St. Landry democrat., 1890-07-26
REVOLUTION IN THE SOUTH.

rJt Is now more and better than a revolution
in the South either racial or warlike 1t IL
rather the record OF widespread internal al
vance which we are now called on to witness
In Illustration of this, read what follows, from
the Lteri0T.J
The industrial revolution now in pro-
gress in the Southern States promises, il
Continued. to effect more radical changes
than those produced by the disappearance
of slavery. After the civil war, the States
were some years in recovering from the
drain and exhaustion of struggle, the
cost of which, in the lessened value OF
property in the decade between 1S6O-7O,
approached So 100, 100000. So slow was
the recovery. in fact. that little improve
ment was noted until 1876, but from that
date until the present, progress In almost
all lines, and particularly that of industry,
has been surprisingly rapid. The war
offered the first stimulant to industrial
energy. but it was only after the period of
| reconstruction that fair field was given
to it's development, and the States entered
upon new career of prosperity.
| During the last decade the South has
been hard at work, drawing on it's vast
reserve of raw material in the shape of
minerals and lumber, increasing it's Dro-
duction of cotton and tobacco, corn and
sugar, and in thousand ways adding to
it's wealth. The gain during the decade in
the assessed value of property has been
81 800, 729 927, while the growth of manu-
features has been so rapid that at the
present rate of progress, the South will
soon be as distinguished for its manufac-
turing interests as the North is.
A trade journal which has recently com
piled some statistics of this remarkable
| development, states that there are now 800
cotton mills in operation, as against 16l
ten years ago, with 213 cotton seed oil
mills, and that at least 800, OOO, 600 is in
vested in timber lands and saw mills. The
output of pig Iron last year was 1866, 7o2
tons, or more than one-third of that OF the
whole country, and while new furnaces
are constantly being built, nearly ~, QUO, =
600 tons of coal were mined Companies,
with large capitals, are rapidly being
formed for the development of iron and
coal mines. and iron is now produced al
less cost in Alabama, and coal is cheaper
there and in the adjacent States, than in
anv other part of the country. Over 90 DOC
miles of railway have been built since
1880, and in nine months of last year PSI
railway companies were organized in the
South, and development on this line has
apparently only begun. Foreign COM
MERGE has increased to $500, $40, 1916, AND
banking capital to $40, 454. $40, while over
1000 900 bales of cotton were sold las'
year, and 652, 291 900 bushels of oats.
wheat and corn were raised.
Beside this, the material wealth of the
States has been largely increased by frui
and vegetable gardening, many large plan
| tations having been converted into ''trucB
farms for the supply of Northern mar
kets, and by the development of the phos-
plate and other industries. The popula
ton of the South has also greatly
increased; recent report, based upon
estimates made by the Governors and con-
trollers of the twelve strictly Southern
States, showing their population to bs
16, 4S9 $50, a growth in ten years of ovel
thirty three per cent.
This is probably as great gain as IL
the remainder of the States, for although
the latter have received the bulk of the
foreign immigration, the inequality ha:
been balanced in large part by the migra'
ton from North to South by the influx o.
German farmers into Texas, and that Of
European miners and artisans into the
mining and manufacturing districts of the
South. Indications are that the rate o.
increase has not been greatly different II
the two sections, and that the South ha!
kept pace in growth with the rest of the
country, despite the fact that the immigra
ton of the present decade has equaled tina
of the two preceding it.