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United States Mutual Protection Homestead Company.
Repopulation of the South-The Great Industrial Question of the Age.
Facts and Figures.
Beyond a doubt, the most important question ever presented to the civilized world is, how the industrial condition of the Southern States, lately the theatre of a sanguinary war, can be re-established upon a firm and prosperous basis.
The interest in this question is not confined to shoe Staes or to the United States. It extends to every civilized nation, and to every town, hamlet, and individual of those nations. Inasmuch as the supply of cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar, and molasses depends upon their successful cultivation in those States, and as the price of these productions depends on the quantity produced, every individual, as such, who wears cotton fabrics or consumes these productions as a deep personal interest in this question. The consumer of cotton fabrics is now compelled to pay exorbitant prices over what he paid in 1860, because cotton is now worth from forty cents to one dollar and fifty cents per pound, while in 1860 the same article of clothing was worth only from six to twenty cents, and the reason of the high price of cotton is to be found in the fact that since 1860, when the product of that year in those States amounted to over 5,000,000 bales, the amount produced has been nominal; and so of all other productions of those States; and yet their capacity to produce the crop of 1860 is not diminished, except in the disorganization of their industrial system. The economists of the North, who have paid but little attention to this question, will be astonished at the immense productions of those States in 1860, as shown by the eight census reports.
ALABAMA.
Alabama had under cultivation of 6,885, 724 acres of land, and produced:
Cotton, bales................................. 989,955
Corn, bushels...............................32,226,282
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................5,489,917
Live stock, value..........................$43,411,711
Slaughtered animals, value..................10,000,000
Butter, pounds...............................6,028,478
GEORGIA.
Georgia has 8,062,758 acres of cultivated lands.
Cotton, bales..................................702,840
Corn, bushels...............................80,776,293
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................6,508,541
Live stock, value..........................$88,872,724
Of land purchased of the Government by individuals, not under cultivation, it had 18,587,732 acres.
FLORIDA.
Acres cultivated...............................654,218
Acres uncultivated (purchased)...............2,266,015
Cotton, bales...................................65,752
Corn, bushels................................2,834,391
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................1,129,759
Live stock, value...........................$5,553,856
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Acres cultivated.............................4,573,060
Cotton, bales..................................853,412
Corn, bushels...............................15,065,606
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................4,175,688
Live stock, value..........................$23,984,468
TEXAS.
Acres under cultivation......................2,650,781
Acres uncultivated..........................22,693,247
Cotton, bales..................................431,463
Corn, bushels...............................16,500,702
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................1,129,759
Live stock, value..........................$42,825,447
LOUISIANA.
Acres under cultivation......................2,707,108
Acres uncultivated...........................6,291,468
Cotton, bales..................................777,788
Corn, bushels...............................16,353,788
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................2,066,981
Live stock, value..........................$24,546,940
MISSISSIPPI.
Acres under cultivation......................5,065,755
Acres uncultivated..........................10,778,929
Cotton, bales................................1,202,507
Corn, bushels...............................29,087,612
Sweet potatoes, bushels......................4,568,878
Live stock, value..........................$41,891,692
ARKANSAS.
Acres under cultivation......................1,988,818
Acres uncultivated...........................7,590,898
Cotton, bales..................................867,888
Corn, bushels...............................17,823,588
Live stock, value..........................$22,096,977
While Louisiana alone produced 221,761 hogsheads of sugar, and 13,439,772 gallons of molasses.
The cash value of purchased lands in these States in 1860 was:
Alabama...................................$175,824,622
Georgia....................................157,072,808
Florida.....................................16,435,727
South Carolina.............................189,652,503
Texas.......................................88,101,820
Louisiana..................................204,789,662
Mississippi................................190,760,867
Arkansas....................................91,649,773
The cash value of negro slave property in the same States in 1860 was:
Slaves Value
Alabama..........................485,080 $215,549,000
Georgia..........................462,198 230,699,000
Florida...........................61,745 30,872,000
South Carolina...................402,406 201,203,000
Texas............................182,566 91,288,000
Louisiana........................331,726 165,868,000
Mississippi......................436,681 218,815,500
Arkansas.........................111,115 55,517,500
The great question now is to provide for these States an efficient industrial system, to take the place of the one we have destroyed-to provide an industrial system which shall produce the amount of cotton, tobacco, rice, sugar and molasses raised in 1860, for the want of which a universal cry of distress ascends from the nations and all people. The cotton crop of the South in 1860 was 5,386,897 bales, while the entire crop of this year will be over estimated at 1,000,000 bales.
In 1860 the tabacco was...............434,188,561 lbs.
Sugar....................................230,982 hhds.
Cane Molasses........................14,968,996 galls.
Sorghum Molasses......................6,698,186 galls.
Rice..................................187,167,032 lbs.
Not one-fifth of this amount will be produced this year; and when it is considered that the cultivation of these products has been almost entirely abandoned for the last four years, the importance of immediate action upon this question cannot be over-estimtaed.
A wise policy, inaugurated at once by the capitalists of the North and by the land owners of the South, will reproduce the crop of 1860 in three years. At the expiration of President Johnson's Administration in 1869, the immense wealth, destroyed during the four years of war, may be restored and the wants of the world again supplied. The people of the South have taken the initiative by offering to sell their lands at nominal prices, or lease their cultivated lands at reasonable rates for a term of years. They invite, in good faith, Northern and foreign emigration. Let Northern capitalists and the Northern people respond with like liberality, and the re-establishment of a healthy industrial condition will result in a prosperity unequalled in the history of any country.
This industrial question of the South is also very intimately connected with the currency and finances of the country. Of the 5,386,897 bales of cotton produced in 1860, not over 1,500,000 bales were consumed in this country. Leaving for exportation 3,886,897, which, at ten cents per pound, furnished $155,475,880 to supply the place of specie in our foreign exchange, and which, if produced this year, at the present prices, say forty cents per pound, would supply the place of $621,903,520 of specie which now goes to pay for importations.
The balance of trade must be paid in specie, unless paid in cotton, which is to Europe the same as specie; and if that additional amount of specie could be retained at home it would tend greatly to strengthen the paper currency of the Government, and probably avoid altogether the much-dreaded financial crisis.
Of the 22,443,897 acres of cultivated lands in the above mentioned States, probably not over one-half has been cultivated this year, and cannot-be cultivated this year, and cannot-be cultivated for years to come without the aid of capital and labor, to be drawn from beyond their limits. From reliable information, it is fair to conclude that at least ten million acres of these lands are now subject to purchase or lease, with the right of purchase at from $5 to $20 per acre; the rent from $2 to $5 per acre. As an incipient step towards attaining this most desirable result of re-establishing the industrial system of these States, and in contemplation of rendering efficient aid, a temporary organization was made of gentleman, principally in this city, in August last, forming a company under the name of "The United States Mutual Protection Company for Encouraging Settlements in the Southern States," of which Hon. Alexander W. Randall, First Ass.t Postmaster General, was elected President, Dr. John Trimble, Secretary, having a general office at 273 F street Washington, D.C.; C.A. Stevens, Esq., general agent. The object of this organization was to combine such influences as would tend to bring together the landholders of the South and the capitalists and labor of the North. This company have issued and widely circulated and widely circulated two circulars, of some fifteen pages each, setting forth the objects of the organization and the advantages resulting both to the landowners of the South and the capital and labor of the North, and it has further been widely circulated by the press all over the North.
The company has already many application from Southern landowners for tenants, and some five hundred families are ready to move South in the month of January next. There is a universal interest through the North in this enterprise, as it affords protection and the prospect of an easy and rapid accumulation of wealth.
It is contemplated by the company to make settlements of fifty families in a location, thereby securing mutual protection, schools, and religious worship. The company further contemplate securing a charter from Congress at an early day in the present session, with a capital of $3,000,000, and a large number of the most prominent capitalists in New York, Boston, and Chicago have intimated their desire to participate in this corporation. It is the intention, after a permanent organization shall be effected, to make advances of means to parties owning plantations, and who are not at present able to cultivate the lands without assistance, as well as to assist persons of small means from the North who are desirous of settling South. A number of large landowners and men of influence from various parts of the Southern States are also ready to unite in the company, and make common cause in this great work of reanimating the industrial interest of their beautiful but unfortunate Southern land.
