The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1898-09-08

ing resources must soon be found oc-
cupying u commanding position in
commerce and exerting q controlling
influence in the worlds industry and
enjoying to such an extent all that
makes for local prosperity that, enorm-
GUS as was the loss which these states
sustained in the civil war, it may be
ultimately recouped through infu-
ences which the war now being closed
will soon actively set in motion. And
am almost prepared to concur in such
prediction.
"Of course, so stupendous o gain
could not be due directly to the waging
of war, but will come partly from a
betterappreciation of the south on the
part of the world at large, while meal
culably good results will ensue from q
complete realization of the final oblit-
GRAFTON of sectional animosIty; for the
extent to which mAconception on this
score has initiated against northern
participation in the south's rehabilita-
ton has never been quite realized. 1t
will also come in part from the south s
share in the revival of trade and the ex-
pansion of our commercial activities as
an outcome Of the quickened national
business life that has followed the war.
The extent of this is hardly compre-
hended now, but that it will astonish
the world by its magnitude cannot be
questioned.
''The tendency of the worlds indus
tries is to the lowest possible cost of
production and distribution. The
movement is worldwide, and no power
no artificial barrier, can stay it's prog
ress. Looking at the south in this
light, we find a condition duplicated
nowhere else It has been said that no
other country has the fundamental re-
sources of all industrial development.
Here we find coal and iron aud cotton
and timber in such vast quantities and
capable of being so cheaply utilized as
to dictate the worlds prices, constiu-
ting basis for the unlimited expansion
Of all the Industries employing these
raw materials. Take cotton, to begin
with. Three-fourths Of the worlds cot
ton crop is grown in the south. The
capital invested in turning this cotton
into the finished product is probably
over 81, 500, 10000. The pre- eminent
advantages of this section for growing
cotton, whose Importance the ma
jority of the people scarcely compre-
bend, are not more striking than its
advantages for cotton manufacturing.
Admitting 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 billion and half dollars
would turn the 10, 900, 900 bales annual
ly produced now, and worth to this
section only $500. 600, 900 a year, into
the finished product worth billion
dollars year. We may not see this
in the near future, but it must come.
Moreover, it should be remembered
that the building of the Nicaraguan ca
nal and the opening Of the far east to
commerce of the world, with America
in the lead, will create in China and
Japan an enlarged market for Ameri-
can cotton as we'll as cotton goods.
This, believe, was estima mated by Gen.
Grant at five millions bales or more a
year. Ex Governor Hubbard, of Tex
as, formerly minister to Japan, after q
careful study of the situation in the
far east stated that with the Nicaragu-
an canal in operation a market would
be developed in the eastern world for
not less than ten million bales of Amer
can cotton. We are already preduc-
ing from 10, 900, 900 to II 900, 900 bales q
year, and with this possible expansion
of the Oriental demand, even if Gen.
Grants estimate is too large, and with
the steady broadening of the worlds
requirements the consumption of
cotton measures the civilization of eve
ry nation-it may not be many years
before the 10000, 600 bales crop OF to-
day shall havereached 90, 600, 900 bales
"The production and manufacture of
the bulk of the worlds cotton is in it's
self enough to enrich an empire and
create wealth beyond anything that
the south has dreamed of, yet cotton is
only one item of many in the south's
great store-house.
~ take it that With this rapid expan-
sion of the worlds cotton requirements
there will be room enough for the profit
able operation of many of New Eng
lands mills on finer goods, while the
south continues to extend its textile in
terests as rapidly as the capital and
needed skill can be supplied. EGentu-
ally it will dominate the man fracture
OF fine goods as we'll as coarse. The
views so ably expressed recently by
; Mr. ID. A. Tompkins. of Charlotte, N.
c., to the effect that low priced cotton,
} instead of being a disadvantage to the
south, is not an unmixed evil since ii
prevents the large development of cot
ton growing in other countries and en-