The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-04-30
The Trae Policy for the. soutl.5


may nations never. There must be added
value which manufacturing gives to make the
created wealth permanent investment. Z. The
Southern States, as a. section of our scountry,
have fully demonstrated the truth of the propo-
sition stated. With natural and
advantages far SURPRISING those Of other por-
tions of the United States, the South before
the late war, although continuously overrun
by food of paper currency, for which the
superabundant exuberance of Its agricultural
products under its former system of labor gave
ample equivalent, never had that fixed capital
in skilled labor which finds expression in fac
tories, and mills, and foundries, and machine
shops. The war, with all its sad experiences
and tender memories, did stimulate the South
to remarkable development in the right di-
rection for its future success. Cut off by the
rigilant blockade from more than an extreme
ly uncertain and dangerous intercourse with
outside nations, the South was compelled to
use its own resources to supply its population
with food and clothing and implements. of in
dustry, and its army with arms and ammuni-
tion. Hence was created that remarkable Bu-
reau of the Confederate States Government
known as the Nitre and Mining Bureau, the
history of which is yet to be written hence
arose those immense foundries and machine
shops at Richmond, Va, and Selma, Ala, and
hence also was also stimulated to more skill
full production the cotton factories at Colum-
bus. Ga, and the woolen mills of North Caro-
lima. But the reaction which followed the close
of the war, the prostration of its labor system,
the want of adaptation of its older citizens to
the new conditions surrounding them, the alb.
sence of permanent investments, the greed and
rapacity of cadaverous carpet-baggers and
satanical scalawags, all united to impede the
progress of the South in the true direction
given by the unavoidable necessities of war.
And it may we'll be questioned whether that
section is as we'll off to-day as it was on the
first day of April, 1865. From extended OBJ
servation over every section of the South, and
close inquiry amongst its intelligent citizens,
as well as from the logic of palpable facts and
figures, we do not believe there has been one
cent of profit accrued to the South in the ag-
gregate from the result of its productions since
the close of the war. On the contrary, while
there are exceptional localities, while even
some entire States are in better condition than
others, the almost universal cry comes up OF
no money, mortgaged farms, bankruptcies, ex-
tended credits, merchants asking extensions,
high price for corn and bacon, and no further
advances; on crops. That there are, |co |conparar
lively, so few failures amongst Southern merT
chants is, due rather TO theIhigh sense OF honor
which leads them to make any sacrifices rather
than forfeit their newly acquired credit. But
it must be evident that this state Of affairs
cannot last long. Men cannot be constantly
going 10 the bad and never get there. There
must be, and We speak with becoming modesty
but with the earnestness of deep conviction,
total revolution of the old ideas of what con-
stitute prosperity as applicable to the present,
and well settled policy as to the true dlrec-
tion in which to look and work for it in the
future. That policy we believe to be contained
in the fact enunciated in the opening sentence
of this article. Diversified industry and man
featuring will, in few years, enable the South
to regain all its lost ground, and enter upoh an
unprecedented career of prosperity. 1t must
no longer be all cotton. Planters must raise
THAR own provisions frst-then all the cotton
they can afterwards More and more of this
cotton must have value added to it at home by
spinning it into yarn and weaving it into cloth.
Iron and marble must be mined and quarred,
and cast and forged into vessels and implements
of utility, or fashioned into images of beauty.
The forests of the South are filled with all
kinds of rare and beautiful trees, which should
furnish materials for all manner of wood work,
from an axe-handle to an artillery wagon,
from button to bureau, from a churn to
Skilled labor is a higher manifestation OF brain
bower. Education, therefore, in the, direction
of technical knwoledge, must accompany this
new departure.
It may be objected that the South has no
money, no capital with which to make such
radical change This objection is good and
valid, and the change in this respect must be
gradual There is no use diaguisng the fact,
The Southern people know it, there must come
nay, it is now upon them-a baptism of suf-
fering, through which alone will come their
SALVATION. While some capital will go to them
from the North and from Europe, they
must rely on themselves to supply the greater
portion. How can they do this while so much
in debt? They cannot; they must got out OF
debt. How? By repudiating their obligations
to their merchants, as, we are informed, Gen-
eral Law, of Alabama, advised the farmers to
do at Opelika short time ago? No; but by
paying as far as they can their honest debts;
by resolutely and, it may be, heroically living
within present means, raising corn, and hogs
(where possible and wheat, and oats, and po-
tatoes, and vegetables and fruits and poultry;
thing, and doing without everything that they
have not the money to pay for; then, by
making all the cotton besides that can be pro-
duced. This is the only way we say for them
to get on their feet again, and this, in many
sections in the South, they are having to do
whether they wish it or not. For the mer-
chants have nearly ruined themselves extend
ing credits and making advances, and capnot
in Justice to themselves or their creditors do
any al more. They must perforce, if not Of
Choice cho % adopt the cash system to greater ex-
tent than at any time since the close of the
war If out of this terrible ordeal the South
can emerge free from debt, with such modi-
fed system of agriculture, it will be possible
to make cotton raising profitable, the surplus
from which may be invested in manufacturing,
and the future success of that section assured.
That such will be the ultimate result we conf
IDENTITY believe, and none will rejoice at it more
than ourselves. american Grocer.
No m ore truthful sentence was eyer penned