The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-09-04
THE soUTH,s INDUSTRIES.
Its Wonderful Natural Resources and
It's DeYeIOnment Described.

Mr.. Richard III. Edmonds, editor of
the Manufacturers Record, of Balti-
more, writes as follows on the wonder
full natural u Of the South, and
the rapid development now in progress
in that section:
standing the present financial pressure
Will prove q greater advertisement
than that section has ever yet had. 1t
Is an advertisement that commands the
attention OF the entire business world,
and its result will be worth more mil
lions to the South than even the great
est enthusiast would dare to put into
cold figures. Many people, even lead
ing inanciers and general business
men, in the North and West and in
Europe. never having fully understood
the South or It's resources, nor appre-
ciated the solidity of it's progress OF
its desirability as q place for invest
ment. They have not believed, be-
cause they v Investigated tho SUBJ
Ject, that the South possesses a combi-
nation OF advantages for the support of
o dens population, and for the crea-
ton of wealth unequalled elsewhere
on earth.
AS broad as is this statement, it's
truthfulness can easily be seen. 1t is
the only country in the world which
combines on such q large scale, and so
admirably situated as to be susceptible
OF utilization at a minimum Of cost,
cotton, timber, coal and iron-a four
fold foundation which cannot be dupli-
Gated. But to these 1t adds q practi-
cal monopoly of the worlds supply of
phosphate rock, the value of which in
~far-reaching benefits to the South and
to Southern agriculture cannot be over
estimated.
1t possesses agricultural possibilities
SO far beyond what 1t receives credit
for that they can only be appreciated
by q study Of the statistics showing the
relative value or proportion of agri-
cultural products of the South and the
balance OF the country in 1860. 1t has
a range OF climate running from the
almost tropical of some of it's seacoast
points to that of some of it's high noun
tain sections, almost identical with tho
climate OF Canada. BY reason of it's
long oceans and gulf coast it has access
to the markets of the world, which for
ever secures for all its products the
lowest freight rates. Contrast these
resources and advantages with those
or any other section of this country.
n foundation OF the enormous wealth
OF Great Britain is largely artificial.
Nature has given it but little on which
to build. 1t imports all of its cotton,
much of it's iron ore and an average of
about $3.50, OOO, 900 q year for food-stutfs,
and 1T mines its coal at q depth of !, 300
to 1000 feet, with the cost constantly
increasing. But with all these disad-
vantages it's cotton manufacturing and
its coal and iron interests have created
enormous wealth. Upon these, in fact,
the prosperity and progress OF Great
Britain have been built up. In New
England we see q duplication of Great
Britain. Without natural resources,
with u barren soil, dependent upon
other sections for its coal, iron, lum.
Der and ~foodstuffs, it has imported its
raw materials and yet made itself the
manufacturing centre of. the United
States. Pennsylvania, with coal and
iron as the basis Of its Industrial life,
has developed it's manufacturing inter-
ests to such al extent that their annual
product exceeds in value the total pro-
duct OF manufactures in the fourteen
Southern States. In the Northwest
timber has. made several States.
In the South we find all these raw
materials concentrated in one section.
Raising three-iorrths of the worlds
cotton crop, the South is no longer con-
tent to ship its raw cotton elsewhere,
put Is rapidly increasing the number of
It's cotton mills, having ~quadrupled
this industry in the last ten years. No
n any longer questions the fact that
the South q manufacture cotton
goods at a lower cost than either New
England or Great Britain. The infant
industry of q few years ago is daily
growing stronger. How is it possible
for New England, which imports its
toodstuff with which it feeds it's people,
m pnIn7lntn in nnffN,,
with the South, which raises the cot.
ton, which has an unlimited supply of
cheap coal for mills that do not use
water power, though it's unutilized
water powers are great enough to run
all the cotton spindles in the world,
and which produces every variety of
foodstutf at a low cost? In one case
we see that everything must be as
sembled at the factory at large ex-
pense for freight and miscellaneous
charges, while in the other everything
is practically produced at the factory
door.
AS in cotton, SO in iron. No other
country has such combination of adj
vantages for the production of iron.
It's unequalled of iron and
coal n the %cheapness of bringing
them together at the furnaces are alone
suflclent to enrich an empire. That
iron has been depressed for several
years, with small profits to the maker,
does not alter the fact hat the iron in
dustry is n of the greatest wealth
creators that human skill has ever de-
Vised. Coal and iron, whose produc-
tlon and consumption are said to meas
ure the civilization of n nation, will
add to the progress and the wealth of
the South as much more than thew
have added to Great Britain's and
Pennsylvania's, as the supply in these
Is exceeded by the supply in the South.
About one-half of all the standing tim
Der in the United States is in the four
teen Southern States. Its utilization
can, therefore, create q woodworking
industry covering everything from a
clothes-pin to tho finest and costliest
furniture, greater than the entire wood
working industries of the whole coun-
try. These -four great industries
coal, iron, cotton, lumber-vast as
they are, do not by any means repre-
sent the full extent of Southern manu-
featuring superiority. They are merely
four cornerstone in the great build
ing of Southern industry, for which
nature has supplied u variety and
abundance OF materials, the like of
which cannot be found elsewhere.
Measureless as the manufacturing DOS
sibilities of the South are, that section.
unlike many others, Is not confined To
manufacturing alone.
AS already stated, the South's future
as an agricultural cOuntrv can ha ado.