The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-07-16
~. G.
TUESDAY, JULY Is, 1907
THE BOOM IN THE SOUTH

column editorial in the PhlladslpAla
North American of last Monday, OF
which the following is the opening
paragraph:
When the history of n Onited
States in the 18th century shall pe
rightly written there will be few cnap-
tiers more interesting than those
that tell Of the ~ecOVeTy ot
the south from the effects OF tne clVil
war. Even the men who llVeo IN the
north during the quarter century III
which the good work went on nave
very little knowledge or appreclaIon
Of the true character of the achieve
ment. But the matter deserves atten-
ton. for the southern people are our
DeOple. and both the sentimental and
commercial interests Of all Americans
are involved with the prosperity or the
south.
1t is quite surprising and we will
say, should be equally as gratifying 20
the people of the south to find ex-
preston given to such sentiments in
a republican paper published in the
city Of Philadelphia.
In describing what the south has
to contend with when, emerging from
the desolation consequent On the war
between the states, she began the
struggle for the new life which in
these few years has placed her in the
proud position she now occupies that
editorial says:
If has heen said truthfully that no
other land in modern times, with the
exception of ireland, has been so I'M
poverished and covered with desola-
ton as the south at the end OF the
civil war. Not only was the wealth
OF the region gone, but probably 3OO,-
600 of the best men q been slain ana
q million or more had been forced by
necessity to begin life in other parts OF
the land or of the world. 1t was from
this basis of next to nothing that the
start was made toward the new south
of the first years of the twentieth CEN
fury. Ali the available assets were a
fertile soil, a practical monopoly OF
the power to grow cotton, and the
same brave spirit that impelled the
people to miracles of valor on h bat
tlefeld.
The editorial goes on to give
statistics to show what wonderful prog
ress the south has made in these
years of industrial reconstruction. 1t
says that statistics are apt to be re-
pellant, but the tale Of what the south
has done cannot be told without them,
and this is one of the cases in which
dry figures are really charged with
something like power of elOquence.
Among the statistics given are: The
population of the southern states now
is fve-sixths of that of the whole ma
ton in 1860. The capital invested in
manufactures in these states at pres
ent is 81, 900, 900, 900 against that of all
the country in 1880 of $500, 600, 600
She is fast becoming a manufacture
ing section, losing her quality as a dis
tinctively agricultural region. Alabama
alone now produces as much pig iron
as PENNSYLVANIA did a quarter a cen
tury ago; in 1887 the whole south pro-
duced only a trife more than S00,0
tons of this product; last year she
made 100000; she contains about half
the known iron ore of the United
States; Alabama, it is claimed, pro-
duces better steel rails than the
north. and at a lower cost. In 1886
the output of bituminous coal of the
whole country was Az 10 900 tons; last
year the southern states produced 81
600, 900 tons. In the last census yeal
the south's corn crop was worth S225,
900, 900; the wheat, oats n nay croI
S12O, 900, 900 and the potato crop Slz,
OOO,O 900; these with tobacco, rice ane
rye added, amounted to $612 .OOo,ooo
But the banner crop of the south, o
course, is cotton" says that editorial
and continues:
But the banner crop of the south, OF
course, is cotton. In this it beats thu
world. India and Egypt grow cotton
and all the tropical lands are trying
to grow it; but the world depends fol
three-quarters of it's supply upon o u
own southern states. 1t is one of The
most curious of all the freaks of ma
ture, or, better, one of the most note
worthy of all the arrangements of Pro.
whence, that this one region, of all the
surface of the globe, should be the
very best for the production of thii
staple.
The crop in 1860 was $4,000, 00(
pounds Last year it was 2,927, 000,'
AnA-pounds. Think what that mean: