Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-06-09
THIRTY YEARS OF EXPANSION.
Growth of the South's Wealth Most
Marvellous In History.


Growth of the South's Wealth Most
Marvellous In History.
The marvel of the growth and ma
terial progress of the south Is under
stood In a general way, but the won-
der Is increased when the concrete
figures are produced, as in the follow
ing article from a recent issue of the
Manufacturers Record, printed at
Baltimore:
Announcement that on July Capt.
]. F. Merry will retire from active SER
vice with the Illinois Central railroad,
in which capacity he has been so infiu-
ential for the material advancement Of
the south, emphasizes the progress
which that section has made in the
past thirty years. When he entered
upon that task the south was just be-
ginning to take heart again, after an
awful experience that had been the lot
of no other like section in human his
tory. 1t was then producing from its
farms to the value OF $3.50, 1000, 900. from
its factories, $45S,000,O00, from its
mines, 100000 and from It's forests,
$39, 900, 100000, a total Of $1,169, ,000, 900.
The capital in its cotton mills was
$21, 100000, and in its cotton-oil mills
$3,S00,0O0. Its furnaces were making
397, 900 tons of pig iron, and in min
erals it was producing 100000 tons
of coal, $4,000 tons Of iron ore, $4,000
barrels of petroleum and $4,000 tons
of phosphate rock. It had $1,000 miles
of railroad, and the value of its ex-
ports was $265,000,00O. Deposits In all
its banks aggregated less than $780,
OO0, 900. It's wealth amounted to ST.
505, ,000, 900.
Strings Of reviving energies OF the
south thirty years ago and notable in
dications Of what the situation Of the
south today would be appeared in an
expansion at that period at Atlanta Of
manufacturing capital within five
years from $2,5S2,113 to $S,765, $50; an
increase in its output in one year Of q
company in the Pocahontas coal fields
from 99,S71 tons to 2S3,253 tons; mark
ed growth Of Chattanooga, Tenn, and
Dallas, Tex, as manufacturing and
trade centers; expectation Of competi-
ton at New Orleans Of Alabama coal
with coal from Pennsylvania and West
Virginia; discussion Of possibilities in
yield of 5000, 900 or S,500,000 bales Of
cotton; beginning Of liberal" pur-
ern points, including 5000 tons of Ala
bama charcoal iron; plans made in one
week for the building of four furnaces
In Alabama; talk Of steel works for
Birmingham; efforts to revive sugar
refining industry at Baltimore; sale Of
$4,000 acres of fine timber land in
Swain county, N. c., for 81 an acre;
discovery of natural gas near the Pratt
mines in Alabama; proposal to hold an
agricultural field contest and to give
$200,0 900 in premiums for the best crop
and machinery; the hope Of paper
manufacturing in the south; advocacy
of the Improvement Of southern water
ways, especially South Atlantic har-
bors and the Warrior and Coosa river
system, and the systematic publication
of reviews of industrial growth in
their respective localities with vfgor-
Gus advocacy for general southern
progress by daily newspapers In such
centers as Augusta, Ga: Lynchburg.
Va; Charlotte, N. c.; Memphis, Tenn;
Atlanta, Ga; Nashville, Tenn; New
Orleans, La; Knoxville, Tenn; Raj
eigh, N. c.; Charleston, s. c.; Dallas,
Tex, and Birmingham, Ala.
In those early days the establishment
of 1900 industries in one year in the
fourteen southern states, representing
an aggregate capitalization Of less than
$40, ,000,0 900, was held to be something
of a marvel. In the first two months
of 1911 plans were announced for
southern industrial and other develop
mental enterprises, none having less
than $250,0O0, with an aggregate CAPT.
talization of more than $3O0,000,000.
In thirty years production on four
great lines in the south has increased
nearly six times, to an aggregate OF
more than $4,000, ,0O0, ,O00-from its fac
tories, $3.50, 100000; from its farms.
81, SOC, 100000; from its forest, $440,-
900, 900, and from its mines, $280,O00,-
900. Capital in its cotton mills, $780,
00O, 900, Is fourteen times as great as
in 1880; 1t is making 100000 tons Of
pig iron, or nine times as much as
thirty years ago; 1t is cutting 24,OOO,-
100000 feet Of lumber, 6,O0O,OOO,OOO
feet more than the whole cut out OF
the country in 1880; 1t Is raising ST.
OOO, 100000 worth of cotton, with seed,
1,104, 100000 bushels Of cereals worth
$3.50, ,OOO,O 900, $2O0,OOO,OO0 of live stock,
$17O, 100000 of dairy products, $170,-
600 900 of poultry, $150,000,000 of fruits
and vegetables, $69,000,000 Of tobacco
and $50,000,000 OF sugar. 1t Is mining
1O9 100000 tons of coal, 100000 tons
of iron ore, 100000 tons of phosphate
rock and 100000 tons of sulphur. The
last session of congress appropriated
more than $1S,OOO,OOO for the improve
ment of southern rivers and harbors,
and the value of exports from south
ern ports in the last calendar year was
S67S, 100000 In the thirty years the
railroad mileage has more than trebled
to a total of $4,000. Bank deposits now
aggregate $1,46O, ,OOO, 900, and the wealth
of the south is close upon $22,OOO,OO0,-
OOO or $4,000, ,OOO,OOO greater than the
wealth of the whole country fifty years
ago.
A MEMORIAL DAY ADDRESS.