Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-09-08
Full Official State and County Returns.

| followed the war. The extent Of this
is hardly comprchendcd now, but
that it will astonish the world by
its magnitude cannot be questioned.
"The tendency of the worlds in
dustr;"s is to the lowest possible cost
of production and distribution. The
movement is worldwide, and no
power, no artificial barrier, can stay
its progress. Looking at the South
in this light, we find condition du-
plicated nowhere else. 1t has been
said that no other country has the
fundamental resources of all indus
trial development. Here we find
coal and iron and cotton and timber
Ill such vast quantities and capable
of being so chcaply utilized as to
dictate the worlds prices, constitut,
ing basis for the unlimited expan-
sion of AL the industries employing
these raw materials. Take cotton,
to begin with. Three-fourths of the
worlds cotton crop is grown in the
South. The capital invested in turn
ing this cotton into the finished pro-
duct is probably over 81 $780, 100000.
The pre-cminent advantages Of this
, section for growing cotton, whose
/ importance the majority of the peo-
pie scarcely comprehend, are not
more striking than its advantages
for cotton manufacturing. Admit
ting this, we can form some idea of
what it would mean to find the South
in the future manufacturing as much
cotton as all the world now does
An Investment in Southern cotton
mills of upward of a billion and a
half dollars would turn the 10000
600 bales annually produced now,
worth to this section only $300,000,-
600 year, into the finished product,
worth billion dollars a year. We
may not see this in the near future,
but it must come. Moreover, it
should be remembered that the build
ing Of the Nicaraguan Canal and the
opening of the Far East to the COM
mcrce Of the world, with America in
the lead, will create in China and Ja-
pan an enlarged market for American
cotton as well as cotton goods. This,
! believe, was estimated by General
Grant at five million bales or more
year. lex Governor Hubbard, of
Texas, formerly Minister to Japan,
after a careful study Of the situation
in the Far East, stated that with the
Nicaraguan Canal in operation a
market would be developed in tho
Eastern world for not less than ten
million bales of American cotton
We are already producing from 10,
100000 to 100000 bales a year,
and with this possible expansion Of
o'iN "iioiiuthi tCiIiduu, oven IL Nc1l.
Grants estimate is too large, and
with the steady broadening Of the
worlds requircmcnts--for the con-
sumption of cotton measures the
civilization Of every nation--it may
not be many years before the 10,-
100000 bales crop of to-day shall
have reached 20,0G0,0O0 bales.
''rhe production and manufacture
Of the bulk Of the worlds cotton il
in itself enough to enrich an empire
and create wealth beyond anything
that the South has dreamed of, and
yet cotton is only one item Of many
in the South's great store-housc.
81 take it that with this rapid OK
pansion of the worlds cotton re-
quirements thero will be room
enough for the profitable operation
of many of New England's mills on
fihor goods, while tho South con.
tinues TO extend its textile interests