An increase of 300 %, with practically no increase in the Middle States. In percentage, therefore, the South is today operating Those operated by New England. 29% of the 44% % of Continuing the same ratio of increase for the succeeding decade, we would have the following interesting figures for 1910: With the same ratio of increase in consumption, we would then consume 8,000,000 to 8,500,000 bales of cotton, or 87% per cent. of the total American crop of 1899-1900. Allowing 121⁄2 per cent. of the crop as reserved stock to be held by the mills, the United States would consume and control her entire production. With this condition of things would come two-fold benefits: First, the ability to dictate the price of the raw material; second, the absolute control of the cotton goods trade of the world. This condition, in my judgment, is the end for which we should strive, and the combined efforts of New England with her skill and experience and the South with her pluck and perseverance can accomplish these results and finally reach the goal of our greatest expectations. The pessimist, however, would predict the direst disaster in the future for the mills of New England, while the optimist would paint in rosy hue the ultimate absorption, by the South, of the entire industry. Notwithstanding the harpings of the pessimist or the halluci nations of the optimist, cotton will always be manufactured and successfully, in New England, and, I take it, that our country is large enough and there is room enough for all - New England and the South-to share equally and alike in the wonderful opportunities for cotton mill development awaiting us in the near future. Having seen from the above the possible results to be derived from unity of action and combination of interests between the East and the South, let us examine, more especially, into the conditions prevailing, at the present time, in the Southern States. The world is operating about 100,000,000 spindles, consuming about 14,000,000 bales of cotton, of which the South furnishes 75 per cent. of this raw material, while she operates only 6 per cent of the spindles. This condition is antagonistic to the natural order of things and the South is rapidly awakening to her responsibilities. As has already been noted, the South increased her spindles by 300 per cent. in ten years, which is a phenomenal growth, and yet it is only natural. The possible and prospective millions of spindles to be added within the next few decades, will challenge the wonder and admiration of the industrial world, and yet it is only natural. The home of the raw material is naturally the home of the manufactured product and the home of the cotton mill is naturally hard by the cotton field of the South. It was once said that "The sheetings and print cloths of the South were consumed in Northern homes and Southern yarns were woven on Pennsylvania looms and made into hosiery on New York knitting frames." That era has passed and the North must guard well her laurels or soon these anomalies will be reversed. Some enthusiasts will tell you that there is no limit to the production and manufacture of cotton in the South. The argument, apparently plausible, is, however, deceptive and will not admit of close scrutiny, except conditionally. In this matter the future is fraught with a great deal of danger. I contend that in proportion as we increase our manufacturing. capacity, in nearly the same proportion we decrease our ability to produce the raw material. The cotton mill operative of the South is the native born white labor, as is also the successful producer of the raw material, hence it necessarily follows that in proportion as we draw this labor from the field to the factory, we decrease the farm labor. This being granted the possibility of the cotton crop is limited. The reverse proposition is equally true, that in proportion as we increase the yield of cotton we decrease the available mill labor and thereby decrease our capacity to manufacture. There is, at present, a growing feeling in the South that the increased production of cotton is now dependent very materially upon the colored laborer, and the demand of the manufacturer upon the white labor would seem to justify this view of the matter. By origin and environment the negro is fitted to live under the fiercest heat and to thrive in the damp and unhealthy lowlands of the South; by nature and training his wants are satisfied by the plainest necessities of life; good-natured, happy, contented apparently with his lot, he is in truth the ideal laborer for the cotton field. As such, however, he is unfortunately rapidly degenerating, growing shiftless, worthless, indolent and slovenly. He is abandoning the farm for the red lights and glare of the town and city; congregating in idleness and laziness on the street corners, refusing honest work when it is offered, daily becoming a fit candidate for the "rock pile". What then is the remedy for this condition of the colored farm labor? To my mind the solution of the problem presents itself in the form of a dilemma - either he must work or give place to a good, healthy and industrious immigration, which will labor in unity and harmony with the white farm labor and land owner of the South. I am disposed to make bold the prediction that the next quarter of a century will see a material change and improvement on this line; that the race will either become more industrious and intelligent, of which they are capable, or continuing in their laziness and idleness, the progressive spirit of the South will demand that they "seek other and more congenial climes". The Southern white laborer is at work, alert, progressive, industrious, and they have no abiding place for any man without the hoe. Viewed, however, from the standpoint of his entering into his work with zeal and fidelity, laboring for the best interest of himself and race, cultivating and improving waste lands now idle for the lack of his bone and sinew, there is a happy and peaceful home reserved for him in the South and with this spirit of fraternity and union of labor interests, then will the possibility of the production and manufacture of cotton become unlimited. Quite a great deal also has been said and written recently about utilizing him as a cotton mill operative. Repeated effort and experiment have already been made in this particular, but thus far each has invariably proven unsuccessful and disastrous financially. His most unredeeming feature in this work is his unreliability. It seems impossible to eliminate this defective feature of his character, for to do so one must first eliminate the camp meeting, festival, excursion, blackberry field and watermelon patch, without all of which he is "a stranger in a strange land", but with which he is at home in his humble hut. There are certain trades and vocations however, in which he is successful, but in speaking of him as a farm laborer and cotton mill operative, I do so in the generic sense and not as an individual, as we have in the South a number of intelligent, progressive and industrious colored people-deserving of all commendation and which is fully and gladly accorded to them by their white friends. The settlement, solution and adjustment of this question of labor is the greatest problem confronting the industrial South today. In addition to the two great fields-the production of cotton on the one side and the manufacture of cotton goods on the other- the South is full of other possibilities. She is rich in yet undeveloped wealth, in lands, agriculture, timber, coal, grain, minerals, etc. Her valleys are rich and fertile; her mountains are rich with ores; her plains are rich with the ripening grain; her rivers are rich with undeveloped power. With an endless variety of diversified products; with a natural geographical position unsurpassed for the manufacture of cotton, with all of these things and with increased trading facilities, the possibilities which spread out before the South today seem unlimited. She has the raw cotton at her mill doors, good transportation lines and easy access to the ports, economical power both steam and water, low cost of lands and material, low valuations and low tax rates, cheap fuel, low labor costs and long hours. Her mills are of the latest designs and equipped with new and improved machinery, officered in the main by men of experience, intelligence and business sagacity, her labor is reliable and trustworthy; what tenable reasons, therefore, can be advanced against her continued growth and prosperity? True, the labor agitator has recently appeared in some sections of the South as a disturbing element, coming not from any worthy desire to aid his fellow laborer, but instigated probably by some outside influence or from a purely mercenary motive to draw blood money from his helpless and possibly ignorant victims. The remedy for such invaders and disturbers of our labor is, twenty-four hours in which to leave the community, or to suffer the consequences of their delay. Our trade conditions in the South are also expanding. Our larger mills are seeking an export outlet for their goods, which is practically unlimited in its demands. The great export nations of the world shipped last year cotton goods having a value of over $500,000,000 and out of this tremendous total one small section of Great Britain, with a population of 4,000,000, supplied 66 per cent. of this trade, while the United States with 75,000,000 people secured less than 5 per cent. The possibility, therefore, of the over-production of cotton |