Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-02-01
HOME MANUFACTURES.

Jeans manufactured Dy the hurricane
Mills, Humphreys county. These
goods are heavy, durable and well fin
ished. The warp is spun in Nashville,
and the wool is procured in the vicin-
ity of the machinery, which opens to
the farmers home market for their
wool which they can sell for money, or
exchange for the ready made cloth.
However small the scale of operation,
itaffords an illustration of the wisdom
of bringing the spindle and the loom
to the raw material. The mill is not
only market for the wool, but the
operatives furnish a market for the
agricultural products of the farm, and
thus is created a circle of mutual ben
eGts between the farmer and mechanic
the mechanic must eat, and the far
mer must consume the products of his
skill.
Though a miniature portrait, this is
still likeness of the full sized picture
of what the South may, and should
be, under fully developed system of
manufacturing. And not until agri-
culture and manufacturers keep even
pace in the work of mutual develop
ment, can the South attain the COM
mercial wealth, material strength and
political influence, for the acquisition
of which nature has lavished upon it,
abundant elements-such as climate
and productions, timber and water
power and mines ofmineral ores. All
is propitious, save the spirit of man."
for the rapid consummation of higher
destiny than has yet been reached by
any people since the dawn of Christian
civilization. That dormant spirit
must be aroused, or the South will
continue in ignoble dependence upon
more energetic people it will dig and
delve, content to eat the husk whilst
others fatten upon the knernel it will
continuein degrading political bondage
to its oppressors who glory in ill-got-
ten wealth and riot in the plenitude of
usurped power; it will continue to ig-
more manufactures and go on building
railroads to be controlled by foreign
monopolies and run in the interest of
middle men, who abstract its richest
materials aud leave it more and more
destitute of the sustaining hope and
the manly spirit that should suggest,
and may achieve, higher destiny than
commercial dependence, and political
bondage undera government that guar
rantees equal rights to all.
TO correct the evils indicated, and to
promote the countervaling good, we
lack the spirit of men intent upon
high achievements, and the determin-
ed will to give effect to noble resolves
We lack organization among those
whose business is agriculture, not or
ganization under high sounding titles,
but organization in spirit, in interest
and in purpose. We want co-opera-
ton. intelligent and effective, among
those seeking to develope mining and
manufacturing and immigration, and
with all these the hearty cO-opera-
ton of capital-that concentration
of means to ends, without which every
effort must be abortive. With the
means expended by the South, for rail
roads. since the war. an impetus could
have been impaired to manufactures
that would have given far different as
pecttoalli its material interests. and lift
ed farabOve Its present level of impO
tent weakness and political degrade
ton Buta contrary course has proven
that capital unwisely expended, is
worse than capital thrownaway. Build
ing railroads has burdened US with
spurious bonds, enriched carpet-bag-
gers and northern rings, whilst We
have reaped the fruitS-debt and en-
barrassment, poverty and continued
depletion. On the other hand, manu-
factories erected by home capital and
actual citizens, would have increased
material wealth, to the extent of build
ings and machinery at least, brought in
skilled labor, opened new markets for
the farmer and stimulated agricultural
productions Around every such es
Enlistment would have gathered an
active population, adding, perhaps, to
the sum of mechanical skill, and GER
tainly, to the aggregate of consumption.
We have, in lieu, a net work of
railroads, not our own, operated in
the interest of foreign monopolies, and
dcluding us with show of CONNER
cial prosperity, for enriching our neigh
bors at our own expense.
To Illustrate, what we mean by the
absence of enlightened public spirit
among our people, we are informed
that local merchants prefer dealing in
the bogus, shoddy fabrics of the
North to buying, or selling on com
mission. the honest and substantial
articles manufactured by the Hurri-
cane Mills. Can the South prosper
under spirit so short-sighted and
selfish? Can it hope for, or deserve
higher destiny than Radicalism has
mapped out for it, when its people pos
scss no higher instinct than self and
no higher aspiration than to be the
political and commercial slaves of
their northern masters?
We are told, too, that the North
affords the best markets for these
southern fabrics, and why? Because
those people know the value of sound
materials and honest workmanship,
aad hence they consume our fabrics
and send us, in lieu, worthless goods
that are unsalcablc at home. There
is policy too. in this, and that is to
keep in the South. the market for
northern fabrics by discouraging pa
tronage of Southern manufactures.
As long as our people prefer northern
to southern fabrics, capital will be
slow 30 erect mills for either cotton or