The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-30
what the south Nsed'.


''revive the tagging energies of the South,
tighten her miseries ard restore her to vigor
and prosperity" to. "take or send their money
and buy Southern lands" This advice is
wise and timely. What the South needs is
a revival of her business and industry. She
needs capital to procure tools and implements
for farming-to pay for her labor in advance
of its harvest, to rebuild the dwellings and
restore the industry swept out Of existence
by the war; and it is only from the North, or
from abroad, tn at she can hope to get it.
But it does not come Neither foreigners
nor Northern capitalists will send their money
into the Southern States for investment, either
in lands, or in anything else. And the reason
is perfectly obvious; they have not sufficient
confidence in the political, industrial, and so
cial future of the South to warrant them in
committing their capital to its control. Men
will not put their money into any State or
country, until they can form some reliable
judgment OF the usage to which it will be sub
iected. They want to know the general char
acter and drift of the laws which control it;
the rate and kind of taxation to which it will
be subjected; the security with which il will
be surrounded and the facilities which will be
afforded for employing, changing, or with
drawing it at pleasure. All these things de-
pend on the character Of the government which
may be established. And until capitalists
can form some more accurate and reliable
opinion as to the kind Of governments which
are hereafter TO exist in the Southern States
and the degree of stable wisdom and Justice
which may be expected from them, they will
not put their property under their control.
Just now the Southern States seem likely to
pass substantially under the control of their
negro population. Even in States where the
negroes have not an absolute majority of the
voters, they have enough to decide the policy
of the State Governments, unless the white
voters unite against them. The latter course
would be very likely to involve a conflict of
races which would throw society and all its
interests into chaos; and if it is not resorted to-
the substantial negro supremacy which would
follow is an experiment which remains to be
tried. The loud and confident predictions of
politicians and the press do not settle the
question. Capitalists who have money to in
vest prefer to await the result of such an expe-
riment, which, be it remembered is as yet
wholly untried in the practical working of our
democratic institutions.
We have States and communities where a
very large per cent. of the governing people is
made up of the ignorant and mex perenced;
but we have never yet made any trial of such
an experiment as is involved in suddenly
giving three-ffths, One-half or even one-third
Of the political power of any State to class of
men lust released from embruting binding
and degrading slavery, not only aliens in
race, but of that race which more than any
other on the earth is repugnant to Anglo
Saxon sentiment and prejudice utterly with
out experience in civil affairs, unaccustomed
even to care for themselves in the smallest
matters of daily life, and certain, for long
time to come, to be mere tools in the hands of
selfish, INSCRIPTIONS, and Irresponsible politi-
clans on one side or the other.
This is an experiment yet to be tried. 1t
I.
stronger guarantees, to property greater secu-
rity, to labor surer reward, to enterprise
greater stimulus, and to the best interests of
the State and its people a safer development
than any form of government which has been
tried hitherto. The Tribune believes that it
will. So do some of the great capitalists of
New England, of New York, and the West
those of them who espouse these theories of
universal negro suffrage, to be enforced upon
the South by military power, and who are
sending political missionaries into the South
eTn States to organize the permanent esta-
blishment of governments based upon them
But eUen they do not send their money. They do
not invest in Southern lands or Southern in
dustries of any kind. Strongly as they re-
commend such investments to other people
earnestly and justly as they invoke aid to the
Southern States through such instrumentali-
ties-they do not exhibit that full faith in
their own advice which acting upon it would
imply.
What the South needs-like all other great
communities-frst of all, and as the condition
sine qua non of all industrial prosperity and
all material development-is a settled Gov
ernment, in the practical working of which
! all who live there, and all who think of in
vesting money there, and all whose welfare in
| any way depends upon Southern prosperity,
shall have a strong and abiding confidence.
The South has no such Governments now. II
has no Governments which command the
! respect and confidence of its own people. 1t
is trying very hard to get them, and Congress
! is trying to help them. But Congress has
views and purposes in it's action with which
| the South not only does not sympathize, but
! which encounter its resolute and rooted hos
! tility; and the result is conflict of interest,
of feeling, and of effort which threatens to
prevent, for long time to come, such action
as the Tribune deems essential to the relief
and prosperity of the Southern States.
Congress has assumed control of the whole
! Southern question. 1t denied and violently
| resisted resented, and defeated the authority
which the Executive attempted to assert and
exercise over it. Rightly or wrongly, it took
into its own hands the whole business of deal
ing with the SOuth-of providing such Gov
| ernments as will command confidence and
secure the peace, progress, and prosperity of
! the Southern States. And Congress must ex-
pect to be held responsible for the results.
Is "Cut-ThrOat" the Only Game
From the N. T. Evening Post
Much would be gained if some practicable
plan were devised for adjusting the multiplied