The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-29

know that you might we'll call this the
Granite State" for surely no other
state can match in quantity, if In quail
ity, your wonderful GRANTEES. You have
marble rivaling the best known. You
have gold and copper and silver and
manganese, and in all probability you
have them in such abundance that they
must become sources of untold wealth.
And yet their development has scarce
ly been touched.
You produce 5000, 900 to 100000 bales
of cotton, or about one-third of the
South's cotton crop. This you can
double and quadruple to meet the ever
increasing demand, and still not reach
the limit of your cotton growing area.
Your wheat crop of 23,OOO,OOO bushels
in 1900 puts you almost on a par with
California as wheat producer. Your
corn crop of 100000 bushels in the
same year ranked you as one of the
great corn-producing states of the
Union, while your farmers also gar
nered 2S,000000 bushels of oats. And to
this grain and cotton you added rice
and sugar and early fruits, the pro-
ducts of your farms being worth in the
aggregate at least $200,000,O00 a year,
grown on less than 100000 acres, an
area so small as compared with your
total of over 100, 100000 acres that 1t
might be cut off from one side of the
state without being missed by the 9TH
err side.
1t has been claimed that you have
large stretch of territory in which, by
reason of a lack of rain, agriculture is
either impossible or Improbable. But
even the so-called semi-arid region OF
Texas is being exploited by the ma
tional government as being especially
adapted to the raising of the valuable
hest in
such a region. To the greater part of
that section, however, irrigation opens
up a field for the development of agri-
culture rivaling, if not surprising, the
marvels wrought by irrigation in Col
orado and California. Agriculture .un-
der irrigation, where the tiller of the
soil is practically Independent of ma
lures whims needing not regular ram
fall to insure his crops, Is not only
one of the most profitable but one OF
the most delightful occupations vouch-
safed to man. Without profit and with
out charm seems all other farming
beside it. In that region alone, so
scantily developed because you have
not yet except to limited extent, un-
dertaken irrigation, there is for the fu-
ture field for population, for work
and for the creation of wealth greater
in potentialities than all that Texas
has yet accomplished in agriculture.
In a state whose area is so great that
when you are standing on the northern
border you are closer to st. Paul,
Mimi. than to the southern line; so
great than when at Ell Paso on the
west you are 500 miles nearer to Cali
fornia than to Orange on the east-a
state where there is such range OF
climate that while gathering ice in one
section you can be picking strawber-
ries in the other-you can match al
most every climatic condition, meeting
the wants of those who wish cold
and bracing atmosphere or those who
want a mild and genial one, equalling
in health-giving qualities the more
widely-advertised climate of Califor-
MIA. Such, in brief is Texas.
But to Texas there has now come a
new period.
Great epochs in the worlds affairs
have been marked by some revolution
izing discovery or invention. The
Whitney cotton gin became one of the
revolutionizing influences in human af-
fairs. Around the production and man.
ufacture of cotton, which came as a
result Of the cotton gin, centered much
of the political and industrial interests
of Europe and America for more than
half a century. For 80 years that in
vention delayed the time when slavery
should no longer exist in this country.
The war which struck from the negro
the shackles of slavery gave freedom
not so much to the black man as to the
white man. We were in slavery to a
system which was injuring the white
man more than the negro-a system
which was making it impossible for us
to take our rightful place in the
worlds industrial affairs-a system
which Sc halted our industrial trend
that New England, instead of the
South, became the center of industry
and wealth and educational power
The invention of Henry Bessemer
made possible the steel rail and gave to
us our modern transportation system,
without which the progress of the last
quarter of century would have been
impossible. The electric light, the tele-
phone, electric-power transmission
have added immeasurably to the
wealth and happiness of mankind and
marked a distinct period in human af-
fairs. Twelve years ago Mr.. Edward
Atkinson, in forecasting the iron and
steel trade of the world, predicted that
it's center would be in the Great Smoky
Mountain region Of Western Carolina
and East Tennessee. At that time this
seemed to be a reasonable prediction.
The trend of the iron business was
rapidly to the South, and Pennsylvania
was alarmed at our progress, but the
discovery of the Mesaba ores opened
up new era and made it possible for
Carnegie and the other giants of in
dustry to focus the iron and steel in
terests at Pittsburg, and to create the
facilities which are enabling US to pro-
duce at the rate of 10000, 900 tons of
pig-iron a year, against the 5000, 900
or 100000 tons which Great Britain e
making For 10 years the South has
been adjusting it's iron interests to
meet the new conditions, and now Tex
as gives a mighty impulse to our in
dustrial advancement and startles the
world with its wonderful 'gushers. "
Coal has been the foundation of the
progress of the century. for fuel has
been the first essential in all material
affairs. Upon its supply of coal has
rested the trade and commerce and
the naval supremacy of Great Britain.
Every nations material advancement
has been measured by It's production
and consumption Of coal. To the enor-
nous supply Of coal possessed by the
South, Texas adds the greatest store
of fuel oil which has ever been found
a discovery possibly surprising in i'm
portance even the influence which the
ore discoveries of the Mesaba range in
augurated. 1t looks as though we are
entering upon an oil age-an age in
which this cheap fuel will mean as
much for the advancement of the COM
fort and wealth of mankind as coal
has been since the beginning of the
revolution wrought by the steam en-
CINE. A new epoch has been ushered
in, and in 1t Texas leads the world.
But there is much for Texas to do.
It is true of the state as of the in
dividual that to whom much has been
given, of him will much be required.
Texas has not only been given it's ex-
tensive domain, its rich soil, it's ge-
NAL climate, it's rivers and it's seacoast,
its wealth of timber and of minerals,
but it has been given, through the
wisdom Of its founders, the possibility
of becoming in education the foremost