The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1870-06-22
The Southern Staple.

a hundred COWS in his yards, and
yet bought butter for his table,
the South has been a standing IL
lustration Of q system that seems
to bring wealth, but in fact leads to
pcnury. Ten years ago, she went
TO war, trusting mainly to the fact
that she could do one thing per-
fection-grow clean, long staple
upland cotton at a cost of less than
ten cents a pound. She had not
then learned that national strength
depends on doing many things
we'll she is net 10 a way to master
that lesson now, though it has
been enforced with the gloomy
rhetoric Of the cannon. She has
yet to learn the omnipotence of
concerted action and diversified
industry. For instance, the last
decade has proved conclusively
that England will put no limit on
the price she is willing to pay for
Il certain amount of good Ameri-
can upland. Her spindles and
looms are all fitted for just such
cotton as America can grow; and
if she must pay a gold dollar for q
pound Off she will pay the dollar
rather than dispense with the cot
ton: The scanty crops Of 1867
and 1868 reduced the supply in
her factories so she has been will
ling to give twenty-five cents a
pound. But the 100000 bales of
1860 have gone so far to fill the
void that the price has declined,
and may descend to a point at
which the production Of cotton by
free labor becomes Improbable.
Ifin January and February the
planters Of the South could have
met in convention, talked these
matters over, and agreed to plant
less cotton, and more ofsomething
else, they would have controlled
the price and held it at twenty
FIVE cents and over AS it is, the
old infatuation Of one crop, one
stylo Of farming, has crcpt back
upon the Southern mind, and with
it in many cases, an exaggerated
estimate Of the Importance of the
Southern staple to the welfare of
the world. Instead Of this being
true, the cotton crop, as an ele-
ment of national and international
strength, ceases at 100000 bales:
hen cotton rs cheap, Engfand
uses choice American for both
warp and woof; now she mixes 1t
with the short and kinky staples
of less favored climates. When
cotton is cheap, it creeps as dull
adulterant into all our fabrics, it
hardens the surface and chills the
warmth Of cur woolens, it takes
the gloss from our silks, it makes
our linens limp in texture, it drives
richer and more lasting goods out
of the general market, discourag'
ing the wool grower, the silk worm
feeder and the fax producer-dc,
laying the introduction Of ramie
and Of mohair as profitable Ameri,
can staples.
All this subtle mischief a great
crop of cotton works in the world.
while the curse Of one.sided and
exhausted tillage rests over all the
cotton fields. The planter will
float corn a thousand miles down
Western rivers and then haul it
fifty miles over muddy and narrow
roads, that he may cling with a
closer and more ruinous devotion
to his single staple. His cattle are
small and bony. They pick q
scanty living In the brake
ticks worry them, mosquitoes tor
ment them, and poachers kill them:
so he learns 10 depend on Ken
lucky for his beef. His hogs are
wild and restless all summer, gain
ing no flesh and but Iittlo bone
His corn is insufficient for bis
plow horses, and he learns to de-
pend on Cincinnati for his pork.
He needs artisans of all sort:
near him-wagon- makers, tanners,
shoe-makcrs, rope walks, p'ow-
makers and cotton-weavers. But
these persons find that, while
wages arc q little higher, food is
GOOD deal dcarcr; that the roads
are narrow, and dusty when not
muddy; that the streams keep all
who are not we'll mounted weather.
bound for a day after every rain
that the undrained swamps breed
myriads of mosquitoes; and that
where the lands arc rich they
abound in malaria. Arguments
like these must continue to drive
the mechanic from the cotton
States, oertainly;whi in addition.
be is made to feel that neither
James Watts, nor George Stephen
son, nor Robert Fulton, iflandless,
would be as much honored as the
wild owner of a thousand acres.
We are aware that the South
has suffered from the struggle and
starvation Of a long war. We ad.
NIT that the proclamation and the
surrender destroyed a vast amount
which, by the Constitution, as it
then read, was property. Far be it