The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-11-17
Speech of Col. Wilson.

The following is the speech delivered
hy Col. Duncan c Nilsson, of Beaufort,
;. c., at tho lncc;ing held i'll the interest
Of the Black diamond Railroad III this
city on The evening of the lth inst.
AI. Yi. ~ ,uJ Gcn,icmD. III Mio
,parr.hY Wor9me to yon from tie
sait water ~ the South Atlantic ana
from ,l.e .sllud> II tlln AnA whicn for,ler
oar nAn state Of Sruta taro,in. We
ro..' iiom IL" K 3ya iou wiki II, deep
Ma,rr~ -s', '4i.i'i0N, haihnr, whcro tho
naNi,> pi III. g. ,t.d can rri" ,l anchor.
WE eo.no - -r. this Cnnlrution and 10
Wi-h You '.pi ~,o",i IN ,hc great Under.
TAXING Nhiti4 = heiol'' you the building
o! ,he E.n.h Diamond Railroad from the
;.rca; coz! licld, Of the Snut! ,p the South
Atlantic.
the coal Industry in our Southern
c1,.l.ry i, bu' III lis infancy, ana it i, tho
power Which liz, mo, ed Tie world. Wha,
would Great britain and America have
been without their coal? It made tho
mighty age ri stcan possible and has
been the mean, Of building up now ei-
preS and -prcaiinr civilization ~ moth
ing else could dn. There il no mineral
IN tie world 'v'cii hi- Aoui; discovered!
which las dome - much for man IL
EiveS employment t. nn army of miners.
and in every GrnipaiiOu whoro n.achin-
cry j. used hor many hundreds and
ihni-niii> are depending on liz amplo
supply. \ strike ur delay "a. til. GOAL
lninos cccasion> Tho greatest anxiety 10
L. 81,
word in almost every L.nnc!l Of i,ius-
try.
Il = not only on land iha. ,0a! holds lis
sway on civilization: il is, in this ago, tho
monarch Of tho ocean, aud in every cline
ana every sea tbs tho cntro commercial
and naval world is depending on this
wonderful IMMORAL which s so common
and so valuable, the output of which is
increasing with such wonderful strides.
The coal area Of the United States is os-
tirnated to be between TWO and three hum
dred thousand squire miles, and all in the
world put together does not exceed four
hundred thousand square miles. So that
our country contains more than one-half
of all the coal territory Of the universe.
Great Britain claims to have IL, 900 square
miles within her borders, which shows
that this wonderful country OF ours pos
sesses twenty times more coal territory
than Great Britain.
The coal fields in the eleven Southern
States comprise nearly one half Of all this
Immense area in this country, and these
great deposits have scarcely been touched
as yet. But tho demand Is steadily grow
and In mi INF oc Al
ufacturing Of iron is moving on at II moro
rapid rate than is generally known.
In 1850 tho eleven Southern States
mined six million, five hundred and
twenty-nino thousand, eight hundred
tons OF coal, or about II per cent. of the
bituminous product Of the country that
year. Sixteen years later. in 1896, the
same States produced five times Az much,
or '3, l75O 600 tons, which was % per cent.
all coal mined in the country that year.
England mined over two hundred mil.
lion tons last year and supplies all the
countries Of tho world that require coal,
and 1t ia the Supplying OF the coal mar
kets Of the world that has given such an
impetus to her shipping and built up
such merchant marine, which Is super
lOr 10 all other nations.
part of this enormous business we OF
the South want to secure, and to have our
own direct coal Railroad, passing through
the coal mines OF Tennessee and Ken
lucky and other Southern States, and
bringing the coal direct to deep sea ter
minus on the South Atlantic, which Of
fers every facility for rapid handling
Our Southern coal mines are attracting
a great deal of attention, as some Of them
produce the bost steaming coal in the
world, and every greyhound" on the
Atlantic sailing from New York ia sup
piled with Pooahontas coal from the
mines Of Virginia for thepurpose OF maxi
Ing rapid passages, and many OF these
large, fast steamships consume 500 tons
OF coal IN "a hours In crossing the Allan
tic. Pocahontas coal Is sent to every Sec
ton OF our country along the coast. Six
TO eight thousand tons are shipped from
I-amberrs Point, Norfolk, every "a hours,
and the fast lake boats take on board az
Detroit, Pocahontas coal from Virginia
and In Kentucky English capital is de-
veloping Camel coal mine aud supply
;ns gas Goa! to the city Of London. The
object Of this Convention, the work we
are engaged in tonight, is to strive TO
build this great Black Diamond Railroad
from the mines to tho sea to enable us to
export this great product to other coun-
tries that have not been blessed as we
have been; to supply South America, the
West Indies and other countries, and to
compete with England for share Of this
valuable trade.
Virginia has her splendid coalng docks
at Norfolk and Newport News, with large
and ever increasing facilities. Pennsyl-
vania has New York and Philado dol pha,
and the 1.ehigh Railroad has immense
coal docks at Perth Amboy in New York
harbor.
.Nlabama iS opening up Pensacola as a
port ofshipmert for The growing output
ofcoal and it was only last week that q
contract was entored into with Mexico
for one hundred thousand tons of Ala