Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-04
THE SOUTH.
Concerning the Development of the
Natural Resources of This Section.
Tie Demand Tor Home Manufacture in Texas
and the Grand Field for Investment
in Manufactures.
Rusk Irop-Clad.

the great Development Of the mineral
and manufacturing interests in the
South. - said Mr.. Henry T. Kent, the
secretary OF the Cherokee land ana iron
company, addressing a representative of
the Iron Clad who found him at his desk
in the company offices at New Birming-
ham. At this suggestion the reporter 5
eyes glistened and he sharpened his
pencil for an interview upon this inter-
esting subject.
Have you given any special study TO
this phase of Southern development? -
said the reporter
Well, can hardly say that have
given special study. OF course, since 1
have been connected with the New Bir-
mingham enterprise my attention has
been arrested by everything upon the
subject -
''To what do you attribute the univer-
sal activity now going on?
* think it is easily enough accounted
for. Prior to the war the South was
purely an agricultural country and such
ii would have remained under slavery.
After the war for some years there was
such an upheaval in its civiliZa-
ton and the local governments
were in such a fearful condition
that capitalists could not be induced to
come South. Now the conditions are
changing and capital has found such rich
results from the mineral and manufacture
ing interests of the South as to watch
with eager eyes the magnificent Oppor-
tmnities offered for investments.
"Do you think the attention of North
ern capitalists is being generally called
to this seotion?''
Undoubtedly this is the case and by
some of the best known and most OBJ
servant men of the country Col Nc
Clure, the editor of the Philadelphia
Times, in a recent letter upon the changes
now going on, said that ''no legis-
lation, no sound public policy, no
sentiment can halt such a revolution
when the immutable laws of trade com
mand it; and the sudden tread of the
hordes from the Northern forests upon
Ancient Rome did not more suddenly
threaten the majesty of the mistress of
the world than the tread of the iron and
coal diggerS of Alabama and Tennessee
threaten the majesty of Northern
iron and coal fields. These
lessons come upon us as
plain as the noondav sun and it is mid
summer madness not TO read them I'M
derstandingly. And eX-Mayor Hewitt
of y New York, whose Information
or the iron trade is well
known, speaking of the South said:
alt is the only place upon the North
American continent where it is possible
to make iron in competition with the
cheap iron OF England as measured not
by wages paid but by the days labor
which enter into its production - You
iTfs Il, a =
ny of Hon. William D. Kelley OF Penn
sylvania- Familiarity known as ''Pig-
Iron Kelly who said of the South: 81
have urged my friends 10 go there, and
my son is there now with all he has en-
barked in manufacturing enterprise
/ do not consider that there ever
existed in the West, great as its wealth
Is, nor III any other portion Of the cOun-
try anything like the natural wealth of
the South 1t is true that these gen
tlemeu were speaking mainly of Ala
bama, Tennessee and Georgia, but when
/ last visited New Birmingham it was in
company with an Old iron man who had
been for years in the furnace and iron
fiesis OF those regions, and after careful
examination he told me they had in those
states no such deposits of iron as we find
in the hills that surround us ,here. -
is the production of pigiron increas-
ing very rapidly in the South?''
Yes, its growth has been phenome-
nal. The total product of pig iron in this
country last year was in round numbers
Z 600 900 tons, the largest output this
country has ever had; and this growth,
as during the last eight years, has been
almost entirely i'll the South Birming-
ham, Ala, viii, l understand, have
thiTty-nine blast furnaces III operation
this year, whereas in 1888 it had but
five. -
''Where do You think the market for
the pig iron produced win be?''
For some years to come I think it
viii be right at New Birmingham. Ali
yon can make, unless 1 am greatly mis-
taken will be worked up into manufae-
tured product. You are immediately
by the finest timber belt in
the country, where is the sense then or
the good business of sending North for all |
the agricultural and household lmple- |
ments you use when they can be made |
cheaper here and the freight which is a |
protective tariff III itself can be saved -
'1Ou think then that Texas is an in |
viting field for such industries -
- do, and no where in the world are |
such industries more needed. If you are |
hob III a uhtl WISH O4 hOulu let me !
read you a few figures, from the census
Of 1880 yhreh viii tell the story better /
than / can. Pennsylvania had at that |
time i'll round numbers 81 600 manufac-
turing establishments, Ohio 20 goo while
Texas with its PA 900 square miles far
larger than Pennsylvania and Ohio COM
bimed had only $500, and nearly |
one third of these were -four and !
yrist mills. You can see why the
wealth of each of these states is about
i've times that OF Texas, or whilst the
aer.capita wealth OF Texas was S2l3 that
# Ohio was $500 Texas had engaged in
agriculture 359 900 persons and in man
fractures only IS 600. Ohio, 397 600 in
agriculture and 242 600 in manufactures
illinois, which is probably the greatest
agricultural state of the Onion, ut pres
mt has 436 200 persons in farm
NC pursuits and 205 900 in
Now let me call
our attention 10 another astonish-
ng fact that in this county of Cherokee
With its magnificent iron deposits there
Tere in 1850 only Seventv-.nine persons