MANUFACTURES 
 
 AN ADDRESS MADE BY 
 
 D. A. TOMPKINS. 
 
 AT THE 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL DINNER 
 
 OF 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION, 
 
 OF 
 
 EDGECOMBE COUNTY. 
 
 • • 
 
 HOTEL FARRAR, 
 TARBORO, NORTH CAROLINA. 
 DECEMBER 28, 1899. 
 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 > 
 
 Observer Printing and Publishing House. 
 1900. 
 
OFFICBRS 
 
 Dr. L. L. Staton, President, 
 
 E. E. Daughtridgk, Vice-President, 
 
 Frank Poweee, Secretary, 
 
 J. C. Poweee, Treasurer. 
 
 COMMITTEE 
 
 Geo. A. Hoederness, 
 N. J. Mayo, 
 
 Jno. L. Bridgers, 
 
 A. M. Faireey, 
 D. Lichtenstein, 
 C. W. Jeffreys, 
 
 W. H. Poweel, Jr. 
 
 B. B. Howele. 
 
sys~ i 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
 
 The lamented Henry W. Grady, one time editor of 
 the Atlanta Constitution , was an earnest advocate for the 
 development of manufactures. In an argument on this 
 subject he once recited a story of what he observed at the 
 funeral of a statesman in North Georgia. I will try to 
 repeat Mr. Grady’s story from memory: 
 
 u The grave was dug through solid marble, which 
 abounds in North Georgia, but the little marble stone left 
 standing to mark the spot came from Vermont. The sur¬ 
 rounding slopes were fine grazing lands, yet the woolen 
 shroud came from Boston, and the shoes from Eynn. In 
 the immediate neighborhood iron ore abounded, but the 
 pick and shovel came from Pittsburg. The shirt came 
 from New York, the coffin from Cincinnati, the hearse from 
 Chicago, while the only things that Georgia furnished for 
 that funeral was the hole in the ground and the corpse.” 
 
 Since the day when Grady wrote and spoke an amaz¬ 
 ing change has come over the face of North Georgia and 
 many parts of the South. Today some ot the largest mar¬ 
 ble quarries in the world are in North Georgia. Today it 
 has come to pass that the Carolinas and Georgia make the 
 price of cotton goods in China. Alabama makes the price 
 of pig iron in England. The cotton oil industry of the 
 South makes the price of lard. 
 
 I shall attempt to point out the causes for the long 
 delay of this dawning prosperity and the means for its 
 further development and continuance : 
 
 It is now more than one-third of a century that the 
 people of the South have been waging a fierce conflict 
 with poverty and uncivilizing influences. It is commonly 
 believed that the conditions which have existed and the 
 hardships which our people have endured because of 
 poverty and of political disorder have been the results of the 
 war. I do not believe this but I believe rather that all of our 
 troubles are the results of the mistake of our fore-fathers in 
 
 o 
 
4 
 
 tieing up the fortunes of the South with the institution of 
 slavery. Before the permanent establishment of that insti¬ 
 tution the South was far in the lead of the other parts of 
 the Union in manufactures, in wealth, and in education. 
 
 I have frequently pointed out that the census of 1810 
 shows that the manufactured products of Virginia, the 
 Carolinas and Georgia exceeded in value and variety those 
 of all New England. That at a later period the South 
 Carolina Railway, when it was built, was one of the most 
 important engineering enterprises in the world. That the 
 first steamship which ever crossed the Atlantic went out of 
 Savannah. That there was a scheme of internal develop¬ 
 ment in this State by which an Atlantic port was to be 
 connected by a continuous line of railway with the great 
 West. That the execution of these great plans was well 
 under way and their complete consummation was only 
 frustrated by the increasing influence of slavery in all the 
 Southern States. 
 
 Before the civil war Louisiana had five dollars for 
 every one Massachusetts had ; while now the wealth of 
 Massachusetts exceeds that of all the cotton growing States 
 put together. 
 
 Dr. J. L. M. Curry has pointed out that even as late as 
 i860 the educational statistics of the North and South were 
 as follows: The North had 19,000,000 population, the 
 South 8,000,000. The North had 205 colleges, the South 
 262, besides numerous other denominational col¬ 
 leges. The North had 1407 professors, the South 1488. 
 The North had 29,044 students, the South 27,055. The 
 North spent for colleges, per annum, 1,514,688 dollars, the 
 South spent 1,662,419. The North spent for academies 
 4,663,749 dollars, the South spent 4,328,127 dollars. In 
 those days our people spent two and a half to three times 
 more money per capita for education than our friends at the 
 North did. In the light of these facts it becomes plain 
 why Virginia and other progressive Southern States fur¬ 
 nished the statesmen and the leaders of those times. 
 
5 
 
 Going further, Dr. Curry shows that at the present time 
 the following are the figures: Northern colleges have in 
 productive funds 102,721,451 dollars, Southern colleges 
 have 15,741,000 dollars. Northern school money is prac¬ 
 tically wholly applicable to the education of the white or 
 wealth-producing race, while the Southern school money 
 must be divided with the negro, who is in many respects, a 
 burden and handicap 011 the South. 
 
 I cannot believe that the quarter century of poverty, 
 of dishonesty in politics, of civil disorder, of murder, arson 
 and even rape could be the consequence or a natural 
 sequence of the civil war. 
 
 The institution of slavery alone is, in my judgment, 
 responsible for the frightful calamity that the South has 
 suffered. While the institution yet lived it bred strife and 
 estrangement amongst people of the same blood. The 
 civil war itself was but an insignificant incident of its fall. 
 When the final crash came it swept away all property, it 
 carried down with it the labor system of the whole South, 
 it totally paralized for a time the educational systems of 
 the States in which it had existed, and for a long time it 
 threatened to bury in its fall even the social system and 
 civilization itself. It cannot be denied that both these latter 
 were saved by an enduring courage and steadiness of pur¬ 
 pose possessed only by the sturdiest elements of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race. No war could in itself possibly bring as a 
 consequence the long continued disaster to any country 
 that the South has endured for more than a generation. 
 
 The Franco-German war was fierce and destructive. 
 France paid a fabulous sum for indemnity and yet that 
 war left no such pestilential anarchy in its wake as the 
 institution of slavery and its abolition imposed upon the 
 South. 
 
 By far the strangest phase of all this work of anarchy 
 was that, until a few years ago, its agents had the sym¬ 
 pathy, support and encouragement of the people of our own 
 blood in the North, without which support, it could never 
 
 9 
 
6 
 
 have lived for an hour. There was never one shadow of 
 doubt as to what Hampton and his followers could have 
 done with the ex-slaves and the thieves, by whom they 
 were led in South Carolinain 1876. It was simply a ques¬ 
 tion how their destructive work could be stayed in a way 
 that would not be misunderstood and misconstrued by the 
 great majority of our friends at the North. 
 
 Thank God, these misunderstandings are now past. 
 From the lips of those who were our former critics in the 
 North, we now constantly hear: “If I lived South, I would 
 vote as the Southern white man does on local matters.” 
 
 I have no manner of doubt in mv mind but that the 
 
 * j 
 
 'Kfi Klux Clan, in its organization proper and omitting 
 unorganized depredations and crutalities, was a beneficent 
 -institution and that it saved civilization in the south as the 
 Regulators did in California and as the Smuglers saved 
 commerce at one time in England. 
 
 Perhaps, after all, everything has been for the best. 
 If patient endurance of poverty and hard work are of value, 
 then our people at the South have had an education for 
 great things. In the West Indies and in the East Indies, 
 the Nation is taking on new duties and new obligations. It 
 is amongst her people here in the South that the nation 
 must now find the men schooled in enduring patience and 
 immovable firmness in leading an alien and inferior peo¬ 
 ple. It is here, too, that all the most favorable conditions 
 exist for the manufacture of those products most needed 
 by these new people. With our knowledge of the various 
 phases of humanity, we ought to be well qualified to 
 guide the commerce of this Nation with all these new terri¬ 
 tories. 
 
 After the abolition of slavery, those tremendous 
 forces that had been built up and employed to compass 
 that end, ran riot in damaging actions like a big engine 
 whose main belt and governor belt might break at the same 
 time, runs away, bursts the fly-wheel and destroys itself. 
 
 The sentiment for abolition was such a tremendous 
 
 t 
 
force that after abolition, its work being accomplished, 
 it could not be stayed or controlled, but expended it¬ 
 self in creating confusion and hindering the work of 
 re-organization to the injury of both the white and black 
 man at the South and to the injury of civilization. 
 
 In the past every white man in the South has had to 
 hold one hand at all times ready for the defense of his 
 household while the other has been kept busy in making a 
 scant support for his people. Under less trying conditions, 
 the Uatin race, the strong and civilizing white race of two 
 centuries ago, has fallen in Cuba and partially fallen in 
 all South America. This fight of the white people of the 
 South for civilization has, because of mistaken convic¬ 
 tions, been carried on without the sympathy or support of 
 the white people of the North, and worse still, even against 
 the adverse influences of most of the public opinion there. 
 It is to the eternal credit of this generation of South¬ 
 ern white people that they have successfully resisted 
 all degenerating and adverse influences, and after a cease¬ 
 less conflict of more than a quarter of a century the tide is 
 now well turned and the work of restoring Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization in place of the semi-anarchv that has existed, is 
 well begun. 
 
 These introductory remarks bring me to the subject 
 you have assigned me : 
 
 MANUFACTURES. 
 
 Reveiwing the events that succeeded the Civil war 
 and speaking approximately and in round numbers but 
 with sufficient accuracy to illustrate what the general 
 results have been we find: In the first decade after the 
 Civil War our people made 2,500,000 bales of cotton for 
 which they recieved 24c. a pound, yielding $300,000,000. 
 
8 
 
 In the second decade they made 5,000,000 bales for 
 which they received 12c. yielding $300,000,000. 
 
 In the third decade they maoe 10,000,000 bales for 
 which they received 6c., yielding $300,000,000. 
 
 With a largely increased population to support, pro¬ 
 ducing four times the cotton the same sum of money must 
 never-the-less suffice for the increased work, and support 
 the increased number of people. Some suggest as a 
 remedy curtailment of production, thereby increasing the 
 price. If we attempt this we will, in my judgment, throw 
 the control of cotton production into India and Egypt un¬ 
 der English direction and control. Even now, in competi¬ 
 tion and at the extremely low prices and in the face of our 
 enormous production, India is producing more cotton than 
 we did twenty years ago. England is also preparing Egypt 
 to become a factor in the production of raw cotton ; and al¬ 
 ready we are receiving Egyptian cotton as an import into 
 this country and in sufficient quantity to cause an item 
 against it to be proposed in the last tariff bill. 
 
 It is only by wise legislation for the establishment of 
 Agricultural Colleges, boards of fertilizer control, experi¬ 
 ment stations and other similar protective measures that 
 our people have been able to continue at all the practical 
 control of the production of cotton in competition with 
 the increasing efforts of the other cotton-growing countries 
 of the world. Protection to our cotton farmers by means 
 of Agricultural Colleges, experiment stations and other 
 similar measures has well nigh reached the limit of 
 its developement. If by further perfecting all the measures 
 heretofore utilized to help the farmer we could bring about 
 an economy of one cent a pound reduction, this would 
 amount to $5.00 a bale or $50,000,000 on a crop of 10,000- 
 000 bales. That would be a valuable saving, of course, and 
 would be a big help to a poor people. 
 
 But let us see what can be done at the other end of 
 the problem. Suppose we don’t sell the raw cotton, but 
 turn it into plain white or colored cloth. This cloth 
 
9 
 
 should bring an average of 20c. a pound. At this value 
 the entire crop would be worth one billion dollars. There 
 fore, by the very best possible economies we could hope to 
 develope, we may become able to save $50,000,000 out of 
 the cost of production. 
 
 By the manufacture of the crop into the plainest pro¬ 
 duction in cloth we can increase its value from $300,000,- 
 000 to $1,000,000,000, or make a profit of $700,000,000.00; 
 being more than 200 per cent, advance on the value now 
 obtained out of the cotton crop. 
 
 Out of one billion dollars which we would get for the 
 cotton crop, the farmer would get something more for his cot¬ 
 ton than $300,000,000 which he got before. The proxim¬ 
 ity of the factory always gives a little advance to the local 
 price. The farmers would also get about $300,000,000 
 more for the food stuffs consumed by the factory people. 
 This would give to the farmer $600,000,000 where he now 
 gets $300,000,000. It would thus improve the condition 
 of his sons and daughters who stay on the farm. It would 
 also improve the condition of the other son and daughter 
 who preferred factory work to farm work. 
 
 By virtue of this increased income for the perishable 
 products of the farms, not otherwise of value, it would per¬ 
 petuate his control of the production of cotton which 
 India, Egypt and South America are now threatening. 
 
 After turning over to the farmer $300,000,000 for his 
 cotton and then $300,000,000 more for food stuffs there 
 would still be left say $100,000,000 for the merchants, 
 $100,000,000 for the doctors and lawyers, $100,000,000 for 
 the stock holders and $100,000,000 for general expendi¬ 
 ture. 
 
 In the manufacture of iron the story is the same. Out 
 of the ore, the coal, the limestone and the labor comes the 
 product that can be sent abroad to fetch back the money 
 from the strangers. 
 
 In cotton oil we have again the same alluring results. 
 
 In lumber the story still again repeats itself. 
 
 But have we got the people? 
 
10 
 
 England has a population of approximately forty mil¬ 
 lion people. She operates forty-six million cotton spindles. 
 This is more than one spindle for each inhabitant. We 
 have in the South approximately twelve million white 
 people. We operate now five million spindles. England 
 has probably as many spindles on wool as on cotton. We 
 have in the South very few spindles on wool. 
 
 In North Carolina we spin about 300,000 bales of cot¬ 
 ton and employ about 30,000 people in doing it. This is 
 one person for each ten bales of cotton. On this basis 
 1,000,000 operatives could spin and weave the entire crop 
 into coarse goods—the goods we now make in North 
 Carolina. 
 
 In the early days of the Republic your ancestors man¬ 
 ufactured with eminent success. Nearly a century ago 
 there was an iron works where the Henrietta cotton mill 
 now is. There was a cotton factory where the new Rocky 
 Mount mill now is. I have at home a copy of a contract 
 in accordance with which the complete machinery for the 
 equipment of a mill was built near Rincolnton in this State 
 in 1813. Throughout the upper part of South Carolina, 
 and in the middle part of North Carolina there are abund¬ 
 ant evidences that these States enjoyed a system of well- 
 developed and profitable manufactures. 
 
 Throughout the Southern States as they then existed, 
 there are abundant evidences that the South at one time 
 enjoyed a system of well developed and profitable manu¬ 
 factures. The Southern statesmen of that time were all 
 advocates of manufactures from Washington down—and 
 most of them were protectionists too. 
 
 That early and profitable development was all lost 
 because of slavery. As this institution grew, all the other 
 developments made by your ancestors shrunk away and 
 dried up. There were those who saw the impending dan¬ 
 ger and fought against it, as did Mr. Jas. Smyly and Wm. 
 Gregg of South Carolina, and John M. Morehead in this 
 state, but the opposition was to no purpose. Slavery de- 
 
11 
 
 stroyed the manufacturing- interests of the south and then 
 itself fell to pieces as is usual with destoying influences. 
 In its fall it swept away the wealth of the south. It com¬ 
 pletely destroyed the labor system of the south. For nearly 
 a generation the black and devastating ruin threatened the 
 social system of the south, which meant civilization itself. 
 Never did a coming generation owe to a going one the 
 debt of gratitude that the youth of the south of this day 
 owe to their parents who brought through this period the 
 civilization of their ancestors and preserved it from seri¬ 
 ous degeneration. 
 
 We have the raw inaterals and the labor. Our late 
 efforts have brought more than satisfactory results in every 
 case where manufacturing has been undertaken. I am now 
 brought in my discourse to a discussion of the means by 
 which our manufacturing interests may be further safely 
 and profitably developed. I have already attempted to show 
 that such further development would not only be profitable 
 in itself, but that it would redeem our depressed agricul¬ 
 tural interests and perpetuate for our country the control 
 of cotton production for the future as in the past. 
 
 The means that appear to me essential are, 
 
 1. Education. 
 
 2. Transportation facilities. 
 
 3. Markets. 
 
 4. Banking facilities. 
 
 I will discuss these briefly in the order named. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 There is a certain degree of education that comes to 
 all people by virtue of being brought up in a civilized com¬ 
 munity. With such a very limited general education, ac¬ 
 quired chiefly by contact, our people are able to spin and 
 weave cotton into the simplest and plainest fabrics. These 
 
12 
 
 fabrics are used for the commonest purposes at home and 
 to sell abroad for similar use in semi-civilized countries or to 
 semi-civilized people who connot even do with reasonable 
 economy the simplest operations of spinning and weaving. 
 
 I have shown to what extent we may increase the 
 value of raw cotton by means of the simplest forms of its 
 manufacture into cloth. I wish to undertake to show now, 
 how, with fuller knowledge and better skill we may still 
 further increase the value. Estimating the crop of North 
 Carolina at 500,000 bales, this as raw cotton at 6 cents 
 would yield $15,000,000.00; as plain white cloth at 18 
 cents would yield $45,000,000.00; as checks and plaids at 
 24 cents would yield $60,000,000.00. 
 
 The people of the state are as a matter of fact now 
 utilizing-300,000 bales and making a product which Mr. 
 Wm. Entwistle, of Rockingham, says will average 20 cents 
 a pound, which would yield $50,000,000.00 for three-fifths 
 of the crop. 
 
 A. 
 
 But these values are by no means the limit of what 
 may be brought to the raw cotton with increased knowledge 
 and skill. 
 
 This same cotton turned-into a fancy gingham or good 
 quality of outing cloth would bring 36 cents a pound and 
 would yield $90,000,000.00. 
 
 If made into a fine dress gingham like Toile de Nord, 
 made by my friend Mr. A. H. Rowe at Fitchburg, Mass., 
 it would bring 60 cents a pound, which would yield $150,- 
 000,000.00. 
 
 Taking now some French mull or some mercerized 
 cotton stuffs we find these bringing in the market $1.20 a 
 pound, which would yield $300,000,000.00. 
 
 In this shape it may be seen that the cotton crop of 
 North Carolina would bring as much money as the entire 
 crop of the south now brings. These cloths are not so 
 very fine and it would require but a little step forward in 
 education for our people to become qualified to make it. 
 
 But this is by no means the limit. Take some B A rench 
 
13 
 
 nainsook, we find some of it selling in the stores at $6.00 a 
 pound. If manufactured into this stnff the value of the 
 North Carolina crop would go to the amazing sum of 
 $L 5 00 > 000 > 000 - 00 - And yet even this is by no means the 
 limit. I exhibit a piece of swiss embroidery, the 
 value of which goes to $24.00 a pound, at which the North 
 Carolina crop would yield $6,000,000,000.00, a sum that is 
 inconceivable, beside the paltry 15,000,000 dollars which 
 is the value of our raw cotton. 
 
 This exhibit and the resulting figures could even be 
 carried farther, but what’s the use? It has long since be¬ 
 come plain to me that North Carolina could well afford to is¬ 
 sue a half million dollars in bonds to be expended in textile 
 education with absolute certainty that inside of ten years 
 it would enhance the value of North Carolina cotton twenty 
 million dollars a year over and above what it now brings. 
 Look at the tonnage of France’s export. It is one of the 
 richest countries in the world, and yet her export tonnage is 
 very small. Her principal exports are composed of a 
 very small proportion of raw material and a very large 
 proportion of knowledge and skill. The Frenchman has 
 not the endurance or staying qnality of the Anglo-Saxon, 
 but if he was not quicker and better educated for work he 
 would starve to death. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 It would be useless to make goods without the means 
 for their economic distribution. The Scientific American 
 has lately published some comparative statistics showing 
 that by means of railroads the United States handles 
 annually more than 900,000,000 tons of freight. Great 
 Britain handles about half as much. Germany about one 
 quarter. France about one eighth and Russia about one 
 tenth. Our domestic market is the best market in the 
 
14 
 
 world. This condition is largely the result of our trans¬ 
 portation facilities. We have more railroad mileage than 
 that of all the rest of the world put together. We handle 
 about as much freight as England, Germany, France and 
 Russia do all together. 
 
 How did we get this system of railroads ? I answer 
 by means of subsidies. The National Government itself 
 has extended vital aid in the construction of our trans-con¬ 
 tinental lines of railway. Amongst the States, cities, 
 towns, counties and even townships those would be rare 
 indeed that have not contributed aid to one or more rail¬ 
 roads either by voting bonds to be exchanged for stock 
 or by guaranteeing railroad bonds. There have been land 
 grants, grants to railroads for the use of whole streets and 
 in every other way possible to imagine, subsidies have been 
 given, and freely given to railroads. It has been argued 
 in opposition in many instances that the stock for the pro¬ 
 posed issue of bonds would be worthless. The good citizen 
 has invariably answered—“well if we get the railroad I’m 
 willing to lose the stock if necessary”. I doubt if a state, 
 city or county could be found that would be willing to take 
 back its lost money—its subsidy money, and give up the 
 railroads which this money helped to build. 
 
 If a good line of railway was proposed to-day which 
 could be brought to Tarborro for $25,000 or failing in this 
 subsidy, pass six miles to the west of your city you would 
 with absolute certainty raise the money. Yon know you 
 would. 
 
 Both the South and West are peculiarly enterprising 
 in this matter of domestic transportation facilities. 
 
 Both the Sonth and West are urgently in need of for¬ 
 eign markets. Yet lavish as they are in expenditures for 
 domestic transportation facilities, if the subject of a little 
 aid is mentioned for a steamship line to facilitate the expor¬ 
 tation of cloth made here in your Tarborro mills, or cotton 
 made in Texas or flour from wheat made in Dakota, the 
 North Carolinian, the Texan and the Dakotan immedi- 
 
15 
 
 ately takes a fit. Republicans and Democrats alike forget 
 the interests of the people, and consider it necessary to sac¬ 
 rifice all else to, or what they conceive to be party loyalty. 
 Can it be party loyalty to wage a war of politics in the 
 pursuit of office and regardless of the welfare of all the 
 people? 
 
 Ever since the Civil war, the South has been in a 
 defensive attitude. Her representatives have been apolo¬ 
 gists. More or less of this situation has been a result of 
 the calamity which slavery, not the Civil war, brought. 
 The first man ever to take an aggressive stand in Post 
 Bellum times was Henry W. Grady, who pointed out in 
 his Boston speech, upon the subject of the race problem, 
 that while New England was demanding of the South a 
 solution of this problem with an intolerance that forbade 
 argument, and with an impatience that brooked no delay, 
 yet the people of New England were taking no practical 
 hand in the solution. As long as the race problem was the 
 whole of our politics, this defensive attitude of our repre¬ 
 sentatives was unavoidable. But now that it is practically 
 past it behooves us to give at once earnest attention to the 
 requirements of our material interests. These interests 
 are largely in our growing manufactures. We make here 
 in the South cotton, cotton cloth, cotton oil, cotton seed 
 meal, pig iron, lumber, flour and numerons other pro¬ 
 ducts that must find export markets. On these questions 
 our interests are common with those of the people of the 
 rest of the United States. 
 
 We have now reached the condition where we make 
 more manufactured products than our home markets will 
 take. England and Germany are willing enough to send 
 here their subsidized ships to take away our raw cotton 
 but not our cotton cloth; to bring us pig iron but not to 
 take pig iron away. We must find the ultimate markets 
 for these products ourselves, and we must establish ship 
 lines to reach them. I am in favor of whatever expendi¬ 
 ture is necessary to create and maintain as good transpor- 
 
16 
 
 tation facilities on the seas as we have on the land. We 
 have the best in the world on land, and the best home 
 markets as a consequence. What we have on the seas is 
 hardly worth mentioning, and our foreign trade is propor¬ 
 tionately small. Of 64,000,000 dollars worth of cotton 
 goods going into China a few years ago the U. S. put 
 there 6,000,000 dollars worth only. 
 
 I favor an Isthmian ship canal to be built and owned 
 by the general government. 
 
 I favor a cable across the Pacific to be laid by the gen¬ 
 eral government and to be owned and operated by the gov¬ 
 ernment. 
 
 These are facilities that are essential to our manufac¬ 
 turing growth. Manufactures are absolutely necessary 
 for the revival of profitable Agriculture and the reconstruc¬ 
 tion of the fallen fortunes of our fathers. We can no 
 more handle export trade withont transportation facilities 
 than we can prosper at home without them, and everybody 
 knows that a town without a railroad is dead till it gets 
 one. 
 
 MARKETS. 
 
 For raw cotton at 6cts a pound England and Germany 
 are as good markets as we could desire. When we needed 
 pig iron and cotton ties they were delighted to send these 
 here in exchange for our cotton, using their ships for all 
 the transportation. 
 
 But if we prosper we must turn our cotton into cloth 
 and get 20cts a pound instead of 6cts and we have com¬ 
 menced to do it. We must stop buying pig iron and make 
 all we need with a surplus for export, and we are already 
 doing this. We must seek, develop and protect markets 
 for cotton oil, wheat and flour, lumber and its products. 
 
What I say about all these, applies as much to New Eng¬ 
 land and the North West as to the South. 
 
 Indeed in all that I say at all times I seek for the 
 establishment of no policy for sectional advantage. I seek 
 rather to find out and exhibit those policies which are for 
 the best interests alike of all the people of this country 
 and of the countries we would deal with. 
 
 If we co-operate in the development of manufactures 
 and the fostering surrounding conditions, there is no such 
 thing as competition between New England and the South. 
 
 I believe that the purchase of Louisiana by Jefferson 
 was a wise and beneficent action. The forebodings of 
 evil which were made as arguments against the action have 
 not come to pass. 
 
 I believe that the annexation of Texas was equally 
 wise and beneficent, and the forebodings of evil in that 
 case have failed also. 
 
 The acquisitions of Florida from Spain, of the South 
 Pacific territory from Mexico, of Alaska from Russia, have 
 all been advantageous to us and to the populations that 
 came under our control with or without their own consent, 
 and the greater advantage has in each case been to the 
 people of the acquired territory. We have in each case 
 given them law and order and guaranteed for them the 
 security of life, liberty and property. We have furnished 
 them systems of education, and in infinite ways hastened 
 them forward in the path of civilization to their advantage. 
 
 The policy of our country, since its foundation has 
 been, above that of all other countries, one of expansion. 
 It seems to be settled that we already have Porto Rico and 
 Hawaii. I believe that Cuba will come to us in the nat¬ 
 ural course of events by annexation. 
 
 I favor keeping the Philippines. Considering mod¬ 
 ern facilities, the Philippines are more accessible to us now 
 than California was when we acquired it. They are as 
 accessible now as Alaska is now, and yet who would pro¬ 
 pose to give up Alaska. Their value in trade far surpasses 
 
18 
 
 ♦ 
 
 that of Alaska, and our opportunity for the extension of 
 Christian civilization is greater there than in Alaska. 
 
 The possession of the Philippines is important to us 
 for another reason. There are said to be 800,000,000 peo¬ 
 ple in the country known as the Orient. Christian civili¬ 
 zation is beginning to reach these people. Our churches 
 have for years kept missionaries amongst them. 
 The works of these missionaries are now beginning to 
 bring some of the results that their supporters here at 
 home have hoped for. Can we refuse now to go ahead 
 with the civilizing work that has been begun. We will of 
 necessity have increasing duties and interests in China. 
 For the advantage of our people at home in their trade 
 with China, and for the advancement of the work of our 
 Christian missionaries we should insist upon the preserva¬ 
 tion of our treaty rights with China, and resist the partition 
 of that Empire. Our dnty and our interests lie together 
 in these matters. I believe that Democrats and Republi¬ 
 cans alike ought to demand of, and support our govern¬ 
 ment in a vigorous prosecution of all measures looking to 
 the protection and extension of our interests in what was 
 once the old far East or what is now our new far West. 
 
 BANKING- 
 
 Once upon a time Mr. Henry Waterson was called 
 upon to speak to a Scotch-Irish Society. He said in effect: 
 
 “We have heard from the North-East for more than a 
 century, a clamorous claim about how it was the Puritan 
 who founded this Government and had guided its 
 affairs and kept it straight ever since. We have heard an 
 equally noisy clamor from the South-East about how the 
 Cavalier founded it and how he has been keeping it going 
 since. Now as a matter of truthful history and fact,” 
 
19 
 
 said Mr. Waterson, “and just among us Scotch-Irish here, 
 I want to tell you all that neither one of these clamorous 
 sets of people had a thing to do with it. We Scotch-Irish 
 did the whole thing from beginning to end, and if we had 
 not been mighty shifty fellows the Puritans and Cavaliers 
 would have separately or together ruined the whole 
 business a dozen times.” 
 
 I think very much the same way about the partisans 
 of silver and gold. Let the gold men or the silver men 
 have their way and the country gets no relief that makes 
 farming, manufacturing or merchandizing easier. The 
 reason for this is that our difficulty in banking is not one 
 of a standard of values. The standard of values is very 
 much like the standard of measures,which is totally one of 
 convenience. We may legally have a yard stick, or a metre 
 or make both legal. Indeed, I think both are legal in this 
 country, but by common consent the people stick to the old 
 yardstick. I prefer the metre, but I get along very well 
 with the yard stick. 
 
 The fault of our currency system is in its inflexible 
 character. We have ample money and assets to do busi¬ 
 ness on either a gold or silver basis. But the connection 
 between the two is brittle and in elastic. For deposit and 
 discount our National Banking system is as good as could 
 be desired. The issue feature is practically dead. 
 
 This was not the case when government bonds were 
 cheap and the interest high. It is the case with high 
 priced bonds and cheap interest. 
 
 The remedy lies in totally abolishing bonds as a basis 
 of bank note issue and substituting, the assets of the bank. 
 This would be the old State banking plan made National. 
 It is the plan followed in Canada, and Canada is conspicu¬ 
 ously free from the sharp turns in the money market that 
 is constantly pinching New York and the rest of the 
 country, and is also conspicuously prosperous to resources. 
 
 It is a plan followed in Scotland, and much of the pros¬ 
 perity of that country is attributable to the fact that the 
 
20 
 
 Scotch banks re-discount their own paper by issuing bank 
 notes on their assets, instead of taking these best assets 
 down to London for re-discount at the bank of England. 
 Even the bank of England when pressed goes to the bank 
 of France, which is one having the right of unlimited 
 note issue on its assets. 
 
 If we have assets that are good enough to secure re¬ 
 discounts in the money centres, these same assets ought 
 to be good enough to secure bank notes at home. 
 
 Very little change in our National banking system 
 would be necessary, to my mind, to overcome all our cur¬ 
 rency difficulties. These overcome, our manufacturing 
 interests would stand upon an infinitely firmer basis. 
 
 The changes should be as follows: 
 
 First. Repeal the requirement of bonds for note issue 
 and substitute the assets of the bank. 
 
 Second. In return for the one per cent, tax, let the 
 Government guarantee all notes. 
 
 Third. Increase the minimum capital to $100,000.00. 
 
 I am aware that there are those who think that this 
 would lead to “wild cat” money. It has not done so in 
 Canada nor France or Scotland. 
 
 The defects of the old State systems would be easily 
 and totally avoided. Indeed they would be avoided with 
 the present national banking system modified as indicated. 
 
 The Government guarantee would make the notes as 
 good as the government itself, while the tax of 1 per cent, 
 on money issued would yield a sum ten to twenty times in 
 excess of any possible payments that would have to be 
 made on account of redemption of notes of broken banks. 
 
 In Canada the government does not guarantee, but col¬ 
 lects from the banks a guarantee fund to secure redemption 
 of notes. There is no objection to this plan. Our friends 
 at the North I think totally mistake the requirements of 
 the South and West in this matter of banking. 
 
 It is not better banks we need, but the right to use 
 our home assets for bankable purposes at home. 
 
In a bill now under serious consideration in Congress 
 it is proposed to reduce the limit of capital for a national 
 bank to twenty or twenty-five thousand dollars under cer¬ 
 tain conditions. This is to my mind, useless and necessarily 
 means a high rate of interest to the people served by these 
 little banks. The South and West is now full of so-called 
 State banks having capital in excess of the national require¬ 
 ment. For discount and deposit they can do business 
 quite as well as though they were operating under a 
 national charter, while for NOTE ISSUE they couldn’t afford 
 it under a national charter. I should increase rather than 
 reduce the minimum capital. 
 
 The right of NOTE ISSUE up to ioo per cent, the par 
 value of the bonds, is a help to the banks, but in no way 
 helps to prevent periodic squeezes in the money markets. 
 
 It brings no.elastic feature into the system. The clear¬ 
 ing-house ceitificates issued from time to time in New 
 York is the only feature of elasticity now in our system, 
 and that is of questionable legality. 
 
 This subject is even more important to the banks in 
 the money centres than it is to the provincial or country 
 banks. 
 
 The present system is a good one for the banks in 
 driving a more profitable bargain with its customers, espe¬ 
 cially when money is a little tight, but it is a system that 
 is dangerous to the banks and in every squeeze some of the 
 banks go down. 
 
 No business can be comfortably done with a feeling of 
 uneasiness about money all the time. It is unjust that 
 home assets should have no value at home as a basis for 
 banking, and that the very best assets of every community 
 must be carried from ioo to 1,000 miles away from home 
 to bank on for ordinary home purposes. Besides the oppor¬ 
 tunity it furnishes for high interest the very cost of travel 
 and exchange is a burden on all industrious agricultural 
 and manufacturing people. 
 
22 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 As long as there is any question in the South as to 
 race supremacy, our duty lies first in saving for each State 
 Anglo-Saxon control. That being accomplished, and I 
 believe it is now practically so, then we must speak out 
 plainly on all these economic questions so that the repre¬ 
 sentatives in our legislatures and in Congress may be fully 
 apprised of our sentiments and our requirements. I have 
 been surprised to find in the South-western States a strong 
 sentiment in favor of developing trade relations with the 
 Orient, a sentiment in favor of expansion, all combined 
 with some feeling that party loyalty required silence in the 
 matter. I believe in no such methods. I believe rather 
 that the people should speak out upon the subject of 
 their interests, and that a frank expression of honest 
 views is for the best interests of any party that is worthy 
 of governing a great people. 
 
 We have happily now reached that time when the 
 negro has come to the relization of the knowledge that the 
 white people about his home are his best friends, and 
 when the people of the north realize that an excess of zeal 
 in the cause of freedom to do idjury, we are now all free 
 in the soute, free to enter upon manufacturing enterprises 
 and help to develop Ametican resources and promote 
 American civilization. 
 
 It has come to pass that for the southern white man 
 the year of jubilee is come. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and gentlemen I thank you for your 
 invitation and your kind attention. 
 
Cotton Mill Processes and 
 
 Calculations 
 
 Bv D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 « —- 
 
 This is a book for the cotton mill superintendent, the over¬ 
 seer and the ambitious operative, and for the student. 
 
 OVER 300 PAGES. 
 
 OVER 50 ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FULL SET OF NEW PRODUCTION TABLES. 
 
 Every machine is fully described and illustrated in detail. 
 The calculations are all simplified. 
 
 Cloth 8-V0. 
 
 Price $5.00, Postage paid. 
 
 Order from D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 Cotton Mill, Commercial Features 
 
 By D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 This is a book for the prospective investor. It discusses in 
 detail all the points that are raised in organizing a new mill. 
 It shows the cost of mills of various kinds. It elaborates 
 the plans for organizing companies and for raising capital. 
 It shows how to keep mill accounts and reports. It shows 
 cost of production for all the common kinds of goods 
 manufactured in the South. It shows how goods are sold 
 by the mills. It gives advice about location and surround¬ 
 ings. It discusses textile education, and shows how a young 
 man should proceed to learn the cotton mill business. It is 
 profusely illustrated with original drawings and fine half¬ 
 tones made expressly for this work. 
 
 Cloth 8-V0. 
 
 Price $5.00, Postage paid. 
 
 Order from D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
Cotton and Cotton Oil 
 
 By D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 NOW IN COURSE OF PREPARATION. 
 
 ABOUT 200 PAGES. 
 
 ABOUT 50 ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 This is a book for both the investor and the practical man. 
 It treats the subject from both a business and a technical stand¬ 
 point. 
 
 It is a full description of American methods of oil manu- 
 facturein detail, including refining. It also treats of the uses 
 of the by-products. It treats of allied industries, such as fer¬ 
 tilizers and their uses. It describes cotton culture as practiced 
 in America. It contains a new history of the cotton gin, com¬ 
 piled from original sources hitherto unexplored. It describes 
 in full all the methods of ginning, baling and marketing cot¬ 
 ton, including all the round bale methods. 
 
 Cloth 8-V0. 
 
 Price $5.00, Postage paid. 
 
 Order from D. A. TOHPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 American Commerce y Its Expansion 
 
 By. D. A. TOMPKINS, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 A collection of pamphlets and addresses on various subjects 
 relating to the material welfare of the industrial world. 
 
 It points the way toward enlarging our commerce with for¬ 
 eign nations, and shows howto sustain the work. 
 
 100 Pages, 8-V0. 
 
 Paper 50 cents. Cloth 75 cents. 
 
 Order from D. A. Tompkins, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
Our Machine Shops. 
 
 The D. A. TOMPKINS CO., Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 We have one of the best equipped machine shops in the 
 South. It is a shop which has grown up with the cotton mill 
 industry of the South—making cotton mill machinery and 
 repairing it. Also making oil mill machinery and repairing 
 it. Hence it is a shop having the most intimate possible rela¬ 
 tions with the business and having the best facilities for this 
 particular work. We do not know of any one shop in America 
 that builds a complete equipment for a cotton mill or an oil 
 mill. 
 
 FOR COTTON MILT EQUIPMENT. 
 
 We build reels, spoolers, starch kettles, drawing in frames, 
 electric switch boards, steam traps, band machines, doffer 
 boxes, slasher beams, beam trucks, etc. 
 
 FOR COTTON MILL REPAIRS. 
 
 We cut gears, cover rolls, rebore Corliss Engine cylinders 
 and valves, and we do other engine repairs. We indicate and 
 report on engines and their fuel economy. We repair dyna¬ 
 mos. We make new steel fluted rolls. We reflute and reneck 
 old ones. We true up and reclothe top flats for cards. We 
 overhaul and put in order any machine in a cotton mill. 
 
 FOR OIL MILL EQUIPMENT. 
 
 We build sand and boll separating screens, huller feeders, 
 cake crackers, separating screens (meat from hulls), steam 
 traps (guaranteed to keep heaters drained of water). 
 
 FOR OIL MILL REPAIRS. 
 
 We are prepared to replace broken parts of any machine, to 
 furnish gears and do any repairs, such as boring out and over¬ 
 hauling engines, repairing boilers, etc., etc. 
 
 The D. A. TOHPKINS CO., Charlotte, N. C. 
 
Engineers and Contractors. 
 
 COMPLETE PLANTS. 
 
 We developed the plan of building industrial plants by com¬ 
 prehensive contracts. 
 
 We will undertake for a fixed price to build a cotton seed 
 oil mill or a cotton mill complete. 
 
 Or we will furnish plans and specifications for erection of 
 buildings and then we will for a fixed price furnish and put in 
 complete machinery equipment. 
 
 We have built complete or furnished equipment for not less 
 than 75 Cotton Seed Oil Mills. 
 
 We have built complete or furnished equipment for not less 
 than 50 Cotton Mills. 
 
 FIRE PROTECTION. 
 
 We have a skilled organization for putting in Fire Pumps, 
 cast iron pipe, wrought iron pipe, hydrants and whole equip¬ 
 ments for fire protection. 
 
 We install sprinkler systems in manufacturing plants, ware¬ 
 houses and large commercial establishments. 
 
 We do all these in accordance with insurance requirements, 
 and get rates as low as 1-5 of 1 per cent, from stock com¬ 
 panies and rates as low as 1-6 of 1 per cent, from the mutuals. 
 
 STEAM HEATING. 
 
 We furnish complete installations for steam heating fac¬ 
 tories, offices, schools and dwellings. 
 
 PEUMBING. 
 
 We do plumbing for cotton mills in the most approved and 
 sanitary manner. 
 
 ELECTRIC LIGHTING 
 
 We handle only the highest class electric machinery. We 
 install it with all of the accessories, in full accordance with 
 the latest requirements of underwriters associations. 
 
 The D. A. TOMPKINS CO., Charlotte, N. C.