Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1900 — SOUTHED PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHED PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY.

Shown by the Activity of fcattnoute and factories. ■The increase of earnings of the Southern and Southwestern iailroad systems of the South and Southwest is an excellent indication of .the improvement of business conditions ao that section of the country. The advance since 1896 is shown in the table below: Earnings in Aiigust. IttSKi. 1900. Southern $8,584,265 $9,858,405 Southwestern .. 5,911,776 8,432,064 Total $12,496,041 $18,290,469 Money has loaned at lower rates of interest; tooth agricultural and manufacfacturing interests have been stimulated thereby; and what stimulates these interests directly stimulates the business of railroads. The out-bouud shipments of the raw cotton may not have been heavier because more was used in the Southern mills; but the out-bound shipments of textile goods have greatly increased. Also the in-bound shipments of the luxuries of life have increased enormously, and this class of freight is the best paying of all. Opening up new markets in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines for the products of the South has given great additional stimulus to the Southern railroads, which, geographically considered, derive unusual advantages from the expansion policy. The extent to which new factories have been erected in the States of West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia is shown by the number of establishments started along the line of the Norfolk and Western road during the past year. These include: Three new cotton mills. One silk mill. Three knitting factories. One pulp mill. One cotton and linseed oil. One coke bi-product plant. Four iron and steel works. One hosiery factory. One flour mill. Two canning works. Three peanut factories. One furniture works. Four wagon and buggy works. One handle factory. One stave works. Three planing mills. .Sixteen saw mills. The future of the South is in developing its manufacturing interests and there are thousands of Southerners who slready realise this and who are alive to the value of the protective tariff.