The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1875-11-27
THE NEWBORN SOUTH.

We do not pretend to know much
about the dogma Of the ''new birth" as
expounded by theology. But we are
perfectly assured in our own convictions,
that the regeneration OF one of the most
Important sections of these United
States is to be accepted as a fixed fact;
and, that even old men of the present
era will live to see and rejoice over
newborn South"
The logic of events has utterly oblit-
Grated that old Chinese wall, known as
'Mason & DiKon's Line" beyond which
on the one side was altogether North,
and on the other was altogether South.
We nevertheless understand the phrase,
s'going South" as distinctly as we do
''going West." We mean that there is a
section called "the SOUTH" as there is
one called "the West" though there no
longer remains a dividing line to indi-
cate just where the North ends and the
South begins.
Within fifteen years, which is mere
puRctum tesporiS in the calendar of his
tory, the South has passed through a
transformation as complete as any that
ever marked the political features and
domestic institutions OF apy other eoun-
try under the revolutions Of centuries.
That temporary disorganization of her
Industrial and financial systems should
follow TRANSFORMATION so sudden and
complete. could be no matter of sur
prise to any one. 1t was just as una
voidable as that effect should follow its
cause. The greater wonder is that the
disorganizing revolution did not, under
the circumstances, plough deeper, and
open wider the chasm under the pros
perity ofthe South. Yet that disorgan-
izalion was, TO all practical intents and
purposes, utter and absolute; so that
the only question that remained was,
not how to avoid further disorganiza-
tion, for that could no further go, but
how best TO effect a reorganization OF
their political and industrial systems.
The problem was not, how to stop dis
iutegration, bat how best to build up
Rnew.
And it must be confessed that, In view
of all considerations, this process OF re-
organ nzation in the South has been as
substantial and as rapid as was possi-
hle, under the condition of things. 1t
was not SO much that war had driven
its ruinous plough-share oyerher fields,
leaving thorns and thistles where before
were cotton and corn; because a, single
season of Natures benefcence would
have corrected all that. But the results
of the war had uprooted her whole in
6ustrial system. To reor ganize entirely
anew, and to develop prosperity in the
very face Of overthrow and impoverish-
circumstances, have ever done more
thoroughly within SO brief a time.
The statistics of the South OF the pres
ent year show that she has produced as
much cotton as at any former time, even
In her palmiest days of prosperity. The
people whose soil yields to them an ALL
nual product of over three millions OF
bales of cotton, Tor which the markets OF
the world are competing, are q people
already on the highway to opuleuco.
But the South has done more than this,
and more than she ever did before the
war. She mas been planting her cotton
mills beside her cotton fields, and is
commencing to spin and weave her own
products by her own machinery by the
hands of her own people.
But even more than that she has done
fhis present year: She has raised her
own cereals and bread-stuffs, her wheat
and corn, upon her own fields, and Is
feeding her own pork and curing her own
bacon. She is raising her own mules
and pasturing her own focks. She is
aisiDg wool beside her cotton, and man.
utaeturing both.
Nor yet is this all: The South has,
tor the frs1time in her history, turned
her attention to the development OF the
mineral wealth with which her noun
tains are SO marvelously stored. Her
valleys are now just beginning to be
lighted up by the fires that glow in more
than fifty furnaces; and manufactures
almost numberless are springing vi
among her timber and her minerals,
making cities where once were onl,
towns, and towns where once was only
wilderness.
Then there is the present inflow Of for
eign capital, TO aid In developing thu
amazing mineral and agricultural wealtl
with which the South abeunds. Twenty
millions OF E1nspean gold has found III
way to that region as Investments in IT.
lands and products. The work OF reor
ganizati0n has become thoroughly estab
lished. The "dead point Of danger" ha
been successfully passed. The peopl
are becoming tamiliarized with the nev
order Of things, and hope now rejoice
where once mourned despair. And thi
impulse once begun will be cumuiativ
in its force, and the process Of recuperi
tioa VIII proceed with redoubled zei
ana. accelerated activity. 1t will prov