St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-04-08
SOUTHERN PROGRESS.
Commissioner Wright Epito-
mixes the Advance in
Prosperity.
A Very Favorable Showing
Made in the Development
Of Industries.
Statistics Of Interest Touch
ing Cotton Production and
Cotton Mills.
Railroad Increase, Capital In
Railroad Increase, Capital In
vested, Debt and EXpendi-
lures Shown.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. April 7.-Hon
Carroll d. Wright, United States com
missioner of labor, arrived in this city
today from Washington. This evening
ne delivered an address at Watkins
institute on the progress of the South
ern states from 1880 to 1890, i'll the
course of which he said:
The Southern states, in 1870, produced
but 1S4, $50 tons of pig iron; i'll 1880,
397, 30l net tons. and in 1890. 1,780. sos
net tons were produced. In steel the
South has not yet made mnch progress.
In 1880 the number of net tons was
1850, and in 1890. 1S4, G25. This is a
most encouraging outlook, and bespeaks
for the South a steel industry in the
future of which she will be proud.
The average cost Of pig iron in the
Northern part OF the United States, for
run of furnace, is about S14 per ton of
2,240 pounds, while in the South the
average cost of run of furnace pig iron
is Sl0.75. This difference of. 1926 in
favor of the Southern product will be
increased to larger amount as labor in
the South improves its standard of liy-
ing, and the development of
Coal and Iron Mining
and transportation increases the facili-
ties for assembling the materials. Ten
nessee produced 47,S13 tons of pig iron
for the year ending May 81, 1880. while
for the year ending June. 1890, she pro-
duced 200, TAI tons. Her percentage of
the tota production in the United States
i'll 1887 was 1.27, while in 1890 the per-
centage had been increased to 3.04.
The largest cotton crop in the South
ern states prior to the war was in 1860,
W hen 1868, ITO bales were produced. In
1871 it was 1852 17 bales. In 1891 the
production reached S,G52,597 bales, and
sos, 661 bales of the production were con-
sumed in Southern mills, as against less
than half that quantity ten years be-
fore. In 1890 the cottonseed oil mills
crushed 1.05S, 200 tons, the product being
worth $27,310, $50, an increase in round
numbers in ten years Of 24.000,000.
The number of cotton mills increased
from 16l in 1880 to 1874 in 1890, the num-
Der of spindleS from about 100000 to-
nearly 100000, and the product from
SIC, 356, 1S2 TO S54, 199,379. In 1880 there
were SCI establishments for the manu-
facture of wool in the Southern states,
while in 1890 there were but 334. But
the decrease III number in no way indi-
Gates decrease in other features, for
the capital invested in the WOODEN man
ufactures of the Southern states has in
creased.
Railroads and Finance.
Between 1880 and 1890 the mileage Of
Southern railroads, with the exception
of Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Mis-
souri, and Texas, was increased from
1925 miles to 24,956 miles, and the
of passengers carried from
6. S95, 600 to 30,061, 900. The number of
passengers carried was increased nearly
five fold, and the amount of freight
moved grew from II, 759, AL tons to 6l,-
I'll ,099 tons. The total earnings and in
come of Southern railroads were in
creased from nearly $47,000,000 in 1880
to more than S103, 000, 900 in 1890.
The capital invested in the great in
dustries of the South is represented by
the banking capital, which i'll 1880 was
ninety-two and a half millions and in
1890 more than one hundred and sew
enty-one and half millions, an increase
of over sc per cent; the capital invested
in manufacture and establishments of
all kinds was advanced from one hun
dred and seventy-nine and third mill
ions in 1880 to five hundred and ffty-one
and a half millions In 1890, while the
total number of hands employed was
more than doubIed-being 105 per cent
greater in 1890 than in 1880.
Debt and Expenditures.
The total Indebtedness of the South
ern states, including county debts, and
less the sinking fund, that is, practic-
ally the net total debt-was in 1880,
S2l5, 712.24l, while in 1884 this indebted
ness had been reduced to S17S. 161, 755.
The reduction is best expressed by the
figures representing per capita indebt-
edness. In 1880 the total net indebted
ness of the Southern states was $1l.20
for every inhabitant; in 1890 it had been
reduced so that each person was repre-
scented by all Indebtedness of SS.0S. The
state of Tennessee has reduced her
total debt from ST., 100000 in 1850 to
less than $20,000,000 in 1890, or as eX-
pressed in per capita Indebtedness,
from S20.S1 in the first year named to
Sl1.13 in the last.
In 1878 the Southern states expended
S8,6S7,570 for school purposes, includ-
ing buildings, school expenses, salaries,
ETC., but not payments of bonded in.
debtedness. In 1888, ten years later
such total expenditures reached SIG,
SO6,66S. Tennessee alone increased hel
expenditures during the ten years from
1874, 232 to S1,023,S 1898. The percentage
of enrolment of the whole population
in 1889 was 1859. and in 1890 it haC
risen to 20.27; while in the whole
United States the percentage of enroll
ment Of the total population was 2O.2: