Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-06-10
From the Now York Tribune.
The SOut Ii ern tapIc,

y
South has been standing illustration of q
system that seems to bring wealth, but in fact
leads to penury. Ten Neare ago, she yent to
war, trusting mainly to the fact that she coGld
dc one thing to perfection n-gtoy clean, long
staple upland cotton at cost of less than ten
cents pound She had not then learned
that national strength depends on doing many
things well she is not in way to master
that lesson now, though it has been enforced
with the gloomy rhetoric of the cannon
She has yet to learn the omnpotcncc of con.
ccttcd action and diversified industry. For
instance, tho last decade has proved conclu-
sivcly that England will put no limit on the
price she is willing to pay for q certain amount
Of good American upland Her sbndles and
looms arc all fitted for just such cotton as
America can grow and if she must pay the
dollar for pound of it, she will pay the dol
lar rather than dispense with the cotton
Tho scanty CROPS Of 1907 and 1868 reduced
the supply in her factories SO she has been
But the 100000 bales of 1860 have gone
so far to fill the void that the price has de-
clined, and may descend to point at which
the production Of cotton by free labor be-
comes Improbable. If in January and Feb
uary the planters of the South could have met
in convention, talked thcsc matters over, and
agreed to plant less cotton, and moro of some.
thing 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 style of farming, has crcpt back up.
on the Southern mind, and with it, in many
cases, an exaggerated estimate of the impor.
tance of the Southern staple to the welfare of
the world. Instead of this being true, the
cotton crop, as an clement of national and iu-
tcrnational strength, ceases at 2, 500, 900 bales
When cotton is cheap, England uses choice
American for both warp and woof; now she
mixes it wit the short and kinky staples of
less favored climates. When cotton is cheap,
it crceps as a dull adulterant into all our ia.
brics, it hardens the surface and chills the
">-""th of nnr wnnlens. it takes the gloss from
our silks, 1t makes our linens limp in texture,
it drives richer and moro lasting goods out of
the general market, discouraging the wool
grower, the silk worm feeder and the fax
produccr-delaying the introduction of ramic
and of mohair as profitable American staples.
All this subtle mischief great crop Of
cotton works in the world, while the curse of
onc.sided and exhausted tillagc rests over ull
the cotton fields. The planter will float corn
n thousand miles down Western rivers, and
then haul it fifty miles over muddy and mar.
row roads, that he may cling with closer
and more ruinous devotion to his single sta.
pie. His cattle are small and bony. They
pick scanty living in the canebrake, ticks
worry them, mosquitoes torment them, and
poachers kill them, so he learns TO depend On
Kentucky for his beef. His hogs arc wild
and restless all summer, gaining no flesh and
but little bone. Ills corn is insufficient for
his plow horses, and he learns to depend on
Cincinnati for his pork.
lie needs artisans or all sorts near him
wagon makers, tanners, shoe makers, rope
walks, plow. makers and cotton weavers. But
these persons fnd that, while wages are
little higher, food is a good deal dearcr that
the roads are narrow, and dusty when not
muddy; that the streams keep all who arc
not well mounted weather.boun for day af-
ter every rain; that the undrained swamps
breed myriads of mosquitoes and that where
the lands are rich they abound in malaria
Arguments like these must continue to drive
the mechanic from tho cotton States, Certain.
y while, in addition, he is made to feel that
neither James Watts, nor George Stephenson,
nor Robert Fulton, if landless, would be as
much honorcd as the wild owner of thousand
acres.
We arc aware that the South has suffered
from the struggle and starvation of long war.
Wn admit that tho proclamation and the sur.
render destroyed vast amount which, by the
constitution, as it then read, was property.
Ear be it from us, who justly prize the thrift,
tho enterprise, the Northern character, to
draw invidious distinctions, or fan a sectional
nrII II }pk 700 ,uic 70 OH I,
she is cheated by that insane loyalty to old,
tyrannous, and now uncrowned, King Cotton.
She wants bread and he gives her stono
She asks fish and gets scorpion. Cotton
gives her gold, but for all important ends of
national power that gold is drcss It buys
nothing of that which makes notions great
and keeps them so. 1t has little power to
fell forests, to drain swamp5, to bridge
streams, gil school houses, and change vii.
lagos into cities The fundamental mischief
in that sunny, md for tho most part fertile
land, is not the negro, nor the Bureau, nor
the bayonet, nor tho army worm but polit.
ical economy false in its first principles and
ruinous in its working. The South spends
so much on factors and shipping merchants
she keeps on the road such long trains Of
wagons; she supports such an army of steam.
boat hands and sailors and clerks and brokers
and insurance agents-in short, she pays so
large share Of what she earns in order to get
a chance to buy what she wonts, that she
must continue to livein log oabins and rido in
brldle paths. What she most needs is a
statesman, far.sccing and sagacious, as able
as Calhoun was, to mark out the path Of ma.
tional greatness and draw her feet into IL.
VIRaIN1A Cry, NEVADA May 81.---