The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1892-08-16
THE ADVOCATE.
rae sourA.s pRooREss.

I'm the August forum MI ISlcharu
III. Edmonds draws a bright picture
picture of Southern industrial pro-
gress and prosperity. 1t is picture
full of significance and one on which
the whole country may look with
pleasure.
A dozen years ago the Southern
vegetable and fruit trade was insig-
nificant. To-day it amounts to fifty
million dollars year, and is increas-
ing, with promise that the South is
to become the market garden of the
North. From Norfolk alone more
than five million dollars worth of
vegetables and fruits are yearly sent
TO Northern markets. Georgia sends
more than ten thousand carloads of
watormelons and from three to four
million boxes OF oranges.
The yield of cotton the great
Southern staple, has nearly doubled
in ten years, reaching nine million
bales in 1891. There has been a
marvellous advance in the propuction
of rice, sugar and tobacco. The grain
product increased during the decade
from four hundred to nearly seven
hundred million bushels. The value
of chief agricultural products was
nearly two hundred million dollars
greater in 1891 than i'll 1881.
Ten years ago the annual output of
coal mines was six million tons; to-
day it is twenty-three millions. Then
less than half million tons of pig
iron were produced; now the output
is two millions. Then the capital in
vested in cottonseed oil mills was
three and half million dollars; now
it is thirty millions. In Southern cot
ton mills twenty-thousand more oper-
atives are employed now than ten
years ago. In railroad building and
traffic, in CONNER and business, cor
responding strides have been made.
The railroad mileage has been nearly
d ubled. The rise of exports from
Southern ports amounts to nearly one
hundred million dollars. National
banks have increased in number from
two hundred and twenty to six hun
dred and forty, while their capital has
risen from forty-five million to hun
dred million dollars. In 1881 the as
sessed value of property in the South
was less than three billion dollars in
1891 it was nearly five billions.
These are merely some items of ten
years Southern progress. The re-
sources Of the South are boundess.
Its coal and iron deposits, "always
the foundation for the greatest pros
perity, are so great as to defy compe-
itiou." Its forests of hard wood sug-
gest vast industrial possibilities. ain
the great mineral and timber belt
which stretches from Virginia to
Northern Alabama there is concen.
tration of mineral and timber wealth
greater than can be found in any
other equal area in America or Eu-
rope with ideal conditions for lis pro-
titabIe development"
Such III outline is the story Of
Southern progress and promise told
by MI. Edmonds. Bright hued and
rosy as it is it is not picture of fancy.
1t bristles with facts and figures that
give 1t the element Of reality.
To the cynic, the pessimist, the
calamity prophet it may be discour-
ageing. To every one who rejoices
i'll national progress it is something
for congratulations Southern pros
perity is American prosperity.
All praise to the South for its at
achievements. All success to its
future enterprise.
But few years ago its territory
was dotted with fresh battle fields
that told memorable stories of devas-
tation. Its people were impoverished |
its industries paralyzed, its future
cIouded. Devastated by war, OPP
pressed by reconstruction legislation,
menaced by Northern political domi-
nation. The South has shown a
pluck and enterprise and achieved a
success that can not fail to command
the admiration of the world. May it
move steadily on in the highway of
industrial and commercial progress.
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