Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-08-11
!. FACTS AND FIGURES
Concerning the Wonderful Growth OF
the SOuth--.Mighty PROGRESS.

Edmonds, editor of tho Nfanufactu.
rers' Record, Baltimore, wrote and
published pamphlet entitled "Facts
About the South" 1t contained q
large amount of valuable informa-
ton and was very widely circulated
in all parts of the country.
Mr.. Edmonds has. brought his
pamphlet up to date, and made it
still more useful as a source of infor-
nation.
lie shows that the South mt the
beginning of the civil war was the
richest and most progressive section
of the country, though it had only
one-fourth of the white people in tho
United States.
According to the census of 1860
the assessed value of all the pro-
perty in this country was $12,OOO,-
100000, and the South owned 44
per cent of it. In 1860 the value of
The crops produced by the South
was more than onc-half of the value
of the total agricultural products Of
the country. lii tho 5aro year SO
por cent of the entire banking capi-
tai of the United States was in the
South, and the assessed value of
propertyin Georgia was greater than
the combined wealth of Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode
Island. South Carolina was $G8,O0O,-
600 richer than Rhode Island and
Now Jersey, and Mississippi out
ranked Connecticut by &1G0,000,000.
Tho civil war, it is estimated,
destroyed property in the South to
the value of $2,100,000,000, and the
reconstruction period caused fur
ther loss Of $30O,0O0,OO0. Add to
this enormous destruction the cost
of the war, the hundred of thousands
of vigorous men killed or perma-
nently injured, the South's share of
tho national Indebtedness, and the
total, says Mr.. Edmonds, would sum
up to an aggregate loss of $5,000,-
100000, sum eight times greater
than the combined capital of all the
national banks in the United States,
and nearly as large as the aggregate
capital invested in manufactures in
the whole country. TO show how
the wealth of the section changed
hands as the result Of the civil war,
it is only necessary to cite the figures
for the decade from 1860 to 1870.
In 1860 the assessed value of pro-
perty in Massachusetts was &777,-
10000, compared with $5,200,00O,-
600 in the entire South. In 1870
Massachusetts had $1,590,000,O0O
and the South only $4,000, 100000.
Such was the poverty of the South
that the one State Of Massachusetts
listed for taxes more than one-half
as much property as all the States of
that section could show.
Despite the crushing loss of prop
erty and the disadvantage under
which it labored for many years
after the close of the war, the South
has been steadily, even if slowly,
moving to the front again. In 1880
it had $1,000, 100000 of real and per-
sonal property, and from 1880 to
1890 there was an increase in the
value of it's property Of &3,S0O,O0O,-
900, against $3,900,OO0,OOO in the
New England and Middle States
combined. The value of the farm
products of the South in 1890 was
$773,0O0,000, and it had $3,182,000,-
600 invested in agricultural inter-
ests, the gross revenue on the capital
being 24.1 per cent. All other sec
tions combined had $12,707, 900, 900
invested in farm operations and the
product was valued at 81 ,687 100000,
or 1871 per cent, little more than
one-half as much i'll percentage of
production as the South's. The av-
eragc value per acre of all farm pro-
ducts in the South was $T.18: the
average value for all the State OK
cept tho South was $6.87. The grain
production of the South in 1865 was
valued at $261, ,072,823. Mr.. Ed
monds estimates the present annual
value of the South's agricultural pro-
ducts at $930,OO0,OOO. Notwith-
standing the decrease i'll the price of
cotton, ho says, the value of these
products is $150,00O,0O0 q year
greater than in 1890, the census year.
The industrial progress of the
South has also boon remarkable. In
1880 tho South had $257,244,561 in
vested in manufacturing enterprises.
In 1890 tho manufactures of the
South represented an investment of
$659,008,817. Tho value of the
South's manufactured products rose
= =