The state chronicle., 1892-04-20
Prospects of the South.

prospects OF the SOuth.
Baltimore Sun.
Now that the season Of active oper
ations in all fields of enterprise has ar
rived, it is of interest to consider the
part the South will take in the general
movement. Doubtless il will prose-
cute its various lines of labor and de-
velopment with its accustomed tenacity
OF purpose and with its accustomed |
success. There has been recently in
the South severe depression of busi-
ness, arising in part from the check to
investment in industrial enterprises
caused by the collapse of the great
banking house of the Barings of No
vember, 1890, and in part from the
more recent fall in the price of cotton.
The first of these untoward events
put an end to the speculative
boom in which so many people invested
their savings, and the second affected
seriously thousands of farmers and
business men not given to speculative
ventures. But the effect of the Bar
ings failure will soon disappear. Eng
land is as prosperous as if it had never
occurred, and there are signs that with
the conclusion of the liquidation necessi
tated by the financial disturbances of
1890 English capital will again find its
way across the Atlantic and into the
South. Unquestionably its industrial
development will 90 forward. Its re-
sources of soil, forests and mines
and its unsurpassed facilities for manu-
featuring are now well known to capt.
talists AMI will not be neglected. Legit-
innate undertakings already profitable
will not be abandoned, but will be en-
large". The South, in a word, has
had a ''good start and will not
stop. Recently the conditions have
: been unfavorable, but the stimulus of
the prosperity Of 1889 remains and
will have its effect ultimately in new
steps forward. The present depression
must be confessed, but it's extent has
perhaps been exaggerated in the
minds OF persons not resident in the
South. The San has from time te
time chronicled the increase of the as
sessed valuation of the several State:
Of the South since 1880 1t reache,
into billions, and that wealth is still
e intact The catalogue of new
f industries established on large
scale in the last twelve year
is of impressive length. The new
railroad mileage, the new mines
: the new factories, the increased outpu
s Of cereals and other food products
IS these remain. They have not van
sied into thin air, but are facts indica
tive of the solidity Of Southern pros
perity to-day and of its prospects il
/ the near future, With the suppress sio1
Of of the booming spirit there is ever
u reason to hope for recovery of legiti
h mate business. The distress caused b
the excessive crop OF cotton, with it
y consequent decrease of price, is n
'e doubt broad and deep and we'll calc,
at lated to discourage Southern planter
De The latter are now having tn
n. experiences from which Wester
.. farmers have but recently emerge,
These experiences are distres
ne ing and must enlist the sympath
ce of every friend of Dixie land. B,
ry the seemingly interminable hardshi,
nt of the Western farmer have been vel
Of materially lightened by the improve
" foreign demand for his grain. He
'e' now paying off his mortgages al
er- looks hopefully to the future. VIII
he has happened to the West may lik
,te wise happen to the South. Indee
IL with revived prosperity abroad, it
much more probable that there will
a permanently good market for Sout
mt ern cotton than for Western graf
nj With reduction of the tar
un which will enable the foreign
-. to exchange his products free
'o' for ours it is almost certain tb
nd- the Southern staple will be in great