The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-06-18
THE SOUTH.

Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, being
a Democrat of the school which regards
the Democratic press as a sort of in
spired repository of truth, recently visit
ed the South, expecting, from the i'm
pressiOns gathered in his constant peru
sal of Democratic papers, to find every
thing wrong side up. He has but lately
returned from that visit. and We are not
surprised to hear that he should have
said TO a reporter that, ''from many ac-
counts when he had read and heard, lie
was prepared to see wretchedness and
squaIor on every side, and especially in
North Carolinia- Ia the contrary,
Thrift, prosperity and happiness seemed
to prevail
We gave similar testimony TO this, not
not long since, from q Virginia paper,
which confessed that the South was real
prosperous, and that her farmers We're
steadily boarding up their annual gains.
It could not, in fact, be otherwise. The
South, since 1866, has not only had ex-
ceIIent crops OF Gotten, sugar, rice and
tobacco, bat she mas been able to get
large prices for them. The cotton crop
is as large as it was before the war, aud
the inflow Of money to the South for her
products is now much larger in volume
than it was at any period in the times of
II, =. oh I il
her own fault.
In addition to this fact, it is 10 he re-
membered that greater attention is now
given to manufacturing industry in that
region than ever before, and that the
area of grain cultivated for home con-
sumption is much larger than in ante
war times Formerly the Shareholders
bought their breadstuifs and bacon in
the North, while now q very large por-
ton of the corn consumed in the South
ern States is raised there. Cotton facto-
ries, also, have multiplied, and her re-
sources in iron and coal are beginningto
find development. Altogether the South
is in much better condition, es regards
material prosperity, than ct any other
period in her history.
She is not of course contenfed with
her prosperity. She has "A grievance.
and she must complain. She used to
rule the. nation, ard now the nation
rules her. That is her burden. and all
the wealth of GOlconda would fail to
satisfy her, if laid in her lap. Restore
her to power, and she Will gladly relapse
into her former poverty, and be much
more eontented with it than she is now
with the plenty that surrounds her. 1t
is power she wants, not prosperity.
In view of such testimony as we have
cited, it is time these Democratic grum-
blers should cease to vex the public ear
with their continual whine about the
suffering of the South. There is no suf-
fering there to complain Of The panic
of 1873 affected her much less than any
other part of the country, and she has
produced, for the last eight years, much
more than she has consumed. The bal
anee of trade has been in her favor con-
tinually, and by every rule of political
economy she should be the very embodi-
ment of prosperity. And she IS. In the
words Of Governor Hendricks, she is en-
ioying thrift, prosperity and happi-
ness" and the mutterings of discomfort
that come up from her public men grow
slowly out of a restless political ambition
they have not yet been able to crafty.
THERE is gentleman now in the Eng
lish Parliament whose election expenses
were So, 900. or about so for every vote
he received. Yet the English papers
talk glibly about corruption" in Ameri-
can politiesl