The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-12-18
AN ABLE ARTICLE.
The Barring Failure and its Effect Upon the
South.

I ATTENTION TO SOLID AND PROFITA Bill
INVESTMENTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT
| OF THE SOUTH
The ablest article that has yet appear
| ed upon the Barring failure and its effec
upon this country, and especially upor
| the South, was contributed to last week
issue of the Manutdcturers' Record by
Mr.. George b. Cowlam, of Knoxville
/ Tenn. After relating how England hae
invested, mainly through the Earrings
/ $1,000 900, 900 in the Argentine, a purely
1 agricultural country of only 4 ZOO, 900 pc
/ pulation, Mr.. Cowlam writes:
The failure of Barring Bros. has calico
halt, not only in Great Britain but ir
every investment country in the Ole
World, in development schemes of al
kinds in Spanish America, Egypt, Cape
Colony, Congo and all other schemes Of
like character This is large world
| and it cannot be developed all at once
there is not capital enough to go round
The inevitable effect will be to concen
trate investments upon such fields as
have proved profitable in the past, and
have a solid and broad foundation in every
condition requisite for future profitable
extension of work.
Our own country will more and more
attract attention. No other country, no
other age in the worlds history, can show
such progress in the creation of wealth
and such widespread prosperity among
the people as the United States today.
Our natural resources. greater than those
of all Europe combined, have only been
touched on the edges and outcrops, so
to speak. While in England and all
the mere prosperous countries of contin-
entail Europe the cost of living and of
production in ali induatries Is increasing
because of exhausted supplies materials
with us it is decreasing day by day as we
open up our richer regions to capital and
labor. We have more than half the rail
way mileage of the world. and water
transportation by sea, by rivers and by
lakes, and have only to adjust our varied
productions of the farm, the factory and
tllC iIllIlc W SylllinctiIC1! pIOI)Ol III
order to permit unlimited increase in
wealth and in prosperity We have the
material, with every natural condition
for making it useful in the highest de-
gree. We have sixty five millions of eo-
pie to work it up. We have the skill,
intelligence, industry, thrift and enters
prise to carry on work on a scale never
dreamed of in any other country or age.
The ability of the American people to
adapt themselves to the work in hand
to catch on'-has long been proven
superior to that OF any other people,
The results they have achieved in the
creation of wealth, comfort and progress
are entirely without parallel in the his
tory Of the world. What they have done
and are doing day by day is the best
guarantee of what they can do.
The most fundamental industry in the
world is the production of iron. 1t is
the prime factor in modern civilization
in agriculture, in manufactures, in min
ing and in commerce-whether by sea or
by land, whether in the ship or the rail,
or the engines which drive vessels Or
trains. Without it's strength and adap-
liability steam power could not have
been developed nor hand power much
used. Take this industry, then, as an
indication of our progress, and go back
thirty years, in order to include the four
years of destructive civil war in the
count and make a fair average. During
this period and long before it, the United
States was second only to Great Britain
in iron production. Great Britain, the
United States, France, Germany, Bel
GUM, Austria and Sweden during this
period made over ninety per cent of the
worlds production.
Taking the production of iron in it's
highest rm-steel--the record of our
advancement during the same period is
even greater than in the production of
pig iron. The tables are not complete
for the earlier years, but in 1860 out of "a
worlds product of Ais, $50 tons the Uni ;
ted States made $4,000 TONS Great Brit
ain 100000, Germany 100 COO and France
$4,000. In 1870 we made 10000 tons,
Great Britain, 2l5,000, Germany 1854
and France S2,7S8. The Bessemer pro
cess practically created the steel age by
making its production possible on large
scale. Great Britain had the advantage
Of q good start, but in 1880 out of a to-
tai worlds production of over three and
a half million tons Great Britain made
1,044,3S2 tons and the United States
1,074,a64. This asceEdancy we have
maintained and increased, making, in
1899, 2,169,643 net tons of 1000 pounds
against2 ,, $40, 793 gross tons of 1910 pounds
made by Great Britain.
Taking In another way, our productive
energy in hand, horse and steam-pow-
er, computed in foot tons, exceeds that
of Great Britain and Germany combined
and is more than three times that of
France.
With an area equal to that of all Eu-
rope and natural resources far greater:
with q homogeneous people working I'M
der common laws, we must in time ex-
ceed not what combined Europe is in
numbers and wealth, but what she might
have been had she been from the start
one country, working in harmony, in
stead of divided into a score of nations
with artificial and unnatural boundaries
and still worse divided by languages,
laws, prejudices and old grudges and
wasting their energies in war and stand
ing armies. This fact is becoming bet>
ter understood day by day, and espe-
cially by capital This year we have
with us the iron and steel Institutes of
Europe looking over our resources. No
body of men having such influence to
move capital into our country from
abroad have before visited us. Their
coming cannot fail to- produce great re-
suits, They are especially interested in
the South, and are studying with great
care the resources of the mountain re
gion of our Southern States, it's iron
coal, timber etc. with view to its pos
sibilties for Industrial development. No,
where else on the earth's surface car
such q coal field he found as in the
South, parallelled for 700 miles, from
Shenandoah junction, w. Va, TO Tired
egar. Ala, by three great and contigu,
Gus belts of iron ore of every quality fol
foundry and mill iron and Bessemel
steel, nor such naturally advantageous
conditions for working them up. On
own productions in the United State.
are creating surplus wealth for invest
ment at the rate of a couple Of hundred
| million dollars a month. 1t is goins
more and more to the rich fields of thu
South, whose products will adjust bal
ance and benefit fhosa Of the tndnStrio