The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-11-07
r.. South-Its Industry, Its Business
Inv and its Prospects,.

and its Prospects.
Whatever be the misconceptions WHICH I
,revail throughout the South concerning Its
ppoliticai relations and interests, on the gen
apraI question of material interest, there weald
soe,n TO be ground for complete agreement
Financially and industrially bankrupt Its
Iii Iabor.system suddenly overturned. its
vision of independent prosperity collapsed,
tbe people might be expected to realize the
racessity of vigorous effort to escape from the
min that surrounds them. Their Journals,
formerly foremost In partizan discussion now 4
nroclaim the first duty ofman to be the cul-
f;yatiou of the soil, the introduction of
Greater diversity of crops, and the organiza-
t;un of an industry to which they have hith-
erto been strangers. Especially is the need
ofimported help admitted. Norther capital
is prayed for, that the recuperative process
NAV be accelerated. Northern men are invi
ted that lands now valueless may be made
marketable and productive. Northern en-
terprise is called upon to extend its ramifica-
lions southwark that home wants may be
supplied, and places now desolate may be-
come scenes of thrifty labor. Ofal these
points the more influential of our Southern
contemporaries have for months past evinced
a keen and withal sensible appreciation. -
And we have been inclined to accept the tone
that has been cultivated as an assurance that
the South thoroughly comprehended its
wants, and would be prepared to turn to
good account every available means of
help.
Thus far, we hear, these expectations have
not been fulfilled. In the easily managed
matter of immigration, literally nothing has
been done At this moment the avenues OF
travel to the Western States are choked with
families in search of new homes The human
stream never ran that way in greater volume
or with greater velocity than now. Mime
sofa reports more newcomers than in any 9th
er season. From Iowa we hear of crowds Of
settlers in all the more sparsely-peopled cOun-
ties. Missouri and Kansas are receiving dali
ly large accessions to their population. The
land sales in Wisconsin tell of similar state
ofthings there. Indeed, everywhere through
ovt the West the tide of settlement flows
with steadiness that knows no ebb Doubt
less very large proportion is furnished by
the population of older States Immigra-
ton, however, supplies its full quota not
only swelling the immediate amount of set
Element, but multiplying the sources OF fu-
ture growth.
And all this time what is the South doing
or acquiring2 What State in that section
can truthfully tell of well-considered plan
for drawing immigrants thithers Which of
the number can report accessiOns OF foreign
ers or of new corners of any class So far
as we all know, not one. Speculative com
panies exist in this City, and elsewhere in
the North, having for their object the intro
duction of immigrants with view to profit
through the sale of land and now and then
we read of twenty or thirty strangers who
have gone South, to farm, under the auspices
of one another of these organizations. Apart
from these movements, nothing is being done.
Certainly nothing by the authorities or the
people of the States most deeply interested
in the subject OF this there is ample testi-
mony. The New Orleans Picayune the 9TH
err day commented upon the fact that five
hundred German immigrants who had arri-
we'd there, and whose continuance in that
State might have been easily secured, had
passed up the river to ST. Louis without an
effort being made to retain them. The Ia
Dor system of the State is confessedly disor-
ganized. White labor is urgently required.
Yet Louisiana neither attempts to Graw
thither emigrants nor uses its opportunities
to influence the choice of smigrants who
touch there in the ordinary way And as it
is with Louisiana so is it with Georgia, Ala
bama Mississippi, the Carolinas and Virgin
la. Not one vigorous effort has been made
by any of them to acquire a share of that
stream of immigration which is with almost
incredible rapidity filling and enriching the
more remote and, in many respects, less at
tractive States of the West
The comparatively small accessions which
the South has received since the wars, have
been nearly altogether derived from our own
population. Our traders and farmers have
contributed percentage that might be vast
ly increased were the conditions favorable
Our merchants have crammed Southern
stores on credit Many of our traders have
gone to Southern cities with large stocks,
and the goahead spirit of Northern enter
prize. Adventurous operators have entered
extensively into numbering, milling, and a
dozen other businesses, profitable in them
selves and beneficial to the localities in which
they are carried on. Small bodies of agricul-
turists have gone into Virginia, especially in
to the counties adjacent to Washington, and
their dexterous industry has already shown
how much might be done in the line of i'm
provement. Had these persons been able to
report favorably OF their reception, OF their
intercourse with the Southern people, and of
the prospect in respect of comfort and pros
perity, they would have been quickly follow
ed by tens of thousands, who now look to
the West for fields of future labor. But the
reports have not been favorable. They have.
on the contrary, been calculated to disheart-
en- and to disgust. We have striven to cul-
tivate different opinion. We have cherish
ed a hope that the unfavorable representa-
tons which from time to time found their
way into print related to exceptional cases,
and would be counteracted when the whole
truth came to the light But the evidence is
unfortunately conclusive the other way
There is no longer reason to doubt that, as
rule, the Northerners who have gone South
to trade, to grow cotton, or to farm, have en-
countered a reception the reverse of friendly.
There are localities, of course, where courte-
sy and kindness have been displayed. Gen
orally speaking, however, there has not been
Kindness, or courtesy, or fair play, or even
adequate protection to life and property
Personal intercourse with Northern men who
have lived during the last year in Southern
cities, or on plantations, has convinced US
that the statements ofour New Orleans cor
respondent, published in yesterdays Times,
are in the main correct. What he says con-
corning Louisiana might, of our own knowl-
edge, be said of Alabama, Mississippi, South
Carolina and parts of Tennessee. Northern
men are compelled to abandon plantations
to escape assassination, to quit farms they
have purchased, and to throw up business
to get rid of annoyance and avoid threatened
injury. The prevailing Southern opinion is
adverse to them. They are treated as intru-