has been imparted
to the cotton, worsted, woollen, and knit underwear industry.
Everywhere, especially in the Southern States, new textile mills
have been going up with surprising activity, and all the old
corporations have been operated on full time....

"As a rule, all the cotton mills have had a year of unusual
activity. The production has been of larger volume than in any
previous year, and the goods have found a ready sale generally
but at comparatively low prices, considering the high prices
which prevailed during the first six months of the year for
cotton. Market prices, except in a few cases, did not vary with
the price of cotton. Opening generally at low rates, cotton goods
have been steady, the home and export demand being sufficient to
absorb the supply of all standard and staple makers of brown,
bleached, and colored goods, if we except printing cloths and
calicoes....

"The worsted goods industry has been marked by fresh life since
the new tariff has, to a great extent, cut off the importation of
the lowest grades of such goods. All the old factories have
started up, and are making goods on safe orders; and new mills
are being erected by European and British capitalists with a view
to manufacturing a finer class of dress goods, etc., than ever
before has been produced in this country. The woollen goods
industry, apart from ladies' cloths, does not show any
perceptible signs of improvement, but keeps on a slow, steady
gait, apart from carpetings and woollen underwear. Both of the
latter industries have been unusually busy during the last six
months at fairly profitable prices."

To give a complete list of the new industries started since the
passage of the McKinley bill would be impossible, and would occupy
more space than THE ARENA could spare. I give, therefore, a partial
list compiled from the _Boston Commercial Bulletin_, and covering only
the first three months after the passage of the law, that is, from
Oct. 1, 1890. These are the months most unfavorable to the bill, but
the statistics show what the growth of new and old industries has been
under the tariff of 1890 in three months, and indicate what the future
increase is likely to be.

SHOES AND LEATHER.

Shoe factory at Portsmouth, Va.

Tannery and horse collar manufactory at Demorest, Ga.
Shoe fact