The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-08-21

quite certain that we can safely ecti
mate that the south has at least ono
half or the known iron ore sunnIiac of
the United States. u
we nave, therefore, in our iron ores
d oundat1On for In industry exceeding
mat or the entire country al present
we nave IN our Goals a source of SIM
ply more man twice as great as that
OF Great Britain Germany and Penn
SylVanla combined. These co1ntr;ac
are now mining 700, 00O, 900 tons 2 wear
and the south 10000, 600 tons ono
nall OF the oil produced in the United
states comes from southern wells
through its Louisiana sulphur depos-
us tnls section now controls the sui
phur trade Of the world, as it does
the phosphate industry.
II would, however, be a waste of
your time to undertake an enumera-
tlon IN detail of the natural resources
WIN which nature has favored this
combination not duplicated
ELSEWHERE on earth-fOr in addition to
our coal and iron and cotton and tim
per and Oil and sulphur and phosphate
rock, we have our marbles, GRANTEES.
elays and many other things out of
which to create Wealth.. In truth. We
may aptly apply to the south a de-
scrlptlon found in the book of Deu-
terOnOmy, in which the inspired writer
seeming to have had this section in
mind, said:
"A good land, a land of brooks of
water, OF fountains and depths that
spring out Of valleys and hills: a land
OF wheat, and of barley, and vines. and
fig trees and pomegranates; q lane OF
Oil, olive and honey; a land wherein
thou shalt eat bread without scarce
ness; thou shalt not lack anything in
1t; a land whose stones are iron and
out of whose hills thou mayest dig
brass.i'
Cotton, the sOuth's priceless herit-
age, the most remarkable agricultural
| product ever given by a beneficent
Creator to any country, a crop which
i'll itself is enough to enrich an en-
pire, is pre-eminently, and, so far as
human judgment can see, forever a
monopoly of the south. Measure it's
Importance in the simple fact that had
every dollar of gold and silver mined
! or earth in the last five years been
sent south, it would still have been
! nearly $500, 900, 900 short of paying
tIIC SouII1 . III against lHC yin "
its cotton. The total value Of the cot
ton crop for these five years was
S2,974, 900, 900, while the worlds pro-
duction Of gold and silver was s2,57s,-
S52, 900. Think not this is a temper
airy condition. The prices which have
prevailed for the last five years are
but normal prices and are less than
the average for the last 10 years. SO
,o;rh{y- e, tho irAronco of oOtt0n in
the enrichment of the south that
between 1850 and 1860 the actual in
crease in the south's wealth was great
er by 81, 2 1000 than the increase
in New England and the Middle states
combined. l. was cotton that saved
the south from utter hopeless bank
ruptcy after a wal which has no
parallel in human history, followed,
as it was, by the emigration from the
south after 1865 of 10000 southern
born whites.
Greater by far than the loss of prop
nrty. great as that was, the loss by
death on the battlefield, by permanent
invalidism and by this emigration, eX-
ceeded by far the losses Of money and
of property. Man counts for more
than material resources, and il we put
UPON IlS men lOSl " TIC SooIh ~
death in wal and the emigration FOL
lowing it the economic value TO a
country which political economists
place upOn a man, the aggregate loss
TO this section figures the amazing
total of more thar ten times the total
aggregate national banking capital OF
the United States today. 1t was cotloh
that saved the south from a bankrupt
1L .I1-. +Is- rf0 Mo womb nave
for MANY wears longer doomed TINS
section to the direst poverty. Fl11een
years ago when we were beginning 10
see daylight, there came a perlou .
e~xceedineIy low prices for cotton
which lasted for seven or elsnt years
during which we lost almost as much
on cotton as we made on industrial
advancement. 1t should be borne III
mind that there have oeen Only W.
neriOds in the south's history, n pc
tween 1S39-40 and ls4o-4o anu II
other between 1S90-91 and l9ol-oZ,
when cotton ever averaged except III
one wear. as low as 10 cents a pouno.
Omitting the entire wal periou VIZ
it's h~igh-priced cotton, out lhoiuune
the two periods just mentloneu VI ~"
prices, and the average for 100 years
Would he over ten cents. We may,
therefore, dismiss without 1urther con-
sideration any fear Of five or SIX VI
seven cent cotton again, unless ID soLie
year of great production the oanHe.s
of the south should fail to applecla.e
their responsibility and their oppor'u-
nifty.
Two years ago when the south pro-
| duced nearly $4,000, 600 bales OF cotuoh'
at a time when it was estimated that
the world would need scarcely more
than 10, 900, 900 bales of American COT
ton it looked as though the COTTON
BUYERS and the financial powers oi
Europe. aided to some extent py hln.
dred interests in America, would peat
down the price of cotton to nve VI