The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-12-31
Northern Writers Picture the
Southland as Revelation in
Strides 1t Has Made in Tex
tile, Mineral and Timber De-
veIopment in Two Decades
ALABAMA'S MINERALS ARE.
FAR AHEAD or PlTTSBURG
Birmingham, With Sure Step
Pressing on to Her Destiny
as One Of Worlds Great
est and Richest Cities.
Trains Own Skilled Labor

NEW 1Onhy Lee. oV--- NopS-
cial. The greatest industrial de-
velopment that this country has ever
seen is taking place today in the
south, an accomplishment of scant
quarter of century and by men
who are alive and active today, it
is reported. Few men realized be-
fore the Civil war, which was SO de-
structiye to the agriculture of the
south, that it possessed mineral re-
sources and industrial possibilities
infinitely greater than any return
which agriculture could give, says
the New York Times.
The south never lost courage,
even after the war, when the bal
ance of her thousands of young men
went west in search of wealth. Her
slas Asss gfSteaas fafgfi GA dog
Cgedly against obstacles and literally
bankrupt; the first steps toward re-
covery were necessarily confined to
the restoration of her agriculture
and 80 years had passed before she
was able to accumulate financial
reserve which would enable her to
develop the vast industrial wealth
which had up to that time lain prac-
tically idle.
Facts About South
There are today 1,146 textile plants
in the south, and North Carolina
alone has 513 textile mills with 81
321, 450 spindles. Many know the
name and fame Of Grand Rapids,
Mich. but outside OF the south there
Is probably not one person in a
thousand who realizes that Higa
Point, n. c., is the second greatest
furniture manufacturing city in the
country nor that 81 per cent OF the
country's iron resources are in Ala
bama; that tho largest damask mills
in the world and the largest tire TAB
ric mills in the world are IN the
south; that So per cent OF the couh-
-try's overails and about Il per cent
,f the soft wood lumber and So per
ftGnt OF LnG tHtiiC lbAiAPOA ONN2as ~
rhe country is produced there; that
the coal area of the south is twice as
great as that of all Europe, including
Russia. ands.that the south has de-
veloped 2,3U0,000 horsepower from It's
streams and rivers out of an esti-
mated ma ximum water power OF 81
100000 horsepower which she can
harness IN the future fer the use OF
her rapidly expanding industries.
southern mileage has quadrupled in
thirty years. and the south will spend
this year s400,000,o00 in highway
Improvement.
Change in 20 Years
III a traveller" says the Boot and
Shoe Recorder, ignorant of what has
taken place in the south In interven-
ing years, should revisit it today he
would have difficulty in realizing
that it was the same territory he had
travelled twenty years ago. The
scores mill towns which stud the
southern states are models for the
entire world. Well paved and well
lighted streets, prosperous school
buildings, community houses and re-
creation centers, all form NUCLEUS
from which radiate avenues of model
cottages equipped with every mod
ern convenience and each standing
LIN its we'll cultivated plot. The old,
struggling village, with its unpaved
streets and dilapidated shacks, are
gone forever, and the modern mill
town of the south represents the
last word in civic planning and de-
svelopment.
"The south labored under tremen :
dous handicaps when she started her
great fight for life following the
Civil war, and one of the greatest
was the prejudice that the southern
man and woman are indolent and
lack the ability for concentrated or
sustained effort Nothing could be
further from the truth. 1t was at
one time a commonplace to deprecate
the south's efforts by asserting flat
ly that while coarse sheetings and
other low grade fabrics might be
produced successfully in southern
mills. the south could not possibly
produce the finer tissues, fancies and
novelties because she lacked the ex-
periencc and skilled labor.
Obstacle Is Overcome
"There was unquestionably an ele-
ment Of truth in this assertion when
ii was first made. This obstacle
has been overcome by an energy and
\ organizing ability which would as
tonish those who idly repeat the silly
fiction about the Incidence OF thu
south. in the work of training and
educating the wage-earning popula-
ton. Schools rose within sight OF
every mill. textile and technical in
4 stitutions were created and generous,
~ financed and within very few
Years these efforts began to bear :
boantiful harvest in the form Of tent
sc.ntinued ON page Two,