Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1923-01-09
Big Industrial II
Boom In South
Remarkable Advance Made in
Manufacture of Textiles and
Furniture ,tiL

seen is taking place today in the
South, an accomplishment of a
scant quarter of a century and by
men who are alive and active to-
day, it is reported. Few men rea-
lied before the Civil War, which
was so destructive to the agricul-
ture of the South, that it possess
ed mineral resources and indus
trial possibilities infinitely greater
than any return which agriculture
could give.
The South never lost courage,
even after the war, when the bal
anct of her thousands of young
men went West in search of
wealth. Her sons and daughters
fought on doggedly against obsta-
cles and literally bankrupt; the
first steps toward recovery were
necessitarily confined to the res
toration of her agriculture and
thirty years had passed before she
was able to accumulate a finan-
cial reserve which would enable
her to develop the vast industrial
wealth which had up to that time
lain practically idle.
There are today 1,146 textile
plants in the South, and North
Carolina alone has 513 textile mills
with 1850 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 realize
that High Point, n. c., is the sec
ond greatest furniture manufac-
turing city in the country nor that
so per cent Of the country's iron
resources are in Alabama; that the
largest damask mills in the world
and the largest tire fabric mills
in the world are in the South; that
67 per cent of the country's over
alls and about IL per cent of the
soft.wood lumber and 80 per cent
of the entire lumber output OF the
country is produced there; that
the coal area of the South is twice
as great as that of all Europe, in
Guiding Russia, and that the South
has developed 100000 horsepow-
er from its streams and rivers out
of an estimated 100000 horse
power which she can harness in
the future for the use of her rap
idly expanding industries. South
ern mileage has quadrupled in 80
years, and the South will spend
this year S4OO,O0O,0O0 in highway
improvement.
"If a traveller" says The Boot
and Shoe Recorder, Ignorant OF
what has taken place in the South
in intervening years, should devisit
it today he would have difficulty
in realizing that it was the same
territory he had Travelled twenty
years ago. The scores of mill
towns which stud the Southern
States are models for the entire
world. Well paved and well light
ed streets, prosperous school build
ings, community houses and reere-
alton centers, all form nucleus
from which radiate avenues of
model cottages equipped with
every modern convenience and
each standing in its we'll cultivated
plot. The old, struggling village,
with it's unpaved streets and di-
lapidated shacks, are gone forever,
and the modern mil town of the
South represents the last word in
civic planning and development.
THE South labored under ire
mendous handicaps whe nshe start
ed her great fight for life follow
ing the Civil War, and one of the
greatest was the prejudice that the
Southern men and women are in
dolent and lack the ability for con-
centrated or sustained effort. Moth
ing could be further from the truth.
It was at one time a common
Mace to depreeiate the South's eff
forts nv asserting fatty that while
coarse sheetings and other low
GRADE fabrics might be produced
secessfullly in Southern mills the
South could not possibly produce
the finer tissues, fancies and nov
elites because she lacked the ex-
perience and skilled labor.
"There was unquestionably an
element of truth in this assertion
when it was first made. This OBJ
stacle has been overcome by an
energy and organizing ability
which would astonish those who
idlv repeat the silly fiction about
the Incidence of the south, in the
work of training and educating
the wage earning population.
Schools rose within sight of every
mill, textile and technical institu-
tions were created and generously
financed, and within very few
wears these efforts began to bear
a bountiful harvest in the form OF
tens Thousands of young mer
and women who were not merel!
skilled workers, but whose stand