numpy.loadtxt(
    fname,
    dtype=<type 'float'>,
    comments='#',
    delimiter=None,
    converters=None,
    skiprows=0,
    usecols=None,
    unpack=False,
    ndmin=0
)
Load data from a text file.
...
usecols : sequence, optional Which columns to read, with 0 being
    the first. For example, usecols = (1,4,5) will extract the
    2nd, 5th and 6th columns. The default, None, results in all
    columns being read.

100 test1
200 test2
300 test3

$ python -c "import numpy as np;np.loadtxt('test.txt')"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...
  items = [conv(val) for (conv, val) in zip(converters, vals)]
ValueError: could not convert string to float: test1

$ python -c "import numpy as np;print np.loadtxt('test.txt', usecols=(0,))"
[ 100.  200.  300.]

numpy.loadtxt('input_file.txt', dtype=str, usecols=(1,2,3,4))

array([['MAX', 'Footprint', 'Center-X', 'Center-Y'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"'],
       ['"100-0009"', '"1206', '-', 'CAPACITOR"']],
      dtype='|S10')