The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1882-11-24
PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE CoMBINED
AGAINST THE soUTI--oJR FUTURE BRIGHT

PREJUDICE AND IGNORANCE COMBINED
AGAINST THE s0UTT--oUR FUTURE BRIGHT
COLUMBIA, November 13--Cel. john B
Palmer, the well. known president Of the
Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad
FOR number of years, has returned to Co.
iumbla after proiracIcd absence in Europe
lie speaks quite intcligcntly ol his obsc:.
va;l"ns in foreign laudS and with much
practical wisdom. | am sure that his views
rs TO the present necessities aud the future
possibilities Of the South will be read with
interest In long talk with Col. Palmer
this morning, hc said
Il have passed most ofthc last three years
III Europe, much Of the tim, in Eugland.
L found great prcjudiccs existing in the
minds Of most business men and bankers
nc 8! E,a,s - 10 bc irsc, ibv d
to Ignorance of our true condition, largely
owing to misrepresentation, not always in
tcntional, perhaps, made by the United
States officials in all the prominent towns
in Europe. The ignorance of some Of
these officials is astonishing. For example
IN the course Of 4 conversation with Mr.
Lowell, tho United States minister ut Lon
d'n, expressed ay belief that,hc south
cIn States would in time become the rich
est iii the Union. Upon being ",s,I on
what ! founded such an opinion, replied
that We were yearly drawing from the
| North and from Europe nearly $500 00O, -
600 for our cotton crop alone, and that
| amount would socn be trcbcd when we
should manufacture the most ofour cotton
into goods, as We surely would before many
years. With an incredulous smile Mr.
Lowell told mc. that lprobably was not
aware that the hay cropof Now England
alone was more than the entire cotton crop
ofthc South. told him had heard that
statement years before the war, but that his
| hay crop, whatever it amounted to- did not
! add one dollar 10 the wealth orthc country,
every pound being consumed here, and that
could probably give him some information
that he WAS not possessed Of, which Was
that while the total exports from the whole
United States Of the great weaith-produc-
ing crop Of the North, wheat, amounted
in value in 1881 to only SlG7 ,00O, ,OO0 the
exports from only ten States Of the primes
| pal weaith:producing crop of the South,
cotton, amounted in value to $2l5 5000 600
And this, too, in face Of the fact that the
banking capital Of all the Southern States
was only SCI 100000 while that Of the
West alone was 1Gi, i,0G0,0O0 LIN other
words, Ia" West received iinuucial aid to an
cxtca: largely exceeding the value OF its
wheat export, while the ten cotton States re:
ccivcd financial all to the extent Of less than
one quarter the total value of the cotton OK
port. Mr.. lowell was SOmywhat surprise d
ut these facts, with which, as the representa-
tive Of the United States 1T the court Of Il
great commercial country, he should have
been cOnvcraant.
"What the South nee Is is capital and
foreign capital is knocking at our doors,
anxious TO be admitted. In the Western
States, the barking capital is supplemented
| by capital supplied to tnc producers Of food
in its various forms by more than twenty
| British companies, TO the amount Of $50
100000, while on the other hand the
atrcu!turists Of the cotton States have until
! within few months had no assistance
whatever from foreign capital. British
companies have now, however, commenced
loanimg on rcll estate III the States of Gcor.
gia, Alabana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas
ana Arkansas and it is to be hoped that
they will soon b. permitted to operate in
this State.
The attention of English co ton manu>
facturers is being directed to the South US
place for the more profitable employment of
their capital and skill and steps are being
taken to build piouccr mill to be stockc Il
altogether with English machinery. 1t
needs no prophet to predict that this first
mill will be followed by many others for
English capital in abundance will % where
it has been proved lha, it can BE- most profit
ably employed.
There is an Impression in well informei
foreign and home financial circles that this
years magnificent crops have saved the
United State from a most disastrous panic
" hen this panic comes, rs it will surely do
with the first serious crop failure, it will be
largely owing to the reckless manner in
which sO-callcd raj read systems have been
established, and the enormous amounts of
securities that have been placed on many Of
the roads First mortgages have been sup
plcmcntcd by second mortgages and third
mortgages, and these by dcbcnturcs, pre-
tcrred and watered common stock, until the
volume Is far larger than this country can
take, and foreign capitalists have already so
much Of this class Of securities, aud have
suffered so greatly from their depreciation,
that they will take no more. When the day
OF reckoning comes think the South will
suffer less than any other portion of the coun.
try, for adversely has taught us economy and
conservatism in business which, with our
cotton fields and our cotton mills, willtakc us
through with comparatively little loss.
There is great future before US"
Col. Palmer says that there il now no dc.
mand for such securities as those above re-
lerred to, and lhat thoY are only kcnt on the