The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-07
Southern Industry, Crops. Trade and
Business Prospects.

| DAY 10 cOplOuS correspondence, Ii
which is set forth the present con-
dition of the principal Southern States
including all that border on the At
lantic from Virginia to Florida and west OF
| the Alleghanies from Tennessee to the
Gulf Perhaps no descriptive matter OF
equal extent relating to that section has
been printed since the war which was SO
timely at the date of its appearance Sena-
tor Blaine is to open on Monday debate
| on Southern affairs, and the information
which we publish faithfully portrays the
| condition of the South as it really is ut
present. To be sure, the correspondence
| relates chiefly to business and the debate is
to bear almost solely on politics; but no
| correct judgment OF the latter can be
| formed on data from which the former is
! excluded. The surest test Of good govern
| ment is prosperous and contented people.
It is an utterly false view which measures
the condition of community by the
amount of its political activity. Periods OF
intense political agitation are generally
periods Of disaster when the subjects Of
agitation are important, and periods
of vile degradation when the subjects
are trivial. There is no evil which
could befall the South - not even
another pestilencc like that with which
it has been recently visited, not even
blight which should destroy its crops-th that
could be more mischievous and deplorable
than the complete occupation Of the South
ern mind with politics. This is the evil
which affiicts the most corrupt wards OF our
great cities, and nothing SO tends to bring
our free, popular institutions into con-
tempt. Woe to that part of any community
which lives by politics There are in some
of our cities herds of people, mere hangers
on OF crafty politicians, who live by the
employment doled out to them by
men who have the bestowal Of pub
lie patronage, who are mere lackeys
Of ambitious men, and whose whole
talk is of the means by which the set Of
demagogues to which they are attached is
to circumvent its rivals. The existence Of
these servile crews is the reproach and
scandal of our municipal institutions, and
nothing could be worse for tho colored citi-
zens Of the South than to be transformed
into such class. During the period Of
carpet-bag rule this was their condition, and
we congratulate them and the country on
their emancipation from that kind Of de-
grading political activity. Since the end
Of the carpet-bag regime they are advancing
to better condition. They are engaged
in the regular pursuits Of industry;
they are renting land; they are
buying farms; they are raising crops; they
are acquiring the self-respect which accom-
panies the possession of property, and are in
all respects better off than when they were
indulging in vain dreams of supporting
themselves by politics, like the tools of vul-
gar demagogues in our great cities.
In Judging Of the condition of the South,
which we publish, it is to be considered
that the business Of the whole country has
been for the last few years in state Of de-
preston and stagnation, owing to general
causes which have operated in the South as
well as the North. The fact on which this
correspondence should fix attention is
that the South is rising out Of the
universal depression more perceptibly than
the North In spite of the hard times
which have weighed like an incubus on all
the industries of the country the Southern
people, colored as well as white, have been
advancing in well-being and comfort, and
they are confident of q prosperous future.
There is, however, difference in the tone
of feeling in different Southern States. The
most complaining Of these States is Vir-
ginia, the most hopeful and prosperous is
Georgia; but most Of the others resemble
Georgia rather than Virginia The chief
cause of this difference is not difficult
to find. Virginia is the Southern State
which is most impervious to new
ideas and the slowest to adopt improved
methods in her agriculture. This may be
owing in part to the fact that the social
revolution consequent on freeing the slaves
was not so great in Virginia rs in the plan
tation States. Virginia raised negroes for
the Southarn market, but did not herself
possess the large plantations on which they
were chiefly employed. The consequence
was that emancipation did not break up
and disorganize her industrial system as it
did that Of the States further South,
where slaves were collected in great
numbers on vast estates. Virginia is
still running in her old ruts, the
raising OF tobacco being her chief in
dustry and the partition Of land remaining
very much as before the war. But the
great plantation States could not go on by
their old methods. Necessity, which Is the
mother of invention, compelled the land
owners to devise some system by which the
production Of the Southern staples could
be reconciled with the altered state of labor.
They are dividing their large estates into
small farms, letting some on shares, selling
some, and making no discrimination be-
| tveeu white and black cultiyators either in