The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-14
The south,s Great Need.

with Mr.. SAINT Noble, of Alabama, the
dpunder of the fourishing manufacturing
city of Admission, in that State, who, with
his brother, carried $S,OOO,000 for invest
'ment in the enterprises in which he is now
engaged. Since Mr.. Noble has been in
the South he has been acting with the
Democrats, but now he sees his error
that his business is threatened by the pol
icy that party would inahgurate were it to
get control of the government, and con-
sequently he announces his purpose to vote
for Blaine and Logan. Mr.. Porter de-
scribes the city the Messrs. Noble have
built up as follows:
SIT is pretty town, situated amid the rich
mineral hills of the State, and boasts an in
dustrial population of 5000, who, as whole, are
better fed better clothed and better housed
than the inhabitants of any town In the South.
Admission is a new town.: Its entire history
cotton field, the ruins Of worn-out, moss
grown blast furnace being the only indication
OF manufacturing. Before the advent OF diver,
sifed industries, the country was so poor ana
the people SO poor that no one could be found
to pay the homestead fee of $l4 for eighty acres
of land. In 1873, samuel Noble, q native OF
Cornwall, England, started blast furnace at
this point, to make charcoal iron. 1t prospered,
and since then two additional charcoal Iur-
naces have been erected. Next large cotton
mill was added to give employment TO the
daughters of the miners and mechanics; Car
wheel works. rolling mills and foundry 1ol-
lowed, and. lastly, O freight-car MANDATORY,
besides numerous minor industries NOW An
niston has we'll laid ont streets, with growing
shade trees, public squares, opera house, busl-
ness blocks of the most substantial order, a
national bank, and the most comfortable
homes for working people that can pc 1Ound
anywhere. The best Queen Anne inn yet built
in America will be open zen for the pubic TINS
orations, was told, will be equal to any hotel
in New York. There is an armory for training
the boys II walking and w the t Of aa na
/ weeks nv Noble has headed q subscription for
$2o, 900 to sndow normal school. Other public
new school building is begun. About 1850 per-
sons are engaged in gainful occupations and
cases, IS q day. Many of these Working people,
colored and white, formerly lived IN one
Wretched room Of an old log house. To-day
| room houses, carpets ON the floor, curtains at
the windows. and substantial furniture
industries of Admission have increased the value
OF land, until, instead OF going begging for any
acres t now s sells om 500 % to 90 an
within the corporate limits, and the farming
country around it is worth $25 an acre."
Mr.. Noble, as we have stated, is a Dem
ocrat, but he is a firm believer in the pol
icy of protection. In his interview with
Mr.. Porter, he justly claims that the men,
who, like himself, are building up the
South, developing its resources, adding
millions and tens Of millions to it's wealth,
opening up profitable employment to
thousands of laborers, and giving farmers
home markets for their produce, receive
but little encouragement from Southern
statesmen, and not much from the South
ern press. The truth of what he says is
illustrated by what Hon. j. Randolph
Tucker uttered in this place on the 2Sth
of July before public audience, when he
referred to the Firmstones, the owners
and founders Of the Longdale Iron Fur
mace. And what he said as to those enter
prising Northern men who have come to
Virginia with their money and experience,
| is applicable to Low Moor, Callie, Victo-
ria, and all the other iron industries of
Virginia. for all Of them are the result of
foreign capital. Mr.. Noble said to Mr..
Porter:
sour statesmen and press are never tired of
| talking and writing about our enormous min
|
| wealth and splendor of our climate. They say
denounce us as takers Of blood money! as men
enriched by the aims of the government as
| robbers fattened by federal legislation at the
expense of the men who have brought about the
dawn of better times to the South. In short,
| they advocate policy that will bring certain
and absolute ruin TO every manufacturer in
Etheir midst. as well as impoverish the labor of
| their country"
In speaking of how the tariff helps the
planters, Mr.. Noble said: 1.-The duty is levied
font hnr1 of he fho 10 and
the planter, who benefited by protection
one hundred fold more than the manufacturer.
Europe, found in Austria the managers of
| two of the finest charcoal furnaces ever saw
SHY Genus Pef so gay of ne ne same
at work in the mines received from twenty
Ave to twenty eight cents per day; while
| women, who were as coarse and weather.
| beaten and hard-featured as the men, and
could only be distinguished from them by the
short WOODEN skirt and bonnet they wore, re-
ceived about twenty cents. In the Austrian
capital l found the women dug the cellars,
| fold and did the hardest and most severe labor
| labor almost wholly delegated to men in this
country. reduction of the tariff below the
danger line means competition with this sort
of labor. 1t is little better in Germany, though
| q return to protection has improved it some
what In England the Cornish miners, driving
| tunnels in the mines, receive $l5 to Sl7 per
month, while we pay $50 to $780,, carpenters tiers
half the Wages we we pay in Alabama.' After
pointing out the very general shrinkage in
values that would follow tariff reduction, Mr..
Noble says:
| The South is in no condition to stand
shrinkage. We have but limited supplies and
we accumulate but slowly. How can it be
otherwise, pursuing, as we have done for near
| ly century, only one industry, the cultivation
Of the soil, each farmer coming into COMPETE
ton with his neighbor, all engaged in the same
pursuit and shipping the products of their labor
thousands of miles to middle ground, where
it came in competition with the cheap fellah
labor of Egypt and of one hundred millions of
| laborers IN India, who are paid a few cents
poo poor How can it be otherwise? How can
they accumulate anything when, year after
year. they are butting their heads against such
every year by improved means oftransportation
in India and shortening time and lessening
risks by way of the Suez Canal? 1t IS our
planters who pay the cost of TRANSPORTATION of
their product, the handling, waste, loss of in
terest in getting it to market, and the trans
what they receive in return"
This system "has Impoverished them. They
are to-day little better off than the foreign
| labor with whom they compete. Not one in
| ten Of our farmers have barely the necessities,
| let alone the comforts, of civilized life.
SIN a recent trip through the South was
struck with the poverty Of the people outside De
| the new industrial centres, where diversified
there are no people on this continent that work
| harder, longer hours, through heat and cold,
and have less to show for it than our farmers
spent two weeks last fall in a trip through the
| adjoining counties. The weather was line and
did not see an idle man., woman child,
busy from morning till night.
"The secret of this trouble is the lack of dl-
| versified industries. 1 asked a farmer whose
orchard was dying out. why he did not plant
more trees. His reply was that he could not
sell his fruit and he had enough for his own
use. Where stopped over night saw large
| flock of brOnZed turkeys. asked the landlady
why she did not sell them. She replied, I did
take wagon load to town and only could get
seventy five cents for gobler and take it in
| trade, SO brought them home again."
This, indeed. tells the story IN away that
| "Until we bring the artisan to the door of the
| farmer our country and people will always be
| poor If the farmer feeds the artisan, he, in
| turn will build the farmers house, plaster the
walls paint it, paper it,. carpet the floor, and
put in suitable furniture-in short, will improve
| his condition. But our policy has been to keep
| the artisan in the North and Europe, while we
raised the raw material to be worked up into
manufactured goods by labor paid higher wages
| than our farmers can earn. and besides having
work of millions of men. If our State was dot
| ted ali over, as the Western States are, with
| such towns as Atlanta. Chattanooga, Admission,
ETC.. the farmer would have a market at his
Door saving time, all costs and risks, and ena-
| bling him to buy a hundred comforts he other
wise must do without"
ssThe North and West. by availing themselves
of the protective policy of our government,
have established manufactures everywhere.
You have brought the farmer and the working
man together, each working for and promoting
the comfort of the other. The result is you
l x-1.~ks \ Ia