The Orangeburg news. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1867-1875, 1867-07-13
[From the Independent
Prosperity il the Harvest.
BY HORACE aREELY.

When the years business came to be settled
up and books balanced last Winter, it was gen.
orally found, to the amazement of many, that
no profits had been realized-that shrunkcn
prices or bad debts had absorbed them. The
great merchants, whose gains had been large
in former years, had now made very little
while those who had hitherto achieved but
moderate success were now commonly bank
rupt. Manufacturers, mechanics, and small
tradcsmen shared in the general depression !;
railroads found their receipts lessened by the
scarcity of produce and the inability of thou
sands to travel; the Federal revenue sympa-
thized with the general collapse; and poverty
individual and general-at length stood un-
vailed and confessed. Hence the seeming
GOODNESS of the public car to the pressing mp
peals for generous contributions in mitigation
of Southern distress, and for the promotion of
education, political and general, among the
freedmen. I do not justify the too prevalent
parsimony-I simply explain it. However it
should be, the fact is: that most persons arc
deaf to the appeals to their generosity when
they feel that, in spite of their best efforts,
their business is improbable.
But the opening of new season of germi-
nation and growth awakens and justifes hopes
of benefccnt change. From east to west,
from north to south, the telegraph and the
mails rcciprecate assurances that the skies are
propitious. True, the SHOWS Of Winter were
heavy, and the floods Of Spring have been de-
strnotive, especially tho Lower Mississippi;
yet the area dcsolatcd by inundation is but
speck on tho map Of our country; and even
t.,,:is may yet produce bountcodc!y where plant
cd in corn, 50 fast as !relinnuishcd by the sub
siding waters. Though the season Is ,.:.ee ,'.:.e,
there is every promise of generous harvest
for the people who no longer crowd the passen-
ger-cars and steamboats, are generally bnsy at
home In spite of the cold, rainy Spring, a
large area has been sown and planted, and the
people of our rural districts we're never more
universally nor moro efficiently at work Late
as the season is, their command of effective
machinery insurcs that their growing crops
will be fairly titled and safely harvested. Even
in the South, where the Blacks are diligent, as
is their habit there is far larger proportion
of the whites at work than ever before 1t is
quite probable that the harvest of 1867,
throughout our Atlantic and Gulf States, will
exceed that Of 1866 BY full third, and that
we shall again be exporting wheat and -four by
next September
do not agree with those who regret that
trade has been dull for some months past l
hold that a brisk trade, under the circumstan-
ccs, would have been disastrous to the country
/ rejoice that many thousands have been abso-
lutcly driven out of the ways of Traffic into
those of Production. Nor do grieve that
the Railroads have received less money from
passengers than they were led to expect; for /
deem it best, even for the Railroads, that most
persons should be Industrious ut home rather
spending borrowed money in travel. When
ever more goods are sold than the surplus pro-
ducts of the purchasers will pay for a balance
must be struck by some fashion of bankruptcy,
and the sellers must be the losers. rejoice,
then, in the confident trust that tho dullncss
Of trade during the earlier half of 1867 has
been bcncfcnt, and that, through increased
production, brighter day now opens on the
Commerce as we'll as the Industry of all the
States.