This increase in industry is so striking that the Southern states suppose they are unique in that respect; but the corresponding Northern group of equal population in the same periods gained 4,000 millions in valuations and 705 millions in annual manufactures. These figures may be checked off in various ways. Take, for instance, the annual value of crops; the South is very certain that with its cotton, its corn and other crops together it is far in advance of the North. In the Southern states which were in secession (excepting Texas) the value of farms and stock in 1900 was 2,100 millions, the value in an equivalent Northwestern group was 7,800 millions. The total farm product in the Lower South was 1,360 millions, in the Northern group of equal population 2,390 millions. If Texas be compared with a group of Pacific states, of equivalent population, the Texan farms are worth 960 millions, the Far Western 1,400 millions. The Lower South has been saving money of late years and is proud of its growing bank deposits, from 168 millions in 1896 to 701 millions in 1906, an increase of 450 per cent; but the equivalent Northern population has increased from 716 millions to 2,439 millions. The Lower South in 1905 had 917 national banks with deposits of 308 millions and assets of 568 millions; the similar Northern states had deposits of 834 millions and assets of 1,418 millions. Let us see whether the South makes up this disparity by its state banks. In 1906 the Lower South, including Texas, had deposits of 700 millions in all banks; and total bank clearings of about 3,920 millions; the equivalent Northern group had deposits of over 2,400 millions, with total clearings of about 8,500 millions. Measured, therefore, by accumulated savings, by bank capital, by clearings, the South is poorer than the least wealthy section of the North. If we were to take the rich Eastern and Northwestern states, with their immense population, enormous manufactures (New York City contains over twenty thousand factories), and vast transportation lines, the fact that the South is far behind the North in things both material and intellectual would stand out even more clearly. _II. The Whole South_