The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-06-17
SOUTHERN WEALTH.
EDWARD ATKINSON ON THE
SOUTH'S GREAT RICHES,
Possibilities in Agriculture and Min.
ing That Eclipse Anything
Thus Far Realized in
America or Europe.

turerS' Record review of the South and
its future, based on his recent trip
through that section. Mr.. Atkinson
says that it may seem officious for him to
deal with the resources OF the So nth,
but that his justification is found in the
strange fact that. u the very heart of the
eastern part of the United States is an
area nearly as large as France, endowed
with more varied resources, and with q
better climate than almost any other
similar area within the limits of our
common country, which is sparsely set
tied, and until few years ago scarcely
known to New England people. "The
time has now come, he says, "for men
to comprehend that there lies at our
door very large area of almost unoc-
cupied territory capable of being made
the homes Of millions of intelligent and
industrious families. It is a territory
capable of supplying meats, fruit, and
vegetables in almost measureless abund.
ance, where yet large part of the
grain aud meat are imported from the
West"
Mr.. Atkinson confines his review MAIN
ly to the great Appalachian region of the
South, from the Potomac to North Ala
bama and from the Piedmont region to
the Blue Grass district of Kentucky. Of
this section he says: "The half has not
yet been told of this imperial series of
deposits of coal and probably of iron, to
say nothing of the other resources of this
part of the Southland. The whole urea
is so much elevoted above the level of
the seq as to be in true sense white
mans country. This mountain and
plateau section possesses climate in
which any kind of work may be per-
formed by white or black alike. In some
portions of the area described are prob
ably to be found the best conditions of
climate, of soil, of humidity and rain
fall, and of all the other elements which
20 to make stalwart men and women"
Referring to the coal and iron area Of
the South, which covers about 250, 900
square miles, Mr.. Atkinson says that til
about equal to the combined area of
England, Wales, Scotland. and Belgium,
half of France and half of Germany,
which are the main sources of the iron
production of Europe. He adds care
not the mountains of iron ore and the
mines Of coal the true loadstones to
which all forms of industrial energy
are attracted2 At q few points the
crystallization has begun, but as
yet it is only beginning. Moreover, in
European iron countries large quantities
Of ore have to be drawn from Sweden
and Spain. European railroads have
largely been built to serve war purposes,
southern railroads wholly in the interest
of peace, and for the distribution of the
abundance which makes for human vel.
fare. In Europe, passing from Great
Britain into France, from France through
Belgium and Luxembourg to Germany,
and taking into view the conditions of
Spain, would not one find every possible
obstruction that could be placed in the
way by difference of race, creed, or con-
dition, by national animosity, accompa-
MED by burden of debt five times as
great as that which now rests upon us2
Does it not require the product of the
work of one man occupied in the pursuits
Of peace to support every idle soldier in
lamp or barracks, waiting for the spark
by which war and revolution may be en-
gendered at any momenta Is not the
border of each country an armed campo
Are not all the railways laid out more for
the contingencies of war than for the
service of peace2 Again, one may put
the question: Must not Europe disarm or
,tarve in the face of the coming compe-
.ition of this country in supplying the
great commerce of the world when We re-
move the distractions which we our
'elves have set up2
"With respect to the resources of the
South, it needs only trip of two weeks,
Or even less, to prove the existence of
almost unlimited supplies CT fire clay,
kaolin, and glass sand, iron Ore, coal,
and salt, to say nothing of
some of the metals of less Importance.
Coal, ores aud timber exist in such
abundance as to make the question one
Of the proximity and of the relative quail
Ity of the supplies rather than of their
and of their existence. The
surface only has been scratched. The
supply of hardwood timber is endless,
md in the limestone country as soon as
the trees arc cut away the blue grass
comes in. In Virginia we saw the larg-
,sthcrd of registered short-horned cattle
that there is in the world whose progeny
arc being scattered throughout the blue
grass country. 1t may be deemed ex-
:ravagant to suggest, but cne cannot
1clp believing that when sufficient
endowed with thrift aud in
shall occupy the valleys aud
plateaux of this section, the potential in
wheat production of this section may he
equal to the supply of all the wheat that
he people Of this country now consume.
One needs only to view the valleys of
;he Shenandoah, the Roanoke Valley,
Inc 10, 900 square miles of the so-called
blue grass in Kentucky, the Powell
River Valley, aud the many limestone
valleys and plateaux which are traversed
n other parts of this section, to accept
even this forecast rs only perhaps little
too Banguinc or roseate in its terms"
TI,a D,f.o oP Daoo,