Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1871-06-10

Il Is rrntIfying to know that ther.

II Is Grntiiytng 70 KNOW tnat tnere
are some able pens, and earnest pa
triots, In the far South. who are urg-
ing upon the people the absolute
necesslty for diversified pursuits as
the surest means Of building up the
wealth, power and Independence OF
this long suffering and willfully blind
section. All cotton means prolonged
poverty, weakness and political SER
vitude; diversity Of agricultural pro-
ducts and an early resort to manufac-
turing, mean precisely the reverse.
But the difficulty lies in making the
people acknowledge this. Expe-
rience has long siiice demonstrated
its truth, but disbelief Is feigned to
cover up the Incidence that Is fool
ishly averse to breaking up habits
confirmed by tradition and long prac-
tice.
To arguments basedupon this view
Of the subject, there Is but one an
swer-wanto Of capital. In the name
OF common sense, how can capital
lie accumulated by adherence to a
policy which has entailed upon the
South the poverty Of which IL COM
plains Instead Of being the richest
and most independent locality on the
face Of the globe, 1t is poor, weak,
oppressed aud despised-aIl resulting
from It's foolish allegiance TO liking
cotton" and It's disregard Of collat-
eral considerations which could, In
deed, have made cotton, king, In
stead Of weak, improvldent dcspot,
in whose infsllability, its subjects
cultivate an idolatrous and fatal be-
lief.
The want Of capital, so Justly COM
planned Of, would, II seems to us, nat
urally suggest cooperation AS the
first step towards removing the evil.
There are enterprises, almost every
where, based upon real estate as their
capital. There Is not county, in
the South, whose large farms, by sub
division, would not furnish ample
means for the erection Of some sort of
f,ctory which the county needs and
which would keep at home some of
the money now sent abroad to stay.
The small farms subscribed as stock,
could be conveyed to the Corporators,
to serve either as basis upon which
to borrow money, or to be sold to i'm
migrants who might be induced to
come South, by the certainty Of Sc
curing homes at fair and fixed val
uation, and In quantity and contigu-
ity to suit the gregarious propensities
Of settlers In strange land.
We are not practical enough to give
the necessary details Of such scheme
but believe 1t could be made success
full, In competent hands, adding in
calculably, to the wealth and popu-
lation and political power of the
South. The lands, thus aggregated,
would, at once, attract the attention
Of immigrants, and facilitate their
coming by enabling them to nego-
tiate with few authorised parties,
for any desired amount Of territory,
instead of hunting for 1t, in detached
parcels, and chaiiering with humid
reds for the purchase of small tract.
The lands thus contributed rs stock,
In u manufacturing company, viii
yield much larger profit than their
cultivation, In cotton, under the pres
ent system of labor, and will, in adj
dition, swell population, to the ex-
tent of one family, for each tract, so
disposed of. With this increase Of
population, will come increased value
Of the lands retained. In this way
the wealth of the South will be in
creased slowly, il may be ut first, but
with constantly accelerated impe-
tus that will astonish the present de-
vout believers in "all cotton aud no
money, or meat, ut the end Of the
year.