The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-12-16

worth 10 the pFOuucef an average price
of 8 cents from one year to another, we
would have 100000 bales of cotton AT
9 cents yielding $15,O00,000. This same
cotton manufactured into cotton cloth
would be tripled in value and 100000
bales as cloth at is cents, yields $40
100000.
I'VE already manufacture about three
hundred thousand bales into yarn, or
white and colored cloth, which means
that we are turning about ten million
dollars worth of cotton into thirty mil.
lion dollars worth of product. We do
this with our own home people as opera
tiyes, and therefore between the manu-
facturer, the operator and the foreman
the whole two hundred per cent is
profit.
With agricultural colleges, expert
ment stations, fertilizer control, and by
other means wisely prepared by our
legislators, we have been able to keep
down the cost of producing cotton to an
extent TO continue to control the pro-
duction. The production and prices
show, however, that we have reached
q ten million bale crop, which, at 6
cents, has yielded us $300.000,000. We
find that when we made five-mllion-
II SltluGu us IL CeuJS OF the
sum of S300000,0G0 and when we
made two and half millions, it yielded
"a cents, or again the same 100000
600. Could we have curtailed the pro-
duction and increased the price? Such
plan would seem to me impossible
Regarding the capacity of the people of
the South in the matter of cotton manu-
facture, he said:
Twenty years ago our friends in
New England asserted with some EN-
nhasis that Southern people could nor
manufacture cotton at all. 1t was said
the climate was enervating, that the
people of the South had no mechanical
taste, and a lot of other reasons were
given why the attempt would fail. But
it succeeded. Then it was said thar
some coarse goods might be made, bur
never the finer stuffs. 1t is not a mat
ter of inherent capability nor of eli
mate, but purely one of technical educa-
ton.
''The development of our manufactur-
ers i'll the last twenty-five years is a
revival rather than a new development
The taste and capability exhibited by
the present generation is an inheri-
lance and not thing of entire new
birth"
Mr.. Tomplins spoke of the so-called
reconstruction and the real reconstrlc-
tom pointing out to the young men be-
fore him that the real reconstruction is
in their hands 1t is for them to take up
the great work of internal development
where their grand parents left off. He
said:
The poison that ultimately destroyed
this development-these great Southern
manufacturing interests, was the insti-
tuition of slavery. AS this grew III
strength, manufactures declined until
by the time of the war they were well
nigh dried up. There were those, how
ever, who made tremendous fight for
their preservation and for the exclusion
OF our commerce. The founders of
the Republic. most of the leaders
amongst whom were Southern men, did
everything in their power to develop
American manufactures, and retain
American commerce, and these prinei-
pies made better Roadway at that time
in the South than In the North"
Coming near home to find application
for his truths Mr.. Tompkins continued:
In North Carolina Colonel John NJ.
Morehead led the forces for internal
development. and the extension of COM
merce. He caused to be built the
North Carolina Railroad, reaching from
Goldsboro to Charleston. Then also
the road from Goldsboro to Montreal.
These plans were formulated to build
road from Salisbury to the Tennes-
see line near Ducktown. 1t was then
contemplated to form a private company
to build connection through to Chat
tanooga, thus reaching Memphis over
the Memphis and Charleston. If this
road had been built and the roads all
consolidated, then North Carolina would
now have direct line from Memphis
TO Tide Water at Morehead City.
Every phase Of the history of your am
cestors and their work, shows them to
have been men of sterling abilities and
great enterprise. They ruled the govern
nlent in those days because they had
the best possible education and training
in practical affairs.
THE increasing agitation about sla-
very and the increasing interest taken
by the Southern people in the subject
gradually drew interest and energy away
from the beneficent works of enter
prise, and brought on the civil war
with its disastrous results"
Then coming to the reconstruction
period of the South's history, Mr.. Tomp-
kins said:
In the period that succeeded the
Civil War, the whole South was
plunged into state of semi-anarchy.
After having all their property swept
away, and the former system Of labor
completely destroyed your parents had
forced upon them an experiment in hui
man affairs never before attempted in
the world. 1t was one involving tie
ability of the white race to reserve
the Anglo-Saxon civilization under the
most adverse conditions and the most
powerful opposing Influences. Under
far less pressure, the Latin race IN
Cuba and South America lescanded to-
wards the inferior race. In war for
civilization lasting for quarter of
century, your fathers have held one hand
ready at all times to defend their homes
while with the other the resources of the
country has been taken care of. Hey
have furnished the monopoly of the
production of cotton. They have paid
one-third Of an enormous pension list
getting nothing in return. They nave
paid two dollars for the education of
tho negro for eyarV one that could no