Growth of the cotton industry.

CHAPTER V.

TEXTILES, IRON AND STEEL, AND MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES.

Half a million persons were employed in the textile industries of this country in 1892 with wages exceeding $165,000,000. The cotton industry dates back over a century, the Slater Mill of 1790 being the first successful one started in this country, and in 1890 221,585 persons were employed, turning out $267,981,724 worth of cotton goods. Without a protective tariff this result could never have been accomplished. Great Britain had many years the start of us, and exerted herself by law and otherwise to crush out the industry here. American grown cotton was not then used. Slater insisted on importing his cotton from India, and the man who had predicted that the United States would one day grow cotton for the world would have been an object of ridicule. American cotton has been in use for about sixty years. In 1829 the crop amounted to 870,415 bales. In 1891 it exceeded 9,000,000 bales. A duty of three cents per pound was imposed in 1790 and remained with slight changes till 1846. From that year it continued on the free list till 1862. It was again made free in 1868 and has remained on the free list since. In 1799 we exported 9,000,000 pounds, in 1817 95,000,000 pounds, in 1845 872,000,000 pounds, and in 1894 2,669,026,886 pounds valued at $207,964,384. We grow three-quarters of the world's crop and our American mills consume one-quarter of it. Our early cotton mills endured a hard struggle. The low duties (15 per cent ad valorem) were not sufficient to enable our manufacturers to withstand English competition. In 1807 we imported about $11,000,000 worth of cotton goods from England, but in the following year came the embargo act, when imports of foreign goods were prohibited and our cotton manufactures took a rapid stride. The war of 1812 increased the output and in 1815 we had 500,000 spindles at work consuming 90,000 bales of raw cotton. At the same time England was using 235,350 bales and turning out far superior goods. In 1816 a uniform duty of 25 per cent ad valorem was imposed, this being increased to 35 per cent (minimum) in 1824. Even free traders like Professor Taussig admit that the protective duties of 1816 and 1824 were necessary for the continuance of the cotton industry of this country. Coarse cotton cloths at that time were worth twenty-five and thirty cents a yard. By 1846 the industry was firmly established and though the duty was reduced that year the reduction was slight and still sufficient. We were, however, making only the coarser grades. When the war of the rebellion came, and with it higher duties, finer grades were made. Since 1870 our progress in all grades of cotton manufactures has been rapid and constant.

The table on page 674, from the Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufacturers,' compiled from official sources, will show not only our own progress but a comparison with England as well.

France,

The world has about 80,000,000 spindles in operation. Germany and Russia about 5,000,000 each. In India there are about 150 cotton mills with 3,500,000 spindles. In Japan there are over twenty mills in operation, and the manufacture is increasing with great rapidity.

With the establishment of cotton mills in the Southern States our growth in cotton manufacture is likely to continue, and with a return to protection and a restoration of a home market it will not be many years before we shall overtake England in the product of our cotton spindles. As for a foreign market of any value, we cannot obtain it as long as we pay 117 per cent higher wages than England. Our exports have not changed in ten years. For the present, at least, the home market under a protective tariff with an adequate duty on all grades of cotton goods to cover the difference in cost of manufacture, will suffice to sustain our great cotton industry and continue its progress.

tive wages.

The following table, showing the difference of wages in American and ComparaEnglish cotton mills, was compiled by William Whitman, Jr., of Westerly, R. I., and the comparisons are drawn from two mills, one in Bolton, Lancashire, England, the other in New England, with both of which he had been connected:

Spindles, Cotton Consumption, and Value of Cotton Manufactures.-Great Britain and the United States.

of cotton tures de

pends upon

protection.

It will be seen that the difference in favor of the English manufac- Existence turer is 117 per cent in labor cost. Besides this he has the most efficient manufac machinery in use, abundant capital, long established markets and trade relations, and artisans as skillful as any in the world. The advantage derived from labor cost alone enables the British manufacturer to undersell the American in every foreign market, and if our duties were removed we should be compelled to reduce our wages to the British level or close our mills. It has been proven in preceding chapters by the evidence of English manufacturers, that we not only owe the establishment of this industry to protection, but that without protection it would be ruined.

This is true notwithstanding the fact that it is an old industry; that it has received the most constant and highest protection of all industries, and that there has been attracted to it abundant capital, and our ablest and most competent manufacturers, who have placed it on the most efficient basis, so far as the best machinery, the latest and most approved appliances are concerned. Again, it has the advantage of free raw material, as cheap raw material as the industry of any country. Yet we cannot pay 117 per cent higher wages than are paid in England and make goods as cheaply as they can. It is all nonsense to talk about the superiority of our labor when many of our operatives came from England, where they learned their trades. If our manufacturers could make goods cheaper than they can be made in England, they would be quite as apt to find it out as the free trade agitators. Our manufacturers are anxious to extend their business, and if, in fact, they could make goods cheaper than foreign rivals, they would be shipping their fabrics to South America and other points as accessible to them as to any one. Customers would be found, goods sold and our exports would increase, but this has not been done and cannot be done so long as they pay 117 per cent, or more than double the wages paid in England. This fact, well understood by the cotton trade of the entire world, is questioned only by the free trade agitators.

Knit goods though classified in the census under woolen manufactures Knit goods. come properly under cotton. In 1850 there were but 85 knitting mills in this country. In 1890 there were 807 paying $18,000,000 in wages and producing $67,000,000 worth of fabrics. In three years under the McKinley bill these 807 knitting mills had increased to 993. It was almost impossible for hosiery and knit goods manufacturers to get sufficient hands to meet the demands. And yet in a single year under the Gorman tariff this condition has been reversed, and mills and thousands of operatives are idle. The protection afforded by the McKinley bill is necessary for the continuance of the industry on anything like the scale of 1893. A dollar is paid in Philadelphia for precisely the same. service for which a mark is paid in the knitting mills of Germany.

Lace curtains.

But the benefit is by no means confined to the laborers in the industry itself.

A demand has been made on American genius and invention with the result that there has been wonderful development and improvement in the manufacture of machinery, much of which is now used in European mills. But for the establishment of the knitting goods industry here neither we nor our competitors in Europe would have had the machinery now used and not only our own people but the people of Europe would be paying much higher prices for the comfortable clothing now obtained so reasonably.

The lace curtain industry was hardly known in this country till the McKinley bill imposed a duty of 60 per cent on fabrics that previously had a duty of only 40 per cent. In three years instead of one plant with 12 machines there were 122 machines capable of producing weekly from 50,000 to 100,000 pairs of curtains. Our manufacturers were compelled to pay 50 per cent more for their machinery than their foreign competitors paid, as it is not yet constructed in this country. As for the difference in wages the following table shows the prices paid for labor in Scotland and the United States :

Attraction

of foreign capital.

4.00 to 8.00

And with the increased duty and the increased employment of labor came a reduction of 25 per cent in the price of lace curtains. Messrs. Cleland & Campbell, of the Columbia (Pa.) Lace Company, who also operate a factory in Scotland, declared that if the McKinley bill had remained in force another year seven-eighths of the lace manufactories of Nottingham and Scotland would now be located in America. But the duty was made 45 per cent by the Gorman-Wilson bill, and like scores of other industries that of lace curtains hangs in the balance.

Mr. Cleland, the senior partner of the above-mentioned firm, talked freely to a newspaper correspondent in 1892, as follows:

We had to come. We were knocked out completely by the raising of the duty. America is the greatest consumer of lace curtains in the world. There are more people here than in any other country who can afford to have lace curtains in their homes. So, when the American market was closed to us there was nothing