Birmingham age-herald., 1895-03-12


 GENERAL SOUTHERN OUTLOOK. BY THE HON. HILLARY A. HERBERT, sEC- l RETARY OF THE NAVY.
 | New York Independent.
 | At the present time the south s not prob l ably suffering as much from the business l depression as is the west. Our corn crop | was very fine in 1894, and good deal of | corn has been shipped to the northwest. | have myself heard of number of ship ments from Alabamu. The cotton crop l was also very fine, but, owing to overpro- 1 duction, the price of cotton is very low, l and 1t is not very remunerative product. | However, with abundant provisions, the | farmers of the south will be able to pro. l duce during the present year cotton at a much lower rate than they have hereto- l fore.
 | Iu the south, especially in Alabama, we | are making iron at lower rates, l think, | than it is made at apy.other point in Amer | ica. We are able to build cars there, and | our mines are being rapidly developed. Our greatest need now in the south is | anufacturers-capita with which to man. | ufacture our iron ore, wood, coal, tim ber- l all the raw material which we have in such
 great abundance. We are now shipping to | the northwest great deal of yellow pine; | put we need manufacturers of cotton, makers of agricultural i'm plemeuts, and of | all the other articles that are made out of | the raw material, of which we have such large supply.
 The climate and soil of the south are such l that we can grow in great abundance and 10 perfection vegetables of all kinds and | iruits such as peaches, ii ss, grapes, oceans, etc. There is no country in the world | where good land can be bought so cheaplY as t can now in the sessta S1n w flR industry, I Irugality and foresight, small farming by men who will live on their own plantations
 and raise everything that they need is sure l'to prove profitable.
 Some years ago party of Germans came | down to our own state (Alabama) and set. l tied in part of it which heretofore had been considered almost uninhabita ble. It was near the center of the state, in Q region 1 of country called Sand mountain. These | German colonists established a town, and l finally county which was called Cullman. l They have made their homes there and 1 have prospered. Similar settlements by
 the same class of immigrants on lands that l are well chosen would undoubtedly pros- l per. In Baldwin county, in south Ala | bama, which is another comparatively l poor section of the state, there has recently
 been established colony of Italians, who
 went there for the purpose of raising | olives, grapes and vegetables. Only today
 I am in receipt of letter from a gentleman | now connected with that colony of the name of Tagliabue, in which he says their crops are "far beyond their expectations ' l In southern Mississippi, on the coast, F
 in the way of raising figs, which are pre-
 served and sent all over the country. | What the south really needs more than,
 or at least as much as anything else, is to l have the attention of the people seeking l homes turned in that direction. Such l would be colonists should go and see for | themselves, and 1t would pay any consid- | erable number of people desiring to own homes or farms to send one of their number | as an agent to look over the country and report in regard to the same.
 | There is really no prejudice existing on l the part of southern people toward immi-
 grafton from the north. This company of | Germans that came down to Alabama and | established the colony of Cullman came | from the northwest. The great misfortune | with us has been that immigration gener- ally travels on isothermal lines, and immi- grants who come from Germany, Sweden, | Norway and the United Kingdom seem to | leave the old world with the idea that in | the southern states of America the climate | is too hot, and that it is sickly there; and | 50 they first go out west. Statistics show | Alabama to be one of the healthiest states | iu the union. The immigration we have | been getting in the south has been from | people who have tried the northwest and who, being comparatively near to us, have | had some pportunity of learning what the conditions h the south really are. The question is sometimes asked, How is the negro problem being solved in the
 south? My answer is that the negroes gen.
 
 any country in the world. The negro has never succeeded as well as the white man but in the south the condition of the negro population is very much better than it is anywhere else. That is to say, there is o large body of the negro race anywhere in the world that has reached the same degree of civilization and that are as prosperous as they are in the southern states. A few of them are making money; but they are not gen erally prosperous, because they are inn provjdent and do not save their earnings. In what called the white counties, where the white population largely pre- dominates, the negroes are doing better than they al in what are called the black plumber the whites. Here they lose the influence Of example and the benefit of that fuller protection of property rights always enforced by the white man.
 There is a growing disposition among them to secure homes for themselves. The Statistics, which l have not at hand, would show a vast increase in he amount of property held by the coiored people in the south in The decade of 1Ss091, and from 1890 to the present time it would show stlll more rapid increase. Politically, the negroes ara breaking mp 10 a very large extent. That is to say, they do not vote solidly in favor of plrty, as they formerly did; there is grea,er disposition to think for themselves and 10 ac. on their own judgment.
 bad the benefit of ccusidera U!e capital from the north, but the iact that capital is timid has been demonstrated in the south just as 1t always is elsewhere. The city of Bir- mlnsham, Ala. is one of he most uoed instances in industrial deyeIocmeut in the