The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-10-17
SOUTHERN DEVELOPMENT.
The Advantages OF Port Royal Harboi
What it's Development Means fol
the South.

htc AACuStAD W
the South.
Augusta Chronicle. u
Few people in this section realize
precisely in what way the development
at Port Royal will benefit the South,
and fewer still know how these benefits
are to be brought about, and yet, &C
cording to my opinion, the opening up
of Port Royal marks an event of tre-
mendous Importance to the whole
south; an event whose full con-
sequences and significance 1t is inn
possible to fully foresee, and compared
with other undertakings Of a similar
nature. having equal magnitude in
their beneficial results, 1t will come so
quickly that it will be difficult to realize
how it all happened.
When the Port Royal and Augusta
Railway Is connected with the Georgia
and the Louisville and Nashville rail-
roads, comprising one grand system, or
connected with the Kansas City.
Memphis and Birmingham road, it
will speedily enrich all parts of the
right angles with the Atlantic coast,
and cutting through the wealth of the
Southern cotton fields, timber lands,
coal, iron and minerals Of the noun
tains, n extending into the great
grain and cattle regions of the West,
with no snow or v weather to
contend with, the economical working
of which will make it profitable to
haul freight much cheaper than the
roads of the North.
With these connections made the
foundation is laid for the production
and profitable exchange of the wealth
Of the different sections that will build
up rapA> ly, and it is not exaggeration
to say that q line from Kansas City to
Port Royal u n through u greater
amount and variety of natural wealth
than a elsewhere be found in any
part Of the United States, across
which a limo of equal length can be
drawn.
The natural wealth of the noun
famous region of the South is greater
yet the iron, coal and vast variety and
quantity of nearly every known
mineral is untouched and lies like a
wilderness in the heart Of the South,
surrounded on every side by a fairly
rich country, covered by timber and
suitable for agriculture, which is only
partially developed.
A through line northwest and south
east is the line Of greatest variety,
and therefore the best line for the
exchange Of products. With the
hoh III IN CSuUEo anu
with agricultural regions al both ends
its business could not be surpassed in
variety or extent by any road in the
country.
The early fruits and vegetables and
p~hosphates and timber would go West,
while the ores and coal would go both
ways, and from the West the wheat,
corn, beef and pork would flow to the
east, the cotton and timber and coal
would go abroad, while the emigrants
and imports and exports of ali kinds
would flow through Port Royal, as
there ls no good reason why the North
era ports should control the foreign
commerce for the South Atlantic and
Southern States.
In my judgment there is a pressing
necessity for the building up of Port
Royal. The South and Southwest
must have a deep water port on the
Atlantic, and exchange their products
direct by the shortest route to Europe,
and it seems to me that if all work,
and with the aid of the natural laws
vantages of competition the shortest
route gives us, we should be able to
force products to come II way.
New Orleans is getting, and Mobile
may for q time secure q large portion
OF the grain, but it is across the Atlantic
and not over the Gulf Of Mexico that
our foreign trade lies.
The country On the line of this great
trunk railway is sparsely settled, and
Northern people are reluctant to re-
cognize that there is any good in the
South, but if the people of the South
pursue the proper policy 1 believe we
can settle up the whole of it.
l would be in favor of Offering extra
inducements to practical farmers and
gardeners, and when they find they
can work every day in the year in
their shirt sleeves and raise two crops
q year, ever On the poorest land, if
they use fertilizers, I think that the
not distant future will develop the
possibilities of the South beyond pre-
sent calculations.
If we a only get a few ship-loads
OF e~migrants through Port Royal the
problem of taking up the waste lands
in the South will be solved. The very
beginning of this kind of development
will diversity the agriculture of the
South, so much needed.
a fleet of thirty-seven war ships
sailed into Port Royal just at the close
of the war without pilots and with
out a mishap, and some of them drew
twenty-seven and q half feet of water.
LII in those active and stirring times
the harbor could be used to such good
purpose. what can be accomplished
through commerce.? Favored to an
unusual degree by virtue of the loca-
ton she should be queen of the South
Atlantic coast, the New York of the
South, n be tho ccntre of active
scenes when IN controls and
builds up great cities with far less
natural resources, as there is no ques-
tion and no dispute that Port Royal
has most magnificent harbor facilities.
ship. owners say that with no bar
to block the entrance to her harbOr,
landlockcd as it is, for commercial
purposes no point offers better induce
mcnts. The largest merchant vessels,
either under steam or sail, can enter
or ride out with perfect safety.
a u to 30 foot channel, we'll marked
with buoys, which varies in width from
100 to thousands of yards, leads from
the entrance of the bay to the wharves
of Port Royal, passing the new naval
station only two miles down the bay.
The village of Port Royal lies i'm
mediately on the shores of the harbor,
and in its location the original founders
made a most wise selection, as there is
ample room for tho great city that
will some day, under proper develop
ment, mark the spot, as Il must be a
commercial point, If not s%mothered by
designing men. The port being every
thing that could be desired for freight
shipments, the difference in distance
between that point and New York and
the nOCta nf Enrpra Ia OF, ffiniapfly lasoa