The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-27
HE'D HAVE II JOIN
IN The SCRAMBLE
McLaurin Portrays South's
Industrial Growth.
SAYS 1T MUST EXPAND
IT MUST RSCE FOR THE EASTS
GREAT TRADE.
MARKETS NECESSARY TO OUR GROWTH
Fer This Reason Senator Mclaurin Says, We
Should in Some Way Keep Tight Grip
on the Philippines, the Door to
ihe East.

on the Philippines, the Door to
The East.
New York, Jan. 26.-One hundred and
two members and guests OF the American
Asiatic Association sat down to the sec
ond annual dinner of the organization at
Delmonicos tonight Among the guests
of honor were Senator John L. Me-
Laurn, of South Carolina; Jutaro Ke-
mura, Minister from Japan. Charles Den
by Ex-United States Minister to China;
WI Ting Fang, Minister from China;
Cornelius n Bliss, John Barrett, Ex-
Minister to Siam and BraytOn Ives.
Senator McLauril. of South Carolina,
SPOKE at length of the industrial growth
Of the South and its stimulation by trade
with the Orient.
Under favorable condition. he said,
there is no limit to the Industrial posi-
bilities and progress of the South. The
mills are bound TO come TO the cotton
in the near future and YOU will find in.
every little town Il ginnery, oil mill and
warm factory run by the same power and
combined under one management. Add
what it means. There is no by-product
in the world whose possibilities compare
with cotton seed The profit for such a
I plant would be about 33 per cent per am
mum. When every neighborhood has such
a plant OF this kind the South will be the
richest country on earth.
TN iron. steel and other industries re
markabe progress has been made. IT was
confidently predicted. and, | fear. hoped
by the New England manufacturers
twenty years ago that the South would
never become q manufacturing centre.
The labor problem, the chief predicted
obstacle. has been satisfactorily solved;
its cheapness and adaptability have been
demonstrated. Where the new England
mills pay S1.25 per day our mills pay
- cents. There is no better class of citi-
ZenS and no better laborers than the mall
operatives Of the South. They are the
children OF those who for four dreary
years followed Lee and Jackson without
reward or the hope Of reward. for they
were not slave owners. All efforts to use
the negro in our factories have been fu-
tile. but the negroes are directly benefit
ed. because the factory draws labor from
the farm, thus enarging the colored
mans opportunity in field for which
he is peculiarly adapted.
THE magnificent possibilities of Il COM
mercc eagerly awaiting Developments Is
a prize worthy to be solved. The South
cannot stand still and conServatively OPP
pose commercial expansion. To do so
means to go backward toward the ruin
Gus conditions of fifty years ago.
The unexpected and unintentional ac-
ouisition of the Philippines is to mark
an epoch in the history of this country.
The worlds conflict in the East is at this
time in reality the outgrowth Of CONNER
cial competition. 1t is a question of mar
lcts and market places.
"The great race between the nations
this century is to dispose of their sur
plus productions Russia has made an
adroit advance by rail into China TO
forestall large measure Of supply at
her seaports. Germany, in the interests
Of her trade has forced China to relin-
quish her provinces and England. France,
Italy and Japan have acquired we'll de-
velopcd spheres of commercial influence
Today with foothold in the Philippines
we hold the key to the door.
''The loss of our Chinese trade would
| be calamity to the American farmer
and manufacturers Without outside mar
kets prices must fall, mills shut down and
| labor be thrown out of employment.
''The South is peculiarly interested i'll
our Asiatic markets. From the Orient
comes a continually increasing demar1
for raw and manufactured cotton. The
outlet there for our surplus products
seems almost limitless. In China today
| the most popular cotton products come
from Southern mills. Southern manu-
facturers have not yet reached more
than one-tbirtieth of the population of
| China. 1t is not unreasonable to say
| that when the entire field is covered it
will more than require double the capacity
of our mills TO supply their demand This
market presents the astonishing condition
of demanding both raw and manufacture
ed cotton from the same secrion. 1t is
of inestimatable Importance to the entire
South that this trade should be develop
ed. held and protected. With millions Of
capital invested in Southern factories. de-
pendent as they are upon the markets
of the Orient. the representative from the
South who opposes commercial expansion
| with all its results and responsibilities. is
blinded TO the true interests of his section
aud welded 10 a mere political senti
ment.
In striving for commercial progress.
commercial expansion aud commercial
supremacy | would not favor the incor-
poratiOu into our body-poltic any semi
barbarous races totally ble to appre-
ciate our system of government; but /