MANUFACTURES. 



585 



this age will open up markets for these products is one of the great ques- 

 tions of the day, and one of paramount importance to the Southern States 

 which produce seventy-six per cent, of the raw material on which this 

 stupendous industry is based, a supremacy they are likely to maintain in 

 the future, as they have in the past, whatever the course of events may 

 be. It would seem to follow from these facts that the apprehensions 

 sometimes expressed that cotton manufactures and cotton culture are be- 

 ing overdone is idle and without foundation, "in view of the hundreds of 

 millions of people, with an increased ability to purchase, which every 

 new invention makes, who are awaiting the advent of civilization to avail 

 themselves of more perfect appliances for their daily wear." 



What is of immediate interest here, is to ascertain the facilities offered 

 by the character of our manufacturing operations, and the conditions 

 that surround them for their successful competition in the markets of the 

 world with those of other countries. Some of the more important of 

 these details in cotton manufacture in South Carolina and in the United 

 States, as deduced from the U. S. Census returns, are exhibited in the 

 following table : 



Table G. 



If the number of spindles run per hand' be considered, it would appear 

 that the effectiveness of the operatives in Carolina was not so great as in 

 the country at large. In this particular, if the comparison be made in 

 ISGO, it will be more favorable than if made in 1880. The reason for 



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