The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-09
the land would be forced to pay bloot
tribute to the mail order vampires.
THE NORTHWEST AND THE SOUTH

The disadvantages that come to
section because 1t is exclusively agri-
cultural is we'll illustrated by the
south.
Before the war that section was ex-
tensively engaged in agricultural pur-
suits. 1t had cotton and cane anu to-
bacco and rice and corn, yet with all
these it did not possess the perfect key
to riches.
The cotton growers were at the
mercy of the manufacturers of Eng
land and Massachusetts. The price
of rice was fixed in New York and Bal
timore, and the voice of the producer
was never heard nor his interests con-
sdered. The tobacco and corn crops
We're subject to the same unreason-
able laws of prices fixed without re-
gard to the actual conditions of the
markets.
AS these prices we're forced down
the southern planter increased his
acreage and his negro quarters
When the negro was freed. and the
planters deprived of the opportunity
of procuring labor for The price OF
corn bread and molasses ration. and
clothes but little better than those of
the savage ancestors of the black man,
he faced Il condition that seemed like
ruin.
If he were compelled to pay for the
labor necessary to grow and market
his crops, no matter how abundant
they might be, they would not sell for
enough on the market to pay the cost.
Fortunately for the south men of
foresight realized the latent possibili-
ties awaiting manufactures, and
against the protest of the aristocracy
great industrial enterprises were To-
Gated in that region
These gave employment to great
armies of people who had to be fed
and clothed. The planters found
market for produce that had formerly
been valueless. Money was put in cir
culation and a competitive market was
created for the standard products.
The New York Sun has gathered the
following statistics of the great change
in business conditions for a period
of twenty-five years, which does not
include the first ten years at least of
the industrial awakening of the south
They tell a wonderful story.
From 100000 invested in cap
ital for factories to $1.5OO.000. 900; in
crease $1,243, 100000.
From $457OO0,OOO yearly value of
increase 81 100000.
From $21,OOOOOO capital invested in
cotton mills to 225,O0O,OOO; increase
$204 100000.
From s313,OOO,OOO annual value of
cotton crop to S6S0,O00, 900; increase
1867 100000.
From 225,OO0 bales of cotton used in
southern cotton mills to 2,163,OOO; in
crease l,93S,0OO bales.
From s39,000,OO0 yearly lumber pro-
duct to $250,o00,OoO; increase s211,-
| 100000.
| From s2G1 100000 yearly value of
exports abroad to $685., 100000; in
F.! crease 1924 100000.
From $66O,0O0,OO0 yearly value of
farm products to $l,75O,O0O,00O; in
crease 81 900, 100000.
| From 10000 miles of railroad to co.
600 miles; increase $1,000 miles.
| From 45 cotton oil mills to $50; in
(. crease 735 mills.
| From 100000 capital invested in
cotton oil mills to s54 100000; increase
s53.SO00 900.
! From G67 900 spindles in cotton mills
to 9,205, 900; increase S,53S,000 spin
! dies
TO crown it ALL from s3,O51 900 900
assessed property valuation to $780,
1000; increase $3,449 100000, or an
average increase of $12S,000,000 year
for the twenty-five years.
The northwest should draw a lesson
from those figures. 1t, like the south,
is an agricultural country, and the
riches that await the tiller's hand in
this line, have overshadowed its other
possibilities.
But the land alone, rich as it is. will
only sustain certain population. The
products must go to feed the nom
producing class in other parts of the
country, just as they did in the south
before the location of factories there.
Now this non-producing class is in
the south, and the effects they have
had upon it's condition and prosperity
are told in words of eloquence in the
Cnn,c rta nuctnl ohc,ra