The age-herald., 1902-01-31
UNDERWOOD TELLS OF FSOUTH'S WEALTH Great March of Manufacturing Industries Has Just Begun MORE MARKETS NEEDED In Speech at Banquet of Merchants and Manufacturers Association
 of Baltimore Alabama Con.
 gressman Is Eloquent.
MORE MARKETS NEEDED


 was Don Manuel De Azplroz the Mexi- can minister.
 Other toasts were responded to by May or Thomas G. Hayes, Senator Quarels, of Wisconsin, Representative Under wood of Alabama and wm. B. Parson of New York. MT. Underwood said:
 When we think of our fair Southland the dream that is most likely to drift into a mental picture. is one of rich l whitened in the burst of cotton, of silent rivers drifting between majestic forests, towards our summer seas; of stately homes where fair women are worship 1 ped as the guardian angel of all that 1 Is best and truest in life, of the cotton gin and the spinning wheel. of the old darkey with his smiling face; indeed we l dream of a picture of peace and plenty; and to some 1t is but sad awakening 1 to find that in the shifting scenes of the Kaleiscope of time a new picture has replaced the old one, that the quiet fields have become busy cities. the smoke stacks of the factories and foundries light up the heavens with the proclama- l ton of a new life and a new era; the blast of the locomotive challenge the once peaceful river to combat in Its ef l forts to carry our commesce to the seas.
 Change Had to Come.
 ''The change must and would have come in the end, but the close of the civil war saw the old condAions destroyed; ruin and distress stalked in every home, the once rich were poor, labor was demor- alized, railroads had opened the great west to immigration and our fields could no longer compete with those of a new land Necessity compelled our people to look for new resources from which in- dustry would return wealth and profit And then it was that they f1rst began to realize what they had heard before only as an Aladins dream; that the south was 1 possessed of untold wealth in her mines and forests and rivers, as we'll as in her fertile fields, and that her future suc- cess and prosperity must depend on the industrial development of the boundless resources nature had so lavishly bestowed upon her.
 Tn the beginning our new development l was slow, there was no money at home to build with, our mines and coal fields 1 were In the mountains, and railroads had to be built to give them access to the markets of the country. It took years before we could convince those with cap ftal to invest that good profits could be made in the South as well as in the great West
 Mountain of Iron Ore.
 "In my home county in Alabama e mountain of iron ore lays within the range of a modern army rifle. of a coal field vaster in extent and richer in re- sources than any on the continent of Flu rope; with the lime rock covering the intervening space, all the natural re- sources that are required to make steel rail, almost in arms reach of each other. In that valley is located the city of Bir- mingham, with its teeming thousands, the glare of It's furnaces and steel plants, 1 lighting up the once peaceful fields, the blast of a thousand whistles proclaim the onward march of our industrial armies, and It's iron masters are invading the markets of the world, and their competi- ton Is fixing the price of iron manufac- l lures In the Orient as we'll as in Europe.
 Transportation Is the key that unlocks the gates of commerce The cost of trans- portation, as a rule, far exceeds the profit of the manufactures Notwith- standing our wealth in natural resources, we cannot expect to meet and vanquish our foreign competitors in distant mar I hetS uuleSS we nave equal advantages In the cost of transportation. The silent | flowing rivers of the South must be pre- pared to join with our railroads in car rying our surplus products to the seas. | Our harbors must be prepared to well come the ships of the deepest draft and greatest tonnage. Our railroads must be built. not to get through the country at the least original cost and the greatest bonded indebtedness, but they must be constructed at such grades and under such conditions as they can transport the largest tonnage at the least cost, with a fair return on the capital invested. Our people must realize that lines of transportation, whether by water or by rail, are as necessary to their industrial health as the blood vessels are to the human body; they must be fostered, not 1 stiffled; they must be controlled, not de- 1 bauched.
 Journey Just Begun.
 But when we have found the way to the sea, the journey has just begun un- | les we can carry our ships into the for l eign ports and bring them home again for l new cargo, with no greater transporta- tion charges added to the outward bound i freight than our competitor pays. we can not expect to meet the prices of our foreign rivals. It costs a ship as much i to make the voyage without a cargo as
 
 back empty the outgoing cargo must pay the cost both of going and returning. When the distance is anything like equal the additional charge for the homeward journey will more than equal the profits of our competitors, and will often leave them in undisputed control of the markets we seek.
 When the English manufacturer ships his products to South America or the Orient, he has only to pay the freight charges for the outward voyage for the ship returns home with cargo and pays its own way back. Should our ex- ports to South America and the Orient amount to those of Great Britian, most of our ships would return home with out cargo. Why? You say because we want to trade with other people but we do not want them to trade with us. Reciprocity Trade Necessary. we must establish reciprocal trade re- lations with other countries or we can not expect in them to find a m arket for our surplus products
 If the South expects to continue it's industrial development it must ever be watchful of the transportation facilities afforded 1t to reach the markets where our products are sold, we must build A canal to connect the waters of the Atlan- tic ocean with those of the Pacific ocean. that we may be nearer our markets. we must build a navy that will com