New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-05-14
TIE EIEMENTs OF PROGRESS.

1
ture, improved implements, and wonderful
laborsaving machines, which have CUB
verted farming from drudgeIy into al
most pastime, and made it on the whole
the most profitable business in the country.
We also mentioned the fact that the re
markable progress of the North, as com
pared with the South, has resulted from
precisely the same causes as the immense
average progress of all civilized countries
during the last fifty years compared with
the slow pace at which the world formerly
logged on from century to century.
Whoever will carefully study this matter
will see that the time and attention Of the
great body Of the civilized portion of man,
kind are no longer devoted to the useless
distractions, the frivolous and proftless
pursuits, the scisms and brOils, to the petty
feuds and almost perennial wars that fifty
years ago filed their thoughts and absorbed
their best energies, even if they did not
consume their substance and waste their
lives.
We remember well religious contro-
versy in our own neighborhood in Central
New York, thirty years ago, that divided
the congregation into hostile factions,
caused the church doors to be barred, and
led almost to open hostilities, alienated
families and kindred, and for years alb
sorbed much of the time and thoughts of
the community. Not until three years ago
did the congregation again unite and con-
sent to devote the time and means that
could be spared from their every day pur-
suits to the practical wants of education
local reforms, and the care Of the orphans.
Aad what was the cause of this long
standing quarrel? Why, one part of this
Dutch Reformed congregation believed
literally in the doctrine Of Election and
Predestination, while the seceders main
tanned that although all were condemned
to eternal punishment, still some might
possibly be saved by availing themselves
of the means of grace. .....
The most superficial observer can not, on
the contrary, fail to see that in the North,
and in the most advanced European coun-
tries the time, the thoughts, the energies
and accumulated means OF multitudes of
people which were utterly thrown away
and wasted fifty years ago, are now largely
devoted to scientific and utilitarian pur-
suits, and to those useful mechanic arts to
which we are indebted for our know
ledge Of the secrets of nature, our
mastery in part of the elements, and cur
ability to avail ourselves, even imperfectly,
Of those great physical forces without the
aid Of which man is weak and powerless
and helpless; without which he remains, in
fact, barbarian.
So much from comparison Of the STIR
ring times in which we live, with what &C.
Cured fifty years ago. Now, if the same
comparison be extended between the North
and the south, it will be seen that like
cases have produced like results. The
North represents the progress made, espe
ciAlly in material interests; the South very
nearly represents the condition Of things
that existed half century ago. Slavery,
it is true, has been abolished, but the plant.
ers, the dominant element of Southern So
Ciety, still think, and speak, and act Just
like Shareholders. We have to contend
against the false theories and practices that
have survived the fall of the institution it.
self, and still act as a great moral force in
the minds of the people.
In the North the hard toll that City years
ago weighed down upon the shoulders Of
the people has been lifted from them by
the skillful application Of scientific knowl.
edge and mechanic arts, and placed upon
wood and iron and coal. If the Yankee
has not yet quite succeeded in hitching his
wagon to star, he has managed to make
the invisible but mighty forces of the
material world, such as steam ana cleo
tricity, do the most and the hardest of his
work, and thereby has found time for eul-
ture and enjoyment. Northern towns and
cities are fer the most part hives of in
dnstry where the labor-pOwer of the work
ing class is multiplied hundred, and per-
haps thousand, fold by the use Of water
power, the steam engine, and all manner
Of time and labor-saying machines. The
same thing is true Of the cultivation Of the
soil. Wheat and corn are raised almost
entirely by machinery. The hay crop of
the North, which is, and always has been,
worth more than the annual product of cot
ton, sugar, and rice in the South, now
requires only the supervision, not the labor
Of man. The seed is sown with drill;
the grass is cut by mower, spread, raked,
pitched upon a wagon, and from the wagon
into the hay NOW by means Of Ingenious
implements. n a@
Now 50 far as these great mutual inter
esls are concerned what is the actual con-
dition Of things in the South The cotton
gin is the only laborsaYing machine ever
really adopted by the people. That was
inseparable from the growth, even the very
existence Of the cotton interest With the
exception of the cotton gin the planters
confined themselves almost exclusively
to brute labor. They did not believe in
educated labor, and the results now every
where visible. Ask any dealer in farm
imllementa aaa he viii tell you how Diff
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