Birmingham state herald., 1897-06-17
OUR LETTER BOX.
DISABILITIES OF BIRMINGHAM.

 is the solution of the present vexed eco homie problems.
 From 1865 to 1885 fifteen million people went out west. and then stopped; and like the back water of a Mississippi river flood, five million returned during the past twelve years to their old homes in the north middle or New England states, or located in the south.
 Meanwhile in the north the lines of competition are more tense; lands higher rentals higher, the cost of coal and win ter food and fuel higher, with an aVer-- age of only 1S5 days between frosts.
 There are forty-two million people thus eircumstanced, and the law of increase in population at 31R per cent per annum grows a crop of young men and women G years of age every year to the number of 1,500,000. In the manufacturing cen- ters the restrictive labor union laws, the Inability to prefltably extend trade be- yond the confines and demands of our United States. the growing scarcity and higher prices of natural gas, of hard and soft coal for fuel and steam, are all ques- tions of deep concern to the manutac- turer. ai ..
 The south offers relief to this congest- cd condition, but people and capital in the north have not been properly invited; there are many cities and localities in the south that have been cold and indif- ferent; northern manufacturers have the impression that credit is mainly extended to cotton, and that the south will not cooperate in sentiment with the puf- poses Of manufacture. In the manulac- turing districts in the northern states capital has locked itself up in the inter- changeable cities and railroads running on eas and west lines. yet in every man ufacturing district, there today exists the younger son, the junior partner, ana the superintendent who has worked all his life manufacturing from the raw ma terials of wood iron, clay, leather, cot ton, wool, tobacco, or the packing, can ming and preserving of meats, fruits ana vegetables. In the majority or instances these men have laid by from five to fifty thousand dollars, that they would like to invest-ard branch out into new held- following the line that they have spent a lifetime learning. Very often, also, these men, by the confidence they nave gained in the communities they are now in. can influence their local capital to join them in undertakings or proper rec
 It is also estimated that throughout The north there are 300,000 heads of fam- flies at an average capital or Sz,OOO, WHO are now looking around for new nome in a more pleasant and profitable region. Upon this estimate, if thsse people were transferred south, it means taking away from the noIfi1 six hundred million dol- lars and investing it in the south ana tne re-location of at least 2,0OO,0O0 more or people. and thes- people are of the best life-blood and sinew of the nalion of the best brain and brawr of the Anglo-Saxon race; a class of people reared to habits of thrift, industry and economy.
 Is the north willing to l5t them go, and does he south want them? Yes, the north will encourage these people to go, if they believe that thrir going (who are theia friends and relatives) will matepl- ally betterptheir condi ion, because they know how intens= are present compe- tftions, and that a fair, healthy deport- ation leaves for those remaining behind better opportunities.
 iPirniniehlam seems to realize the breath 'nge present so pregrnant with the immedla e grand future. and is cordially inviting inc investment of capital into all lin IS of manufacture, while telling the northern farm arssarla stockgrower that our hills arespeculiarly adapted to fruits and vegetables, and our surrounding val leys are urexcellsd for miscellan ou5 farming, with the advantage of the large consuming population of his district of fefing good cash prices for all that Is raised on the farm.
 It was relocation in the west that elim- mated intolerance and bigory; the tsYark'' from Vermont and the "rebel' from Alabama we're partners in the same mining clatm; the English minr and Fenian ''bunl1ed' togeithers would
 
 us "E Furious Erin, Unum Go Braugh." Pat in Nebraska, as soon as he got on to the racket, wrote Mike in Ould Tip persry, Come here quick; Uncle Sam w.E bet you 160sacres of land that you can't live on 1t five years"
 Years ago, with the building of he Erie canal, began the extension of rail- roads, and the settlements on east and west lines--on they poured from Penn- sylvania into Ohio. Indiana, Illinois and unfil Tom Benton, pointing out west, said: ''There is the east and there is India" NsH
 The slow, plodding south had but lfitfs in common with their inventive and man. ufacturing bro her and steadily followed the inherited habit of agriculture. The Cumberland Gap was the only comuni- ca tion, until west Kemtucly and Tennes- see swung their, surplus people into Mis- souri and Kansas, and com iesting Kan sas with the "jay-hawker" for a free versus a slave state, pr:clpfnated the civil war. Had these two people from the same ancestry known each other better tht war would not have been
 In 1865, taking Horace Greeley's ad- wise of Ego west young man, go west" began the greatest immigration move ment the history of the world has chron- icled. To meet the demands of these millions settling up the west and building St. Paul, Omaha, Kansas City, Wichita, Denver, Ogden and Salt Lake compelled all the factories from Portland. Me. via Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago on the north, and from Baltimore via, Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis on the South to increase their machinery. buildings and output in order to supply the hundreds of millions annually demanded in structural work, in stuff made out of iron. wood wool, leather, clay. cotton and agrfcuBtur- al products Vast railway systems and machinery were placed in orpe ration, wher suddenly came the startling news that the west would not .'pan out" 1t wouldn't rain; long. cold winters and hot. blisterirg summers; and so the farm and town realty could not nay interest, let alor'e any part of the principal. upon their vast amount of mortgaged property. The east would hoan them no more money and this .cessation in an enormaus de- mand fer factory wares compelled indus trial establishments ta shut down or work on half time. This vast undue in- ffaton was not bsckad up bv A correct bssis for wealth production, and as re- suit we have seen ten years of discord, denress.on and distruSt
 The south is not an analogous case to the west. The south is a very spsrsly settAspd vast era. but the diinnatic co~di- tior,s are riroved. The enormous latent rnSc1IrneS of forest iron coal and raw