The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1886-12-30
The SOUTH'S ENTERPRISE.
Contrasting the Condition Of the
Southern States in 1867
with the Present.
wonderful Progress in the De-
velopment of Natural
Resources.
baltimore disnatch.l

william ID. Kelley OF Pennsylvania, who
lately made an extensive trip through the
South, contributes to the Baltimore Manu-
LECTURERS Record of December 25 a lengthy
article reviewing the progress of that sec
uon, IN which he presents some striking
facts as to the great industrial development
now IN progress there. Referring TO his
visit to the South in 1867, Judge Kelley
says:
The South was a land of desolation,
her farms were fenceless and uncultivnted,
and her people were without reproductive
stock, or that with which to impel modern
agricultural implements had they been be-
slowed upon them gratuitously. They
were, practically speaking, without seed for
food or crops except what was bestowed
upon them by personal friends or the Gov
eminent, through the Freedman's Bureau
and the agencies of the Agricultural De-
partment.
Contrasting this with what he saw on his
late trip, he says The progress IN
wealth, III the means of individual COM
fort and productive power, has been mar
Vicious, and the change wrought from then
until now III the immense development or
coal and iron ore of these States, and the
increase in number and extent of industrial
centers, may Justly be regarded as the work
of Titans. The systems of railroads that
now traverse the South are as per-
feet in the con truction of road-bed,
track, and bridges, and in passenger
cars and the means provided for the
transportation of freight, as those of the
North. Lateral roads branch from them
into such valleys as are known to be spe-
cially rich, not in iron alone, but In other
minerals, some of which are found in such
profusion and juxtaposition as to seem to
defy geologic laws as elsewhere illustrated.
prior to the war" Judge Kelley writes,
'the South neither had nor desired to have
great cities. 1t is also true that her states
men preferred that their workshops should
be in foreign lands, and that the ships that
exported their products and brought them
commodities in exchange should be built
and owned by foreigners. In this respect
the contrast is most striking"
Nashville lie found to be q beautiful city,
which surprised him by the extent and va
riety of its manufactures and the magnifi-
cence of its buildings. Chattanooga and
Birmingham are each a marvel IN Its own
way. In the former he visited the great
industrial enterprises that are IN operation
there, and it was here that his attention
was first attracted to the neat, commodious,
and well-painted homes of the negro labor
ers in mining, smelling, and mechanical
pursuits. The mechanical skill OF the COL
ored laborer in some of these enterprising
cities surprised him, and convinced him
that with an industrial art school they
would soon produce gratifying evidence of
the adaptation Of negro labor to mechanical
pursuits requiring high degree of skill.
Referring to the proximity of coal, iron
ore, and limestone at Birmingham, he says
it is not surprising that the oversanguine
men of that city really believe that they
will be able to make iron so cheaply MS to
soon close up the works of Pennsylvania
and force her iron masters and their en-
ployes to re-establish themselves at Bir-
mingham. This, he states, has produced a
speculation in town lots that may retard
the immediate growth of Birmingham,
and time, by various processes, will de-
termire the actual value of corner lots il
city whose SUCCESS is TO extinguisE
the furnace fires of Pittsburg, Brad
docks, Johnstown, Bethlehem, and gener-
ally throughout Pennsylvania. At Annis-
ton he spent ten days making thorough
investigation of the resources of the coun-
try tributary to that place. Here he found
extensive iron works, machine shops, roll
ing mills, car works, and other industries
besides large cotton mill, which ships 6
considerable part of its product direct tC
China.
The company which planned ana Dull
Admission owns $4,000 acres of land IL
which are immense deposits of brown ant
red hematite, fossiliferous, specular
and magnetic, mountains of lime
stone, and seemingly inexhaustiblt
supplies of wood and cooking anC
gas coal. They have just completed sixty
mile railroad, and will build another six
teen miles In Length, besides two furnaces
and other enterpr ses. He predicts tina
though Admission has never had "boom,
and though its plating and development
have been managed so quietly that it
name is hardly recognized by the popula
ear, it will, before two decades shall hav,
passed, be one of the most remarkable cen
tiers Of iron, steel, and kindred industrie
to be found in those wonderfully endowed
States-Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee
In closing he says: 81 have given bu
faint intimations of the resources of tn
mineral regions of the South, of the i'm
pulses that now animate her controlling
people, and of the rapid strides with whcl
the spirit of the nineteenth century j
changing not only the aspect of the coun
try but the purposes and aspirations of tn
people of the new South"