The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1889-10-31
The soutb,s Manifest Destiny.

a great advance movement in every line
of industry. No one can study the
signs of the times without being i'm
pressed with this fact. and without re-
alizing that we are entering upon a
period which gives promise of greater
and more widereachiug movements in
the worlds commercial and manufac-
turing interests than has ever been seen
before. II is not in this country alone
that there is almost unprecedented ac-
tivity in business interests. The work
shops of Europe are crowded, and many
of the long-idle plants of Great Britain
are running night and day to meet the
demand for iron and steel. And wher-
ever we look there are indications of
development and advancement and of
gigantic enterprises that arc destined to
change many Of the currents of the
worlds commerce. In this country we
see almost every furnace that can ever
blow in, actively at work, while rolling
mills, steel rail mills and kindred en-
terprises ire all equally as busy, and
yet the consumptive demands are grad
ually gaining on production and causing
a decrease in stocks on hand. Great
enterprises, from the building OF the
Nicarauguan canal; the construction of
new railroads into rich mineral sections,
the development of which means almost
as great a revolution in steel making as
the development of Alabama'S iron in
tercsts made in iron production the
building of new ports on the Gulf that
will turn the traffic of the rich and
populous West from its present chan
nels, and pour a vast business, scarcely
dreamed of now, through these new
Southern ports; the great activity in
iron and steel ship building, fully taxing
to its utmost every ship-yard in the
country; the certainty of closer com
mercial relations-and consequently a
larger share of their trade-with the
rich countries of Central and South
America, are some Of the movements
that are now making themselves felt in
all the varied ramifcations of the busi-
ness interests of this country.
Just at this period, which is to mark
a distinctive era in the history Of the
human race-an era of advancement
and progress for the peoples of all ma
tons the South is the centre of attrac.
ton. 1t has demonstrated that it has
the advantages needed to make 1t the
centre of iron and steel production of
the whole world, and "tbat nation or
that section of any nation which pos.
sesses supremacy in the production of
iron and steel and in their conversion
to final forms for use will dominate and
control the commerce of the world" it
produces three-fourths of the cotton of
the world, and it is inevitable that the
South, which grows the cotton, IS des-
tined to spin ard weave it; it has the
most abundant supply and the greatest
variety of timber to be found in the
United States and must become the
centre of woodworking interests: it has
the advantage of the best climate on
this continent, and of agricultural ad-
vantages, which, taken as whole, are
not cqualed in productive possibilities
under wise agricultural methods by any
similar area elsewhere; it has a long
stretch of seacoaSt and many rivers,
enabling its products to reach the con-
Suming markets of the world at the
minimum of cost. To the fullest utili-
zation of these advantages the South is
now bending every energy, and it enters
upon this work at a time when the con-
dilions of the worlds business interests
are most favorable for making the
South the controlling factor in the great
advance movement. No man can picture
tie commanding influence of the South
in the worlds industrial and CONNER
cial interests ten years hence.-Bath-
more ManutdctUrers' Record.