Birmingham age-herald., 1895-07-07
Governor Oates to the Railroad Commission State of Alabama
Executive Department,
 Office of the Governor, Montrofnery .Iulv 1 1Xo5

Executive Department.
 Office of the Governor,
 i'-. Montgomery, July 4, 1895.
 To Messrs. Shorter. Smith and Jones,
 State Railroad Commissioners.
 Gentlemen: The prospects of the farm CTS of the state. up to this date. are most fiattering for a large corn crop. Our people use for bread a great deal of corn me9l and would use large amount of meal or chops in feeding stock if they could obtain it easily or cheaply. The custom has been for many years to make but half enough corn and large cotton crops and with the proceeds of the latter to buy western corn and bacon, horses and mules, and our farmers were always in debt. They have at last discovered their error and are now raising corn, muleS hogs, cattle and sheep.
 It is, therefore of great importance 10 them to obtain from the railroads lower freight rates to the towns within the state, where several corn mills are now in operation, and others are likely soon to be. The farmers could, by these means, get a better market for their corn near home and obtain meal at less cost than at present. It would also be an induce ment to the farmers ta raise and supply $, our towns with pork beef and mutton in stead of sending to Kansas City and Chi cago for these things as is now done every day. The railroads, in my opinion, instead of losing, would make money by such an arrang gement. judicially made.
 Gus state is a mine of wealth, which only needs developing. We have now every reason to believe that good steel will soon be made out of our pig iron. What vast wealth will be realized from this source passes beyond the bounds of conjecture. We have coal enough, 1T taken from our mines, to supply the en- tire world, at the present rate of con sumption, for more than 150 years. Iron ore is exhaustless. We have fair qual- ity of marble and excellent building stone We have gold ore, but not yet discovered to exist in paying quantities. We have mica, aluminium, diopsides topaz and other valuable stones.
 Our soil is fairly productive and of a variety of characters, adapted to the pro- duction of cotton, all kinds of grain, nearly every kind of vegetable, and peaches, pears, apples, plums, melons and other fruits Our forests contain woods of choice varieties, and are so abundant that they may be said to be eXhaustless. Our climate is mild, and constitutes a : standing invitation to the people of the frozen regions of the northwest to seek homes among us and enjoy the gentle, balmy breezes of our mild and spring like climate. We have room in Alabama for thousands of law-abiding and indus s- trious people, and we want only that kind to come. Our railroads can do more to induce and bring them than any amount of individual effort. Our water power is of the best and most desirable. At present the use of steam seems to have rendered it useless, but the progress of invention and the use of electricity as a : motive power should admonish us that a few years hence our water power can be used to generate electricity more cheap ly than it can be done otherwise; and electricity will be used to drive the ma chinery of our cotton mills and other manufacturing establishments, and ere long, perhaps, the railroad locomotives as we'll Our state possesses all the ele- ments of greatness. and only needs de- velopment to give our people vast wealth.