Birmingham age-herald., 1895-04-25
BOOMING, BLOOMING SOUTH Investors Say It Is a Great Field
 For Capital. A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Was the Recent Depression, for It Turned Cap
 itars Eyes This Way.
IMMIGRATION GROWS YEAR BY YEAR.
The Gulf Ccast Appears to Be the Favorite Section What Chicago Capitalists ard Investors Have to Say of
 Dixieland's Possibilities.

Chicago. April 24.--The Tribune says: The most attractive field for invest ment this year is the south, according to the statements of those who have showrt their faith by their works, as well as by the testimony of financial men who have recently visited that section.
 Not only has the attention of invest ors been attracted to the south, but a tide of immigration has set in in that di- rection greater than in any year of it's history. It is said to equal western inn migration in the days when the min ing sections of the Rocky mountains and the agricultural states of Kansas and Nebraska were passing through the pe- riod known as the "bom.
 Much of the capital heretofore seek ing investment each spring in the mines. lands and cattle of the west is being diverted to the south this year, finan- cial observers say, and they give numer- ous reasons for the change. In the first place the people of the south, they say, are making greater effort this year to attract capital and immigration than ever before. The southern railroads have extended them more assistance than formerly in advertising the .ad- vantages of their territory and by mak- ing unusually low rates to immigrants. Silver mining is no longer an attroc- tive industry for the investor Ihe partial failure of crops in many or the checked the tide of immigration in that direction, while the fencing of ranges and the consequent depression Tn the cat tie growing industry has made i've stock investment the least attractive or all.
 The gulf coast of Florida and Texas has been the heaviest beneficiary of late investment and immigration, as shown by the statements of financiers and in vestors but Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and some points Of Arkansas have received share or northern cap ital and new blood.
 A considerable portion of this capital has been drawn from New York, but Chicago has also furnished large amount and this city is the headquarters of several of the largest corporations that have recently begun operations Tn the south.
 The South as Viewed by T. B. Bryan.
 T. B. Bryan, one of the vice-presidents of the Worlds Columbian exposition, has recently invested $200,000 on the gulf coast of Texas. In speaking of the south MT. Bryan said:
 "There is a general awakening all through the south. I have spent the win ter there and I have never before seen any approach to the amount of immigra- tion pouring into that section. It repre- sents not only the foreign element, nut people from all parts of the United States One reason for this migration is the succession of bad crops in some of the western states, the prevalence of cy- clones, bliZzardS and other disasters that have inflicted severe injury in the farm ing sections. The sufferers became dis pirited and are seeking other locations. My observation has been confined nlain- ly to Texas and Florida. The severity of the winter in the latter state has checked to some extent what promised to be a vast addition to it's population. and even in Texas the flag end of the storm startled good many. Yet the southbouni trains go crowded with homeseekers; towns are springing up all over the state and the rural population is increasing with unex- ampled rapidity.
 a.9The recent moneyed investments in and around the gulf coast have amounted to many millions of dollars in railroad building, electric street railways in the cities and larger towns. gas and . electric lighting plants and in the erec- tion of large buildings. I know of half dozen buildings recently put up in the south by outside investors costing from $250,0 900 to $500,000. The government has spent over $6,000,000 deepening Galveston harbor, and private corporations, re- gently located, have expended nearly as much in dredging the bays. Quite sum of Chicago money has been invested on the gulf coast in the vicinity of Calves ton by Chicago people, compared with which the s200000 I have put in there is an insignificant sum. There never was a time when the south was such an att tractive field for investment. The result is an impetus has been given to the sec tion such as it scarcely expected"
 W. w. Tracy, investment securities has recently returned from an extended southern trip. He says:
 q regard the south at the present time as a great field for enterprise and in- vestment. There is no question but that section is attracting great attention just now from capitalists, and considerable money is going in from the east and north.
 "A great many cotton manufacturers in New England have moved their plants to southern states, and more of them will follow The situation was regarded as such a grave one in New England that while I was in the south the Massa- chusetts legislature sent a committee down there to see if something could not be done to check the moving of New England manufactories to southern states. There is great activity in the sections where these manufactories have been located, and the old primitive method of handling cotton are giving way to the modern inventions of the Yankee. There is a great deal of land in