The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1895-01-17

ETY.. In the border section OF the South,
including the far-reaching Tennessee and
Cumberland River valleys are found the
GREAT GOLD YIELDING STAPLES
which constitute the base of the wealth
and credit of this great nation. These
are cotton, tobacco, iron, building tim
Der, coal, wheat, corn and cattle. I'm
mediately south of them are sugar,
rice and tropic fruits. The climate is
incomparable--the sanitary conditions
unequalled the possibilities of economic
manufacture of textiles, iron and steel,
and woodwork and building material,
such as no other country on the globe
can boast And in land teeming with
such boundless wealth-on a soil with a
possible food supply to sustain dense
population-the present settlement over
all the South's area is SO sparse that
each inhabitant stationed at equi-distant
points all over it, would not be within
hailing distance of each other. Is 1T
not time to take steps looking to the
speedier development of this wealth 2
And what time more propitious than
the present? The future of this favored
section is full OF promise if its people
are worthy of their heroic progenitors
who wrested the wilderness from the
savage. 1t is slowly dawning upon the
minds of capitalists from remote sec
tons of our own country and from other
lands that here in this region are the
yet undisturbed bonanzas of hidden or
undeveloped wealth. The coal meas
ures of other sections have been so
heavily drawn upon for half century
that the cost of production has been
greatly increased by deep mining. The
vast forests of birch in the East have
been well-nigh swallowed up by those in
satiable cormorants, the wood pulp
mills. The white pine forests of the
Northwest which have made million
aires and multi-milionaires by the
score, are at length practically exhausted.
In the South alone remains the country's
reserve Of pine buildingtimber and cy-
press in virgin forest by miles upon
miles, and already tourist excursion par
ties of
WEALTHY NORTHERN LUMBERMEN
are prospecting through it for available
manufacturing sites. Anon we shall
witness the transfer of cotton mills from
New England to the vicinity of the sta
pies culture and growth. Perhaps with
in a decade may be realized the proph-
ecy of the economist Atkisson, that
within an area of two hundred miles Of
the great Smoky Mountain of eastern
Tennessee and western North Carolina
will be found the future sitIts of the great
est steel producing industry in the
world. These are no exaggerations to
stimulate the booming" of a section
they are great facts. What is needed
is to bring them wildly to the attention
of the outside world, and in no way shall
this be furthered more certainly than
through the great expositions of Atlanta
and Nashville-twin gateways to the in.
dustrial Eldorado of the Twentieth Cen.
fury.
In the not distant future the great
isthmian canal connecting the worlds
two vast oceans will focus in the Gulf Of
Mexico the rich argosies of the commerce
of old Europe and older Asia. Think
how rapidly this great event will develop
into great maritime sea-ports the cities Of
Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans and Gal
weston. The worlds commercial fleets
will require millions of tons of steam
fuel forall time, and these the inexhaust
ible coal measures of Alabama anC
Tennessee shall furnish to the great
international coaling station on Lake
Nicaragua the fuel floated out of the
Tombigbee and Mississippi rivers to tide
water by cheap force of gravitatior
alone. The Nicaragua canal is all as
sured achievement. Whether by treaty
arrangement between Great Britain anC
the United States it is manifest destiny
Its completion will work revolution il
American commerce and American
Manufactures, out of which the Soutf
will derive benefit incalculable. Thu
section of America is undoubtedly a
the threshold of a great development
Soon we trust to witness the dawn of al
unexampled prosperity.
Hence the South should be in tn,
field for early development, and, as be
fore stated, the first important step il
that direction should be through liberal
ly endowed and intelligently directed
Expositions, not only of Southern prod
ucts, but Southern industry, energy ant
capacity