The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-02-19
such success that second plant was sQan
South in Hard Times

such success that second plant was scan
projected.
South in Hard Times
II a place or section is shown, In periods
of depression, to have such advantages for
manufacturing in any line that its estab-
lfshments are able to make money while
factories of the same kind in older manll-
featuring communities are not able to op-
crate at profit, it follows that when there
Is a general revival of Industrial enterprise
and renewed investment in manufacturing
establishments, such a place or section
must still be a better location for new
plants, and must command the support of
the far-sighted investor. The south showed
during the hard times that 1t had ore
eminent advantages for a great many lines
of manufacturing over other sections of the
United States by keeping up to a large de-
gree steady industrial development, in
spite of low cotton and a scarcity of money,
and now, in a revival of industrial enter
prises, Its development cannot but be pro-
portionately greater than during the past
few years. The things necessary to make
sure of this increased development is for
steady and intelligent work to make known
the advantages of the different localities
of the south for various lines of Industries,
ready and active cooperation of local en-
terprises and capital with outside capital,
and spirit of encouragement on the part
of the people with all industrial establish
ments which go to build up the community
and to advance its interests. H
The great railroad systems of the country
are intimately associated with the industri-
al development of all points on their lines.
The Southern railway system is most IN
timately concerned in the development of
the territory through which its lines run.
1t has paid special attention to the building
up OF the cities and towns 1t reaches and
the development of the agricultural regions
1t penetrates. Including the Alabama Great
Southern road. it is the great Industrial
line OF the south. 1t reaches from the inn
portant gateways of domestic and foreign
travel and traffic to the principal Industrial
and commercial centers, to the fine fruit
raising, stock raising, grain, cotton tobacco
and truck-growing sections of Dixie Land.
1t can be said to be the Industrial line of
the south, as by far the greater portion
of the important Industrial enterprises are
located on its lines. The cotton industry is
but fair sample of the Importance of and
development of manufactures along Its
lines. In 1890 there were in the eight south
ern states in which the Southern railway
has lines in round numbers, 100000 spin
dies. In 1894, the date of the organization
of the present Southern Railway company,
there were 900 spindles, of which 1,400.-
900 were on its lines. On the first of last
January there were about 100000 spindles
In the same states, of which 2,500,O00 were
on the Southern railway, showing that the
great growth of the industry in the south
has been along the lines of this system
This is SO for the two reasons that the ter
ritory which the road reaches has so many
natural and other advantages for textile
manufacturing, and that the company's pol
icy has been such that 1t has worked con-
stantly to develop this and other industries
in the communities it serves.
How the southern Helps
The Southern Railway company fosters
industries along its lines in two ways. 1t
furnishes the best and cheapest means OF
reaching markets or supply points and the
best facilities possible for the prompt hand
ling of traffic at initiatory and terminal
points. 1t also, through its industrial de-
partment, carefully studies the conditions
of industry in the south and in the country
generally, the advantages of the particular
along its lines, keeping in
touch with the commercial bodies and with
the people of such communities; constantly
works to bring to the attention of manufac- i
turers and investors and of home-seekers
the opportunities and advantages it's terri
tory possesses, and in all possible ways aids
In the establishment of new factories and
in the settlement OF, colonies. In the last
fiscal year of the Southern railway more
than 1000 families from the north were set
tied along the line of the road; over 100000
acres of land were sold to these settlers,
while there was invested in manufacturing
enterprises and in the enlargement of old
plants several million dollars. These set
tiers and the new Industries were pretty
generally distributed along the road in the
different states of the south.
- The Various Industries =.
The industries which have had the great
est growth in the south in recent years and
along the lines of the Southern railway sys-
tenn are the textile, iron and steel, furni-
ture-making and other woodworking indus
tries, oil mills, plants using iron and steel,
canning factories, etc. For all these indus
tries there are special advantages to be
found in the south along the Southern sys-
tenn. The earlier growth of the textile in
dustry was largely confined to the Carroll
mas, and those states are still far in the
lead in the number of cotton mills and in
the spindles at work. New mills are being
added in both the Carolinas, but the indus
try is becoming more extended over me
south, the development in Alabama anu
Georgia being specially noteworthy in the
past two years. There is much investiga-
ton now into the southern conditions by
northern mill men, and southern capital and
enterprise is alive to the Importance OF the
milling interest, and the future develop
ment Is to be as great as that OF the i'm
mediate past Not only will cotton mills
be built right along, but the knitting in
dustry will follow it, and the silk mills will
come
OF the future Of the iron and steel indus
tries in the south there can be but one
opinion. Around the blast furnaces and
mills will grow up great plants Of various
kinds, using both iron and Steel There Is
a big future for many southern plants max
Ing machinery of different kinds for use in
other southern industries. A.ss.T'
The vast forests of hard wood In; the
south along the Southern railway should
bring to its territory large numbers OF
woodworking plants which are now making
many northern communities prosperous,
simply because they will find nearly all
conditions more favorable for them in this
section. The head of a furniture plant CT
large size in New York recently said to a
representative of the Land and Industrial
Department of the Southern railway that
his company bought most of its supply OF
lumber in the south, and at that time 1t had
a car on the way from Alabama on which
the freight would be $3.50. 1t is good to find
a market for Alabama lumber in the north
or elsewhere, but 1t would be better-and
tl,o ,1,ar- 1. 40 i,,f~