Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-02-09
Diversified Industries for the So0th.
palt,n,ora ra,,nxo.4,,,,,., 49,


Baltimore Manufacturers Record
The advantage which the South
now has in making pig iron at
lower cost than ii can be produced
in other sections, is almost and in
some cases wholly counter alanccl
by the heavy freights thai Southern
iron producers must pay To get their
iron to consuming markets, While
pig iron makers in other sections
have a market almost at thCi: doors
for the product Oi their fu nacts.
Hence while Northern iron makers
have TO pay, on an average, probably
not more than from forty cents to il
dollar freight per ton, their Southern,
competitors labor under burden
of from three to four dollars all the
way up to about double these figures,
some Birmingham iron having
lately been shipped to this market
at a cost of between. six and seven
dollars ton for, freight. Lahoring
under this heavy burden, iron
making at the South, although
developing very rapidly, cannot
possibly make rs great advance as
If it was on par in the matter Of
freights with this industry else
where.
There is only one way in which
this disadvantage can be removed,
and that is by building up diyersi-
fed industries in the South, that
the iron may be consumed where
produced. If this were done, pig
iron imakers would save part of
their heavy freights, while manu-
facturers using pig iron as raw
material could obtain it af much
lower cost than in other sections.
Moreover the other necessities for
profitable manufacturing are also
remarkably favorable coal for fuel
is cheap and abundant, while in
many places water power, almost
inexhaustible quantities, so that
with cheap iron, cheap timber.
cheap mott e power, cheap labor,
and Il mild and pleasant climate, it
would seem that all the conditions
" ere favorable for manufacturing
very cheaply; and then another
consideration of almost equal inn
portance is that there would be
home market for about every line
OF goods that could be manufacture
ed
For the next ten years the build
ing OF new railroads, factories and
mills of all kinds, and the mining
OF coal, iron, and the precious met
ais, will be far in advance of any.
thing seen even during the last
three years Of remarkable prog css.
These developments will require AN
amount and variety of machinery
that will be surprisingly large The
railroads will need rails, locomO-
tives, cars, and other supplies, and
some idea of what the railroad
building in the South is going tu be
can be formed from our "Cunstruc-
tion Department" in which l. Civ
Ell each week the name OF every
new road and every mill or factory |
of whatever kind organized in the |
South. The number of these pro-
posed roads chronicled since Jan. |
lst is truly surprising, and many of
them will be of great extent. no
furnish the needed supplies for tile
Of the South would give
steady employment to many To-
works and car shops and |
many thousands of hands.
The new mills, factories and |
mines, as well as the old ones, will |
require many tens of millions of !
dollars worth of engines, boilers,
cotton, wooden, tobacco, fertilizer
and mining machinery and supplies
generally. The increase OF new in
1ustries at the South is not confined
o any one place, but is general from
Virginia to Texas, So that in what
ever part of that section new ma
,hinery house is established it will
ioon have home market for its
goods.
The establishment, of such indus
ries as require pig iron as raw
material is now one of. the greatest
needs of the South, and a develop
nent in this direeIiOn would be ii
1ast benefit to every business inter
st in the South as well as to the
zig iron making industry.