great available water-powers,
the conviction is irresistible
that the natural advantages of the South for cotton manufacturing very greatly exceed in extent all that has been claimed.
At Columbus, Ga., alone, the water-power capacity of the Chattahoochee River has been computed to approximate three thousand horse-power—as much as the total of Clarke county. The effective fall is fourteen feet, the length of dam five hundred feet, the average depth of the water, when low, at sixteen inches, giving, by calculation, a flow of over twenty-six hundred cubic feet of water per second.
Again: In his very important report of an instrumental survey of a line for a projected railway between West Point and Columbus, Ga., Col. L. P. Grant, the able and efficient Superintendent of the Atlanta and West Point Railway, (who is recognized by the profession as one of the ablest civil engineers in the South,) says:
“The total fall of the Chattahoochee, between West Point and the steamboat landing at Columbus, is three hundred and sixty feet. The descent is not uniform, but occurs in successive shoals, separated by stretches of comparatively slack water.”
The distance between West Point and Columbus, by the line of this survey, is only thirty-eight miles—by the course of the river, it is probably about fifty miles. The hydrostatic power of the Chattahoochee River, therefore, between the points named, is twenty-five times its power at Columbus, and would seem to be
demonstrated to be not less
, (and, in view of the improvements in the application of, and for economizing water-power, is, probably,
very much more
,) than seventy-five thousand horse-power. In the report of Col. Grant, already quoted from, he says:
“About one-third (120 feet) of this descent occurs in three and a half miles, terminating at Columbus.”
To approximate the cotton-manufacturing capacity of this stupendous water-power, the following general data, obtained from accomplished results at Athens, Ga., will be used as a basis:
At the Athens Factory one hundred horse-power propels five thousand spindles and preparation, and eighty-five looms, whose manufactured products require about two thousand bales of cotton annually, and afford employment for two hundred and forty operatives. A merchant mill for grinding wheat and corn is also driven by the same power in addition.
Now, at the single fall at Columbus, (fourteen feet) the estimated horse-power is three thousand, or thirty times more than is employed at Athens for both factory and mill. This one fall, consequently, will move one hundred and fifty thousand spindles and preparation, twenty-five hundred looms, consume sixty thousand-bales of cotton, employ over seven thousand people, and form a basis for a population at least five times greater.
But from the steamboat landing at the foot of this fall, to a point three and a half miles up the river, there is a fall of one hundred and twenty feet, or more than eight greater than that at Columbus. Here, therefore, is a water-power capable of operating one million two hundred thousand spindles and preparation, twenty thousand five hundred loom, requiring nearly five hundred thousand bale, of cotton, affording employment to nearly sixty thousand people, and forming a basis for a population of about three hundred thousand. This shows what the manufacturing population, alone, of Columbus City proper may become, by developing only this portion of the water-power of the Chattahoochee.
Again: Between West Point and Columbus, (thirty-eight miles) the fall is three hundred and sixty feet, or twenty-five times greater than that at Columbus. Consequently there is water-power capacity within that short distance, flowing between two great cotton-growing States, and through the very heart of the cotton region, for operating nearly four million spindles and preparation, sixty thousand looms, requiring one and a half million bales of cotton—ONE-HALF THE TOTAL CROP OF THE SOUTH LAST YEAR—affording employment for one hundred and eighty thousand people, and a basis for a population of not less than one million—nearly equal to the total population of the whole State of Georgia in 1860.
When it is considered that all kinds of cotton-manufacturing machinery has undergone and is rapidly undergoing improvement, power economized and multiplied by new inventions, and the results reached, favorable as they are, are derived from the operation of an old establishment, and a large amount of the power employed is used in grinding grain, it must be conceded that the estimates really fall below, instead of exceeding what may be realized. The other trades and employments which will be drawn to, and concentrated around such extensive manufacturing establishments, it may safely be asserted, would create a population double, if not more than double, that estimated above.
The site of the Etowah Manufacturing and Mining Company, on the Etowah River, principally in Bartow county, Ga., about fifty miles north of Atlanta, embraces a combination of natural advantages for manufacturing truly wonderful. Besides six falls of twenty feet each, within a distance of five miles, as the river runs, the property also “includes several miles, each, of Allatoona and Stamp Creeks, having great fall.” A report made to the Georgia Legislature in 1860, by a special committee appointed for the purpose, says:
“The Etowah River passes through the premises about five miles, with a succession of shoals, affording an aggregate fall of one hundred and twenty feet in that distance, and presents six different localities, each with a fall of fifteen feet. The river is six hundred feet wide, and never rises to materially overflow its banks, and is an unfailing stream.”
Imbedded in the hills between which it flows are inexhaustible quantities of iron ore of unsurpassed richness and quality. On the hillsides is the fuel needed for the furnaces; the sand-rock and lime-stone are in close

. The valleys produce grain abundantly, and cotton grows luxuriantly on the bottom-lands which skirt the river's sides. Thus within this small area, (five miles long and less than four wide, containing twelve hundred acres and less than twenty square miles,) the ore may be mined and smelted at the hill's base, and the metal immediately transferred to machinery at the upper fall to be rolled into rail or merchant bar, at the next fall prepared for the third, where with other material, the iron may be made into cotton-manufacturing machinery; and this, operated in buildings located on the three remaining falls, may convert the raw cotton into domestics—the cotton being delivered from the fields directly to the mills,
in the seed
, ginned and carried through all the processes of manufacture, free of all expense for packing and baling, until baled in its manufactured state for market.
This, grand as it is in its combination of advantages for cotton or other manufacturing establishments, is not an isolated case; many just such are to be found in the cotton-producing States.
Granting that only forty counties in Georgia equal Clarke in water-power capacity, (and beyond a doubt there is not only that number which equal Clarke, but many which surpass her, even in the cotton belt proper, like Richmond and Muscogee,) the cotton manufacturing capacity of Georgia, alone, is equal to two-thirds or three-fourths of the largest crop ever produced in one year in the United States.
If it were deemed necessary, data could be given to prove the superior adaptability of the climate, and the prevailing atmospherical condition, at all seasons, to the manufacture of cotton in the South; but the fact is so generally conceded, and the remarkable salubrity and healthfulness of the belt of country under review being almost universally acknowledged, it is deemed unnecessary to adduce proofs.
All enterprises, however, no matter how
practicable
natural advantages may seem to render them, are likely to fail if undertaken without adequate means—whether of labor, capital, material, or influence. Hence, cotton manufacturing in the South may not be practicable to the people of the South, notwithstanding our advantages, because we are comparatively destitute of capital. The foregoing facts and well-authenticated statements, however, may arrest the attention of capitalists, and attract from where it is abundant the capital necessary to the complete development and profitable employment of these vast unsurpassed advantages.
The entire PRACTICABILITY of the manufacture of the cotton of the South within our own limits, if we rely solely on the water-power in the cotton-producing region, might be vested right here, and triumphant demonstrations claimed. But when it is remembered that in portions of this territory—particularly in the Black Warrior district of Alabama, where the coal fields embrace thousands of acres of area, and contain comparatively inexhaustible deposits of the best of coal, (midst, and even
underlying the cotton fields
,) of whose steam-generating power for all manufacturing purposes, language would fail to convey an adequate idea—the question may be regarded as most conclusively decided in the affirmative.
THE PROFITABLENESS
Of manufacturing the cotton crop of the South within our own limits next demands consideration. Although results may not be so easily arrived at, or when arrived at, may not be so completely satisfactory as the question of its PRACTICABILITY has been proven to be, on account of the varying circumstances attending the inception and organization, and of operating cotton manufacturing establishments, it is nevertheless believed it can be clearly shown that the business can be engaged in in the South with a promise of profitableness fully equal to that of any other business—all the conditions being equal. In the foregoing division of this essay, the PRACTICABILITY of manufacturing all the cotton the South can produce, within its own limits, so
far as nature has provided the means
, has been demonstrated. But it may not be
profitable
, merely because
practicable
—success and profit must and will depend, very materially, upon the adequateness and judicious application of the capital invested, and the skill and experience of the managers.
In general terms it may be asserted, without fear of successful contradiction, that every cotton manufacturing establishment in the South, free from debt, operating improved machinery and keeping the same in good repair, is
making money
. As only one, (so far as the writer is informed, or knows,) has published reports that the public may know how successful the business has been, and is, and how profitable cotton manufacturing may be made,
when, like the factory, it is well managed
, well authenticated facts cannot be obtained and presented. Quite satisfactory results, however, may be approximated.
It has been estimated that to spin a pound of No. 14 warp costs about four cents, and that to manufacture the same into yard-wide domestics will cost about as much more. To spin the numbers of warp, from No. 5 to No. 12, usually baled for market, costs from three to four cents per pound, according to productive capacity of machinery and economy of management. Admitting this to be correct, we arrive at the following results: One pound of cotton warp is worth in market thirty cents. The cotton, about eighteen and a half ounces, at thirteen cents per pound, costs say, fifteen cents. Labor, (spinning) four cents. Expenses—freights, commission, insurance, etc., about twenty-five per cent, say five cents, all amounting to twenty-four cents, and leaving a net profit per pound of six cents.
But the cost per pound and per yard for manufacturing the cotton fabrics most in demand, may be closely approximated, if not reached exactitude, by analyzing the annual report of W. E. Jackson, Esq., President of the Augusta Factory, dated June 30th, 1870. From that concrete report we derive the following important and reliable facts and figures:

Cotton consumed
2,907,675 pounds


Goods manufactured
2,472,302 “


Loss, (waste)
435,373 “


Goods, manufactured
8,252,181 yards


Cost of labor
$159,976 51


Other expenses
47,600 49—$207,547 00



The goods manufactured were of the following descriptions, weight, quantities and yards per pound:


Kind.
Pounds.
Yards. Av. No. Yds. per it.
4–4 Shirting
1,475,841
4,464,053
3 yards
7–8 “
563,535
1,995,157
3 6–10 “
3–4 “
268,071
1,215,578
4 7–10 “
Drills,
184,855
546,793
2 9–10 “


From the above figures it appears that the loss in weight amounts to over seventeen and one-half (17½) per cent., which, in view of the improvements which it has been claimed have been made in cotton gins, seems to be incredible; but it may be presumed that a large proportion of this loss is made into batting or wadding, and a part of the

known as “
waste
,” is sold to railways and machine shops.
The figures also indicate that to manufacture fabrics as above.
The average cost per pound is 8 4–10 cents.
The average cost per yard is 2 53–100 cents.
The average weight 3? yards per pound.
Thus the profits of any proposed cotton manufacturing establishment can be approximately estimated, by determining its capacity for producing warp, or shirtings and drillings.
A conclusive demonstration, however, is supplied by the financial portion of the report of the eminent President of the Augusta Factory, already mentioned.
Nothing better
, in evidence of the
profitableness
of cotton manufacturing, or in favor of such enterprises as a permanent investment, can
possibly be presented
. Its facts are stubborn,
unimpeachable
. That its affairs have been managed with more than ordinary ability there can be no doubt; but it is no disparagement of Mr. President Jackson to suggest that it is possible for other cotton manufacturing establishments to be operated whose management may be as good. If the Augusta Factory has proven a great success and very profitable to its owners, (as the published reports show it to have been,) it is reasonable to conclude that others, established in even more favorable localities (like Columbus,) shall prove equally successful and profitable. President Jackson, June 30th, 1870, reports—

Gross earnings for year ending June 11, 1870
$175,380 22


Expenses, water rent, repairs, taxes, &amp;c
47,600 49



Leaving as net earnings
$127,779 73


From which four quarterly dividends of 5 per cent. each—say 20 per cent. on capital stock of $600,000 were declared—say
120,000 00



Leaving a surplus of
$7,779 73 which was added to former surplus profits, swelling them to $234,295 33.



That the year's business above reported was not a mere “happen so,” nor an exceptional annual success, the following statement compiled from the report dated June 30th, 1868, and embracing
three years
' operation—June 17th, 1865, to June 13th, 1868, will amply testify.


Balance to profit and loss, United States currency, June 17th, 1865
$100,745 57


Gross earnings from June 17th, 1865, to June 13th, 1868
$932,906 57


Expenses, taxes, repairs, new machinery, etc.,
$448,833 90


Three an'l div'ds, each $120,000
$360,000 00



$808,839.90—$124,063 62


Leaving, after paying annual dividend of 20 per cent., ($120,000) each on the capital stock.



Surplus Profits, amounting. June 13th, 1868, to
$224,798 22


(These surplus profits being invested in city of Augusta bonds, bonds of the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railway, in Northeast Railroad Certificates, Augusta and Columbia Railroad Stock, etc., otherwise benefit Augusta.)
The foregoing exposition of accomplished facts, and the conclusion they logically lead to, it is believed will convince all thinking men of the entire PRACTICABILITY and great PROFITABLENESS of “manufacturing the cotton crop of the South within our own limits.” And here this essay might close; but some additional remarks—not, perhaps, demanded by the terms of the proposition, yet pertinent to the subject, and of great importance—will be presented, for the reason that they are the offspring of higher motives, and of more enlarged views than those which prompt enterprises for mere local benefit or individual gain; those which actuate the philanthropist, the political economist, and the great-minded Christian statesman.


And, 1. The establishment of cotton manufactories not only of itself diversifies employments, but tends to encourage and increase diversity, by creating a demand for building material—mechanics, generally—and promoting the success of other vocations demanded by concentrated population.


2. It will stimulate the inventive faculties; the intellect of the masses will be quickened into more vigorous action—sharpened—resulting in intellectual expansion and material advancement.


3. It will transform the indigent, uneducated and indolent poor into profitable workers—paying consumers—whereby the farmer will be provided with a home market for all his surplus products; at the highest price; while by having cotton goods made at his own door, the cost of these to his family will be very much less than now.


4. All common carriers—railways, steamers, ships, &amp;c.—will be benefitted by increased travel and increased production, consequent upon advanced intelligence, concentrated population, and more general thrift; and the Government, aided by the increased revenues flowing therefrom, (caused by augmented values) and the more generally diffused wealth.


5. The more general introduction and extension, of cotton manufacturing throughout the South will gradually, but surely, stimulate our vast, undeveloped mineral resources, and be followed by the construction of cotton-manufacturing machinery, agricultural implements, locomotives, cars, and ships, steamers and sea-going craft generally.


6. It will afford healthy, profitable and generously paid employment to the indigent poor, and many persons incapacitated to make a support otherwise; and by doing this not only relieve the tax paying class of supporting by taxation, but actually convert an existing incumbrance into an instrumentality for promoting and materially adding to the general wealth and prosperity.


Every city, in fact, almost every community, is burdened with more or less taxation for this purpose which suggests the idea that every place of any considerable numbers would have disbursements for “Relief” by encouraging cotton manufacturing within its limits, thus affording profitable employments to its recipients. A city or community of twenty thousand—in many instances fewer—people, probably annually dispenses “relief,” in some form, to an amount equal to the interest on one hundred thousand dollars. Bonds for this sum, invested in cotton manufacturing, or some kindred branch of industry, would, by affording employment to these poor, make valuable producers of wealth of present profitless consumers; and, thus, between what would be saved, on one hand, in dispensing “relief,” and, on the other, be made by the employment of a portion, even, of the poor, more than enough would be gained to meet all the demands of humanity in behalf of the actually disabled, infirm and distressed, not to mention the salutary effect on morals consequent on pleasant,

constant, and well-paid employment.
I trust I will be pardoned for introducing the following statement, which, while connected with the development of our natural resources, is nevertheless fraught with instruction illustrative of mental and moral development.
Near the line of the State Road, not many miles north of Atlanta, a clever farmer settled in early manhood, and by industry and economy acquired many broad acres of land. Of course the quality and surface of soil were varied. A large tract located where he most desired a farm was literally covered with rocks—even as deep as his plows penetrated. But these “rocks” wore out his plows, and his profits from that tract were paid to the blacksmith. He abandoned it as worthless, and would have thanked, (was almost willing to pay,) anybody for hauling off the troublesome, expensive “rock.” But the iron fever by and by invaded his region, became contagious—and on examination his apparently worthless “rock,” against which he had worn out his plows, the repairs on which absorbed more than the profits of the cultivation, proved to be very rich iron ore, containing from 60 to 70 per cent. of metal. Securing a contract with manufacturers, he shipped a car-load per day at a cost of about eight dollars, for which he received thirty dollars at his depot on the road. Thus that which had not only prevented the cultivation of the land, but had absorbed a portion of the profits derived from other fields to keep repairs, proved to be the material of which his plows were made, and has become an important, and his most certain and profitable resource.
So with the numerous poor in town and country, on the surface of society—they are latent, apparently worthless, ore, rendering the social soil barren, and by constant attrition with capital (
through taxation for their support
,) wears it away. Yet in these thousands of unemployed “cumberers of the ground,” is the ONE OF LABOR—the only true foundation of independence, and of capital—which only needs to be developed and properly employed, to become the faithful, reliable, and valuable ally and auxiliary of capital—itself representing, and really being nothing more than the accumulated surplus of former labor.
In conclusion, it is deemed not improper to state here, that the failure of numerous, (in fact a majority of the) cotton manufacturing enterprises of the South may be traced with almost unerring certainty to the inadequateness of the capital paid in. Most of the companies commenced operations with only one-half or two-thirds of the actual cost of the buildings and machinery paid in—leaving, in addition, the cotton to be bought on a credit. (A
fact
only is stated, without regard to any alleged imposition practiced on the stockholders.) This necessarily places the company at the mercy of creditors and the public; higher prices were exacted for material and labor, and, after paying interest, commissions for advances, &amp;c., the manufactured goods were often finally sacrificed to meet maturing acceptances, and ultimately, in numerous instances, the establishment itself was sacrificed without fully satisfying just demands.
The Augusta Factory, (and, perhaps, a few others,) commenced operations, and has continued to be operated, on a different and sounder basis, with results encouraging to capitalists, and inspiriting to all who have at heart, and desire to witness, the greatest and most rapid progress, and the completest development of the stupendous natural resources of the South.
J. S. Peterson
.
Brunswick, Ga., Oct. 24, 1870.