The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-12-30

Pine at a Mobile Mill.
riders and 500 horses, relayed every
II miles, the ''fast mali averaged IA
miles an hour!
Mounted on blooded saddle horses,
attended by slave grooms and body
servants, kid-gloved sons Of the blue
stockings sought culture at Tuscaloosa,
where the new university was set.
4 ''railroad"-one Of the first built
In America-was the boast Of Tus-
cumbia Its tiny coaches ran on wood
en- rails, drawn by horses until its toy
locomotive came In 1884. But much
cotton still went by keel-boat over the
winding Tennessee river up to the
Ohio, and down to the Mississippi, to
New Orleans.
After 1850. shops and mills In
creased. More men began to spin,
weave, saw lumber, smelt iron ore,
make shoes, plows, and furniture
everything from az handles to steam
boats. But only in small way. Ala
bama was still big buyer of north
ern-made things and essentially agra
rian. These were "old plantation days"
that golden age Of Alabama whose
mere mention still arouses emotions
in the born Southerner.
Then the guns of Sumter; the Con-
federacy. Years of war and ruin for
Alabama. In which she learned one
good lesson: that she could support
herself, live within her own boundaries.
Then that quiet Palm Sunday at APP
pomattox. when the great opponents,
Grant and Lee, without parade, band
music, swords, or cannon salutes,
quietly made terms of surrender.
For more than a century cotton was
the symbol of life. The poor renter,
with one mule and one pillow, like the
rich planter with domain intact from
slave times, depended on this one crop.
Then Varied Industry.
But world conditions change. Some
old customers overseas no longer must
buy most of their cotton from US.
More and more ii is raised elsewhere
-as In Africa. Asia. So now it grows
harder for Alabama to sell cotton
abroad at fair price. But 1t has
thought, talked. planted, picked,
ginned, pressed. and sold cotton so
long, and so fixed is this cotton-only
habit that the state imports much
butter, milk, potatoes, even hay.
Happily, escape is in sight. What
with science, research, farm schools
and good example Of the more alert
farmers who prove Alabama can grow
much besides cotton-you see dawn
ing In the state new, diversified
agriculture.
But that is not all. From the North
men have come with money and ma
chimes. starting mills. shops, smelters
many industries new to Alabama.
Its factories. scattered over the
state, with workers to be fed, open a
widening market for Alabama fruit,
vegetable. poultry and dairy farms.
Swiftly. as the lives of states are
measured. you see this clamorous, alien
culture Of smoke and steel being i'm
posed on a proud, leisurely society,
accustomed for generations to its vast
cottonfelds, plantation homes, and
calm. well-ordered rural existence.
With her water power, coal, ores.
lumber, raw cotton, surplus labor. and
fine climate. Alabama is forced to bid
her hand. And industrialism is trumps.
Cotton she will grow, indefinitely. But
more of other things, too-reaching
finally a happier economic balance be-
tween town and country life.
Colleges dot the state; free county
buses haul children many miles to con-
solidated schools. and far more teach
ers are graduated each year than the
state can use. You need no rubber
yardstick to measure education's
march. It's marching faster here than
In most southern states.
Still Primitive in the Country.
Sumptuous motor cars purr In city
streets. Vanished trains, glistening In
the sun. roar through from New Or
leans or Mobile for Chattanooga, Chi
cago and New York. Lounging in OBJ
servation cars, readers and bridge
players do not even look out as they
pass a pack of fox hounds in full cry.
Back on the winding red country
roads you meet scores of people walk
ing, some carrying bags of -four. dilap-
idated farm wagons and twenty-year-
old old top buggies have wheels so
"dished" and bobby they make a
crooked track. like a snake. Saturday
afternoons families drive miles to
town, the women on chairs set in the
back of wagon beds. and boys. riding
bareback, race their mules and horses,
often with only rope halter.
Beside tumbling streams, old grist
mills are rumbling. underground"
meal, the people say. is better than
corn ground by steam or electricity.
At Tuscumbia, where Helen Keller
was born, you see miller taking his
ancient toll of one-eighth from all corn
brought in by farmers TO be ground
on shares.
Next TO schools, electric power is
the prime factor in Alabama's growth.
1t has worked miracles here. Men
damned the streams and blazed wide
avenues through the woods for rows
of steel towers that carry wires to all
parts of the state. Wherever raw ma
terials exist, there power is sent
Copper wire, hosiery. silk. condensed
milk. steel freight cars. braid and rib
bons. electro-chemical products, all
these and more, are now manufactured