Mathematical and Physical Papers. 209 



to be overcome in locating the textile mills and boot and shoe 

 manufactories in a new country. Operatives must acquire a cer- 

 tain skill, requiring time and patience, and a tolerable acute intel- 

 lect, and the surroundings in which they work are trying to the 

 constitution, particularly for those who have been accustomed to 

 an outdoor life. Those who have been reared in the atmosphere of 

 the mills— often too literally so, in the absence of restrictions on 

 child labor— make competent workers, but they shrink from going 

 into a distant field, where the number of mills is small and changes 

 of situation not easily eflPected, since they are inclined to make 

 frequent changes. In the movement to establish cotton-mills in 

 the Southern seaboard and Gulf states, which has been successful, 

 dependence has been placed on the white people of the mountain 

 sections to supply the demand for labor. It seems doubtful if there 

 is a class in Kansas that will take kindly to the work, and it will 

 take time to develop a mill population. 



In the consideration of power we come to the real subject-matter 

 of this paper. The demand for power in nearly all of the industries 

 referred to is considerable, and serious variations in the cost of 

 power affect the dividend-paying possibilities to a considerable ex- 

 tent. For illustration , we may take a cotton-mill of 50,000 spindles 

 which will produce 25.000,000 yards of. dress goods of average' 

 weight per annum, and compare power costs when driven by water 

 power and when driven by steam-engines. This mill will require 

 an invested capital of about $750,000. It will require 1800 horse- 

 power to run the machinery. The average cost of water power 

 when available for direct application, is about $12.50 per horse' 

 power per year at the New England mills, giving a total annual 

 cost of $22,500. For the steam-driven mill we will assume a first- 

 class type of compound condensing engine, good boilers, and a 

 high-grade coal, costing $5 per ton delivered on the boiler-room 

 floor. The first cost of installation will be about $52 per horse- 

 power—not materially different from that of the water plant. Al- 

 lowing five per cent, of cost of machinery to cover the items of 

 depreciation and repairs, a fuel consumption of two and one-fourth 

 pounds of coal per horse-power per hour, and $3000 per year for la- 

 bor in the engine- and boiler-rooms, we have, for a year of 300 days 

 of ten hours each, a total cost of nearly $38,000, which is $15 500 

 more than the cost of water power. This difference is 2.1 per cent 

 of the total investment, and is a direct inroad on dividends, being 

 enough to effectually prohibit operations in many cases. 

 Now, then, what are the possibilities here in Kansas? 

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