The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1874-05-02
COLUMBIA, s. G.
Saturday Morning, Nay O. 1874:
What Is Needed to Make Presperity
General. O. A

NO ocstoE pIOOA cOuAA ooBASou VI buo
natural advantages o! South Carolina
than the amount Of prosperity and the
degree of development she enjoys and
exhibits, in spite of the depressing cir
oumstances Of her people, and the in
tolerant, imbecile and corrupt State Go.
vernment. Through the discovery and
utilization of phosphates. the cotton
belt has been considerably extended,
and now reaches the foot Of the Blue
Ridge. The warming and quiokeHing
effect Of these fertilizers has shortened
the necessary period of tho growth of
the cotton plant about one month. This
has given to cotton largely increased
and highly productive area. This,
united to the spirit of industry and
love of independence, which must rest
upon material progress, as we'll as intel
lectual development aud steady, moral
influence. is doing much for the upper
country. 1t lies partially out of the
range of hurtful political influences, and
the poison diffused from the corrupt
centres of Radical sway takes from the
protecting power Of it's local position,
and other Conservative safeguards, q
less rninious hold upon it. We look
with daily increasing interest 10 it as to
depository favored by Providence.
where are stored the seeds of useful re-
forms, the germs OF manly, intrepid ac-
tion. to be yet transferred to less favored
localities. The honor may yet be in
store for it, to achieve not only it's own
welfare, but to return to the middle aud
lower country measure of that i'm
pulse for good. and of those agencies 10
the development and security of it's veal,
public and private. which it 80 largely
received from them.
But exaggerations mislead and do
harm. The ruinous taxation. the gene
raj misgoverp ment, the low character of
the State officials, the extravaganza they
indulge in. the roguery that is practioed
in high places, the prostration Of credit,
with other thinga that might be men
toned. are positive prohibitions to any
healthful general development, any
sound progress in any desirable direo-
tion, bearing directly aud oppressively
upon the people OF the State. Il is for.
tunate for then. that in few sections,
their innate strength and favoring oir-
cumstances enable them TO accomplish
something. in spite OF these ugly condi-
tions. But one swallow does not make
summer. and the clearly exceptional
and local prosperity of the favored sec-
tion we speak of docs not justify the
inferences which have been drawn from
it. 1t will not do as premise from
which may be deduced the conclusion of
IA good government. 1t cannot be ap-
piled rs salve to South Carolina Radi-
calism. It is none tue less hidsons,
hateful and deleterious, that there is
energy and will left yet in one blessed
spot, aided by peculiar circumstances,
which is able to connteract it. The ex-
ception only proves the rule. Would,
indeed, it we're otherwise. .'Look
back" says an intelligent CORES
pondent. whose business hns led
him to travel extensively in the State,
"from the line of railroad in almost
any section of the country. OK
cept. perhaps. Ooonee, Anderson, Pick
ems and Greenville, (which have other
causes for prosperity. and are Demo
cratic Countless and you will find the
universal opinion that the country is in
a worse condition than it was in 1866,
at the surrender OF Gen. Lee. While
there has been an increased production
of cotton, I feel safe in saying, that
there is great falling offs in other crops,
aud almost no hogs and cattle are
raised" After abiding to tho staguu-
ton i'll business. the cessation OF rail
road and other building, the decline of
colleges and schools. the sqaandering of
the proceeds of State property, he adds
n concession from which Radicalism can
take no comfort: "That the world is
moving on, and general development