The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-08-13
Northern Capital in the South.

are lncessantly telling the world abou
their exhaustless stores of rudimentar
wealth, and of the marvellous facilit
with which it can be worked mp into aC
tual, available wealth they have a grea
deal to say about the amount of 10,
middling cotton at IA cents q poun
that can be raised on an acre of thei
bottom lands, and of the amount G
wheat that can be produced on thei
uplands they boast that this cotton ca
be manufactured into yarns and clot
by means of ample water-power in sigh
| of the fields where it is raised, far NOR
| cheaply than it can be manufactured il
New England they tell us-and the
prove the asseriion-that pig iron cal
be made at Birmingham, Alabama, a
Chattanooga, Tennessee, or at Rome
Georgia, SS a ton cheaper than in Ohit
and Pennsylvania they point with par
donable pride to the fact that the cot
ton mills at Augusta, Georgia, and Gran
iteville, South Carolina, are working
steadily along, and making good prolti
through the present depression of trade
while those of Massachusetts and New
Hampshire are running at half time
and losing money at that and they de
clare that the mildness of their climate
and the greater cheapness of raw mate
rials, labor and living with them de
monstrates the superior manufacturing
advantages of their region over the rig.
orous regions of the northeast, where
the laborer's family have to live on q
winter footing half the year.
1t is impossible to deny these state
ments, and, indie ed, nobody attempts 60
deny them the world admits them.
Still, the capital which the fascinating
picture is intended to invite, does not
come. Boston money clings to the
granite ribs of New England, and re,
fuses to migrate to Georgia where il
can earn ten to fifteen per cent. more
per annum /; every foot of Massachu-
setts water-power is harnessed to ma
chinery, while that of the ChattahOochie
and James runs to waste and the iron.
mongers of Pennsylvania continue to buy
ore at SO ton and make it into iron at
S24 ton, instead of going to Alabama
where they can get ore for 81 ton and
make it into iron at S14 ton. The
people of the south have tried again
aud again to understand this mystery,
without success, and they seem to have
settled down into the belief that capital,
labor and trade in the north are too
blind to take advantage of the opportu-
mites that the south presents.
But the matter is not so difficult of
comprehension, after all. 1t is the peo-
pie of the south, not the capitalists of
the north, who do not appreciate these
boasted advantages. If there are such
superior facilities for manufacturing IN
Georgia and Virginia, why don't the
Georgians and Virginians avail them
selves of them If there are fortunes
to be made in cotton-spinning in Tennes-
see, why don't the Tennessseans make
them instead of inviting somebody else
to come and get them2 1t is the people
of Alabama who ought to be making
cheap iron at Birmingham, and the peo-
pie Of Tennessee who ought to be max
ing cheap iron at Chattanooga and that
vicinity.
The reply to this is that the people
of the south have not the capital. But
why, then, do not the people of the
south go to work and make capital :?
This incessant appeal to foreign capital
to come into the south is like the prayer
of the WAGNER to Hercules TO come and
lift his wheels out of the mud. The
strong gods answer was that he helped
those only who helped themselves if
the WAGNER would put his own shoulder
to the wheel, Hercu es would supply
all the power he lacked. This answer
embodies the whole philosophy OF the
southern situation.
The south does not need capital as
much as it needs willing labOr-and
this it has, in abundance. Capital is
nothing but a concrete form of labor,
now dead, and a very serviceable and
efficient substitute for it is living labor.
This, united with industry and econo-
my, in the midst of such favorable con
ditions as mild climate, cheap living,
accessible materials and water-power,
accumulates capital, with surprising
rapidity. A man who earns 800 year
more than he spends, per annum, makes
that much capital every year; a hun
dred men in a community, doing the
same thing, make $4,000 capital in
single year and thousand men, work
ing and saving at the same rate, and in
vesting their earnings, would IN seven
years produce $1,000, ,000-a sum large
enough to start ten manufacturing es-
Establishments.
But it is said that the south has not
enough of either labor or capital. This
is a mistake. 1t cannot be said that
there is a deficiency of labor in com
munity as long as there is any consider
able number of idelers in it, and 1T ls
an undeniable fact that there are great
many idlers in the south-mOre, IN fact,
than in those regions from which immi-
grafton is invited. There are, proper
tionately, more unemployed persons IN
Tennessee than in Connecticut; OF the
425. 900 males and females over ten
wears of age in Connecticut 1913, 600, or
nearly half, are engaged in some occn-
patton, sc, 344 of them being engaged
in mechanical and manufacturing voca-
tions. while of the 800, 900 males and
females over ten years of age IN Ten
nessee, only 367, 900 are engaged IN oc.
cupation; and only $4,000 of these are
EMPLOYED in mechanical and manufac-
turlng vocations. OF the 4l2, 665
females over ten years of age in Vir-
pinia. only rs, 900 are engaged in occu-
patiops-and nearly all these are colored
females while of the 209, 600 females
over ten years Of sge in Connecticut,
lbJ, 4bU nave OCCuphLlOubs l..
Those figures largely explain the
abundance of capital in the New Eng
land states, and the scarcity of it in the
south. If the south wants capital, 1t
must work for it it must earn more
than it spends, and invest the surplus
year after year in manufactures. ii
5000 idle persons in Tennessee were TO
engage steadily and indusiriously IN
productive employment, it would be
worth more H. the state ia m the invest
ment of $4,000. .OCO of Boston capital in
it. Besides, there is a magical sympathy
in labor that attracts it's kind from all
quarters.
II the people OF Tennessee were to
helm themselves with all their might
and main, they would be surprised TO
find how many others would come 70
help them; if all the idle persons IN
that state were to go to work, resolved
to make their own capital, thousands oil
Intelligent Iaborers and millions OF Wig
liant capital would flow in upon them,
eager to seek employment and invest
ment in the midst of an industrious, IL
dependent people, and to share in the
profits of cheap manufacturing. But as
long as the people of southern state
invite somebody else to come and do
the work which they themselves will
not do, dig the ore which they will not
dig, spin the cotton which they will Dol
spin, and build the shops which they
will not build, so long will they fall oi
tbaf ,,oxuer which uaa1th alone can bring.