The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-02-10

section ike the South, once r1NaEeU
by war and long dormant under the
numbing influence of war losses and the
predjudices arising therefrom, should
be doubly welcome. In q recent letter
to the Baltimore News, Richard II. Ed
monds, editor of the Manufacturers
Record, and one of the ablest statis-
ticians in the country, presents vividly
most encouraging statistical picture
of the South's growth between 1890 and
1900. Here are some glimpses at it:
Twenty years ago the total value of
the manufactured products of the ID
Southern states was $3.50, 600 00O by 1896
this had increased to SOIL, 100000, and
the present census shows total fol
1900 of $1,466 OO0,0 900. TO the value of the
manufactured products OF the South
should be added $12O,0O0 900 as the value
of the mineral products of that section
making total of manufactured and
mineral output of nearly $1,000, 600 900.
The remarkable advancement indicat-
ed by these striking figures is seen in
every line of industry. Twenty years
ago the South made 39I 900 tons of pig
iron; it's production now exceeds 1900
600 tons a year, and this will be very
largely increased by the improvement
which has been made to the many fur
naces throughout the South, increasing
their output, as we'll as by the new fur
naces now under construction. But the
South, no longer content to ship all of
it's pig iron to the North, to the West
and to Europe, is beginning to turn it
into the finished product, and the great
stell plant at, Birmingham, representing
an investment Of over $2,000,000, with
steel-wire works recently completed and
a steel-rail mill about ready to start
into operation, and stecl-car- building
plant now under construction, will
bring about the same great diversity in
IRON manufacturing interests as we now
have in Pittsburg and elsewhere in the
East. The problems connected with
the profitable development of the iron
and steel interests OF the South have
been solved The long uphill fight for
the necessary capital and skill to profit
ably utilize the resources of that sec
ton, where nature has made it pos
sible to produce iron at q lower cost
thar elsewhere in the United States, if
not in the world, has been won. Hence
forward, the substantial progress in
the metalurgical advancement of the
South, whether in the making of pig
iron, the manufacture of steel rails, of
steel wire and wire nails, and the build
ing of ships, will go forward with
amazing rapidity.
What has been accomplished in iron
and steel has been done even more sue
cessfully in the cotton-mill business.
Twenty years ago the South had in
vested in cotton mills capital of $2l,-
100000, with 100000 spindles in opera
ton. In 1890 it had LOO, 600 spindes,
with Il capital Of SCI, 100000. At the
present time it has over 5000, 900 spind-
les, and the capital invested in cotton
mills is upwards of 1j000O,OOO. The
consumption of cotton in Southern
mills has advanced from 1SS,0O0 bales
20 years ago to 1000, 900 bales last year.
AS rapid as this growth has been, and
probably as rapid as such business
could be judciously developed, the pos
sible extension of -manufac
ing in the South is practically without
limit. There are in the world about
105, 200, 900 spindles, representing capi-
tai of 50 ,0O0, 100000 The South furnishes
three -fOurths of the worlds supply of
cotton, or, say, enough cotton to run
S0000,0O0 out of the 105,000,0 900 spindles,
ana yet it has itself only 100000 spind-
les in operation. So long as capital
can be provided and laborers secured
this industry can expand without
reaching limit of profitable operation,
since there is no reason why the South
should not manufacture at home the
bulk of the cotton which it supplies to
the mills of the world. But the worlds
demand for cotton is growing so rapid
ly that when the time comes Southern
millsshall consume 10,0OOOOO or 12 900, 900
bales, equal TO the present crop, the
world will then be requiring for con-
sumption 29,OOOOOO OF 3O,OOOOOO bales.
"Coincident with the development of
the cotton-mill industry has been the
creation of the cotton-oil business,
which has grown from 40 mills, with
capital of $3,50OOOO 20 years ago, to 500
mills, with n capital of over $4,000, 900
at present, During the same time the
farm products of the South have in
creased in value from $3.50, 000 600 in 1880
to about $l,2OO00O.OOO last year.
I'm 1880 the South mined 5000, 900 tons
of coal; last year its output was over
5O,0OO,OOO tons. Then its production of
phosphate rock was 10000 tons; last
year it was 1900, 900 tons Then it's pro-
duction of petroleum was 10000 bar
rels; last year it was 100000 barrels,
and this quantity will be doubled,
trebled and possibly quadrupled by
Texas alone within the next year or
two.
In this period, in which the South
has been making am advancement that
has commanded the attention of the
world 1t has, in reality, only COM
menced the work of real development.
The progress which it has made, so far
as it relates to the future, is infinitely
greater in the experience of its people
in industrial lines than in the actual
results which can be shown by figures.