The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-02-02
THE SOUTH AND HER WANTS.

one of the great questions of the day, where
ever commerce prevails or civilization pursues
the earnest investigation of human affairs:
The probable future of a country which res
ceiyed so overwhelming revolutionary blow
as the South, touching all the gravest Interests
of society, financially, lndustraly, politically
and morally, cannot fail to awaken the interest
of all earnest men who seek after truth in the
varied problems Of human life and human
efforts.
If to others this is a. question of deep and
enduring interest, to Us it is matter of life
and death. We must rise from the ashes Of
a widespread ruin, rebuild our fortunes, re-
store civil order, renew the groundwork Of
peace and progress, reluIae the dark day OF
difficulty, doubt and despair, or We must sink
down. by. slow degrees, perchanee, but none
the less sure, to tmpotency and a wanton
worthlessness-a curse to ourselves and all
who may be allied to US. Twelve millions Of
human beings who do not something of hu-
man good-who supply not some great want
OF civilization-cannot long stand still in a
negative position. Positive usefulness or pos
tive mischief are the alternatives before us.
Its useless to mourn over the past, bemoan
the present, or forestal the evil of future day.
The splendor of victory intrinsically consists
not in the formal pageant by which it is intro
duced with din and ado to popular apprehen-
sion. The tedious marches, the disease of the
camp, the hunger and thirst, the cold and care,
the bleeding front of battle, the companion
ship in arms, the selfdenial which is implied,
the substance ofthe glory that guilds over the
ghastly set prospect, and makes that splen-
did page of history which otherwise had been
damned thing of crime and blood which
would stain forever the escutcheon Of civllza-
tjon and shame forever the name of man.
The struggle before the South now is OF no
common character. 1tlnvolves greater hero
ism than even the field Of martial glory. At
the conclusion of hostilitles In the field she
was a helpless hulk, which any fool might
scuttle, any coward might beard. She pre-
sented condition of confusion, dlsmay and
utter prostration, which awakened alike the
cupidity of the thief, the resentments of the
malignant, the experiments of the lnnovator
and moral reformer. And, burrying to her
devoted cities sand fields and fastnesses,
these, and such as these, flocked to the
South to plunder and spoil her; to spit
upon and malign her, or yet to make
her a field for political and social expert
ments which folly might desirel and malig-
nifty suggest. And thus things went from bad
to worse, without leaders or practical ability.
In the hands of saraps and self-sufficient
philosophers, the unhappy country responded
as best she could to the situation, and strug-
gled for the morsel of the moment. Gathering
her seed corn from the path ofhostile armies,
she strewed it on the soil for succor, and God
in His own good time gave the harvest. She
has risen to comparative competency. She no
longer scrapes beneath the food troughs OF
Sherman's army for the bread of the famishing
mother and her children.
But Is there any steady accumulation, any
established recuperation, which looks the fu-
ture fearlessly in the faee-any restoration or
order or wholesome prudence for 'ralny
dayn-which makes her SAFE or sound. Now,
we hazard the assertion that the great oppres-
sing want OF the South at present is not labor,
but capital. Indeed that, with our present
embarrassing deficiencies Of capital, the much
craved immigration, if Induced to any appre-
ciable degree, could but result most de-
plorably.
This propose to show hereafter, and then
the only possible scheme of accumulatins
large and efficient fund for the gradual but
sure supply of that capital necessary to the
full development OF Southern Industries.
JOHN w. R. POPE.