The Greenville times., 1909-09-11
The South as a Manufacturing Field.

SUCu are inc CDnu11onS LOT SuC1SSStuI
agricuItuc of many kinds and the
wide extent OF unoccupied good farm
ing lands it will possibly always re-
main more largely agricultural than
out any doubt the best field for
wide variety OF industries to be found
in any sections of the United States
Its recent development in manufac-
turing is remarkable and clearly de-
monstrates a steady growth in the
future. The very fact that II is now
and will probably remain largely agri-
cultural only emphasizes its advan-
tagcs AMI possibilities industriall5--
In the United States conditions are
such that the most successful fac
tory communities must be adjacent
to the farm and farm supplies In
dustry and agriculture go together,
supplement and strengthen each
other. Always one OF the advan-
tages OF the United States over other
great manufacturing and commercial
nations and that it feeds itself and is
at the same time an exporter OF food
stuffs to the manufacturing countries
OF Europe. This means lower cost
and better food supply for Amer
lean factory towns, far greater
home market for American factory
products The same thing should be
true as to the different sections Cf
the United States.
1t is only twenty or thirty years
since the Southern States began to
figure in an appreciable way i'll the
industrial developments OF the coun-
try As late as 1880 there was little
coal mined south of the Ohio river;
the value Of iron ore deposits OF Ten
nessec and Alabama were hardly un-
derstood, and but a few small fur
naces had been erected; the forests
OF the North were furnishing nearly
all of the lumber and timber of the
country, and if there was such a
thing as furniture factory III all
the great region south of the Ohio
and Potomac is was a very small and
/ little known plant; the cotton spind-
les were comparatively few, with
none at all in much of the territory
which is now so we'll known for its
textile mills; the cottonseed oil mill
( industry was just starting; the great
/ fertilizer plants were not built; there
was not d glass factory below the
/
its border in West Virginia; the clay
! industry. save for small brick yards,
was undeveloped; not a fruit and
vegetable growing district supported
a canning plant; even the vast supply
Of bark in the hardwood forests was
scarcely drawn upon for a tannery,
while a score OF various lines of in
dustries which today utilize the
! Souths raw materials, her fuel and
/ her water powers and sell their pro-
ducts in Southern AMI Northern mar
kets and in the marts OF the world
were utterly neglected The South
sent % the North or to Europe for
its cotton goods and its clothing, its
shoes, its furniture, it nails, its steel,
its tools, it machinery, its plows and
Ivehiclcs the rails for its badly equip
ped railways, for nearly everything
which was not the product of the
Indeed. there were few even among
lis own people who really knew OF
lis wealth Of raw materials for all
kinds of industries. fewer still the
number oft hoe who had concep-
ton Of the great value Of these ma
tcrials to the South, and but few of
these endcavored to make their
worth know to the Southern people
and to the outside world, while only
small number of pioneers from
other sections had made iuvestiga-
tions looking to the utilization OF the
South's industrial advantages
Really wonderful have been the
changes since that time. Slowly AZ
sirst then with increasing rapidty
the South has been forging ahead il
industrial development, develop
ment along widely different lines
and in nearly every section, utilizing
its raw material. putting to work it.
local capital and labor and attractin.
additional capital from the Norti
an Europe. taking advantage of ths
latest in labor saving machinery an,
in the developing OF its vast waite
, power Everywhere the people hav
, been seized by the ambition for II.
dustrial growth and power. for the,
have recognized its meaning to then
! an their locality: everywhere the.
are showing a commendable spirit o
: encouragement towards industria
: deve1opment-Sou Field.
5 Cautious Journalism.
: My boy" said the editor of tn