El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-07-23
THE NEW SOUTH.
General 6ilI's Observations and
s.Opinions.

s.OpII1O0S.
General John Gill, president OF the
Mercantile Trust Company, of Balti-
more, Md, who has just returned from
an extended trip through the south,
In an interview with the Manufac-
.urers' Record said:
"famlllar as L have been ell my life
with the south. and as closely asI
have watched It's upbuilding, my trip
has enabled me to see more clearly
the wonderful progress OF the southern
states. la 1890 81, when the spirit of
wild speculation was sweeping over
the whole world, when England was
pouring millions almost without limit
into South America, when town.lot
speculation was the order of the dav
not only throughout America, but In
Africa and South America land l have
been told even in some cities of Chinsl
the south natu rally caught the speculsi
tive fever.
1.-THE town-lot boomers of Kansas
and other western states, who had
been taking out corn fields and selling
them as town-lots for q decade or
more, turned to the south as q virgin
region for their enterprise. A town
lot boom was created which collapsed
rs result of the panic following the
failure.
"At that time the south was inst
beginning to emerge from the pail
that had hung over 1t ever since the
disasters of the war, and the people
OF that section had themselves hardly
dared to believe in the possibility OF
the development of their own latent
wealth; the world at large had but
little faith in the south or Ia the
advantages claimed for it by the Manu-.
fecturers' Record and other leaders
in beb alf of that section, though a few
men of international reputation, such
as Abraham S. Hewitt, sir Lothian
Bell, the great ironmaster of Englaud,
and others had foretold the future
supremacy OF Alabama in the worlds
iron markets..
"Under these conditions the south's
prospe cts seemed to be very dark, aud
when the panic of 1893 followed the
business world expected to see the
infant industries of the south collapse.
A mum Der of furnaces built by people
without capital or experience IN order
to boom town lots, of course, got into
trouble at once, and some of them
never even went to blast.
"But In general the south met the
situation, bravely face the tremendous
odds and set itself to p -oducing at the
lowest possible cost, ran its cotton mills
night and day in order to double tie
returns out of the capita TO vested, in
creased the production of food suppl -,
aud thus got it's business affairs into
shape more rapidly than any other sect
ion.
During this period the first chip
ment of Alabama iron was made 70
Europe, and out Of that experimental
lot of 250 tons has grown q trade which
now makes q worldwide market for
southern iron.
The cotton mill people went straight
ahead enlarging their mills and build
ing new ones, and opening q market In
Asia for their product, until southern
mills are now annually exporting pro-
badly SIS, 600, 600 of cotton goods.
"Studying the south in the light of
these facts, the leaders in Americas
finance and trade now admit that We
have hardly seen the beginning of the
south's development. MIR. Hewitt, one
of the wo,li's ablest iron-makers,
twenty years or more ago predicted
that Alabama would become the
greatest iron. producing region on the
globe, and learn that he is to-day
more deeply impressed with the iron
and steel future of that section than
ever before, and is showing his faith
by his Investments.
The cotton manufacturers of New
England admit that the souta's supre-
macy in this industry is now certain;
that producing three-fourths of the
worlds Gotten supply, thus furnishing
the raw material for the worlds mills,
which represent a capital OF 81, 900. 900,
600 or more, the south is as rapidly IS
possible going to manufacture this cot
ton at home.
The south has now finally entered
upon the race for world wide supre-
macy in iron and steel and cotton
goods, and what it has accomplished
is an Indication of certain success.
The result will be an increase in bust
ness and in wealth which will make
til at section more than rival the mid
die and the New England states''