Evening journal., 1893-01-06
rae sourA.s FUTURE.
A Region Unsurpassed in It's Possibii
ties by Auy other In the World.

a lAcElNn Unsurpassed IN It's oeHtDAAi-
ties by Auy other In the World.
Richard Il. Edmonds, in the fourth of
his series Of articles IN The Engineering
Magazine on the industrial Develop
ment of the South, writes as follows of
the future.
Looking at the great results accom-
plished by the Louisville and Nashville
railroad, and the coal and iron traffic
which it handles. it is difficult TO realize
that in 1880 Alabama only made 1000
tons of iron and mined less than 350 600
tons Of coal. We forget that ten years
ago Birmingham had scarcely 4,O0O peo
pie; that for FIVE years later Bessemer
was unthought of and its site forest;
that Admission was simply a furnace
town Of probably 1 1000 inhabitants; that
Roanoke was an almost unknown way
station of 600 people; that Middlesbor-
ough came into being less than four
years ago. that Neport News gave no
promise of its present Importance; that
Chattanooga and Knoxville, Atlanta. Nor
fork, Dallas, Fort Worth and dozens of
other places of present national promi-
nence were, with few exceptions, sim
ply fairly prosperous trading centers.
And yet how great can the growth of the
| future be without overriding Southern
industrial development.
Here is a region OF unequaled natural
resources, of coal and iron in inexhausti-
bic quantities, in close proximity and at
low cost Of production, of great timber
wealth, of soil adapted to every branch
of agriculture; in fact combination for
the creation of wealth, greater than any
other equal area in the world possesses.
It's population is still sparse, its manu-.
featuring and mining interests still in
their infancy its towns and cities less
numerous than in any other part Of the
country. With ali the industrial advance
of the past ten years, the whole South
does not yet equal the one State of Penn
sylvania in the value of its mauufactur-
ing products. West Virginia alone has
far more coal than Pennsylvania, its coal
area exceeding even Great Britains it
has many times as much standing timber
as Pennsylvania and it can develop its
industrial interests until they exceed in
value the present aggregate of the four
teen Southern States and will not be
more crowded than is Pennsylvania.
What is true of West Virginia is true of
other Southern States. Some years age
Colonel A. x. Mcclure Of Philadelphia,
said of Alabama: There is not a source
!
cepting only our oil product. that is not
found in Alabama in equal or greater
abundance. with the matchless advan
tages Of climate, of easier and cheaper
production, and of vastly cheaper trans.
portation. Natures great gifts to Penn
! sylvania have been not only l6erally
supplemented in Alabama, but to then
, have been added every possible advan
tage for their cheap development and de
livery TO the markets of the world. F" Ala
bama is 6,600 square miles larger thar
, Pennsylvania. Every manufacturing
{ enterprise now in existence from MasoI
E and Dixons line to the Rio Grande might
, be located in Alabama, and still that state
, with far greater resources than Penn
: sylvania. would not equal it in its present
industrial product.
There is no danger, therefore, o.
Southern development reaching the limt
q of profitable advancement. Many thous
I ands of miles of new railroads can b
{ wisely built into virgin mineral and tim
per regions, which will afford payinl
. traffic from the day the first train roll
j. over them, and also into settled parts O
/. the South now without transportation
! facilities The growth of coal produC
4 tion from GOO, 600 to %, 600 0J0 tons il
one decade can be duplicated for man
n decades and q market be found for IL
q Producing nearly two-thirds of th
a worlds cotton supply-9, 600, 600 out q
4 a total of $1,000, 600 bales-but havin
i only 2,0000 0U0 out of a total of owe
so 600. 600 spindles in the world, I'll
q South has room for multiplying indef
L nitelythe increase already made in cotto
IS manufacturing.