The Tupelo journal., 1905-12-08

L ne present rate Is % cents ana the
from other points in the South to
other competitive markets have beer cor
~respondingly reduced. An excellent il
lustration of the way in which the
Southern roads have looked after the in
terests of the Southern manufacturers
of cotton goods is afforded by a compar-
ison of the rates from Atlanta to Boston
with the rates from Boston to Atlanta.
The rate on cotton piece goods from At
lanta to Boston, rail and water, is SIS
cents a hundred pounds, and ~all-rail, So
cents. The rate from Boston to Allan
ia, rail and water, is "a cents, and all
rail 76 cents. 1t is this adjustment of
rates that enables Southern manufacture
ers to sell their goods in New England.
What is true of the cotton manufacturing
idustry of the South is also true of the
many other industries that have been so
rapidly developing in that section of the
country, and much the same story might
be told of the growth of the iron and
steel business, the development of the
lumber business, of the furniture man
%ufacturing industry, of coal mining, of
quarrying, and of many other of the
more or less important industries of
the South, each one of which has been
dependent upon the wise and far-seeing
management of the railways for its sue-
cess.
The railways of the South have not
been content to simply foster the growth
of existing enterprises in their territory.
They are constantly striving to multiply
the number of establishments engaged in
existing industries and to introduce en-
tirely new ones. For this purpose each
of the principal railway systems of that
section maintains a department devoted
exclusively to the work of developing and
increasing the prosperity of the territory
along its lines. 1t is the business Of
t~ention of men in all parts of the United
States the agricultural and industrial adj
vantages of the South. If, for instance,
a capitalist or a group of capitalists con-
templates the establishment of a new
cotton mill or a new iron and steel in
dustry, the agents of the Southern rail-
roads are at hand with full information
as to the advantages of different points
along their lines. If a farmer in the
North or West, attracted by the greater
profits to, be realized from agricultural
pursuits in the South, wants to move to
that section, he will find each OF the
great railway systems ready to give
him information as to numerous tracts
of land that are on the market in many
widely separated localities. If a man
in the South has a farm, a factory or
any other kind of property for sale, he
will find in the nearest railroad an agent
that will undertake to bring him a pur-
chaser.
Some of the amount of work that is
thus constantly being done for the de-
%velopment of the South by the land and
industrial department of the railways
can be obtained from a few figures relat-
ing to only two of the great railway sys-
TENS of the South. In his recent annual
report to the stockholders of the South
ern railway, President Spencer said:
along the lines of the Southern Railway
Company during the year ended June 80,
1905, there were completed and put in
operation 46 textile mills, 81 furniture
factories, 80 iron industries, 6 tanneries,
" stone quarries and coal mines, 13
cotton seed oil plants, s fertilizer works
and more than 500 smaller industries.
Over $50 previously existing plants were
enlarged during the year and "a new in
dustries were under construction at the
close of the year. immigration to and
the investment of foreign capital in the
territory served by the Southern Rail
way ~Company's lines during the year ex-
ceeding any previous year in the his
tory of the company" The testimony
of Mr.. Robert Gates, of the Industrial
immigration Department of the Louis
vile & Nashville railroad, before the
Senate Committee last spring, showed
that during the year 1904, through the
efforts of the industrial agents of that
road, there were located along its lines a
total of 3OS industries, with c~apitatl ag-
gregating $15,491, 300. In the same year
there were located along the lines of
this road 1,15O families of 4,11O persons.
These families had purchased sS,s24
acres of land.
One of the results of the encourage
ment of agricultural immigration into
the Southern States is the gradual divid-
ing up of the farming lands into smaller
holdings, resulting in more intense and
more profitable farming. The reports
of the United States census confirm this
statement and show that the number of
farms in the Southern States is i%ncreas-
ing more rapidly than in other parts of
the country. During the period covered
by the last census the number of farm
in the States south of the Ohio and Pc
tomac and east of the Mississippi in
creased "a per cent, as scompared with
25.6 per cent. for the country at large
and the farm era increased 3.3 per cent,
compared with a loss of 81 per cent. for
the country at large. Since 1900 this
movement of immigration onto the farms
of the South has been larger than ever
before, and the next census will show an
enormous increase in the number OF
farmers in that section. 1t is the belief
of students of the movement of popula-
ton in the United States that the South,
with its inexhaustible and varied re,
sources, is destined to become, within a
comparatively short time, one of the
most densely populated and most
wealthy sections of the country. Sub
s%tantial progress in this direction has al
ready been made and the railway sys-
TENS of the South have been the most
important agencies in bringing it about,
The practical question for every man
interested in the continuance of this de-
velopment to consider is whether it is
to the advantage of himself and of his
locality, and to have the railways ham
pered in the work that they are doing SC
well by having control over Transports
ton charges put into the hands of a po-
litical commission that would have nc
special interest in the development OF
the South, and that might be influenced.
either consciously or unconsciously, to