It is a nice problem to determine how far these advantages possessed or thought to be possessed by the South were aired as a result of deep-lying motives of patriotism and philanthropy, and to what extent they were themselves the exciting forces behind the crystallization of these motives. Did these superiorities of the South come to light mainly because the South had made up its mind to remake the section, or did the South enter upon a course of development because it possessed certain outstanding advantages? To strike a balance here would be an interesting speculative venture. But, however, this may be, it is reasonably clear, as has been previously pointed out, that when it came to putting their money into cotton mills, capitalists, North and South, acted usually upon the assurance given them in the physical assets obtaining. To the extent that general impulses placed in public view definite, concrete and tangible reasons why cotton mills could be made to pay dividends, the undercurrent was indirectly responsible for the erection of the factories.
It is not the purpose of the present paper to set out in any detail the unique resources of the South, either as they constituted the magnet for capital directly, or reacted through the general cotton mill campaign to swell the tide making toward a new character for the section. They deserve separate treatment, especially since they occupy so central a position and have such sensitive contact with the other forces present. Whether, however, physical advantages existing at the South crystallized out of an original philosophical impulse, or operated, more or less unconsciously in the Southern mind, to induce that impulse, it is perfectly clear that the movement for the building of cotton mills in the South originated with the South, and that at least contemporary with the attraction of capital, went an advocacy of the establishment of cotton factories that was consistent, permanent and practically universal.
From the very nature of the movement, Southern and in most cases strictly local capital was first appealed to, both by the actual projectors of the mills and the public organs which interested themselves in the enterprises, and local capital was the first offered. It might be questioned whether outside capitalists, perceiving in the Southern manufacture of cotton a favorable field of investment, did not come in as a result of the publicity of the cotton mill campaign, without waiting for either solicitation from the South or proof of the success of the new plants erecting in that section, but it will be shown that, as a matter of fact, this was not the case. At the time the South felt herself to be isolated, cut off from the national life, discriminated against by Congress and the country at large. In the beginning and in essence continuing to the end, the building of cotton mills was a sectional matter. It is not to be said that outside capital was an afterthought with the promoters of the Southern cotton mills, but every circumstance surrounding the movement, and every instinct of the hour, argued for the exhaustion of native resources before help should be sought from without.