Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-10-04
MINING JOURNAL
FROsTBURG, MD, OCTOBER 4, 1890.
CORRESPONDENTS.
From the New South,

BEssEMER, ALA, Sept %, 1890
To the MINING JOURNAL.
Having spent more than six months
in the livellest part of the mineral belt
of the new South, | have thought that
perhaps few words might not be un-
interesting to the readers of the great
paper"
The transformation which has take
place in Jones' valley in the past ten
years is something wonderful. Then
it was a sparsely settled, poorly
equipped farming region, containing
in all perhaps eight or ten thousand
people, scattered oyer an area of forty
or fifty miles in extent. To-day Jones'
valley contains one magnificent city
of $4,000 people and total population
of over 100000. Ten years ago Jones'
valley was the thoroughfare for one
trunk line railroad. To-day at least a
dozen railroad tracks radiate from
Birmingham, and seven from Bes-
semer. Twenty-seven furnaces are in
active blast in Jefferson county alone,
while the ore banks and coal mines
now in full operation are so numerous
that find it impossible to name them.
Coal, iron ore and limestone lie in such
close proximity that it can only be a
question of few years when every
description of iron manufacture-flO ON
a truss bridge to a watch sI ring, will
be shipped from Birmingham and Bes-
semer to all the markets of the world.
Great improvements sometimes seem
to move slowly, and for time after
the development of the mineral of this
country was commenced capital was
apparently satisfied to simply turn
that ore into pig iron and ship the
same North to be manufactured. The
next step was the erection of rolling
mill plants to convert the pig into
manufactured iron. This new in
dustry has been a most gratifying sue
cess, and to-day the mineral belt of
Alabama is almost as completely dotted
with rolling-mills as with blast fur
naces. And so step by step the process
of development has continued until we
now haye vast machine, engine, pipe
and safe manufactures, all consuming
the material taken in its crude state
from the hills that border Jones' val
ley on the North, East and Southwest.
Where did the influx of people come
from From every State in the
Union and from every country on the
globe. The Chinaman is here, but
not in numbers sufficient to constitute
himself nuisance. The Italian is
here in pretty strong force, and the
negro is omnlpresent. But for the
poor, incapable son of Ham, muchly
given to stealing and lodging work,
the South would be the garden.spot of
the world. When Henry w. Grady
spoke of the imam in gray with a
heart of gold returning from Apo
mattox to find his home in ashes, his
farm in weeds and desolation, his
business ruined, his money useless,
the very foundation of his social fabric
torn up and confronted by problem
the most serious and perplexing ever
submitted to human craftsmanship for
determination and settlement" he
spoke only the words of soberness and
truth. state it as a proposition that
cannot be confuted-that the negro of
Alabama to-day has opportunities SUI
perior to the laboring white man of
Maryland or Pennsylvania. And
yet whole generation Of free
dom has not advanced the race one
step. Individual instances of progress
and advancement in intelligence and
wealth are many, but as a race the
black man was born a newer of wood
and drawer Of water, and such he
remains and ever will. AS slave he
was at least useful. AS freeman,
taken collectively, he is a nuisance
and terrible drawback to progress in
the South. But he is here in countless
myriads, and being here he must be
utilized, and it thus happens that he
virtually monopolizes tho field of com
mon labor. Naturally to a certain ex-
tent the field of common labor is there
by degraded, and bar is set up in the
way of the immigration of white la
boring class. Young men IN search of
employment come South in a con-
slant stream. They find work readily,
but it is coupled with such conditions
as discourage ninety III hundred,
If they only told tho truth it would
not matter, but they seldom content
themselves with the relation of their
own experiences, and frequently mis-
represent the experience of others. A
notable case in point is that of young
Bernard, of Eckhart, who came to
Birmingham some months ago, and
after a season of homeslckness and
dependency returned to Eckhart and
spread the report in all directions that
my family were very much dissatisfied
and would return-T zoe could. Now
this Mr.. Bernard never was in Besse-
mer to my knowledge, and certainly
never met any of my family save Roy,
whom he came across in Birmingham.
Roy found him engaged in very
humble calling; offered to help him
and could have been of service to him.
But the fellow had neither energy nor
ambition for anything but to get
money enough to take him home, and
when he got back wilfully misrepre-
sented those who would have aided
him had he been of sufficient account
to justify it. And thus it is with a
great many. The truth is, the South
offers few inducements to the man
whose sole capital consists in the labor
of his hands. The negro coyers that
field, and will occupy it for years to
come. But if he has brains and energy
there is a wide field open to HIM. Roy
came here alone, without friends,
money or a profession and to-day he
can command better position at a
better salary than any young man of
his years can in Allegany county, and
in fact has a better position at better
pay than any official OF the Consolda-
ton coal company below the general
superintendent. For myself | have
only this to say-I find my position