Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-10-30
A GRIEVOUS CONDITION.
NUMBER SIX.

Since the publication Of the preceding number.
(fvp) we have read a presentation of From Deve-
lopment Along Southern Railway" Ly Fairfax Har-
rison. president of the Southern Railway, that fits
N nicely with O of the views to which the BEA-
ION has heretofore given expression
Mr.. Harrison deals with the question SO fairly
and presents what he has to say so clearly and log
i.al]v. we below reproduce a liberal extract from
his article from which it will be seen ne very thor
,uehly corroborates the opinions of the BEACON,
and all of us who have travelled over the Southern
Railway from the Mississippi river to Washington,
and from the Gulf Coast of Alabama to the Nation
Il Canital, knows he has stated the truth of the
Ease strongly and clearly.
Here is the extract:
every railroad, by providing a highway, for
travel and for the carriage of mmer and by
providing work for a large number OF employees,
must inevitably be a factor in community develop
mont along it's lines. Its existence by facilitating
the exchange of commodities enables the people
If each locality to specialize in the production OF
those things which they can produce most adyata-
peouslv and to exchange their surplus commodities
for articles which can be produced more economic
ally elsewhere. n
'From its organization the Southern Railway
comnanv has not been merely a passive factor IN
Southern development. Realizing that the pros
neritv of the railroad must, be, in large measure,
dependent upon the prosperity of the people along
IT'S lines. the management of the Company has be-
lieyed it to be the part of sound business ADMINS
tration to pursue policies that would be helpful to
the communities which it serves. WIN TINS enc IN
view. through its Land and Industrial Department,
the Company cooperates closely with the people in
all Of the territory along its lines to secure the es-
ta%blishment of industries and the location IN each
locality of that class of immigrants that may be de-
sired by the people already living here. 1t Is also
CARRYING on Ia broad and comprehensive work OF
cooperation with Southern farmers Tor agricultural
development. 100 ,
"When the Company was organized IN 1894 the
manufacturing industries of the South were rela!
lively of little Importance and by far the greater
E mart of the raw materials produced IN that sector
: were Skinned to other localities. However, under
: the leadership of farseemg and energetic Southern
men. a start had already been made along the I'M
of industrial developmentand OF experimenting tn
profits of producing raw meterlals Dy.the pIohts o
manufacturing. The rate at which this develop
y ment has since proceeded is recorded by the Unite
8 States Census which shows that, in the ten year
u from 1890 to 1909, the total value OF the product
~ of manufacturing in the Southern States traverse
" by the Company's lines, increased l0l.6o per cent.
as compared with an increase OF 79.49iper cent. 10
all other states. Industrial growth has not bee
I'll cOnlUGu W any OiC , ooS 49, ~SNA ~
* broad, including the production of iron and ste'
and the building up of a large variety of industrie
u which use iron and steel as their raw products; a
branches of cotton manufacturing; woodworking
mt including a furniture industry second only to tn;
he of the northwest; the manufacture of boots ar
shoes. the making of wood pulp and paper and
- branches of tobacco manufacturing
IL. Zone of the most notable lines of Southern indu
trial development has been in cotton manufactu
Ter ing. Formerly almost the entire Southern cote
or crop was shipped outside the South to become Il
ON basis of profitable industries in other parts of Il
w. United States and in foreign countries. In Is
vs. the mills of the cotton producing states consum
only 1873, 74S bales of cotton. In the twelve mont
rn- ended August 81, 1913. they used 1880, SIS bale
or more than one half of the total cotton consum
mo ton of the United states, and by far the great
nne part of mill construction now going on in the I'm
te ed States, and by far the greater part of mill CO
&C. ~struction now going on in the United States is
the South. Owing in part to the natural adva
ed, tages Of the territory along its lines and in part