Correspondence of the New York Times from Atlanta well illustrates this. It is to be noticed how quickly the preliminaries are got over--considerations and speculations in which Southern papers indulged to any length: "Manufacturing in the South is the one subject on which thinking men here speak with entire confidence. They have, most of them, some qualifying doubts as to agricultural progress, the cheapening of cotton production, the raising of home supplies, immigration, mining, and the many other now ambitions and enterprises which have engaged so much attention since the opening of the new era of industrial development. But concerning the future of manufactures, particularly of cotton, all men of intelligence and business experience speak with the assurance of inspired prophecy. It is, in fact, not easy to see why the mill should not seek the cotton instead of the cotton seeking the mill." With this introduction, the plunge is made into the supporting facts, which ought to turn the flow of capital toward the South. The first statement is that it is a dead waste to ship raw cotton to a mill 1,500 miles away, when it can be made into yarns or fabrics in factories distant from the field only short half-day's journey for a mule. The cost of sending the cotton to New England is reckoned, in expenses of bagging, ties, ginning, baling, storage, insurance, drayage, sampling, compressing, commissions of brokerage, waste in handling, and freight to amount to $14.90 per bale, or almost exactly 1-1/2 cents per pound which the New England manufacturer pays for the cotton above the price received by the planter. The estimate of $100,000,000 is given as the charge on the cotton crop of the South of 1879, on Edward Atkinson's figures, for the items mentioned. "... to the anxious capitalist tired of a petty 4 per cent. and seeking new and more profitable investments such facts are not without interest. They go to support the claim that the Southern mill has an advantage of from 10 to 20 per cent. over its New England competitor. But these advantages are by no means confined to the elimination of unnecessary charges for baling and transportation." Water power in the South, six dollars per horse power per annum, or in some instances given away for the location of a mill, as against a cost of twelve dollars in New England, is dwelt upon, with the greater utility of the Southern water powers due to the absence of freezes. The cheapness of labor is given prominent place, and the suitability of the climate of the South for cotton manufacture.[229]