The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-18
Improving Condition of the South.

Improving Condition OF the South.
From U'e N. Y. Times.
Persons recently returned from the South
ern States report the gradual growth of
healthy prosperity, and degree of practical
hopeiulness to which they have long been
strangers. These representations are not
universal in their application. There are two
or three States, aud portions of others, which
have rot yet turned the corner. In these
CAGES the absence of an assured peace re-
presses the confidence which is essential to
systematic industry, and prevents the efforts
which are elsewhere productive of manifest
advantages. Generally, however, marked
charge for the better has occurred. The
bulk Of the people in the reconstructed States
are realizing the reward of labor; they are
fast emerging from poverty and depression
and are prepared to profit by the lessons of a
painful experience. This is more especially
true of the cOtton-growing districts, the gains
OF which promise far to exec. d antici ipations;
but it is measurably true also in regard to
the main body of the South. Even in Vir-
ginia, where uncertainty prevails, things wear
greatly improved aspect.
The increasing value of land is one of the
noticeable evidences of improvement. Ever
since the close of the war Southern lands
have been absolutely valueless. The more
man possessed the poorer he seemed to be-.
basis OF credit. A few cents an acre were all
that could be obtained for choice tracts in
Alabama, Georgia, and adjoining States, and
even at these prices buyers were far bstween.
This condition of the land market exists no
longer. A general advance in value has taken
place. The owners are better able to keep
what they have got, and, besides, buyers are
increasing rapidly. Lands which six months
ago might have been had in large quantities
for dollar an acre are now held at i've, and
the prospect is a steady advance towards the
real value, which is as much beyond the pre-
SAINT figures as they are beyond those of a re-
cent period. South Carolina fully shares the
benefit of the change. The rapidity and ex-
tent of tour Charleston correspondent
writes-''can only be- fully appreciated by
those who have had opportunities for observ-
ing and contrasting the present condition of
sll classes of the Southern people with their
condition twelve months ago"
The real estate operations of Senator
Sprague in the neigbborhood of Columbia,
coupled as they are with an alleged intention
TO establish manufactures there, may be ex-
pected to strengthen the upward tendency.
There can be no doubt that the facilities for the
prosecution of manufacturing industry pre-
septed by the South are vastly superior to
those of any other portion of the Union, and
it seems probable that they will soon be
turned to account. Mr.. Sprsgue is not the
only Northern capitalist VINO comprenen0S
the worth of the hitherto neglected resources
OF States which Seem designed by nature to
verify the combination Of "the plough, the
loom, and the anvil, in the sense understood
! by Mr.. Henry G. Carey, without the uu-
| healthy stimulus of legislation on which he
and his school rely.
The land owners, moreover, are preparing
to help themselves. They have learned the
importance OF attracting population. Georgia
and Virginia have both witnessed beginning
! in direction in which associated individual
effort is more effective than aught that State
machinery can do, and we look forward to
! large plans for the introduction of immigrants
mistake will be made if reliance be placed
wholly upon foreign labor. The North wait:
but for an assurance of honest welcome tC
send Southwark no inconsiderable proportion
of that stream of energy and wealth by which
until now, the West has almost exclusively
profted. To attract this, it will not be neces-
sary for the South TO organize as for exsrtion
In distant field. Only let it be seen that the
Southern people really intend to subordinate
politics to material development, and tina
their large land owners are prepared to divide
their estates on terms that would be mutually
advantageous, and there will be ne furthe
lack of Northern industry or money. Tina
they are doing this to very large extent ma,
no longer be doubted, and already they bsgiI
to count the profits.