The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-08-24
SOUTH'S RICH FUTURE

| After the civil war ended the South
ern States remained for twenty years
the poor-house of America. Since then
they have progressed and now thew
are likely to become the richest por-
tlon of the United States, as far as
the production of real wealth is con-
cerned. After this war broke out in
1914 their prospects were clouded by
the fall in the price of cotton and the
stagnation of their industries. Today
they are richer than ever and the
world is more dependent upon the
South for cotton than ever before. At
the same time the South has become
less dependent upon it's cotton and is
learnin~ to diversity it's crops so that
its people will not have to buy food
in other parts of the United States.
| Owing to lack of potash for ferti-
llzlng the soil and to the scarcity of
labor, high prices for cotton have not
unduly stimulated its planting, and
at the present trade estimates of the
probable crop do not much exceed H.
100000 bales, which will bring about
81 ,400,000,000 for the lint cotton and
about $330,000,000 for the lint cotton
seed.
The South no longer sells all ex-
cess cotton and burns its seed. The oil
mills, feed mills and by-product fac
tories in the South practically doubled
the original value of the cotton seed.
as expressed in their sales of finished
products. Cotton mills in the South
are consuming about 100000 bal, S
of lint cotton, which in the form of
yarn and cloth adds $52O,OOO,OOO more
to the value of the cotton crop within
the States in which it is produced. AS
the South now sells it cotton crop, in
cluding seed, largely in a raw state
and partly in manufactured products,
1T probably will receive total of ST.
6OO,OOO,0O0 for the single crop, raised
principally in North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missis-
Texas and Oklahoma.
Southern planters who raise the
bulk of the crop are strong enough
financially to hold for a good price.
The current price of about 25 cents a
pound is beyond the widest dreams
they entertained few years ago, but
| If their cotton is worth that in time
OF war it will be worth still more if
peace should come suddenly. The cot
ton seed, once regarded as worthless,
now is worth more than the entire
crop of cotton was 80 years ago.
Southern cotton mills are making
large profits and declaring extra divi-
dends while accumulating surpluses to
tide them over dull years.
Iron, steel and coal, now produced
largely in the South, are now selling
at prices that have advanced relative
ly more than cotton and are yielding
large fortunes to the producers. More
than half of the petroleum of the
l1lted States now comes from wells
II Fhe South. Zinc and sulphur min
lH and fruit growing are equally
pEfitable. The shock which the South
c:naslyed in the fall of 1914 has be-
h'"--ing:-ssssif classes of the
,lpPple are saving money as they never
}dd before, and are investing it in
lofl enterprises and public improve
mfts which will insure large produc-
tiS and active trade in years to come.
rhe South has learned not to wait
and to depend entirely upon cotton. If
it sticks to this wise policy the people
will cease to be hewers of wood and
drawers of water for the textile man
ufacturers of Europe.-New York
Commercial.