The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-24
NEW IDEAS FOR NEW CONDITIONS.
The New York World concludes an editor

q
a trnstUorthv system of labor. The invention Of
Eli Whitney was worth untold millions, because u
enabled Der to enjoy TO the fuii ner unrlvaieu
advantages OF soil. climate ana laoor' some
other inventor may do her IS mncn good as ina
Yankee mechanic. The true friend oil the SCUM
is no lduddtOr tempOris dcti, his head among tne
bulrushes and his harp on the willows. ms
wretched idea of an Afrcanized America Is the
hobgoblin of a midsummer's night, an ADOPTION
that like another Csliban, comes OF drunkenness
and shjpwreck When these ten Southern States
cease to be Irelspds and become republics again,
the sun " i'll not be found shining on regions more
blessed of God. fuller Of all the elements that
make people opuent, Independent ana happy
n will become literally a land of oil and of wine,
of the fig and pOmegranate, where seedtlme rons
into harvest and harvest into seedume.
Where the in crimson glory,
Blossoms all the winter time
Daniel Webster used to boast, humorously,
of his faculty for sleeping His position as
logician, or as rhetorician, he would, IN
modesty. leave others to decide; but as
sleeper, he thought he could venture to claim
superiority without fear of competition or
dispute, although this superiority might be OF
such nature as to include all others: There
are times when the faculty of forgetting may
prove as invaluable gift as the faculty OF
sleeping estimated according to the Web
sterian theory. Great dynasties have fallen
because they remembered too tenaciously,
and they have finally persisted and passed in
to oblivion because they would not, or could
not, wisely and seasonably forget. From like
causes nations and communities have declined
from power and prosperity, and glided into
the Stygian stream of irremediable decay.
| The South should take warning from their
fate. Whatever of wholesomeness there is in
| the Worlds proposition that "she needs a
| change of ideas as much as a trustworthy sys-
| tenn of labor" resolves itself into the remedy
of forgetlulness. From a deep, long plunge
in this medicinal bath she would assuredly
rise refreshed, leaving behind the languor
that Expresses and the hectic fever that con-
sumes her. We do not mean forgetfulness of
her heroic dead, of her glorious graves.
Heaven forbid But we mean forgedulness
in the sense of manfully refusing to give up
the mind to vain nominations and recrimina-
tions upon the past, and to rueful memories OF
failure, along with fatuous hope of restor-
ing conditions which this failure swept
away beyond all possibility OF restoration.
BY sickly brooding over times before
the war;" with face steadfastly averted from
the inevitable eventualities of the imminent
future, Southern man may become petrifed
into respectable, though melancholy, monu-
ment of the past. But the South can well
dispense with such monuments at this mo-
ment, while she has supreme need of actors,
of hopeful indomitable thinkers and work
ers-men who abhor moping and croalnng
and that wretched sort of sentimentality
which would induce one to manifest his
friendship for her by putting his head
among the bulrushes, and his harp on the
willows"
AS to the "change of ideas which thu
World deems essential to Southern recupera
ton, the benefit of such change mus
depend altogether on the quality of the ideas
Bad ideas cannot, by the most industriou
culture, be made to produce good fruits 1
is better to get along without any theory
than to follow a false one. To exchange
paralyzing remembrance of the past for
delusive conception of the future, is Xix
swapping a corpse for a specter.
Some of those who have volunteered to he'll
the South in the way of a revolution of ideas
have endeavored to impose on her sorr
: system of quackery. Scarcely one of thei
specifics will bear either analysis or exper
, mont. Southern agriculturists have been ad
vised, for example, to quit cultivating crop
to which their soil and climate are peculiarl
! adapted, and to devote themselves excusiyel
to products which grow as well, if not better
, elsewhere; and they have been advised eve
l to transfer labor and capital from their lands
the special products of which, such as cotton
2 sugar, rice, tobacco, are in constant deman
abroad, to manufactures, the products {
which would not be in demand abroad, an
B, would be met at home and at once by th
crushing competition of foreign and Norther
$ manufacturers. 1t is quite true that the
: should recognize the necessity of adaptin
T agriculture to the changed condition
, labor Few of them, We imagine, are NJ
/. aware that they cannot now afford
, produce cotton on the same sea
0 and in the same manner as formerly. I'll
y negro will be more and more disinclined
d heavy and continuous labor in the field
, White men, either native or immigrant, hay
Y not q whit more fondness for that kind
J labor. Our agriculturists must study how
d make machinery and skill accomplish as va
J. liable, if different, results as were former
obtained with unintelligent drudgery. Sue
il q change need not involve the abandonmei
u of staples that have constituted the specia
g ties of Southern agriculture. To them,
= the long run, and, for the most part, as ma
: ketable commodities, Southern agricultu
! must continue to look for clear profit abo
e current expense and home subsistence
( Hence the World advises judiciously when
d says: The South, in selecting her crop
a should take the full advantage of her climat
= She did this in raising her rice, her cottc
a and sugar, befote the war. That advanta
N should not be abandoned now. Hen
5, Georgia and Alabama ought not to attem
W ooro,,a4;fion with Wisconsin and Nebraeka