Costs of cotton manufacturing in the South are lower than in the North. Probably the most careful estimate is that of Charles T. Main and Frank M. Gunby, of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, published in Oct. 1926. Their conclusion was that a Southern mill running 55 hours a week had a cost 16.8% less than a Massachusetts mill operating 48 hours a week, taking no account of the expenses connected with maintenance of a mill village. This is equivalent to a saving to the Southern manufacturer of $6.73 per spindle per year, of which saving lower labour costs were responsible for $4.53. If the cost of mill villages North and South is included, there is still a differential in favour of the South of 14%, or $5.60 per spindle per year.
In 1925 the average earnings of the cotton mill operative in the ten leading Southern States were $632.95, or a weekly wage of $12.17. If we take only the four leading Southern States—North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama—the average wage for 1925 becomes less, $625.53 for the year, or $12.02 per week. The average annual earnings in the four leading New England States— Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire— were or 55% higher than the same item for the four leading Southern States.
There is a high labour turnover in Southern cotton mills, estimates two decades ago running as high as 3o% of the propor tion of "floaters" in the working population, though it is by some manufacturers believed now to be as low as 0%. Companies seek to anchor their help through welfare provisions, but the family's belongings do not make more than a wagon load, and moving on to the next mill town is one of the few ways in which the workers can declare their independence. The value added by manufacture is greater in the Northern mills than in the Southern. Wages formed a higher percentage of the value added by manufacture in North ern States than in Southern, the greatest spread being between 76% for Maine and 42% for Virginia and Alabama (figures for 1923). All of the Southern States were below the national average of wages, and all of the Northern were equal to or above it.
All of the principal Southern States have (1929) laws forbid ding the work of children below the age of 14 in cotton mills, but above this age they may work as long as adults, with the exception of North Carolina, where a child of 14 without a f ourth grade schooling may not work more than eight hours. Between 1870 and 1900, while other sections of the country decreased their percentages of child workers by a half to two-thirds, in the South the percentage of children to all wage-earners increased from 23 to 25. Northern and Western cotton mills now have about the same proportion of children employed as Southern mills, though the hours of the latter are longer.
The low wages of Southern operatives have been the principal cause of the working of all available members of the family group. Income to the family is further supplemented by the free or very cheap services which employers render. The typical Southern mill is surrounded by a village owned and administered by the company. It has been estimated that 25% of the capital of the Southern cotton manufacturer is invested in the village— in operatives' houses, stores, streets, schools and welfare and recreational facilities. The average Southern operative pays for his house only 25 cents per room per week, in exceptional cases the rent is 75 cents per room per week for excellent cottages, and sometimes the employer furnishes houses entirely free of rent.
Beginning about 1923, there has been a conspicuous drift of the American cotton manufacturing industry to the Southern States. An unofficial estimate is that since then more than $100,000,000 has been invested in the building of new mills in the South or the purchase of existing Southern plants, mostly by New England interests. Still, the capital in Southern cotton mills is probably more than 8o% owned in the South. Between 1924 and 1925, the South passed New England in the number of active spindles, and this lead has greatly increased since. From July 31, 1922 to July 31, 1926 the South gained 1,668,000 active spindles, while New England showed a loss of 2,413,00o and the rest of the country a loss of 213,000. Of spindles in place, in the same period, the South gained 1,800,000, while New England lost 910, 000, and other States lost 249,000; to take the extremes, North Carolina gained 782,00o spindles while Massachusetts lost 5o6, 000. Every one of the six Southern States listed by the census in this connection gained spindleage, while every one of the New England and middle States lost. Comparing the average amount of cotton consumed, 1921-25 and 1925-26, the South gained 689,000 bales, while New England lost 104,000 bales and the rest of the country gained 2,000 bales. Between 1923 and 1926 the South gained 7,919,000,00o spindle hours, as against a gain of 1,439,000,00o for New England and 223,000,000 for the rest of the country. Between 1923 and 1925, the value of all cotton manufactures of the United States decreased (those of the South only a third as much as those of New England), but between 1921 and 1925 the products of Southern mills increased in value 65.4%, while those of New England increased 5.7% and those of the entire country 34.1%.