The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-07-13
LIGHT AHEAD FOR TENNESSEE

LIGHT AHEAD FOR TENNESSEE.
If there is any proposition which is
susceptible of plese auI ca sy dem
onstration it is this: That the Southern
States will never hereafter be 30 exclu-
sively agricultural IN their pursuits and
interests as they have been heretofore.
Both the capital and labor system of the
South were prostrated-nay, annihilated
by the late var. This capital and Ia
Dor were invested in, and devoted to,
agriculture and agriculture has there
fore received heavier blow than any
other avocation Of our people. As "a
burnt child breads fire." and as men
profit by experience, so pursuits are not
Xix ely to be renewed or followed when
characterized by losses enormous and
d isproportionnte to those of other inter
Gets of the country. Already meR can
be found who have oil their lives been
agriculturists, and who are row seeking
other employment on the ground that
they not only cannot make money, but not
even living by cultivating the soil. AS
t'rats leave fallen house., so our farm
ers are fleeing from the ruins of agricul-
ture. The profits which in the past at
tended agricultural pursuits ia the
South were not due to the fact that the
plan ter owned the labor and paid nothing
for it, but accrued because the owner
ship of the labor enabled him always to
command it whenever needed. TIE loss
and failure in farming hereafter will
arise in part from the fact that the
planter has no capital, aud if he had it,
could not command and control the Ia
Dor needed for the successful prOsecu-
ton of his BUSINESS. His experience
has already taught him that the negro will
not work persistently even for the best
wages, and is likely to select his time for
idleness when exertion and indus try are
most needed. Under such checks and
discouragements men will not engage IN
agriculture, but will turn their attention
to some more stable and reliable employ
ment, not dependent on the whims and
caprices of Cuffee for success and pros
perity. Hence the din of manufactures
will be heard in the South, and the me-
chanic arts will arise and flourish. Com
merce, more than Of yore, will engage
the attention of our people. Mining
will become great and important ele
ment of popular industry, and the wood
and lumber trade of the South will be
greatly developed in extent and value.
In all of those branches of industry
capital and labor are more apt to be d.
rected than in agriculture. Who ever
heard of capitalist having funds to in
vest and seeking agriculture as an invest
NEXT in preference to the avocations we
have mentioned2 The returns of the
planter are too precariOus and uncertain.
In addition to the cotton-fy, joint-worm,
rust, drouths, storms and
ireshets, he now has an uncertain system
of labor with which to contend. Hence it
is that the South will be compelled to en-
courage manufactures. Herein is wrapp-
81 up future filed with splendid re-
suits.
Tennessee is especially prepared to
become centre of immense manufac-
turing enterprise. Her vast mineral
resources and excellent water.power will
cause agriculture ere long to
be of secondary importance. And the
labor which has heretofore been devoted
TO tilling the soil, and which from its
lnskilled character cannot be transfer
red to the mechanic arts, will seek 9TH
sr helds where the products and cul-
.ivation of the farm are more remunera-
live.
In the sugar and rice fields of the far
South, if anywhere, will negro labor be
retained or prove profitable. North of
the Hisothermal line" OF which politic~
JAMS formely talked so much, it has not
paid for years, and now there is less
likelihood of Improvement in this
direction. Let, then, Tennessee move
Iorward to utilize the means within her
each. Nature has uns:intedly locked |
10 within her bosom material treasures |
hat now await but the Transforming |
.ouch of manufacturing enterprise to
come forward and wreathe her brow
9Th chaplets of worth as honorable and |
enduring as any she has won in states !