of the war was over, the South caught the
industrial spirit that had conquered feudal Europe and the agricultural
North. In the development of mineral wealth, enormous strides were
taken. Iron ore of every quality was found, the chief beds being in
Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Five important coal basins were uncovered:
in Virginia, North Carolina, the Appalachian chain from Maryland to
Northern Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Texas. Oil pools were found
in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. Within two decades, 1880 to 1900, the
output of mineral wealth multiplied tenfold: from ten millions a year to
one hundred millions. The iron industries of West Virginia and Alabama
began to rival those of Pennsylvania. Birmingham became the Pittsburgh
and Atlanta the Chicago of the South.

[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y._

A SOUTHERN COTTON MILL IN A COTTON FIELD]

In other lines of industry, lumbering and cotton manufacturing took a
high rank. The development of Southern timber resources was in every
respect remarkable, particularly in Louisiana, Arkansas, and
Mississippi. At the end of the first decade of the twentieth century,
primacy in lumber had passed from the Great Lakes region to the South.
In 1913 eight Southern states produced nearly four times as much lumber
as the Lake states and twice as much as the vast forests of Washington
and Oregon.

The development of the cotton industry, in the meantime, was similarly
astounding. In 1865 cotton spinning was a negligible matter in the
Southern states. In 1880 they had one-fourth of the mills of the
country. At the end of the century they had one-half the mills, the two
Carolinas taking the lead by consuming more than one-third of their
entire cotton crop. Having both the raw materials and the power at hand,
they enjoyed many advantages over the New England rivals, and at the
opening of the new century were outstripping the latter in the
proportion of spindles annually put into operation. Moreover, the cotton
planters, finding a market at the neighboring mills, began to look
forward to a day when they would be somewhat emancipated from absolute
dependence upon the cotton exchanges of New York, New Orleans, and
Liverpool.

Transportation kept pace with industry. In 1860, the South had about ten
thousand miles of railway. By 1880 the figure had doubled. During the
next twenty year