The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-06-19
HOW THE NEW SOUTH is DOOMED.

HOW THE NEW SOUTH is DOOMED.
Every boomer and town lot Speculation
in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia con
lures the investor with Fort Payne
Promoters and builders of cities cite
Fort Payne as the warrant for the estab-
lishment of towns on every hillside IL
the new South. If every town nov
mapped out in this section is built
according to prospectus, inside of a yeal
East Tennessee, Northern Georgia and
Northern Alabama will be as populous
as Manhattan Island. The boomer be.
lieyes that, or processes to believe it, and
anyone who would take issue with him
would do so at his peril. l have no de-
sire to cast damper upon the enthusl-
asm now rolling over this country, but
to an unbiased observer the situation
here would be ludicrous did it not in
volve great economic question.
The capabilities of the undeveloped
South are practically endless, but If the
Expectations of the sanguine Southerner
are realized, even in the next quarter of
a century, the growth of the West will
be mere bagatelle to the progress of
the new Ell Dorado.
The "magicn city of birmingham gave
the impetus to the movement that has
linoullltb Nutil HlEtlllNlO DlbDpl biph'f 'iAi
a large section of the country appears
to believe that wherever there is apocket
of iron ore city may be built. The
promoter, therefore, is here in his glory,
1t is no eXaggeration to say that out of
every ten men you meet in any place of
a hundred or more people, eight of them
have boom on hand for some poverty
stricken hamlet or virgin hill.
This place was in the thrOes of boom
for several months, and as it is one of
the most wonderful eXponents of the
celerity of town building in the new
Sonth il is used everywhere as an argu-
ment in favor of the widest enter
prises.
Fort Payne was satisfied for years
with frame court house, big tavern
and ramshacl1le cabin or two. 1t was
great place for barbecues, and the
Alabama candidate held forth at every
election to the good people of three
counties, who came here to feast and
frolic on Grafton days. Stone and brick
buildings have taken the place of the
log cabins, and electric lights glare
where the pine knot or tallow dip used
to flicker.
1t is noteworthy circumstance that
every town in the South which is riding
boom or preparing to mount one has
electric lights. There are three prelim-
mary requisites to the establishment of
city in the industrial South-a blast
furnace first, hotel and electric lights.
Then come the street cars, and they
must be run by electricity. As matter
of fact, the mule drags the street car,
as rule, but electricity is soon to be
the moter.
Look at Fort Payne now. Something
like a year ago it had four or five hund
red inhabitants. The boomers place
the population to-day at over three
| thousand.
What did it?
Boom!
A hustler from Kansas City came
down here, looked over the land, Orga
nizcd a company of Eastern and Western
capitalists and bought up all the sur
rounding acres. They secured the prop
erty for from $40 to $50 an acre, held
sale of town lots and sold at from
g, 900 to $1,000 an acre. OF course
they built furnace-they could afford
| land to factories and other industries,
keeping few millions of stock in their
inside pocket for future use.
The representations made to the pur-
chasers of town lots were kept, in so far
that industries were started, and it is
probable Fort Payne is a permanency as
a lively little town. But will it grow
any more? We must wait to see.
| As matter of fact iron is not here in
nexhaustible quantities, nor is coal
here in limitlcss supply. Every town
now incubating is said to have iron and
coal in ''ineXhaustible quantities"
Nothing seems to be needed to make n
city but the presence of ore and the
building of a blast furnace. | asked a
gentleman in Chattanooga the other day
why the South was building SO many
blast furnaces.
''To sell town lots" he replied.
That is the situation.
know of fifty towns in embryo that
are to be blasted into wealth and fame
in the next few months by a furnace or
two apiece. Where will all the ore go
they produce?
1--WE will close up Pennsylvania" the
boomers say. 1--WE can make iron
cheaper here than anywhere else in the
country, and the older producing centres
will have to get out of the field"
The conservative people of the South,
however, do not take this view of the
situation, and they deprecate the
methods being employed to boom the
country. | had long talk with ex-
Governor O'Neal of Alabama at Flor
ence, and as he voiced the sentiment of
the majority of the people who are not
being whirled in the maelstrom of spec
ulation l will quote some of his re-
marks.
1--WE have enough in the South" he
said "to attract capital, withoutcreating
booms which must collapse and then
bring comparative stagnation. You
lspeak of Fort Payne as an example of
what the boomer can accomplish. That
certainly is marvellous achievment in
town building, but do not believe that
because Birmingham has attained such
a wonderful success and Fort Payne has
become an established fact that n town
can be built and made wherever a
boomer may select. | have not paid
much attention TO these hurricane
schemes, but / believe that most of
them have some merit We have the
ore here, it is true, but cannot see that
that warrants the founding of towns be-
fore we have the people to fill them"
"Do you think, Governor" | asked,
that the South will be benefited by the
lpItStllb bNhbcill VI Dullulllk IL
81 hardly think the existing initiation
will result in much good, though what
ever attracts attention to this section
will rebound TO its benefit. All the
South wants is to be>known and we will
try to keep out the swindlers and adj
vcntuTers.n
"Do you think there is any fraud now
being practiced on the public through
these land schemes?'
III don't know, but it seems there il
too much of this thing, and somebody
will necessarily suffer. That person
will probably be the speculator, as the
whole thing, as the situation is at pres
ent, appears to be a speculation"
But am drifting away from this town
of Fort Payne, the cynosure of the
boomers eyes. W. p. Rice, gentle
man who went from the East few years
ago and doomed Kansas City, made III
! his mind that Fort Payne ought to be 4
little bigger, and with the aid of Eastern
and Western capital he did make il
bigger, filling his pockets and those Of
his partners by the process, Mr.. Rice's
company claimed that Fort Payne had
! all the advantages and resources any
: place in the South had, and that its iroI
and coal could never be exhausted
Enough people believed the representa-