The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-05-25

D. Oss w NO1
side world, and the farms can and dc
secure the latter service.
Educational advantages in South
Carolina are unsurpassed. In the
country the State maintains superior
type of public free schools under the
directions of the State superintendent
of education. All the towns and cities
have modern and up-to-date free pub
lie schools and high schools, cartrying
the education of the children to the
college stage. The State maintains
and heartily supports literary higher
institution of learning with record
of century, splendid agricultural
and mechanical college, a fine mill
tary academy. and a college for the
literary and industrial training Of its
women that possesses a widespread
reputation. There are in different
portions of the State four other high
class colleges and universities for the
education of men and seven colleges
for the education of women. Surely
South Carolin's educational atmos-
phere equals her matchless climate
and makes bel leader in the cause of
education,
But not alone in the instances men,
toned is the prosperous and rapidly
developing little State leader. She
has set the pace in the South in the mat
ter of building model coed roads. 1t Is
now some years since the work was
begun, and the sand-clay mixture, we'll
drained system of roads was first intro
duced here, soon attracting the atteD-
ton of the Federal Governments good
roads experts, who have used them as
object lessons in good-road building in
other parts of the country. To-day
this State has miles upon miles Of this
class of roads, a Joy to the farmer and
automobilist alike, and the good work
has but just begun. In some counties
the spledid granite deposits have been
we'll utilized in the building Of lasting
macadam roadways.
| The topography of the country in
South Carolina has blessed the State
with rarest water powers. A conserva-
tive estimate places the developed and
undeveloped water powers at l ,000, 900
horsepower of water power. The de-
velopment of portion of this power a
decade ago led to the introduction of
transmitted electric power, generated
at water-power plants, to cotton mills
some miles distant. This was first
tried here, and to-day many q spindle
is operated by the overhead motor drive
furnished with electricity carried long
distances over wires. This was one of
the great elements entering into the
rapid development of cotton manufao-
turing in South Carolina. It made in
vestors independents of high-priced sites
beside water powers, and removed all
question of availability of sites. It is
noteworthy to remark in this connec-
ton that in 1882 only a, ,l13 horsepower
of water power was in use. To-day,in
one city alone, there is single plant
developing nearly three;times as much.
In speaking thus at length of my
own State it is in no sense with the
idea of disparaglng the resources oi
other States, but I rather refer to it
as something of a type of the whole
South. Surely there is much in com.
mon for which we should feel justly
proud, to which I can only refer in
this connection.
The value of cotton mills in the
South in 1880 was $21, 900, 900; in 1908
Sl75, ,0OO,000 In 1880 farm property
was valued at $2,2l2,OO0,OOO; in 1900
it was valued at SIS, ,15S, 100000. In
1893 southern exports amounted to
$3.50, ,072, 100; in 1908 to $545, OIL 1851. In
1880 the South had %, 900 miles of rail.
road; in 1908 the mileage was 50.000
In 1880 the South manufactured 397 ,00C
tons of pig iron; in 1903,3, 100000 tons.
The value of lumber products in 1886
was $3s, 900, 900; in 1908 they reached
the sum of $500, 100000. In 1880 the
South mined 5000, 900 tons of coal; in
1903 she mined 70,000,00 tons.
This internal development, rapid
and stupendous as it is, is only an
earnest of what we may reasonably
expect in the future under proper
conditions.
| We invite the northern and western
farmer and the deserving European
immigrant to share with us "this
goodly heritage" We would have
them link their arms in ours now at
the dawn of new era and participate
ully in the benefits and glories of our
development.
In England, Ireland. and Scotland
only one person in thirty-one owus
land, and this is mortgaged for go per
cent of its value. In the populous
rural sections of the North farm lands
sell at from $l0O to $3.50 per acre. We
offer you lands at from SIS to SIS per
acre, which with little attention, are
Just as productive and more desirable,
owing to climate advantages which
adapt them to great variety of crops.
+ While we are awake to the necessity
of immigration as means of keeping
our farming interests commensurate
with our manufacturing interests, we
confess some solicitation, and we
think the United States Government
should feel some solicitation, as to the
character of those immigrants.
| This Government should look well
to the laws restricting immigration;
and while no worthy berson, sound
physically and mentally, should be
turned back, we should see to it that
this country is not made an asylum
or alsmhouse for the undesirable
citizen of the Old World. We want
only voluntary immigrants; not such
as are induced by their own countries
to seek new homes. 1t is true that
the constant loss of able-bodied young
men, for it is this class who usually
emigrate, is severe drain on the old
countries. They have all the care and
expense of rearing them to years of
maturity, which is estimated at 5000
to 81 .0U0 per individual. and receive