The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-09-06
AIMS AND OBJECTS
OF THE SOUTHERN EXCHANGE
ASSOCIATION.
An Interesting Letter From the Sec
retary and General Manager=-The
Work Undertaken by the Asso-
ciation Fully Set FOrth==Its Pur=
lfc T. ol

cation FULLY Set FOrth==itS Pur=
poses, Its Scope and Its Personnel.
/ To the Editor of the Mall and Espress
SIR: Despite the generous notice
which has been given the Southern
! Exchange Association by the press Of
the country, we find in certain quarters
a aprehension as to who compose
it, its raison d'etre, its plan and pnr
pose, and what it has thus far &C
complished. Therefore we ask space
in your valuable columns in which to
set forth fairly these matters.
The small central body, with its
headquarters here at the commercial
heart of the nation consists of forty
four members. Eighteen of these are
Northern men, ten are Southern by
birth, but Northern ny adoption, and
the remainder are Southerners and
reside in the South. These last are
chairmen of the Advisory Boards of
their respective States, Missouri and
the District Of Columbia bringing up
the number to sixteen.
The chairman Of each State appoints
a chairman for each Congressional
District thereof, and the latter a
chairman for each county in his
district, This organization is further
extended by the appointment of a
chairman for each township in the
county. All report through the sue
cessive grades, to the central body at
New York. To each chairman is
accorded the privilege of gathering
about him the number he finds neces-
sary to make up an efficient advisory
board.
The purposes of the association are
"to provide the ways and means for
ascertaining, advertising and in all
ways advancing the development of
the whole SOUTH" Which, analyzed,
means that it will, through experts
gather reliable exhaustive data as to
the South's resources, advantages and
needs, and, through appropriate
channels, convey this specific informa-
ton, properly arranged and classified,
to those whom it will most interest
To answer the inquiry thus awakened,
it will maintain in New York City
permanent exhibit, which will afford
ocular demonstration of what the
South produces and it will keep a
registry, open to inspection by pros
pective settlers or investors, and which
will set forth properties for sale in the
way of timber, mineral or agricultural
lands, water powers, ETC., inducements
offered to immigration or to manu-
facture, capital wanted for commercial
or industrial enterprises, ETC., by
individuals, firms, corporations or
communities together with the terms
and conditions governing same.
A skilled artisan or agriculturist is
dissatisfied with his surroundings
some locality in the South exactly fits
his requirements and badly needs him;
a Southern town wants and is offering
extraordinary inducements for some
particular kind of mill-elsewhere
parties are searching for just such
opportunity some Southern locality is
making an attractive bid for much
needed capital-in other sections of
the country idle capital is awaiting
such adventure yet these without the
intervention of some such exchange as
this might never find each other.
The several States of the South,
through their commissioners of I'M
migration, bureaus Of agriculture, land
or other departments have long sought
| to attract settlers the communities Of
the South, through their commercial
bodies, to encourage manufacture and
the investment Of capital; but lacking
! concert of action, they have met with
failure, or, at best, only partial success
bidding against each other, they
| have hurt each others chances.
The Southern railroads have been
! no more successful for actuated by the
! same spirit of competition which
governed the policy Of the great East
and West railroads in settling theiT
waste lands, they seldom have paused
migrant would suit his new environ
ment.
Like the transcontinental roads, they
have too often carried the lumberman
into the prairies, the husbandman into
the timber regions Or mining country,
and the miner into agricultural fields.
Of course they did not fit. Not
infrequently they have failed to attract
settlers for the reason that the i'm
migrant agent of each has SO belittled
the inducements offered by the other
as to cause the prospector to distrust
the representations of all
All this the Southern Exchange
Association, equally interested in each
Southern State, will endeavor to
remedy. Its impartial statements will
accredit to each section or locality all
it has or deserves-but no more.
Therefore, when this comes to be
generally known and accepted, each
section or locality vii! develop along
the lines of its best advantages and
resources.
1t is claimed that the generally
entertained doubt as TO the guarantees
offered by the laws Of the Southern
States to business and investment is
the chief hndrance to their rapid
development, and it is to gather
information which will dissipate this
doubt should it prove to be unfounded,
or to procure the correction of adverse
legislation should it really exist that
the Southern l4chanse Association
has established Bureau OF Legislation,
the membership of which comprises six
of the ablest jurlsts in the country.