Daily picayune., 1921-01-13
CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES.

an hour trying to cinvince the editof of the Manufacturers Record that the south would absolutely bankrupt II fine Government did not buy a large proportion of the cotton crop Whlch was then being picked. He was despef- ately in earnest He filled the daily papers with reports that the South would be bankrupted by reason Of It's inability to sell cotton. Many others were misled by his views, and for while a wave of pessimism swept over the South. and politicians and unwise business leaders started the cry o1 Buy Bale of Cotton" placarding the country with reports that the South | was on the verge of bankruptcy. The Souht was not bankrupt then nor is it now. The South has been gwen a hard blow, but not so than other sec tiOns. 3+ eA# ..
 The livestock raisers of the West and of the Pacific Coast and the grain growers of the country have been hit just as hard as the cotton growers. The merchants have been getting their knocks, too. fI
 Moreover, the South has diversity of development which is absent i'll many other parts of the country. South eyon1 for m other products as it is for cotton Indeed, the South could completely abandon the growing of cotton and be the richer therefor If cotton had never been grown by the South, this section would today be the livestock and diversified farming center of America, with d | wealth surpassing that of the richest portion fo the West.
 Cotton furnished less than one-third | of the farm-product values of the l Soutb. and the value of the manu- faetured products of the South for ex- ceeds the value of it's agricultural out put.
 The South is mining a very large percentage of the total coal output of the country.
 With the exception of California, the South is the center of the great oil-producing activities of the United States. and this industry is rapidly expanding and ever requiring an ln creasing supply of engines and boilers and piping and other things needed II this industry.
 The abundant supply of natural gas is a great power for the development of industries in the South. This, Ill con nection with the enormous refining operations which are being expanded on the Buff coast and on up the Souti Atlantic coast to Baltimore, promises 10 make the oil-refining business ont of the greatest activities of the South and, indeed, to make the South the ceE ter of the gas and oil-refining industry of the world.
 The Standard Oil Co is spending millions of dollars for the extension of its plant at Baltimore, and k build ing q million and-a- -half-dollar office structure in this city merely to house , ts own employees.
 At Charleston and Brunswick ant on the Gulf coast there are enormous refining operations under way an' ' others projected.
 The South is producing go per cen
 of the nations sulphur supply, ant
 recent developments indicate that fh' resources of the South in sulphur arr , far and away beyond anything whlcl l had previously been supposed. A lev years ago il was thought that Louis jana had the cheif source of sulphe n the country. But later on came thu , great development at Freeport, Tex and it was thought that that was tn 1 last word in suIpher development. Blu , then came the great development O $ the Gulf Sulpher Co, and the mor' the sulpher situation is studied thu
 more limitless seems to be the supply
 and sulpher is the foundation for vast economic development which VII influence every line of manufacturing. , Paper manufacturing is to becom one of the leading interests of tn
 South. A number of big mills are unde
 way and others projected, involving
 the expenditure of some millions o
 dollars for the manufacturing or pull and paper from the hardwoods Of tn Carolnas and the pines of the lowe country and the rice straw of Louis iana's rice fields and native wild grass es of Florida and other Gulf States
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