The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-30
Coming Center of Activity

Coming Center of Activity Much remains to be done in the diversifcation of agriculture. It is pos sible ito double the agricultural out put of the south by better cultivation, more extensive farming and higher fer tiilzation without adding a single acre of the land fin cultivation. Notwith- standing these facts, however. the value of the agricultural products of the south last year was s600,000.000 more than the value of all the farm crops of the United States in 1890. In the light of what has been achieved. what have we right to anticipate the com ing south will accomplish? Up to the present time the south has been busy getting Itself ready for constructive work. It has been creating what might be called business plant with which to build. It Is now ready to get to work It has accumulated con siderable capital. It has gained much experience. It has made the world ac cept the truth that this is to be the coming center of industrial and com | mercial activity. It has demonstrated its ability in agriculture, in iron and | steelmaking, in cotton manufacturing and in varied line of industrial work to compete with the world and beat the world where it has a fair chance. Nature has so marvelously endowed
  | for agriculture and for manufacturing not equalled by another similar area 1 in the world. With better cultivation l and increased fertilization, the south will beat the west as a grain growing | country
 We are already raising over 1Oo0,- | 900 bushels of corn a year and we | are making the south the market gar den of America. We justly boast of our monopoly of the worlds cotton production. Tn this royal staple we have an asset such as has been given to no other land under the sun. The value of our exports of cotton to Europe annually exceeds the total value of the output of all the gold mines of the earth. We have In our cotton q crop of such marvellous wealth creating potentialities that we cannot grasp what 1t means to the future. There is scarcely an agricultural product of any importance known to mankind which cannot be produced to advantage in the south. Our resources for the development of manufacturing are the amazement and envy of the world As one surveys the whole field of southern resources and southern ac- tivities he sees a country of matchless advantages beginning at last to come into It's own
 "'The coming south Is the country
 
 of more widespread agricultural pros perity and of greater industrial devel- opment than any other region known to mankind, for here nature, with it's | most lavish hand has rounded out a combination which gives to the south all of the advantages of every other | country on earth with but few of their disadvantages Here is country of infinite potentialities.
 "In the next 10 years the coming south will show far greater business achievements. greater increase in man ufacturing, greater growth in railroad business and a greater movement of population southward than has been accomplished In the last 30 years Finley Speaks
 | A review of the advantages and the needs of the south was made by w. | W. Finley, president of the Southern railway in speech here tonight at the banquet of the board of trade of Co., 1 lumbus.
 Pointing out the natural advantages of the southeast, Mir Finley said: Our section of the United States enjoys natural advantages second to ] those of no other region in the world. 1 Its climate and soils, fit 1t for the 1 widest diversifcation of agriculture and its wealth of raw materials and unsurpassed power resources insure a l large development of diversified manu- 1 featuring. Our enterprising and in- l dustrious people have already made | great progress along those lines. In 1 many respects our progress has been l at more rapid rate than has been attained in other parts of the United 1 States"
 Room in South for All After commenting favorably on the