Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-12-21

The South asa Manufacturing Region.
We have alluded to the social and polit-
ical reasons which should influence Con-
gress to the sdpptioneof measures for the
encouragement of emigration to the South
ern States, and have also called attention
to some Of the agricultural advantages
possessed by that section. We now pro-
pose viewing the South from another stand
point for the purpose of pointing out the
facilities there offered TO manufacturers
for 4 successful prosecution Of their labors.
It IS g notorious fact that the Southern
people have never bean a manufacturing
community. Various efforts have been
made to institute manufacturing establish
ments, and immense sum Of money have
been thus expended, but nothing Ike sue
cess has ever been achieved The South
ern capitalists whose attention was called
to the subject were never able to eompre-
bend the cause of failure in this branch of
industry, or, if they did understand it,
were deferred by the ~proverbial despotism
of the slave power from giving publicity
to the facts. We scarcely need state that
the great obstacle to success in establishing
asystem of manufactures at the South has
ever been the want of adaptation of the
Southern system of labor to such enter
prises. The forced labor of the slaves of
the field was unsuited to the more intel
lectual task of fabricating the finer arti-
cles of manufacture. Eastern operatives
were procured in limited numbers, but the
influences of slavery were ~unfavorable,
and intelligent mechanics refused to ex-
changetheir pleasant view Engiund hvmes,
surrounded by liberal institutions and the
broadest freedom of thought and
speech, for an irksome abode in
an Iuncongenial community. of which
each individual member was a self
constituted committee of vigilance to sup
press free sentiments. When Northern OPP
eratives did consent to go South, they con-
templated, as a general thing, only a tenn
porary s%ojourn, and demanded such wages
as would effectually preclude the possibil-
ity of Southern manufactures competing
in the market with the products of the
looms and FORCES of more favored locali-
ties. 4 =
Now that the barbarous l~abor-system
which has throughout its entire career re-
tarded the progress of the South has been
abrogated, and free institutions prevail,
the disability of the Southern people, as 8
manufacturing community, has been meas
urably removed. Free institutions, cheap
and fertile lands and a superior climate
will invite immigration from the North,
and a few years will witness a great i'm
provement in the character, energy, intel
ligence and enterprise of Southern com
munities. All will agree that, other
things being equal manufacturing can be
most successfully carried on in those To-
~calities where the raw materials entering
into the articles manufactured are pro-
duced. The South possesses superior nat
ural facilities for the prosecution of almost
all branches of mechanical industry. Her
cotton, hemp and tobacco fields are unsur-
passed in the knswn world, her mountains
and hills are so many heaps of iron and
other valuable metals, whilst her coal
fields may be regarded as well nigh .ex-
haustless. No portion of our country pos
sesses a greater abundance of water power,
and her forests of useful and ornamental
timber are not excelled on the continent.
With all these favorable conditions, there
isno valid reason why the Cotton States
should not become the great manufacture
ing emporium of domestic goods, and the
iron works of Virginia, Tennessee and
Missouri compete successfully with those
of Pennsylvania. The Incompatible net
work of navigable rivers, by which steam
boats are enabled to penetrate the interior
of almost every Southern State, thus
bringing the products of those regions
within easy reach of the great markets of
the world, is not the least of the natural
advantages of that section of the Union.
#