The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-04
THE POSITION OF THE SOUTH.
Plain and Forcible Statement Of the
Financial Advantages oft southern
states.


Financial Advantages ofthe southern
states.
The Washington correspondent OF the New
York Express writes:
Letters from the West state that the strin-
gency in commercial circles there is greater
than it has been since 1857-that the country
ers refuse to send their grain to market in con-
sequence of tho decline in prices since 1867.
at the South the aspect is more cheerful.
ihe high price Of cotton will put $3.50. 900 600,
fOr that product alone, into the pockets OF the
''reconstructed:' OF that section, to say nothing
Of large amounts for tobacco in Virginia, North
Carolina, Maryland, Missouri and Kentucky.
and for wheat aid corn in the same States
and In Georgia and Tennessee. The whole
value OF the surplus crops OF the South this
year oannot. be less than $500 00l, 900, OF which
probably 500 .000 ,OO0 are paid to the negroes
IN IN the shape ofwages, and $500O000O more in
Another year OF equal prosperity would put
the South in comparatively sound condition,
although, OF course, there are and must be for
many years numerous cases Of individual suf-
ruined by the war, their houses and furniture
destroyed, and oil their investments OF money
completely worthless. When we consider that
the accumulated savings of two hundred
cannot cease to wonder that her recuperation
should be as rapid as 1t is.
Or-~the immense importation Of foreign
goods, cloths, silks. velvets. laces, jewelry,
now takes comparatively little. Her consump-
ton is mainly confined to the necessaries of
life, and will be for some years. Hence her
recovery from losses will be more rapid. The
Southern people, with few exceptions, never
were luxurious people, in the sensa that the
New Workers and Parisians are. They cher
lshed for the most part the homely virtues of
their ancestors, and lived we'll upon the pro-
al do tl,oir ~.
rivers content with rOomy houses wood-fires
and old fashioned furniture. Hence in their
present depressed condition, they are more
contented than stranger would suppose it
cldes there, and the number of insane persons
IN Virginia is ONLY half the number in Maine,
regard beng hadto population.
In Its oest days there was very little money
IN circulation in the South. Now there is still
less. In the commercial panic which seems to
be approaching, the South viii therefore suff.
less than the North from any contraction Of
the currency that may precede the restoration
estate specuiatlons, even in the environs Of the
cities; no artificial values given to toy7n-ots or
embryo Paimyras or Babylons. Festsnatesste
is emlnentiy the ruls there, SO FAR real estate
ls concerned. They are not q aregariOus peo-
PIE. but love elbow-room above everything.
Cities they regard as necessary evils and as
such not to be encouraged unduly beyond mod
crate dimensions. For the greater the city the
1t is very evident that business at the North
is oyerdone; that there are too many non
producers, there, too many merchants, too
many traders, too many agents. too many law
yers, too many doctors, toe many persons in
short, who stand merely as Intermediates be-
tween the producer ana the consumer. One Of
the New York journals estimates that there are
two hundred thousand people out Of work
l1 within sight OF the spire Of Trinity Church.
Within an equal distance Of the State House at
boston there are doubtless fifty thousand moro,
and another afty thousand in the interior Of
New ENGLAND. Most Of these unfortunate
persons are anxious tor employment, but cannot
obtain it. Even the high tariff which so en-
riches ne great manufacturers, does not put a
morsei OF bread or an ounce OF meat into their
mouths.
What visible outlet to all this surplus labor
is afforded, unless at the Southp The West.
for the present, is pretty well filed up with la
are out OF work. The South, then, is the only
vacant field easily accessible on this continent
for the unemployed masses of the North.