The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1870-05-08
The tImmiErasion 4 M Uouvention "a; IS, ,,It 5

~ .fN 80 ho nmiS ration Convention ESa4
Tie following is the report 81 The
Committee on industrial RESOURCES. ,slb.
mstted, by the Chairman, B. F. Gray ton,
Esq: ~
Your Committee, feeling assured that
the very comprehensive character of the
duty assigned them, viz: that of report
ing on the industrial resources OF the
State, is, itself, an evidence that no ex.
haustive treatment of the subject is ex.
pected by the convention, nor even q
specific account. of what has been done
towards the developement of their re-
sources, limit themselves to few general
considerations, as to. their nature, and
the great policy for promoting their de.
velopment, -
From South Carolina to Texas inclu-
sive. the climate of the Atlantic and
Gulf States is of that intermediate kind,
which embraces the features both of the
tropics and the temperate zone, and
while exposed to many of the evils of
both, Likewise enjoy in combination
many OF the advantages of each. It is
precisely in such a climate that the
utmost diversity of industries can most
easily flourish, provided only the mar
kets of the world be open to it, and there
make division Of labor possible. In
deed, it may be safely said, that no
other climate but one offers equal op-
portunities for diversifying labor. Tie
natural products of our country ex-
hibit this diversified character; we have
here, side by side, the animals and plants
Of the tropics, and those of the tempe
rate zone, pines by the side of palms,
wheat growing in sight of rice fields,
apples ripening in the same orchard with
oranges, crows and bears and foxes in
habiting the same swamps with the ibis,
the vulture, the parokeet and the croco-
dtle, though our forefathers, unacquaint-
ed with tropical animals, gave them the
names of cranes, buzzards, and alliga-
tors, which make us forget their equato-
rial character, and prevent us from re.
Heotlng, when we read Of such things in
books OF foreign travel, that they are, in
truth, nothing but what we see about us
every day. In our waters is found equal
variety. The herring, which is pecu-
liarly Northern fish, is sold in our
market by the side Of the fishes of the
Caribbean Sea, and the muscle, the clam
and the oyster, all useful as food, are
found even where the peninsulnr of
Florida is built up of coral reefs, like
the South Sea Islands. Even in the do.
main OF the miner there is something to
remind us of this commingling of tenn
perate and tropical features in the
aspects of nature by which we are sur
rounded. For does not the guano of
the equatorial islands find its counterpart
in our phosphate beds? And does not
the coal, which is rather characteristic
OF temperate climates, show itself not
far from those highly priced deposits?
In short, the climate of the Southern
States, their geological structure, their
great rivers, and the seas by which they
are washed, offer every incentive which
climate can Offer to development of the
utmost diversity of physical and intel
lectual labor. But it is perhaps feared
by some that climate like this NAV be
incapable OF supporting such diversified
industry. IN consequence of the very
variety OF Its products-tha what Yields
everything with facility will yield the
best OF nothing. Such conclusion,
however, is forbidden by simple array
OF facts. The cotton and the rice we
produce are the best in the world, never
thelass the wheat has liEawiso been re-
cognlzed as having no superior. And in
the opinion of your Committee there
Sno W LIZ oOuOC lLlub Lue OlluCultY or
obtaining the best of any grain product
in climate of so catholic character. is
precisely such difficulty as is necessary to
lnoite the human intellect to the exor-
else of patient and minute observation.
coupled with reflective ingenuity.
But that such climate as we possess
is really capable of developing and sup
porting this diversity of occupation, may
be established in another way. There is
no climate in Europe exactly comparable
with ours. If we travel Eastward in
search of counterpart, we shall pass
over the whole of the old world until we
reach China and Japan. Hero alone, do
we find all our chief characteristics re-
peated, though of course in forms which.
belonging to the old world, are SO far
different from those of the new. But
our extremes of temperature, our cold
winters and hot summers, our commin-
gled tropical and temperate fauna and
flora, are as familiar to. the Chinese as to
ourselves. The United States and the
Flowery Kingdom are what the physical
geographers might call hom ologous parts
OF the two continents. The same rela-
tive situation to the equator, the same
ock e