The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-01-11
Railroads Share Great
Material Prosperity

President w. w. Finley. of the South
ern Railway. writing in the New York
Times annual financial review, says.
One of the most interesting stories of
to-day is that of American industrial,
commercial, and agricultural expansion.
The decade closing with 1896 was the
most remarkable in American history.
In the ten years the republic emerged
full-ledged as a world power. In this
development the South was most con-
spicuous. The farms of the Southern
States during this remarkable period
gave the country it's balance OF trade
with foreign lands. Cotton was the
largest single article in the list OF agri-
cultural exports, and a majority of 1t
came from the States traversed by the
Southern Railway and Its allied lines.
The Southern Railway. like other lines
of the country. was taxed to the limit in
taking care of traffic. The growth of
business exceeded the authorization and
prediction of the most optimistic econo-
mist. To have ollowed the dictates of
the oversanguine might have proved dis
astrous. hence the untitled requirements
| of the factory. store. and railway. To
overreach and overdo is never a safe
business proposition. The Southern Rail-
1852 81 - ~ bhNitkp
and in anticipation of natural increase
had orders placed for additional equip
ment. but the call for skilled worlomen
and laborers became so widespread and
insistent in new directions that old-es-
tablished enterprises. including the rail-
Ways, were put to distress to meet de-
mands.
The main territory traversed by the
Southern Railway system-south of the
Potomac and Ohio, and east of the Mis-
sisippi-comprising o 12 per cent. OF
the continental area of the Union-con-
tributed more of the fruits of agricul-
ture to world Use than any other equal
area on the face of the earth. The staples
! of this Southern region have thus be-
come international. rather than national
and sectional. They enter into the neces-
stiles of more people than those from
the other sections of the planet. OF the
| eight important American exports. four
| are almost solely produced In the South,
and these four-cotton, tobacco, oil cake
and meal, and vegetable oil-contrbute
q per cent. of the entire farm surplus
of the American Republic, coming, as
| already stated. from II per cent. of the
country's area. +.
The year 1906 Is one of an even dozen
in the history of the Southern Railway,
each a year of increased growth as we'll
as responsibility. for not only has the
road more than doubled its length, and
earnings as well as operating expenses
increased in proportion, but new problems
present themselves for solution. Origi-
nally an agricultural line, 1t is nou an
industrial one. for the industrial growth
OF the South in the past decade had no
equal in any other geographical division
of the United States.
The relation the South sustains agricul-
turally to the people OF the world fully
established. For years 1t was regarded as
a one-crop country, but within the de-
cade 1t has risen to a commanding place
In various ways and in combination with
its former great staple-and still staple
1t has a multiplicity of farm crops which
now participate In supplying Northern
and foreign markets.
Corresponding with this marvellous agri-
cultural growth has been the industrial
development, an attainment that has a
most substantial basis. No other region
OF equal size on any continent has great
er diversity and extent OF natural re-
sources In deposits of coal. iron ore,
structural materials. and of rare and
economic minerals, combined with forests
of m~erchantable timber and unrivaled wa
ter powers.
The increase in capital in Southern
manufactures in the five year period end
ing with 1905 was 65 per cent. compared
with 40 per cent. in the whole country
while the increase in products was Al
per cent. compared with SO per cent. In
the country at large. Reports to the
land and industrial department. of the
company show that 1913 new industries
We're located in territory covered by
Southern Railway Ind Mobile & Ohio
Railroad during the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1906. and there was no diminu-
ton of activity for the last half OF the
year.
The financial growth has been wide
spread and we'll distributed as evidenced
by the growth OF the banking business
According to the report OF the United
States Comptroller OF Currency. deposits
in the banks OF tho South June SC. 1896,
We're 22l 1-3 millions, which sum had
increased Juno 80, 1906, to SS2 1-3 millions,
or four times as much Fifteen years
ago there were 100 banks In the South.
Now there are 200. Thirty years ago
there We're 900 newspapers. Now there
are 1850. Educational facilities have null
tiplied. but particulars OF growth In all
directions could be indefinitely detailed.
The South has nearly as many seaports
as all the rest OF the country combined.
The total experts and imports are not us
great. but the figures are growing.
During the fiscal year 1906, Southern
ports sent abroad $40 millions OF products
compared with 55 millions In the pre- |
ceding year, while imports increased
from. SO millions to 11 millions. The
ports of the South are nearer the West
Indies, South America and tho Panama /
Canal than any other in the Union, and
In the trade now In sight with our neigh
bors at Latin America the South has the |
supreme advantage ;
Tho. known potentialities or the South |
and many yet to be %reckoned with under
the whip and spur OF steam and cleo
tricity, aided by scientific research and
application, promise much for Industry
and intelligence In the coming years, and
so the Southern horizon shows no signs
OF stagnation, but instead accsleration
and achievement. The wealth and va
rfety of possibilities and opportunities FOR
brain, Drawn and capital are so vast in
the South that they battle tho mind to
fully grasp their magnitude, Go whore