The daily state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 188?-1891, 1891-04-17
PORTER ON THE SOUTH.
he Gays That it is the Most Progressive
Section of this Country.
fBY the United Press


BALTIMORE, Md, April 16.-The Man
ufactnrers' Record this week publishes
an article from the pen Of Robert P.
Porter, Superintendent of the Census,
on the material development and pro
gress in the Southern States during the |
past decade, as shown by facts and |
figures gathered by the Census Bureau |
As epitomized, Trey show won
derful growth and progress in
mineral and agricultural develop
ment, and Justify Mr.. Porter's prediction
OF even greater and unprecedented pros
perlty in the New South in the future.
| While the time, Superintendent
Porter says, has not yet arrived to give
complete inventory of the wonderful
progress of the South during he last de-
cade, official figures of the branches of
inquiry already completed Indicate that
the final returns will show that in no
part of the Uuited States has industrial
progress been more satisfactory. One
thing is certain, namely, th 1t
the mineral development and the
increase in manufactures during
this period has been of such
magnitude and of such impo1 tance as to
seriously attract the attention Of the
world The South is to-day producing
as much coal, iron ore and pig iron as
the entire United States produced in
1870, and the progress of the South
in the manufacture of steel, Supecinten
dent Porter thinks, will be as great du-
ring the next ten years as has been in
the production of coal and pig iron du-
| -. IL c1oc />f
labor attracted to the rich miderai re-
gions will be Of higher character
than of the past; that is there
will be artisans and mechanl cs
who will command much higher rate
of wages, ard hence increasing the con-
, suming power OF the South. The trouble
to-day, he gays, with this part of the
&c lntr~, is that most of its products
nave 10 be shipped north or to foreign
) countries for further manipulation,
E but once establish an industrial
= condition that viii! require a great
er variety Of articles Of general con
SUMPTION and you will bring to that
. region still greater diyersi6catior
: Of manufactures. The remarkable de
velopment of the new South, as he
!, calls it, is shown in striking degree by
:, the astonishing growth Of individual
= cities in this section during the past tel
: years In support Of this, he cites tht
wonderful, and in some cases, the phe
4 nomenal growth Of q number OF cities
. and towns during the decade, IN Alaba
. barna, Arkansas, North Carolina, Vir
= ginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Geor
gia Admission, Alabama, that in 1880
= had s. population of 242. is returned D,
= the census of 1890, as containing 9S7t
. inhabitants; Birmingham, Alabama, IN
- known when the census Of 1870 Wa
= taken, and which in 1880 had popula
tion of 1886, had grown in 1890 to
fiourishing city of 26, 17S Inhabitants
n and is in fact a centre of Industrial &C
tlvity Of $1,000 people. Florence, Ala
# bama, with population in 1890 OF 5, 984
or $50 per cent. greater than IN 1890
Chattanooga in 1890 had a population Q
90 100, an increase during the decade Q
n more than 125per cent ;Roanoke, Virgini
9, which did not appear at all in the cen
st sus Of 1880, is now city Of 49, 159, IN
habitants. There was an output in tn
y coal-producing States Of the South i
~ 1890 of more than twice the entire ou
8. put of bituminous coal in the Unite
I'd States in 1890, and nearly 10000
le more tons than the total production {
ly the United States in 1870.
y, Far greater progress, Superintendent
to Porter says, has been shown by th
ey South in the production of pig iron; tt
oy entire production South in 1880 VIZ
slr 97,3O1 tons. which in 1888 had IL
creased to l, 1872, 1853 tons, and in 1S9
lie to 2,917, ,529 tons; in fact the produ
ed tiou Of iron ore in these Southern Stat
be now almost equals the total productic
of the United States in 1870.
as