The herald., 1894-08-05
MANUFACTURES In TIKI SOUTH.

MANUFACTURES IN TIKI SOUTH.
Some twenty years ago, when George
H. Williams was in Grants cabinet and
the southern outrage mill was running q.
pressure of 100 pounds to the square
inch, q southern congressman said:
'All this talk about ku-klux and
guerilla raids is sheer nonsense, gotten
up by Ban Butler and other rich owners
of manufacturing property In the New
England cities. II they can play upon
the fears of northern capitalists and
keep them from investing money in cot
ton spinning enterprises on the gfou1d
where the cotton is grown, they may
hold back the prosperity OF the south
for decade or two. But whenever our
splendid water-power comes to be util-
lied by northern capital, as 1t some day
will be, the cities OF Lowell, Lawrence
and Nashua will become weird stacks of
smokeless chimneys."
Such wa. q prediction that is now be.
ing verified on the slow-and-sure plan,
for, although the southern cotton mills
have not yet begun to equal the philip
Allen" or "Wsmsutta" brands OF shirt.
makers goods, made in Massachusetts,
and Rhede Island, they have turned out
very fair sheetingu, house-linings and
the cosrssr fabrcs of cotton such as are
used by the middle as we'll as the poorer
classes in the south. A recent issue OF
the st. Louis Republic says:
More new industrial establishments
have been set on foot within the last
three months in the south than were
started there in any other quarter since
1892. The number reported by the
Manufacturers Record OF Baltimore is
7S7, against 662 for the preceding quar-
ter and 1856 tor the last quarter OF 1898.
This record has been beaten only two or
three times in the whole history OF the
south.
The new south is progressing more
rapidly than her most sanguine friends
had prophesied in her behalf. The old
foges who have not yet heard OF the
surrender of Lee and Joe Johnston are
ss bitter as ever against the north, but
the young crop of sou.hsrners cannot
interest themselves in these long past
animosities. They look at the situation
iuet as it is, and the more sensible OF
the old confederate brigadiers hsvs
judgment enough to see that the south
is ten times as prosperous under free
labor as it ever could have hoped to be
under plsvsry. Gen. w. H. jackson. of
Belle Meade Farm, said six years ago,
Yes, it was quite hardship at first,
but now we see that we are better off by
good deal. / would not 60 back to the
old order Of things if you would give me
back ell my negroes and make every one
of them twenty years DID,"
Another thing that chsracterizss the
new order Of things in the south is the
fact that the burden OF taxation nc
longer rests upon one clsss alone. In
former years the planters paid ell the
taxes and the "po' whits trash" paid
nothing. Now the advent OF manu-
featuring population into the water
power towns has created in those towns
a market for smsll farm produce; and as
the ''crackers" raise chickens, ducks anc
butter for sale, they all have more or les
money. Some of them have small bani
accounts, while the less educated one
keep their savings in the chimney cor
ner, tied up in old stockings. In 1S9
the "po' white trash" paid 81 per cen
OF the taxes collected in Tennessee, 49, :.
in Georgia and So in Alabama.
| With the cost Of living at leaat IL pei
cent lower in the three states just
named than it is in Connecticut. R hod
Island and Massachusetts,, the skille'
operative who goes from New England
to the south "to grow up with the coun
try' will coon raise the standard of tn
working population by the introduction
of Yankee ingenuity and Yankee thrift
Twenty years hence the moldy old To-
cabins OF the "crsckers" will have be
come so rare as to be pointed out for Gu
riosities. The neat white cottages viii
take their places, just as newer and NOR
thrifty population will replace those VIII
lived by the rifle aud fishing rod. Th
new south of today lie q fine structure
but her prosperity is narrow and cil
cumscribed as compared with the grea
industrial power which awaits her In
day the dawn OF which is already red
dening the eastern sky.