The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-18
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Il ditoriaI Opinions Of the Leading Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Dny for the Evening Telegraph.
THE NEW SOUTH.


ment of manufacturing industry throughout
tbe West and South. OF its growth in the
West in forms as qualifications as the wants
of the community, the country generally has
not been uninformed. The occasion of sur
prise is the degree of excellence to which the
production of textile fabrics has been carried
and the amount of capital invested in manu-
featuring enterprises in section which, ac-
cording to vulgar belief suffers from chro-
mic scarcity of money. The wonder would be
increased if an opportunity were afforded for
the display of Western manufacturing indus
try as a whole. It's diversity and extent would
show that vast and ever-growing market is
becoming less and less dependent upon East
ern sources of supply
The progress of the South in the same
direction is more remarkable because effected
under most disadvantageous circumstances.
1t is but Just emerging from a condition
which has been marked by many difficulties
and almost unparalleled depression. The war
left the people almost universally poor their
Doyerty in many districts reached the verge
of destitution. Their labor system was dis
organized, their land devastated, their avail
able property destroyed. 1t is creditable to
them that, amidst strong political excitement,
and in the presence of many causes of
discouragement, they have addressed
themselves with rare energy and
perseverance to the reconstruction of their
shattered fortunes. Applying themselves to
hard work, they have won more than bread;
they have realized an independence to which
they were previously strangers, and are mani
Testing an enterprise which assures to them a
prosperous future. They are, as they never
were before the war, out of debt They are
alive to the importance of turning to account
the varied resources which make their region,
naturally the richest in the world. And for
the first time in their history they propose
Systematically to supplement the culture of
cotton with its conversion into manufactured
goods.
The immediate result was seen at Cincin-
natl The association under whose auspices
the exposition in that city was conducted, in
its reported resolutions spoke of 1.-THE unex-
pected and varied excellence of the goods
sent from the South" A tabular statement
published in the same connection shows that
Georgia already has 2l cotton mills and North
Carolina II; Virginia and Tennessee have
each 10; and Alabama, South Carolina, Mis-
sissippi, Texas, and Arkansas all have more
or less. The total is considerable. And it is
only the beginning of movement the growth
of which will be coeXtensive with the wealth
acquired from the crops Before the war;
the planters surplus was invested in slaves.
Now, it finds its way into manufactures,
which promise henceforward to be the popu-
lar form Of investment. The Southern people
propose to be their own manufacturers. Anot
unreasonable dependency has been sue
ceeded by an equally reasonable confidence,
and they are on the road to real indepen-
dence.
The trading politicians by whom the South
is afflicted are no longer able to repress its
hopeful, buoyant spirit. 1t talks cheerfully,
and through channels not favorable to rose
colored views. Even South Carolina, on which
the few remaining tire-eaters of the press
lavish their sympathies, protests that the
darkest days are over. 'It is not true, the
Charleston NeacS declares, ''that there is any
prospect that the lower sections Of the State
will be abandoned to the negroes"
'Throughout the State the people are confident and
cheerful. We have more hard money than we had
In 1860 and In every sense OF the word south Caro-
lima has made as much progress since 1868 as has
been made by any one of her sister States"
The New Orleans Ptcay1l3e, glancing over
the South generally, is yet more emphatic:-
'Men everywhere throughout the South are look
ing hopefully into the future and see in the teemlng
fields and prospective haryests salvation from the
Ominous clouds that have hung above them since
the demon of war swept from them all save their
lands
The philosophy of the gratifying change is
,expounded with unwonted candor by the Mo-
bile Register'-a journal which was rash
enough the other day to threaten a new war
unless Democrats be allowed to control the
elections. "The excitement of two trying
elections it now confesses, ''has been passed
through the farmers have become settled,
and the freedmen are, as a very general thing,
working pretty steadily" Again, we are in.
formed by the same authority that ''the
planter is now better paid for his crops anG
is more independent of his factor than evel
before" These are important facts Nov
for the philosophy
"The old system of adyance-leaving in man,
cases the crop in debt to the factor not the factor
the crop--s a thing OF the past The planter nov
money received comes into his own hands for hi
own disposition. Moreover, the great expenditure
against his running account, is no longer made 70
heightened trips to Northern waterng-places, ant
for acquisition OF numberless articles OF luxury
The money received for the cotton crop to-day stay
at home; and the planter, taught wisdom by tn
bitter lessons of the ist four ye trs subsst him
self and family on neCessares only. in most cases
too, these actual wants are supplied at home, an
the vast plantation system that called for importa
tioD OF every pound of bacon and every bushel O
grain has been superseded by a universal farr
thIift that has made the man of few acres not onl
sef-supporting and independent, but PRACTICAL
richer than he OF many used TO be-"
This is encouraging testimony because
is the testimony of men bitterly hostile t
the order of things in which the regeneratio
of the South had its birth.
There is new South, then, and the mil
chief makers are not its masters 1t is
South which has free labor for its corne
stone, and which rests it's hopes, its inhuenC
and prosperity upon thrift, enterprise and o
oanized industry. And it is a South whic
is destined to play a conspicuous part in tn
future commercial arrangements of the Coz
tinent.
FRENCH REFORM.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.