Volume Vi Part 15 (1/2)
The term New South signifies the transition which has taken place through energy applied to the opportunities which that section of the United States offers. The South has natural gifts which in themselves will make it a marvel of wealth. The coast line measures 3,000 miles and already the ports of New Orleans and Galveston are among the most important on our seaboard. In 1898 the imports along the Gulf amounted to $13,000,000, and in 1908 they amounted to $59,350,000. In 1898 the exports were valued at $202,000,000; in 1908 they were valued at nearly $400,000,000. The completion of the Panama Ca.n.a.l will certainly increase the importance of the Southern seaboard cities.
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Copyright, 1900, by Detroit Photographic Co, The port of New Orleans.
There are in the United States navigable streams amounting to 26,410 miles and of these the South has 18,215 miles. Mr. Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, has estimated that the waterpower facilities of the South equal 5,000,000 horse-power for the six high-water months--five times the amount New England has. By a system of reservoirs this supply could be doubled. Roughly speaking, the country can be divided into three water-power districts: (1) the wholly undeveloped district which lies about Birmingham, Alabama, the centre of the great iron and coal district of the South; (2) a well-exploited district along the Chattahoochee, extending from Atlanta to Columbus, Georgia; (3) a district which lies in the favored agricultural region of northern South Carolina and southern North Carolina. Here about one-third of the easily available power has been developed. To-day New England, poor in raw materials and having an area of only 66,000 square miles, manufactures as much as does the whole South which is rich in raw materials and has an area of 1,000,000 square miles. It is hardly necessary to make forecasts--possibly it is wiser to ask what can possibly hinder the development of this favored section.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]
James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture.
In minerals and forests the South is equally rich. The coal supply, according to the report of the National Conservation Commission, amounts to 611,748,000,000 tons and the riches in iron in the southern Appalachian district are equally enormous. Forty-one per cent of the remaining forest area is in the same country. Unless a system of conservation is put into operation, however, these vast timber resources will pa.s.s away, for the forests are being used at a rate of more than three and one-half times the annual growth. Private interests own 125,000,000 acres in the South and practically none of the timber is being handled with the idea of conservation. There are no ”State forests”; neither are there adequate laws for the prevention of forest fires.
The economic advancement of the South during the past thirty years has been wonderful. The tide of migration within our country no longer moves Westward as much as Southward and in its wake has followed a flood of capital. The increase of population and capital is necessary to the industrial growth of the South, and in spite of the recent influx the scarcity of laborers remains a serious problem, the solution of which is absolutely necessary for the development of the manufacturing industries as well as agriculture. Immigrants of good standing are constantly sought by the States, and to cope with the problem some individuals have been guilty of operating a system of peonage. Lack of efficiency in the laborers makes the problem still more perplexing. Scientific investigations conducted with the aim of discovering the causes for this general inefficiency have led to the conclusion that the eradication of the mosquito and hook-worm will add greatly to the ability of the wage-earners. A systematic campaign in this direction has been made possible through the recent gift of Mr. Rockefeller.
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A field of cotton.
The South has always been largely an agricultural section, with the production of cotton as the leading interest. In 1909 the yield was about 13,500,000 bales from about 32,000,000 acres. In value the crop equals about twice the annual output of all the gold mines in the world.
The 8,000,000 bales which are exported annually represent an income to the United States of about $400,000,000. The problem which has called for the most attention is that the average output per acre has been decreasing for years. During the past few years the white farmers have taken active steps to remedy this weakness. Agricultural experiment stations have conducted investigations and the agricultural press has interpreted these results to the actual farmers and has conducted a systematic agitation for an agricultural revolution. a.s.sociations have been formed for the purpose of studying conditions and introducing improved methods in preparing the soil and rotating crops. More of the food supply of the South is to be raised at home; better homes and farm buildings are being erected, and better machinery is being used. The invention of a mechanical cotton picker, which has been accomplished, should reduce materially the cost of handling the crop.
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Bales of cotton ready for s.h.i.+pment.
Cotton-press yard, New Orleans.
Closely connected with this is the problem of roads. Where railroads are scarce good wagon roads are all the more necessary. In the South (excluding Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma) there are 500,000 miles of public roads serving a population of over 20,000,000 people. In 1908 there were only 17,700 miles of improved road. To help along this work good roads a.s.sociations have been formed in the various States.
The old methods of financing the plantation system are pa.s.sing. The planters are breaking away from the credit system which has kept them as borrowers and debtors and, as a result, they have money for investments elsewhere. The great problems connected with cotton culture are the labor supply and proper conservation of the soil. These solved, the friends of the South confidently believe that thirty times as much cotton could be produced as is produced at present. When one learns that only 145,200,000 acres out of 612,000,000 are now under cultivation, the claim does not seem extravagant.
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Loading cotton on the levee, New Orleans.
Southern farmers have learned that other products besides cotton pay well. Less than twenty years ago practically no hay was raised for sale in the Gulf States. The red clover and timothy which the planter thought could only be raised in the North are now cultivated in the South. Iowa, the greatest hay-growing State in the Union, has for the past ten years averaged 1.58 tons per acre at an average value of $5.45 per ton.
Mississippi during the same time has averaged 1.62 tons to the acre valued at over $10 a ton. Alfalfa has been found to be excellent feed for stock and the yield, which averages from four to eight tons per acre, sells for from $10 to $18 a ton. Corn is being cultivated now and it is not uncommon to find yields of 100 bushels to the acre and under the most favorable circ.u.mstances even twice that much has been raised on a single acre. The prevailing high prices make the corn crop particularly valuable.
Stock-raising, which has never been indulged in to any extent, now gives excellent returns. The mules which are used so extensively in the South are being raised at home instead of being brought from the North. Beef animals and hogs are increasing in numbers and are being bred more carefully. The great variety of food crops which ripen in rotation make the cost of hog-raising very little--possibly two cents a pound will cover the cost of raising, butchering, and packing. Sheep flourish in the pine regions where they are remarkably free from diseases. They range all the year, needing little attention.
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The Price-Campbell cotton-picking machine, which does the work of fifty persons.
This s.h.i.+ft in agricultural pursuits has been due in a measure to the appearance of the boll-weevil which wrought havoc with the cotton crop for some years. It is possible that the change has been decidedly beneficial when one notes that the value of products in 1899 was $705,000,000 and in 1909 about $1,430,000,000.
Agriculture is not the only interest of the New South. Northern capital has worked wonders along industrial lines. Some communities have changed entirely from agriculture to manufacturing. South Carolina is now second among the States in the manufacture of cotton; North Carolina is third, and Georgia is not far behind. In Alabama Southern tobacco is manufactured. The steel and iron industries, the furniture industry, the cottonseed-oil industry, and others are constantly becoming more important. The effects of this industrial revolution are far reaching.
Social lines are s.h.i.+fting; a new society based upon business success and wealth seems to be supplanting or at least breaking in upon the aristocracy of the ante-bellum South, based upon family and public service. The ideal of success is changing and the ambitious young man now goes into business, manufacturing, or engineering as often as into the profession of law and politics. The laboring cla.s.s has changed also.
Years ago this cla.s.s lived on farms and raised raw materials: now it lives in the cities and fas.h.i.+ons raw materials. The same social results are found here as elsewhere, but on account of the conservatism and personal independence of the Southern laborer, who is only a generation removed from the soil, these results are not in evidence so soon. In the manufacturing districts there is the political unrest characteristic of the North. Labor unions develop here and Socialism has some adherents.