The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-16

John l.. McLaurin, of South Carolina,
the South is interested in the expan-
sion of American trade. He said:
Twenty years g the brilliant
young Georgian. Henry W. Grady,
stood amid the brains, the culture and
enterprises Of New England, and, pro-
claiming that there was a new south,
demanded recognition for her material
advantages n commercial opportuni-
ties.
AS a Representative of Ia new
south I thank you for this opportunity
to declare that such recognition has at
asst beer accorded. Fire and sword,
poverty and humiliation. ruin and de-
v~astaffea followed a long and cruel
war, In which her people commended
for wnas 60 them was a sacred cause.
She passed under the rod of sorrow
and bitter disappointment. and yet
felt no blush of shame. With heroic
resignation she bowed beneath the
CALLING yoke, sustained by an abiding
faith mat deliverance Wou come.
Preserving her honor. patiently she
waited, ready when the opportunity
came 20 burst her letters and lift her
self above the ruined fortunes Of a
cruel fate. In the midst of calamity
she looked and marched steadily for
ward. With a Christian trust in right
and destiny, after a courageous and
desperate struggle, the hour of her de-
Iiveranee came. Her people no longer
MOURN by the river Of Babylon, but
have taken their harps from the willow
trees and have TUNED them anew to
the music of the spindle and the loom,
which make vocal all of her mountains,
hills and plains. Yea, l can proudly
proclaim today that the sun of a new
Industrial era a dawned upon the
south and chased away all the dark
clouds of the days of her captivity.
Time and success have softened bit
ter memories. while trials herOicly en-
dured have endeared the south to the
nation a northern paper gives eX-
preston to this feeling in the follow
ing: Tn south set herself painfully
and heTOically Ito work to learn the
hard lesson of toll and courage. and
slowly and surely a new life has arisen
from the ashes of the old. In her heroic
struggle she has had the love and adj
mirathOn of every generous soul, and
her children will yet see wealth and
abundance where their fathers saw
ruin, devastation the havoc of
war The only discOrdant utterance I
have heard come from a northwestern
senator, who, If the papers correctly
repOrt, said the other day that he was
opposed ITO the Nicaraguan canal and
territorial expansion because it will
o special southern interests This
narrow sectional view does not repre-
sent northern sentiment. For myself,
l AXE the higher and broader ground,
that what benefits one section benefits
the whole Ountry Il that CONNER
cial expansion, with all that the term
implies, means wider markets and in
creased opportunities in which manu-
f~aoturers, farmers, laborers and CAPT
- lTct- month -0Y,fh ao-+ nnI u-ac+
must share, because of it's universal
results.
'BWt, gentlemen, 1 was invited to
speak Of the south. Under favorable
conditions there is no limit to the in
dustrial possibilities and prOgres of
the south. III 1890 there were in opera
tiOn in the south 1900. 900 spindles. In
1899 it is estimated hat there We're
5000, 900 spindles in operation. In 1892
there were 733, 7o1 bales of raw cotton
consumed by the mills of the south. In
, 1898 there We're 1927, 939 bales cOnsum-
sd, an increase in seven years of 20
per cent. I predict that the next seven
years will show a far greater percent
age of increase. The mills are bound
to come to the cotton, and in the near
future you will find in every little town
a ginnery. oil mill and yarn factory
run by the same power and combined
under THE same management. The OPP
pOrtunitieS are almost untouched.
When competition becomes a little
sharper the same company, managed
by the same officers, will be running
an improved ginnary, buying seed-cOt-
ton direct from the planter, transmit
ting the lint from the gin to the yarn
mill and the seed to the oil mill, thus
saving bagging n ties and handling.
a plant OF this kind. just large enough
for the local supply of seed cotton,
could afford to pay higher prices than
the buyer OF baled cotton, while the
meal would be sold in the local mar
ket and h freight saved. Add TO this
system cattle feeding, n think VIVA
it means There is no by-prOduct in
the world whose possibilities compare
with cotton seed An experienced mill
maA in my own county showed me an
estimate for such a plant, and figured
the profit ait So per cent. per annum.
When every ~neighborhood has a plant
of Ehis kind. as ii will, the south VIII
be the richest country on earth.
Tn iron, steel and other industries
remarkable progress has also been
made.
Fl was confidently predicted, and I
fear hoped, by New England manu-
facsurers twenty years G that the
south would never become a manufac-
turing center. The labor problem, the
chief predicted obstacle, has been sat-
isfaotOrily solved. Its GheapneSs and
a~daptability have been demonstrated.
/ have given some attention to this
matter. and in a rough way should say
THAI where the New England mills
pay S1.2s per day our mills pay 40 cents,
and that the difference in climatic and
other conditions enable operatives
to get more comfort of the smaller rate
OF wages. There is no better class of
citizens and no better laoorers than
the mill operatives of the south. They
are the children of those who for -four
dreary "a followed Lee and Jack
soa. without reward or hope for re-
ward. for they were not slave owners.
They have patience, honor, patriotism
and native Intelligence. They con-
~stftuste today the safest, cheapest and
MOST reliable factory labor in the
world. All efforts to use the negro in
the factories have been futile. but the
negroes lave been directly benefited,
because the factory draws white labor
fro& The farm, thus enlarging the COL
orsd mans opportunity in a field for