Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-02-16
Recent Notable Speech in South
Carolina.
(From Harper's Weekly }

(From Harper's Weekly J
A speech was made IN the Palmetto
State during the latter week OF tue year
just closed that deserved the attention
which it has commanded outside the
borders of that common wealth, because
it depicted with clearness and force
the extraordinary industrial develop
ment which the South has undergone
during the last two decades. Il was
at a banquet given to commemorate
the 176th anniversary of the st. An
drew's Society of Charleston that the
powers and achievements of the New
South we're described by the Hon. AL
fred P. ThOm. general counsel Of the
Southern Railway, himself Southern
man by birth, and graduate of the
University of Virginia. Mr. Thorn
began by recalling that, during the re
construction period, a time when all
OF the South's energies were needed to
build up her waste places, and when
all her resources should have been tax
ed to adjust the country to totally
changed economical conditions, the
grievous fact Is that her white citizens
never felt free to cast to vote upon any
issue except one, to wit, the over
shadowing domestic question of the
ssfety of the white man s civilization,
and the purity of his race. Intelligent
and patriotic Southerners lOnged for
an opportunity to think and act upon
the great national questions which
concerned the whole commonwealth.
They desired to bring up their chill.
dren amid surroundings conducive TO
the evolution of national, rather
than sectional, spirit. They wanted
to aid in the solution of the republics
problems, unfDfiuenced and untram-
meled by circumstances differentiat.
ing them from their fellOw-citizens of
other sections. In the presence of the
| race problem, however, by which they
were beset, such freedom of thought
and action on national questions were
denied them. Even after the menace
of negro domination had vanished be-
fore the iDflexible opposition of the
Anglo SaXons, the real or supposed
necessity of remaining politically solid
for the sake of racial self preservation
continued to strife the freedom OF the
South political thought and action.
Thus shut out by circumstances
from the old-time actlvity in the polit-
ical field, the South 3 intellect and |
energy found vent in the industrial !
domain. Some figures marsha!ied by |
Mr.. Thorn bear witness to the South's |
amazing progress between 1880 and |
1903. In the former year the value of
her agricultural products i'll general
was computed at 1850 000, 600; twenty
three years later that aggregate value
had mounted to ST., 200 900, 900. The
value of the cotton crop 10 1900 fell
short of $314, 600, 900; in 1908 it was
$3.50, 900, ,0c0. The amount of capital
Invested in cotton mills in the South
ln 1880 was only 81, 900. 600, and the
number of spindles Was but 66S, 900; in
1908 the capital invested bad grown to
$780, 900 900, and the nun Der of spin
dies tu 8, ,250, 600. In he former year
the Southern mills consumed but
225, 600 bales of cotton; in the latter
the consumption had increased to two
millions. In 1880 the amount of pig
iron produced in tue South was only
397 900 tons; in 1903 it was 3 800 900.
The amount of coal mined in the same
period expanded from + 900. 900 to g.
900 900 tons, and the value OF the
South's lumber products had risen
from $37 600 900 to $500, ,000, 900. We
observe, lastly, that the aggregate of
the South 3 manufacturing products,
which was but $457 900, 900 in 1880, bad
become 81 800, 600, coo in 1903
Such an astonishing expansion of a
country's output would inevitably |
bring with it new economical prof.
lem, that of transportation. 1t be- !!
came the duty of the Southern rail- |
ways to move to market the immensely |
increased products of Southern energy |
and industry. Additional lines. bet
t.r roadbeds, increased supplies OF
ro ling stock, and, finally, double
tracking, became Indispensable it was
no slight achievement for country
which for upwards of two hundred
years had remained in commercial SER
vItude TO other sections to convey the
output of her cotton mills TO New
York and other world markets on
terms that would permit them to COM
pete with the mills of New England.
Such was the kDOtty transportation
problem with which the new South
had to deal, and that 1t should have
been solved so effectively within less
than quarter of O. century is one of
the most remarkable feats in rail way
history.