The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-11-05
Finishing Manufactures.

The following article taken from the
Lexington, KY, Industrial american,
has peculiar application to this section,
and for that reason we insert it, and
commend it to the perusal of all into
whose hands it may fall. Our progress
and development cannot be consumma-
ted as we would like to see, until we have
industries to finish the crude product of
the furnaces, and thus establish a line
of industries that will keep our wealth
among us, give labor employment and
furnish market for the farm:
One of the fundamental principles of our con
stitutional form of government is the self sup
porting idea. This does not apply to any one
section alone, but calls for individual effort
on the part OF each according to their resources.
No single section, where the means of support
We're at hand, was expected to remain inactive
and receive benefits from other sections; but
this is just the position the South is taking to
day in permitting her crude products to go from
her. instead of supplying herself with finishing
machinery and preserving this industry for her
self. The South is the most admirably adapted
section in the Union for the success sful demon
stration of aself-supporting policy. Her miner
ais, timber, cotton and other varied resources
place her in a position that, were she shut out
from all alien assistance she could be self sup
porting and independent. She is doing little,
however, to prove this fact to the outside world,
anu Is olGuef July cWdA0leu bO Tile WOuQeI-
full power within her grasp, or prefers to let 9th
er sections or countries do this work for her,
Notwithstanding the ceding of this right is a
costly luxury i'll the end.
She sends her timber and cotton to other sec
lions, and when they are finished and returned
/ i'll furniture and cotton cloth, she once more re-
ceiveS her own, and is made to pay well for the
privilege of so doing.
There have been some efforts pushed forward
in the establishment OF a few finishing manu-
factories in the South, but they are wholly in
adequate to the demand, and make little .or no
impression on the enormous bulk or crude
workable material
Let the South abandon all idea of erecting
mammoth manufactures calling for a large CT
gauZing capital, and located at great distances
one from the other. What she needs, and what
her products demand, is great number of
small finishing establishments, conveniently
and advantageously located. She also needs,
and Is suffering from lack Of schools of design
or training Institutes where her idle men and
women, willing and able to work, may have the
benefit of instruction.
There is an unfortunate idea abroad in the
South that the people of that section are insult
ed by nature to Law hold and make success of
manufacturing pursuits: that their Northern
neighbOrs are especially constituted to that end,
and any attempt in the South to initiate them
would be SO much time and money wasted. Let
the Southern people eliminate this misleading
idea soon as possible, as it is utter nonsense.
The spirit of advancement presses on all sides,
and their own incompatible resources demand
it, and certainly where they have established
plants their success is sufficient evidence of tenn
permanent and vocation being suitably allied
The South has fiattering future before her, but
she must MT be satisfied to work it out by the
glow OF a rush light, while the rest of the world
is forging ahead in the searching light of cleo
trcity.