The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1895-06-13

VI elsitttil lHAIltpi4, u rIflHd!:- III lIt
whole country.
Now this remarkable growth has beer
steady and incessant. If my Original
premises are true, II cannot have beer
accomplished in the teeth OF adverse
conditions az a whole. If some OF the
ideal requisites were absent. others must
have been peculiarly present and potent.
The South was practically without
capital or skilled labor And so She
started in without experience. with
little credit and with primitive machin-
cry, to demonstrate, through competi-
ton with the coarser productions OF
the East, herpossession Of peculiar and
as she believed, dominant advantages.
1t was an exhibition of pluck, energy
and perslstency, such as has seldom
been presented to the student Of indus
trial growth Even under these press
ing disadvantages, her cotton manufac
turing industry has met with a fair
measure of success. Capital is proven
bially timid yet it is also quick to
discern its opportunities and it has
watched the progress of these events
with great interest and at last it has
come to see what a wide and profitable
field is open IN the South for the man
utacture of the coarser cotton goods.
And SO, at the present time, twenty
in the South, representing a capacity
of 2S5,OOO spindles and an investment
of six millions of dollars. Now it seems
to me that the resultof all this will be
more far-reaching than has generally
been imagined. CAPITAL follows capital
and, where conditions are equal. indus
try follows industry I believe it is
curse to any community to be tied
down to the propagation of one indus
try. The community becomes narrow
minded, like the ole-idead man. The
progress of cotton manufacturing in
the South and the incoming of other
industries which have already followed,
will in turn bring about better railroad
facilities and better railroad facilities
will In turn develop new localities and
make profitable the inception of new
industries.
What the South has demonstrated in
its cotton manufacturing development,
it has at the same time been demon
strating in other fields The State of
Tennessee has become one of the most
versatile and prolific manufacturing
States in the Union. Florida has sb
sorbed several hundred thousands OF
dollars from Massachusetts in the past
few years IN the development OF its
phosphate beds and the business is now
conducted with considerable success.
In the State of Alabama where there
was no iron industry thirty years ago,
there are to-day some sixty large plants
and despite the disastrous results which
of the recent past, it seems now to be
admitted that her iron industries are
but in their infancy. The coal fields OF
the Nlrginias are mines Of wealth to
their owners and equal riches are
awaiting development only in the States
of Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Ala
bama and North Carolina. The cotton
seed oil industry, where colOred labor
is successfully employed, is one which
is capable of great extension and devei-
opment.
With your wonderful natural advan-
taces in the absolute immediate pos
session of remarkable resources of min
| eral wealth used in manufactures with
an apparent abundance OF white labor
tor the mills and negro labor for the
mines with magnificent water powers
running to waste. it seems to me that
the South has no right to be an agri-
cultural community. / have heard it
urged that the South should restrict Its
cotton acreage IN order that better
prices NAV prevail. | believe that be-
fore many wears the production of cot
ton viii have been restricted naturally
and sufficiently by the gradual evolu-
ton which Will make of yours a man
ufacturing community. And then will
dawn an era of uneXampled prosperity