Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1905-08-09
co SOUTH AND PROSPER.


IHE&R ~ derful showing Of the resOurceiul
~ M Hiess8 and progressive State Of Alabama
ES5l@S9A mere especially of that part OF Ala
IkEESSHh bama known as the Birmingham
Ss9E4VSE-lf1 mineral district. Thirty. FIVE years
ago what is now the city OF Birm-
ingham was Eyton, little more than a railway sta
tion from which the farmers of Jefferson County
shipped their produce and received their incoming
merchandise. Now it is place whose population
is more nearly $4,000 than the 3S, 500 with which
the last census credits it.
Iron ore and limestone are the foundations Of Bir-
mingham. The discovery in close iuxtapositiOn Of
these two materials each indispensable to the other
In making pig irOn created the town, and also Great
ed great fortunes for the eDterprisDg Alabama men
who exploited the advantages there existing for
the cheap production of iron. The industries OF the
city, numerous, active and bustlng as they are,
form only small part Of the activities of the Bir
mingham district which extends around the town
ior many miles and is filed everywhere with life and
enterprise, with mines and furnaces, with shops and
factories with the quiet hamlets of thrifty people
and the noisy rush and Of locomotives hauling
endless cargOes Of animate and inanimate freight.
1t was Birmingham which by its expectations of
cheap pig iron early in McKiney's administration
started the boom abroad for American iron and steel
products, and gave the world an object lesson in
the capacity OF America and Americans to beat com
petition in any branch OF industry to which they
may apply themselves. 1t was not the first nor the
last revolution to be wrought by Birmingham In the
iron industries
The News now adds the voice of Birmingham to
the cry that ia coming up from all parts Of the South
and Southwest, "Help wanted" The South wants
help, and more help, TO carry on her expanding in
dustries OF field and factory, Of town building, of
railroad building and OF home building. The News
brings the message that the Birmingham district
needs now not less than ten thousand more sober,
laW-abiding, industrious wOrkingmen, to whom
steady employment and good wages are offered.
She ought to get them by the added inducement that
there are in the Birmingham district thousands of
acres Of fertile lands, to be bought or leased on
easy terms. Mill workers who save money are thus
offered the opportunity to put their savings and
their labor to more profitable use, while thrifty
farmers from the West are assGred an advantageous
change Of base. In that busy hive OF manufactur-
ing industry there is always home market close by
for the products Of farm and home, Of the poultry
yard and the stock pastures.
But the Birmingham district is not only part of
Northern Alabama and Northern Mississippi that
offers ideal inducements to thrifty settlers from the
North and West. The climate is mild but not eHer-
waiting, the winters short, the not too long
the spring and autumn glorious. That part Of the
Tennessee Valley which lies in Alabama is next to
Paradise for the farmer whether of cotton or grain
while the Mississippi prairie that stretches broadly
between the T0mbgbee and the YazoO rivers, the
ancient domain Of the Chickasaw Indians, has long
been famous as one Of the rich garden spots of the
world. Even so calm historian as the great
George Bancroft grows eloquent in praising its
abundant prOductveness given in return for mod
crate toll
In the South to-day and Of the near future fortunes
great and small, are making and 70 be made The
waste and shiftlessness of negro labor are giving
place to more profitable methods, and the revolu-
ton is moving fast that will make Of the South as
ideal home for the industrious small farmer as in
the past it was for the great planter.
Go South and prosper.