The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-09-08
PROSPERITY IN THE SOUTH,
Dawn of a New Era In the Southern
States, Both of Progress and
Prosperity.

States of the South, the New Yorl
Sun gives the following favorabl,
resume of Southern prospects in al
of these departments:
From all parts of the south com,
excellent reports of material pro
gress. The Southern corn crop i,
greater than ever before; the cot
ton crop is large and of fine quality
In Texas the latter is the largest
that the State has raised, and the
prospect of the market is assured
While cotton is now cheap it will
not do to overlook the fact that
cents pound for cotton nowadays
is very different thing from what
it was two years ago. People gen
orally have not yet learned to take
into consideration the fact that the
modern by-products of cotton are
worth nearly 2 cents a pound more,
so that the farmers 6 cents are re-
ally equivalent to 8 cents.
The corn crop is so large that the
south will this year have surplus
instead of being compelled to i'm
port corn for her own consumption.
The outlook for her manufacturing
industries, and her cotton mills in
particular, is better than ever be-
fore in her history, and in every
substantial and material element of
business the general condition of
the south is most encouraging and
satisfactory.
In respect of southern railroad
interest the reorganization of the
Richmond Terminal system and the
merging of the thirty or forty rail
roads composing it into the new
Southern railway company is moth
ing short Of revolutionary. AS af-
fecting southern business affairs of
all kinds its effects can not be over
estimated. 1t means the substitu-
ton in the pivotal industry and de-
pendence of the country of order in
the place of chaos, and of stability
and responsibility in the place of
absolute responsibility, Never in
the history of railroads was such
hopeless chaos and inefficiency man
Tested as in the administration of
the thousands of miles of railroad
directly and indirectly involved in
the Richmond Terminal system.
Shippers could place no dependence
upon the railroads. They had no
guarantee that goods confided to
them would reach their consignees,
or that goods they had bought
would ever arrive. And above all
they had no redress. There was no
such thing as recovery of loss, even
when the courts had done their du-
ty and ordered restitution. 1t was
one vast system of ineficiency, mis-
management, and worse, and its eff
fects upon all mercantile business
was disastrous.
The new order of things is very
different. The Southern railway is
the result of the prac tical oblitera-
ton of between thirty or forty COR
porations, the elimination of mill
ions of fictitious valuations and un-
reasonable burdens, and it sets ur
in their place a solid, resourceful
and vigorous railroad system found
ed upon modern and scientific eco.
Monies and of the first efficiency,
This has been accomplished by Mr..
Samuel Spencer, in conformity to
the general plan and purposes of the
reorganization undertaken by the
great banking house of Drexel,
Morgan 4 Co,
Mr., Spencer, in addition to being
one Of the first railroad men of the
country, was specially equipped for
the problem in hand by his intimate
knowledge of southern railroad
properties, and of those of the Ter
minal system in particular. Besides
it is doubtful if anybody is better
qualified for dealing with the famil.
lar ailment of railroad dropsy
When Mr. Spencer was elected pres
ident of the Baltimore and Ohio
railroad company one of his earliest
acts in Office was to take $25, 600, 600
off of the surplus of that great cor
poratlon by a single stroke of his
pen, It is to this gift Of Mr., Spen.
GERS that we may attribute the fact
that the Southern railroad compa-
ny enters upon the conduct of its
business, even after such conditions
as have so long prevailed, earning
its fixed charges and very consid-
cradle surplus,
Taken for all in all, the business
prospects of the south are, at the
present moment, brighter than
those of any other part Of the coun-
try, 1t depends upon the people Of