The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-02-13

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mense trunk lines which run south
from Baltimore. south and west from
Norfolk, west from Wilmington and
Charleston, north from savannah.
Brunswick. Pensacola, interlapping
n intersecting with h great trunk
systems of the north and west. and
bringing all of these ports within easy
reach of the corn and wheat fields. and
the iron n coal mines, as they al
ready are TO the cotton and tobacco
crops. Sweeping down from the
Rocky Mountains, from the far north,
from the Appalachian chain into every
port, are the mighty Mississippi. and
and the numerous other streams which.
AFFORD a navigation u~nequalled in any
other country.
Passing from this TO the phosphate
industry. which began with 80, 90 tens
in 1880. ii has now reached two million
tons and is worth at a low figure $2S.-
co, 600.
The south, then, has the ability to
clothe the world. to move its commerce.
and TO furnish the fertilizers which viii
be in demand in every part OF the
earth, but there is another field in
which. for a long time. we stood lag
gard. 1t was not Until recent years
that We understood the value OF our
immense beds OF Goa n iron. The
coal fields, stretching from the Vir-
ginias through Tennessee into Ala
bama, have now an annual out put OF
40, 200 600 tons. which represents an in
come OF $50. 0e0, COO. Side by side with
these deposits, which are regarded as
more valuable than gold. in that they
furnish the motive power for human
industry, we have developed the pig
iron Of which Birmingham has become
the one center. and Bristol, Va. anoth-
er. Around Birmingham 5000 900 are
invested in iron mining. and aroun
Bristol, Va, $40, Oo0. 900. The pig iron
production of 1898, 900 tons in 1880 has
now grown to $500, 900 tons.
A country which can furnish the iron
the coal. the clothing. the timbe. is
blessed with every raw element which
enters into the highest degree of man
ufacturing experiences. The annua
output of lumber. principally represent
ed by pine and cypress, is ten billions
of feet, representing a value of $780,
600, 600 annually. The prenent annual
cash value, according to Mr.. D. a.
Tompkins, of our iron output is Si2,-
291, 296. That much of this goes to the
Orient is shown by the figures OF
Chinese importation, which recognizes
a receipt of products which was S15,-
133, 493 in 1880, now increased to $685.
715, 951, which shows what an admira-
BILE field there is for our business men
in that country.
These hgures are given to show the
kind of country by whose gates the
m of the world will have to be
fioated from east to west and from
west to east, as soo as the Nicaragu-
an canal is finished. If hat canal
floated the ships of the world backward
and forward before a country sterile
in unenterprising in inhabi-
tants and without energy, it might
mean only an increase of the shipping
facilities of the old ports and the water
frontage of the worlds m
would not be changed but would merely
be brought closer together. These fig
ures, however, show that the inter-
vening power which stands between
Europe and Asia is in the field for
every advantage which a change OF
conditions may bring about. A glance
at a map of the world, with the Amer
lean continent placed in the center
where new conditions have fixed it,
will illustrate the idea with convincing
force. This world has always been
small in the estimation of the men who
nave moved from port to port. Around
certain water fronts were gathered all
of the enterprise and industry and po-
litical ambition of the people of the
earth. When Egypt commanded the
destinies Of nations, the Nile was the
center of traffic. Late on the Red Sea
seized that place, giving way in turn
to the Mediterranean, which fioated
the fleets of Greece and Rome, Car
thage and Spain, and which command
ed the destinies, wealth and allegiance
of the people of the world. For cen
turtles that sea was covered with the
golden argosieS moving east n west,
and the wealth of India, the
of far-off countries, came to enrich
the inhabitants of the northern coast
of Africa or the southern coast of Eu-
rope.
When Columbus sailed out of CadiZ
into that UNEMPLOYED expanse Of water
to the west, he little reckoned the V
luton he was about to iIaugurate.
Thenceforth the Atlantic became the
great bosom of w~hite-winged COM
merce and the ships which headed out
from Mediterranean points changed
their port of departure and left from
points in France and England. Across
the ocean lay a rich and uncivilized
country. The deposits of nature a
never been disturbed, the people had
not been ain to a development of
their own resources, and thus the new
continent became the prize for which
the ambitious of Europe rallied.
In time, m became recipro-
cal, and ships from the American, as