The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-09

oQ accurate SLaI1SI1FS-JneEe We're. III
round numbers. 2 billion. 900 million
dollars invested in southern Industrial
/ undertakings, outside of agriculture
While in the same year the total in
yestment of like character in the whole
United States was is billions. The
story of Oklahoma is an amazing one
In 1899, only 4 million dollars was in
vested in factories there, whereas in
1909 nearly 40 millions was thus in
vested in that state. That is an in
crease of $50 per cent, and there is no
other state in the Union that can show
like figures nor in any recent time has
any state made record which may be
compared with it, IN the east we
think of Missouri as an agricultural
and mining state, but the statistics
gathered by the Manufacturers Record
show that in 1909 nearly $50 million
dollars was invested in manufacturing
undertakings in that state. And the
states which until recently were deem
ed exclusively agricultural have shown
an amazing increase in the investment
of capital in factories. Texas, which
was formerly regarded as a cotton,
rice and grain raising state exclusively.
in 1903 had PIT million dollars invested
in factories, almost exactly the amount
of like investment in the state of Vir
ginia in that year.
It used to be thought that North Car
DINA was a somewhat stagnant state,
her people not understanding the superb
resources contained in a. state which
extends from the Appalachian range
by gradual descent to the sea. That
opinion can no longer be held, if it.were
ever justified, for in the Old North state
there was nearly 21S million dollars in
vested in factories in the year 1903.
The Effec+ of 1t.
The social and economic effect of so
striking an increase in the investment
of money in manufacturing in sec
nf
years was regarded as almost wholly
agricultural furnishes a striking proof
of the fact that material prosperity Of
this kind can be attained without caus-
ing violent Industrial, commercial or
political friction. In no part of the
United States at the present time is
there less friction, both social and poll
teal, than is the case throughout the
south. Apparently everybody there is
striving to gain fair share of the ma
terial prosperity which has come to
the south, but the struggle for advan-
tage of this kind occasions no aniInos-
tiles.
Then, again, the statistics obtained
by the Manufacturers Record show the
increase in the number of employees
who receive salaries as distinguished
from wages in the states of the south
in ten years. Salaries represent ablI-
ity, great and small, according to the
amount received. IN 1899 there were in
who received salaries from manu-
featuring corporations or partnerships.
Ten years later the number had in
creased to a hundrer and twenty-four
thousand. Then, again, in the year 1888
eight hundred and thirty-siX thousand
persons received wages earned in fac
tory employment, whereas in 1909 the
number was increased to one million,
two hundred and sixty-one thousand,
so that of the six million wage earners
of the United States who received
pay envelopes for employment in fac
tories one million. two hundred and
sixty-one thousand earned their wages
in the south.
There is great significance in the fig
ures that tell of the primary horse
power in the southern states. In 1899
the primary horse power in Missouri
was a hundred and ninety thousand
and in 1909 this had increased to three
hundred and forty, thousand. In the
state of North Carolina primary horse
power in 1899 was "a hundred and fifty
four thousand, but it has increased by
the year 1909 to three hundred and
eighty thousand. and that increase is
reported to be due very largely to the
utilization in North Carolina of its
water power for the creation of cleo
trio energy for manufacturing pur-
poses. This utilization of water power
in the south undoubtedly explains in
part the incre 5eS in primary horse
power in Alabama, Georgia and Ten
nessee. These figures clearly point to
a greatly-increased utilization of the
vast water power of tn south and
along the lines pointed out by Mr..
George Westinghouse in his address de-
livered to the sou+Hern business con-
gress at Atlanta in March of last year.
The money value of the factory pro-
ducts of the south in 1909 was three
billion, a hundred and sixty-eight mil
lion dollars, or more than double the
money value of factory products of the
south ten years earlier. Notwithstand-
ing this great increase in manufactur-
ing industries in the south that sec
ton of the Union still maintains it's
-eminence in agriculture. In 1900
there was invested in the southern
states about five billion dollars in agri-
culture, whereas in 1910 this had in
creased to eleven billions, or practically
fourth of the entire investment IN
agriculture in the United States. And
in the south N 1910 was three million,
three hundred and sixty-three thousand
as compared with two million, eight
hundred and ninety-five thousand IN
1900
In view, then. of TIE marvellous in
crease in invested capital in the south
and in the money value of the products
O. the south, both Industrial and agri-
cultural-relatiyely greater than in any
other section of the country-there does
seem to be justification for the state
ment that the spirit of unrest so prevail
ent in other parts of the country has
been subdued in the south, partially, at
least, because there the people are be-
ginning to understand that there may
be adjustment between the old and new
conditions. HOLLAND.