Part 3

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.

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.

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.

TALLASSEE FALLS MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

The Tallassee Falls Manufacturing Co's Cotton Mills are situated at Tallassee, a small town contiguous to and contributory to Montgomery. The main building, of stone, is 220 feet long by 50 feet wide, five stories, with an L 60 feet, six stories, and a wing 116 feet by 60 feet, four stories high, containing about 20,000 spindles and 330 looms.

These mills manufacture cotton brown goods, consuming 7,500 to 8,000 bales cotton annually.

The officers of the company are, John W. Durr, President; James A. Farley, Treasurer, and Wm. H. Micou, Jr., Secretary. Their residences are at Montgomery, where the principal office of the company is located. The officers at the mills are, A. J. Milstead, Superintendent; A. J. Noble, Assistant Treasurer, Tallassee, Ala.

The mills are run by water-power, are equipped with the latest improved machinery, and lighted by an 800 light Edison electric light plant.