The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-06-22

has made proportionately greater pro.
gress than the rest of the country
In that twenty years 1t has so de-
rcloped its coal business that it Is
now producing,a as already stated. more
coal than the entire btuminous out.
rDi of tho United states in 1850. It's
| iron production already equals the
iron output OF the country as late as
1919. Twenty years ago the south had
G67.ooo cotton spindles and the rest
Of the country had 1o,so0.Oo0 spindles.
today the south has 100000 cotton
splndles. an increase Of nearly $500,
| 900 spinhlcs. while the rest of the
country today has about 1900. 900
spindles. or n gain since 1880 of less
than 1000, 900 spindles.
"1n the cotton mill ndusr,y we have
won the fight we have icnonstra ted
! that the South Is to be the domnat- =
ing cotton mill center of America. IL
not of the world. 1,ut until the dis
rovary Of oil in Texas opened up new
possibilities which cannot yet be fully
understood. the South was in danger
OF relatively falling somewhat behind
in its iron and steel and machinerv-
producing interests. AS great as has
bc"! our progress. we cannot afford
to put any obstruction in the way of
material advancement. We must rise
with the swelling tide of industrial
and financial activity for Worldwide
supremacy. or we must be engulfed
lf we fail il is our fault for when
We turn TO the study of our material
resources we find that no other coun-
try or no other section of any coun-
try has such a marvellous combination
of weal,l-creating possibilities. 1t
has been said that in the great
stretch of mountain country which
runs from Wheeling to Birmingham,
there is forty times as much coal as
Great britain had before she stuck
the first pick in the ground West
Virginia alone has 10000 square miles
OF coal. as compared with Great Brit
aims 12.0OD. We have nearly one-half
of the standing timber of the United
States. We hold practical monopoly
of the production of cotton, and while
we furnish three-fourths of the cot
ton for the 1O0.000.0O0 spindles in the
world. we only have 100000 spndles
ourselves. We have almost mono-
poly Of the phosphate rock. the foun-
dation of the fertilizer business of
this country and of Europe. Along
our mountain range we have coal in
ineShaustible supply. furnishing abun-
dant fuel at low cost. with water
powers. great and small almost with
out end. And now the Gulf and At
1antic coast have in Texas oil fuel
supply equal to the utmost demands
of commerce and manufactures. With
prophetic eye Commodore Maury, the
great geographer of the sea. fifty
years ago painted a thrilling picture
of the Gulf of Mexico as the center
of the worlds commerce when an
isthmian canal had been built, but it
is possible that the fuel supply which
Texas offers to us will even in ad-
vance of the canal prove almost equal
to making the Gulf-so often called
the Mediterranean of America-the
center of commercial and industrial
Maury.
Our industrial advancement, which
has been so great as to amaze the
world, must continue on a still broad
er scale. II the South fully utiizes
its advantages. if its people are
trained for the opportunities which
are ahead of us. twenty years hence
ln 81, I've, On
600 bales of cotton, and its 6.000,000
spndles should have increased to %
COCOON or 3OOO0.O00 or mere. Instead
Of S110,oO0,0OO capital in cotton mills,
it ought by that time to have $780,
100000 to $500, 100000: its coal output
from 50,OO0O0O tons as at present
ought to be 10000. 900 tons, and in
ought to be rate of progress which
will make the South of 1920 as many
times farther ahead of the South of
today than the South of today Is
ahead of 1880 Surely what we have |
since 1850, starting un-
der all of the disadvantages under |
which we labored, ought to be more |
tHiu upuDltd-StS, more tUaH quad |
lupled-during the next twenty
years.
There is no wise American who will |
btgrudge the South her brilliant fu-
ture, nor hesitate to give moral aid |
to the forces which are bringing the
people into a realization OF
the possibilities before them.