The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-01-28

hands, among them many women ana
children who earn an average OF.
S4O2 q year. We may safely say
then. that the labor of 100000 work
ers of Massachusetts, is paid $14o,-
900. ooo-that is equal to what l,2oo,-
900 hands in North Carolina would
earn during the year; whereas with
the same population as Massachusetts
we probably have not 2oo,o 900 wage
earners, and they do not receive *
ceeding S25,ooo 900.
"In Massachusetts, the women n
children workto considerable extent;
here they do not. The wage earners,
who in every community are the great
bulk of the people, get five or six
times as much money as we do: hence
while we have hard times they do not,
but lay up large sums in their say
ings banks. We wish to make this
idea very prominent"
These facts the Manufacturers Rec
ord has time and again sought to i'm
press upon the whole South. So long
as any country depends upon agricul-
ture alone, general prosperity is i'm.
possible. There must be a diversity
of employment for all classes-men,
women and boys-otherwise the price
of labor is reduced to a point that
scarcely affords a bare living to those
who are employed, while one-half or
more of the community must live in
idleness, North Carolina, for in
stance, infinitely richer in natural re-
sourcesdthan Massachusetts; in fact,
richer in resources than all2the New
England States combined. is, compared
with Northern States, extremely poor.
Its magnificent timber resources are
only slightly developed; its iron ores,
rich and abundant enough to SUPPORT
a dozen great iron and steel manufsc-
turing centers; its other mineral inter
ests, including almost everything from
the wide range of iron to diamonds,
as yet yields but small returns and
furnish but limited employment.
Properly developed, North Cardinals
resources could furnish profitable en-
ployment to Pennsylvania's vast army
of industrial workers. And before
North Carolina enjoys that prosperity
to which she is entitled by virtue of
her vast, almost limitless, natural ad-
vantages, there must be such a de-
velopment of manufactures and min
ing as to furnish employment to
every man and woman, boy and
girl in the State that needs to work.
Then farmers will find a home mar.
ket for all the diversified products of
their farms, their truck patches and
their diaries. Then from one end of
the old North State to the other-from
the e coast, with its great fish and
oyster supplies, to its vast mountain
ranges, rich in minerals and timber
wealth will increase and the people
willfind profitable employment. The
first important step tending to the
beginning of development of the
States great iron resources has been
taken in the organization of a ST., OOO,-
600 stock company to build furnaces
and steel works at Greensboro. The
railroads and the business men who
are backing this enterprise have COM
menced a work of incalculable value
to the whole State. Every dollar in
vested in it will yield a rich harvest
to the State, for this enterprise will
open the way for others. and ere long
we shall see industrial towns dottfng
North Carolina as they to-day do Ala,
bama and Tennessee and Virginia.
The railroads will find their freightS
doubling and quadrupling, land own,
ers will find ready buyers at good
prices for their properties that are now
unstable, and the tens of thousands
of people who are forced to remain in
idleness because there is no"work to
do will find steady and profitable EN-.
ployment. These are the reasons whv
the Manufacturers Record halls with
pleasure the establishment of new
enterprises such as this at Greensboro,
especially when in States that until
lately had not turned their attention
to the utilization of their great resour
ces. When the projectors of this en-
terprise shall have carried it through
to successful operation they will have
done a greater work for the good of
the State than if they had devoted
this $1,000, 900 to the endowment of
some charitable or educational in.
stitute.