Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/349

 Advance from Appomattox. 341

lands in the Southern States to secure the raising of at least 3,000,- ooo bales a year for the English mills. In 1905 Great Britain im- ported 4,407,000 bales of cotton, while the value of the manufact- ured cotton goods which that country exported is placed at more than $447,000,000.

The South is now producing approximately about three times as much cotton as the rest of the world combined, and the proportion of the world's supply produced in the Southern States is increasing rather than diminishing.

There is produced in the whole of Egypt scarcely more than one-third of the cotton produced in Texas, and the production of cotton in Egypt is practically stationary, last year's production there being considerably below the average for the previous three years. There is produced in the whole of India scarcely more than in the State of Texas, and of that production more than one- half is consumed locally, leaving but a limited supply for export.

The advantages which we possess over Great Britain for the manufacture of cotton are undeniable, and will be still further emphasized with the opening of the Panama canal, putting us in close touch with the West coast of South America and the Orient, where our markets are constantly widening. A bulletin issued by the Department of Commerce and Labor January 5, 1907, on the Lancashire cotton trade illustrates the opportunity for development which we have when it points out that during the year 1906 there have been put to work, organized and placed under construction and projected in England new spinning mills which will contain 8,026,356 spindles, or three-fourths as many spindles as there are today in all the Southern States. Surely, if the world is increasing- its demands for cotton goods at that rate, we are in the best possi- ble position to participate in the great demand and to supply it.

The development of the cotton milling industry in the Southern States since the year 1900 has exceeded all hopes or dreams. The increase from 1900 to 1906 in the number of spindles is reported by recognized authority, the Manufactiirers* Record, of Baltimore, to be 5,018,000; this increase alone being approximately three times as great as the total number of spindles in operation in the South in the year 1890, only sixteen years ago, while the capital invested in cotton mills is now reported at $230,000,000 against $60,000,000 in 1890.

Twenty years ago the most ardent friend of the South, the most