The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-08-09
STANTON. VIRGINIA. AUGUST 8. 1883.


employed in agriculture and all the rest o
the country has but 100000, the annua
value of the products of the former wa
/ only S76O,000,000, as against 81, 450, 900. 00
3 raised by the other section; or in othe
9 words, while in the North every person
: engaged in agriculture raised on an aver
/, age $414 worth of various crops, in tn,
: South mans labor only produced some
, $3.50. On the other hand, it must be re
] membered that the average monthly wages
: in the South for farm labor, where the
7 hand finds himself, is but $16, against $2t
f in the Northern States
Gradually the most serious remaining
/, drawback to the prosperity of the South
is being removed. Every year more and
more of it's people are beginning to pay in
cash for all they buy the credit system
not unfrequently made the farmer pay
two prices for all that he used. A
/, Land in the South is now held at little
| more than one-fourth the price asked in
r the North, but its annual products, acre
! foraere, re4more than half as valuable,
: Insuch a state of affairs there should be
a strong temptation to the Industrious i'm
migrants, whether he comes from foreign
: shores OF from some less favored portion
of our country. With land at fourth of
the price it is elsewhere, the same labor
and the same skill will raise upon it crops
nearly OF quite as valuable. There will
not much longer be lack of a home
market for products of every sort. The
days when the bale of cotton raised in
South Carolina was carried to Massachu-
sets to be manufactured and then return
ed to it's native State to be sold are rapidly
passing away.
The South is beginning to manufacture
its own cotton. The enormous profits that
have rewarded the enterprise of those who
have already embarked their capital in
such enterprises is the best guarantee that
they will find many imitators. There are
many reasons why cotton goods can be
more cheaply produced in the South than
in New England. The cost of transporta-
ton to and from the Northern mill is
saved. Already the New England manu-
facturers are making earnest appeals to
the railroads to reduce the freight upon
their materials and their products, but
whatever favors the railroad companies
may be disposed to show them, the cost of
carrying the goods five hundred miles each
way must remain great enough to make
all the difference between large profit
and none at all.
| In 1870 there were but $4,000, 900 pounds
of cotton used in the mills of the South,
and in 1880 there were lis, 900, 900 pounds.
The rate of increase in some of the States
was even greater. Georgia manufactured
but 100000 pounds in 1870, while in
1880 her mills consumed 81, 000, 900 pounds.
The consumption in the manufactures of
South Carolina rose during the decade
| from 10000 pounds to 100000.
| The expenses of living at the South is
less, and as consequence laboris cheaper.
In 1880 the average yearly wages in the
Northern manufactures were $3.50, and in
the Southern only 1886. 1t is quite posi-
BILE that at the present time labor in the
South is, man for man, not as efficient as
it is in the North. but it is rapidly be-
coming so. A widely disseminated and
at the same time utterly baseless delusion
exists that the climate of the Southern
section renders continued active exer-
ton impossible. Now it is doubtless
true that there are certain linn
tied areas in the coast region of the more
southerly States that are too hot and moist
for the health of the white man; but
throughout by far the greater part of the |
South man can work quite as hard as he |
can anywhere else. Large parts of Vir-
ginia and West Virginia have mean an |
nual temperature as low as that of Boston |
and Detroit, and lower than that of such |
manufacturing centres as Pittsburg and |
Philadelphia. The cost of running ma
chinery is not likely to be any greater in |
Virginia than Massachusetts,. The natural |
water power of many parts of the South |
can scarcely be excelled in any section of |
production of steam power in yet more |
lavish supply. That the mountain region |
of the South was rich in coal and iron has |
long been known, but it has only beenwith- |
in very short time that any cOnsidera- |
BILE efforts have been made to develop it's |
wealth. The results that have been OBJ
tanned have been astonishing. In 1870 not |
a ton of coal was mined in Georgia; in |
1880, the census reports that $4,000 tons |
were produced. In 1880, Alabama dug |
only II 900 tons in 1882, her production |
had risen to 1000 tons. In Alabama, |
Georgia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee
and West Virginia the coal output rose |
from 900, 900 tons in 1870 to 3,7OO,0 900 tons |
in 1880.
There were in 1870 but $4,000 tons of |
Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia and West |
Virginia, and IN 1880 there were SIS, 900
tons, an increase of more than twelve hum |
dred per cent. Great as these gains were,
there is every reason to believe that they
have been far exceeded in the three years
that have elapsed since the census was ia
ken, and still greater progress may be ex-
pected in the future. The ore is more
easily to be come at, labor is cheaper, and
a ton of pig-iron can be produced in Vir-
ginia OF Alabama for $l2 where in Penn |
sylvania it would cost $lS. So long as
| this inequality continues the movement
OF the iron industry must be towards the |
South. Already much Northern capital |
is invested in Southern iron and coal fields; |
in some instances the land has doubtless
been purchased with view to prevent it's |
immediate development, but all such ma
n9uvres must, from their every nature, be |
productive of temporary results merely. |
For the present little beyond the smelling |
OF ores into pigs is done at the South. The |
superior cheapness of it's production ena-
bles the maker to bear the cost of transpor-
ing it to the foundries and machine shops |
OF the North, but sooner OF later, the lat |
ter will be necessarily moved nearer to |
the source of their raw material, and all |
the many branches of iron working be ac-
lively carried on in the Southern States. - |
In my review of the resources of the |
South account must be taken of her rela-
lively large forest area. The rapid de-
struction of the timber trees of the North |
and West is yearly making the remaining
forests of the country more valuable, and
within very few years the larger part of
these will be in the south.
TRANSFORMATION facilities, hitherto and
still insufficient, are rapidly increasing.
Every year new railroads are piercing in
to before unopened tracts OF Southern ter
Fritory. The Southern Pacific and the Tex
aS Pacific nlacp the SOittb unan the line IF