The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1906-02-08
THE NEW SOUTH.
The Development Of Our Gulf Pors-n.Rush Of Northern Men
and Capital.
By ROBERT WIcKLlFfE WOOLLEY,
and Capital.


(By Robert Wickliffe Woolley, in the
American Monthly Review of Reviews.)
New Orleans now ranks second only
to New York among Americas export
ing ports, and Galveston is third. Gulf
port, Miss, leads all domestic ports in
its shipments of lumber, Pensacola in
sawed timber, and Mobile in cross ties
Consider that, besides New York, Phila-
delphia, Boston. Baltimore and San
Francisco, of the seacoast cities, sur
pass New Orleans in population; that
Galveston, which has about one ninth
as many inhabitants as New Orleans,
ranked eighth as an exporting port at
the time il was nearly demolished by
flood and a West Indian hurricane in
September, 1900, when more than 5000
persons and millions of dollars worth
of property were destroyed; that Gulf
port was founded only seven years ago
and was opened tn commerce in 1902,
and you will get a fair idea of the re-
cent industrial development along our
Gulf Coast.
The natural wealth and physical con-
dition of the surrounding country, and
of the country adjacent to the streams
which flow into the Gulf of Mexico, are
responsible for the major portion of
this prosperity. Some persons who put
much faith in figures and know little
OF causes attribute 1t to the Panama
Canals prospective completion. Refill
IL,
and the present export business of our
Gulf ports would not diminish one iota.
The steamboats, of the Mississippi, the
Alabama, the Tombigbee, and the Red
Rivers would continue to go heavily
laden to tidewater, and the great rail-
roads of the South and West still would
haul cotton wheat, rice, sugar, oil, lum-
Der, turpentine and iron to the Gulf
Coast for reshipment to all parts of the
world. 1t is an economic fact so we'll
established that men learned in COM
mercial affairs everywhere admit it.
Kick barrel of flour at Minneapo-
lis and it will roll to New Orleans"
James ]. Hill once said in explaining
why it was less expensive to send West
ern cOnSignmentS for foreign ports to
the Gulf Coast than over the steep
grades of the Alleghanies to the Allan
tic.
That is part of the story, but New
York and her sister cities of the Allan
tic Coast have no cause for undue
alarm now, nor will they have in the
future. They are to remain great ports
of the East. middle North and part of
the Northwest. while the cities of the
Gulf, especially New Orleans and Gal
weston. will hold the same relation to
the Western and Southern States. The
lines of demarcation have simply been
more clearly drawn, and the rapid de-
velopment of Dixie and the newer West
gives a phenomenal aspect to what is
really a natural consequence.
The financial distress of the entire
South at the close of the civil war is an
old story. few Southerners told me-
on my recent trip along the Gulf Coast,
of golden opportunities which they
failed to grasp, of the numerous sue
cesses of Northern and Eastern men.
and lamenting the passing of the old
school of gentlemen. the midday mint
juleps and easy-going business meth
DDS. Others looked prosperous, and
were working shoulder to shoulder with
the yankees" There is a difference
between the recuperative powers of the
Cavalier and those of the HOllander or
Scandinavian.
PensacOla's Important Exports.
Pensacola. the easternmost of irnpor-
tant Gulf ports having a cOnsidera BILE
foreign trade, Is an old Spanish town
that is just waking up. She claims 25.>
600 inha bitants-a substantial increase
over the 1900 census figures--and prob.
ably has them, in spite of the recent
raVages of yellow fever. Her harbor is
the finest on the coast, and one of the
finest in the world. She is the natural
outlet and port of entry of western
Florida, eastern Alabama, western
Georgia and the country to their inn
mediate north. and yet she has only
one railroad, and is not on the main
line of that. But Pensacola has pluck
She is to expend $1,50O.000 in the next
few years on paving her streets and
making other public improvements, her
business men have quietly arranged for
the building Of a railroad to Memphis,
and for the extension of another's lines
10 her gates. This will create compe-
tttion and attract the attention which
she so much desires and is in need of.
The turpentine and resin industry has
gradually worked south from the Caro-
linas to Florida. Alabama and Missis-
sippi, and Pensacola now exports more
naval stores" as turpentine and resin
are known in the commercial world,
than any other Gulf port. During the
year 1904 she shipped 209,2S9 barrels
of resin, worth $671,051, and 364,150
gallons of turpentine, valued at $780,
371. During the same period Pensa-
cola also exported 1860 bales of cot
ton, value $7,539,761; 1906 900 SUI
perficiai feet of sawed timber, value
$1.5ss,982; 179,493.O0O superficial feet
of lumber. value $2.sS4.S73; 124,322