The age-herald., 1901-10-25
MR. EDMONDS TALKS
 IF BIRMINGHAM
This District and Entire South
 Making Rapid Strides
WORK OF PAST 20 YEARS
He Looks Upon This as Only a Faint Indication of What the
 Future Holds In ..a Store.

Richard H. Edmonds of Baltimore, edi- | tor of the Manufacturers Record, who | Is in Birmingham with J. Stephen Jeans of the British Iron Trade Association, | said yesterday:
 ''The rapid industrial growth of Birm- | ingham is but an illustration of the in- | dustrial progress which the whole south | is making. In Birmingham the iron and | steel interests are taking the load These | will naturally be followed by rapid d. versifcation of all lines of industrial life. 1 The possibilities which the future holds in store for the south. as well as for the country at large, are almost beyond the | grasp of the most vivid imagination. We know that in the south, as well as in the country at large, we have but begun the real work of industrial development. What we have accomplished in the last twenty years is only a faint indica- ton of what we shall accomplish during the coming twenty Twenty years ago the United States made a little over 300O,OOO tons of pig iron, and mined about TO- O0O, 900 tons of coal, bituminus and anthracite in- cluded. Today the United States is mak- 1 ing at the rate of nearly 160OO 900 tons of pig iron, and it's coal output will this year probably exceed 275OOO.OOO tons.
 Growth in Iron. "The south, which twenty years ago was making 100000 tons of pig iron, and mining 6,O0oOOO tons of coal, is this year making nearly 3,OOO.O00 tons of pig iron and mining over 50.0OO.0O0 tons of coal. In the production of pig iron and the mining of bituminous coal the south stands today on a parity with the United l States twenty years ago.
 During the last half century tho world
 has been realizing something of the fruits | of the revolution wrought by the st cam l engine and other labor-saving inventions. l In the development of trade and com
 merce, and in the creation of wealth,
 and the advancement of civilization. the results in the last half century have sur
 passed all that had been accomplished since the beginning of the Christian era.
 The trend of all human activities ig in | the direction of industrial life in its l broadest sense. The world no longer looks l to agriculture as the greatest founda- | ton of business. On the contrary, pro- ductive power as 1t finds expression in l steam and electricity marks this as dis l tinctly an industrial era. In the United | States the value of our manufacturing productions is no less than s15,000, 900 per year, or five times the total value of l all our agricultural products. 1n fact. the wages of the laborers engaged in manufacturing interests exceed the total value of our agricultural products.
 1 The Increased Capital.
 
 in manufacturing in the United States was less than $S,OOO 100000. Ten years ago it was s6OOo, 100000, while today it is about $10,OOo.OOOOOo. As marvellous as this | advance has been, placing this county far l in the lead of all the nations of the earth in manufactures. we can easily see | that we have not much more than made a good beginning.
 Our population which Is increasing at | the rate of about twenty to twenty-five per cent every ten years, will give us a total population fifty years hence of 15O,- GOO. 900, more, but production and con- sumption increase far more rapidly than population. While the latter will prob ably double in fifty years, no man dare forecaste how great will be the increase in industry and in trade and commerce but it will certainly be very much greater than the increase in population. In this marvellous growth which the future is sure to witness the South must hold the vantage ground for no other section of the world has such a combination of advantages on which to build a great in dustrial and commercial structure.
 "Other sections have iron and coal, oth- CTS have timber, others have great agri- cultural resources, others have marbles and granite, and copper. and others have oil but no other section has such rare combination of all of these, and added to these the practicable monopoly of the worlds cotton trade as has the South
 Rests With South Alone.
 We have in this section nearly all of the advantages of all other sections, without their most serious disadvantages.
 Tt rests with the South alone as to what shall be the harvest wealth to be created out of such a combination of re- sources.
 Twenty years ago the South just em- l erging from the dire poverty following | the war commenced to develop its in- | dustrial interests. Then 1t had s250, ,0Oo 900 | invested in manufactures-ten years later | this had risen to $650,000.0 900 and now it Is | over q, ,0Oo, 100000. Then its cotton mills | represented capital of $21,0O0,00O, now they show an investment of over $15O,- 0oo,OO0. Then It's cotton mills numbered 40. with a capital of s35 .000-now they number about 500 and represent capital of over $5O.oo0,ooO. The iron production of | 4o.OOo tons twenty years ago has risen to nearly 100000 tons and the coal produc- ton of 6,0OO.0OO tons to 5o,OooOOO tons. Hav- ing accomplished this much we are now ready to begin the real work of the South's upbuilding, The future is rich