The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-09-29
VARIED INDUSTRY.

tlmely extract.
But second imperative need of the
South, as we see it, is Diversified industry.
We are aware that Mr.. Ruskin, quitting
the domain Of Art Criticism, for which he
possesses the prominent endowment of
keen aptitudes, wide observation, and pa
tient study of nature, protracted residence
amongst the greatest scenes and works of
both art and nature, together with a Won
derful command of eloquent, glowing and
picturesque language, has Of late years
taken to preaching sermons upon political
economy. As was to be expected, he pro-
pounds some wild views upon the great
social and economic problems Of the age.
We find him contending that each nation
and each region should ascertain the special
pursuits to which it is adapted by soil, Pc
culiarities of national character, and bent
of natural inclination. To that speciality
he maintains that all its energies should be
devoted, and that other nations, not thus
adapted to this particular pursuit, should
wisely encourage its aspiring neighbor to
its fullest and finest productivity, by giving
it monopoly of the commodity in ques-
ton, and abstaining from any rivalry in its
manufacture.
Thus be would say, perhaps, let England
give us iron, France silks, Belgium laces
and carpets, Germany cloths, the United
States agricultural implements and cotton.
Now this theory of a mighty joint-stock CO.
operative division of international labor and
industry, might well answer for world
upon which the unshadowed splendors of a
millenial day are radiantly shining. But it
is too advanced for the facts as they exist.
When Napoleon was in the height of his
military genius, planning the subjugation of
Europe and the establishment Of universal
monarchy, a copy of Fourier's first work
on Social Science was put into his hands.
1.-THE earth must be plowed by the sword"
said he, before it can produce such har-
vests as this man dreams of, So of Mr..
Ruskin's fine-spun theories. We must ac-
cept humanity as we find it. Nations are
not yet ready to enter grand Trades
Union. Wars will come, and woe to the
State that by too exclusive devotion to
any one pursuit, has crippled its powers or
self-mantainance in the great struggle for
national existence.
The South should seek other outlets for
its energies and other channels for its capi-
tai, besides the narrow path along which its
unhealthily stimulated cotton culture has
rushed with the frantic speed of the Missis-
sippi through some crumbling crevasse in
its mighty banks, spreading desolation in
its weltering way. No great community
can prosper, in the race of modern civiliza-
ton, without the judicious cultivation of the
mechanic arts. biologists and archaeolo-
gists trace the progressive eras Of human
development in the successive epochs of the
stone, the bronze, the iron age. Sir John
Lubbock's primitive man and Mr.. Darwin's
descendant of arboreal progenitors, have
equally advanced along the line of the me-
chanic arts, to the high estate Of modern
culture. The city of Philadelphia, alone,
gives employment to 40, 900 men and wo-
men engaged in manufacture number
larger, perhaps, than can be found similarly
occupied in the entire South. Here is one
secret of Northern success in material
growth. Everywhere we see factories and
machine shops. The air is laden with
smoke of furnaces and the ear saluted with
whirr and clang of busy machinery. The
Southern people need similar enterprises
multiplied amongst them. The few that
have grown up there have proved very sue
cessful.
The main difficulty is to tear the rural
the one product of the soil to which they
gunlent is short and incisive, il not conclu-
sive: "We know all about cotton plant
ing. 1t made us in the past, rich and pros
porous. We know nothing of your mills
and furnaces, your enginery and shops.
Therefore, we will none Of them" This
abusive logic needs corruption. Sound III
formation should be disseminated broad
cast. Every manufacturing enterprise
should be encouraged. Capital should be
invested in such undertakings. 70 one UNI
accustomed to Southern life, the subservien-
cy of that section to the great manufacture
ing establishments of the world is absolute
ly uncomfortable. A Southern farmer puts
a hickory helye into his axe, the timber
for which was originally cut in the South.
shipped North, there manufactured and re-
turned to him for his use. He cuts down
the forest with Collins axe, turns up the
soil with Northern pillow, chops out his
cotton with New York hoe, gins the sta
pie upon gin of New England manulac-
ture, hoops it with Pennsylvania iron, hauls
it to the warehouse on a Concord wagon,
and ships it to market upon Northern
made platform cars, while his small grains
are cut, threshed, and prepared for sale by
means of Yankee implements. Nor is this
all. Enter the arena Of household econo-
my, you find the Southerner cooking with
an Albany stove, eating from Boston earth
enware, cutting his food with Meriden
knives, ladling his soup with Gorham Com
pany plated ware, by the light of petro-
leum lamp, made, chimney and all, under
the murky canopy of Pittsburg smoke.
Come to personal apparel, and our first
families are declled out in Yankee muslins,
with Massachusetts ribbons in their hair,
and Rhode Island ear-bobs in their ears,
while their dresses are held together by
Connecticut buttons, Waterbury hooks and
eyes, OF Oohoes pins. Thus from shoe
latchet to hair-pins there is Notifying de-
pendence upon Northern thrift and indus
try. Should we inquire into the higher
walks of intellectual life, we find books
and paper, pen and ink, newspapers and
periodicals, mainly furnished by the North
ern States. Now until this state of utter
vassalage shall have been radically altered
the South cannot hope to assert its co-equal-
ity and maintain its claims, amidst free and
prosperous communities.