The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-10-23
EDMONDS SOUNDS NOTE IF WARNING South Not improving Its Won derfuI Bles sings CITES WESTERN CITIES Cotton as King Is Liability, But Cot ton as Slave Would Be
 Tremendous
 Asset.

Richard H. Edmonds of Baltimore, edi- tor of the Manufacturers Record, is reg istered at the Hillman As he is an ac- cepted authority on the souths material resources and development his paper is widely read and widely quoted, and as he has long been an ardent prophet of the Birmingham district he Is cordially greeted by prominent business men. Ac- oompanied by George G. Crawford of the Tennessee company he went to Ensley yesterday afternoon and inspected the big steel plant
 At the hotel last night MT. Edmonds, when asked about his impressions on tins trip, said
 "Yes, it is true that the south Is doing great things, but it Is not doing one-half as much as it ought to be doing. As a matter of fact we have boasted so much of our incomparable advantages that we have forgotten that these advantages are not of our own creation. They are gift, blessing from heaven. for which to be devoutly thankful; but our boasting south. And we haven't wrought in pro- portion to our blessings.
 We have unsurpassed advantages of soil and climate for every agricultural product of the temperate zone We ought to be the most prosperous agricul- tural people in the world for we have un- equalled opportunities for reaching such a position, but instead,' while thousands of western farmers are riding in auto 1f fo CTS are walking. Their success is despite adverse conditions, our comparative pow erty is despite our marvellous possibili- ties.
 Our cotton crop yields. in dollars, even under bad methods of cultivation, twice as much per acre as corn or wheat yield to the western farmer. But we spend nearly all our cotton crop in buying things we should raise at home.
 We send millions to New York and the west for butter and eggs and chick ems. every dollar of which should stay at home. Thousands of farmers are poor who could become well to do by supply ing these necessities. We even buy milk elsewhere, and sometimes are forced to use condensed milk because of a lack of home supply of fresh milk. Millions go for grapes and other fruit through our failure to utilize our fruit-growing ad- vantages. Tens of millions go for corn and bacon and beef, every dollar of which Is In reality lost, If not wasted money, for the raising of these things would not only keep this money at home but would diversity our crops, enrich our soil and add immensely to our wealth.
 tc frtfa hot frf,p y~,,k our progress is much slower in agricul- tural diversity than it should be. The boil weevil, instead of being curse may prove @ great blessing. Certainly it Is proving a great teacher-really a task master, driving the farmers of many sec tions to alfalfa, to corn, to hog and cattle raising, who without such drubbng would have gone on for years in the all cotton system, with It's slpshod ways. and it's barbarous treatment of the most royal staple ever given by a beneficent Creator to any country.
 Instead of making cotton growing our road to almost fabulous agricultural wealth, we have permitted cotton to en- slave us more thoroughly than the negro was enslaved in former days.
 "Cotton as our subject would be a mighty asset; cotton as our kind is all ways likely to be dangerous liability.
 q would not minimize what the south has accomplished, but if our people fully understood what other less favored sec tions are doing they would realize that we are not measuring up to our oppor- tunities Seattle is not as old as Birming ham. It hasn't one-half of Birmingham's advantage. but 1t has S00,0O0 people who are working marvels in city building. Los Angeles was busted boom town of 5o,0O0 people or whereabouts 15 or 16 years ago, but now it has bank deposits exno nrn pA iu f, hc spending $2S, GOO GOO to provide an ample water supply which is to be brought from the mountains a hundred miles or more distant Portland is so rich with its 200 900 people that 1t can finance every local enterprise without seeking capital else where. Birmingham. Mobile. New Or leans and . dozen other places have more natural resources and attractions than any of these places, but they are beating us to death in the race. Right now Massachusetts is spending twice as much
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