As a financial investment, cotton mills in the South, under proper
management, offer as good promise of dividends on capital invested as any
industry or branch of business. The average profits from cotton mills
South, for years have been fully equal to those of other business, and in
many instances, far greater. In selecting a site for a mill, there are
localities that offer greater inducements for such an enterprise than
others, and among those cities that offer the greatest attractions is
Montgomery. We believe a careful review of her facilities will convince
capitalists that she is the most available city in the South for
operating a cotton mill, and that she must become sooner or later the
center for cotton manufacture. In counting the cost of a plant, the
question of a site would not have to be considered, as a good railroad
site will be donated by either the Riverside or the Highland Park Company.
Building material, and skilled and unskilled labor required to convert it
into mill buildings, can be secured at a very reasonable rate. The
proximity of the city to the Alabama coal fields settles all questions as
to the cost of fuel for power. Coal at a little over $2 per ton affords
power to propel a cotton mill, which under the ordinary natural conditions
attached to water power, makes it impossible to compete with steam. The
city is a trade center for the distribution of large quantities of staple
goods of every kind over a large territory, which in turn supplies her
with the raw material, and in such quantities that she enjoys great
prominence as a cotton market. The supply of cotton for the mills could be
readily obtained, and many of the goods produced would find a ready home
market, while the competing lines of railway and the Alabama river insure
low freight rates for the products and for all material and supplies used
in building and running a mill.
[Illustration: Residence of H. C. Moses]
Fully 80 per cent. of the operatives of a cotton mill are females and
minors, and Montgomery has a large class of this population who are now
practically without employment, the majority of the industries now in
operation here being unsuitable for such labor. In many families the adult
males are compelled to support by their labors the remaining members of
their households, owing to the difficulty of the class mentioned above
finding suitable and profitable employment. For this, at present, surplus
labor, there is no fixed value. It seeks employment wherever there is an
opportunity, and is satisfied with very moderate pay. Should a cotton mill
be built in Montgomery, an ample supply of this labor would be certain to
volunteer before the completion of the building.
[Illustration: Carr's Cracker Factory]
[Illustration: Standard Club Building]
The South is the field for the manufacture of coarse cotton goods, and no
other section of the country can compete with it on these products. This
has been fully determined, and is no longer an open question. These goods
are standard and the demand for them world wide. Thousands of bales of
domestic goods have been shipped during the year from Southern mills to
China and Japan. As stated above, the South is the field for cotton mills,
and Montgomery is the most available point in the South for the
establishment of such industries.