New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-03-14
VHAT HE SOUTH W4NTS.

Certain facts a. TO Southern claims are
printed to-day, ard we invite especial atten-
ton to them, and 10 our reasons for believing
them exceedingly important. The honor OF
the country, and therefore ITS power in any
. future emergency, depenu upon It's nnanclai
int rrItv. It's prosperity II commerce and IN
dustry depends not less upon the financial IN
t4grity of the Nation. But the Nation Is AS
sailed. at this most vital point by all alliance
between the solid South, as represented by
majority of its members in Congress, the dis
coDtented West, halfpersuaded that it has not
vet reached boundess prosperity only because
Eastern capital has thus far opposed imitation
with success, and Tammany Hall, the organi-
cation which rules the Democratic party in
more than one Eastern State, and which Is
ruled, in turn, by men who have reduced to IA
sci nee the use of public power for private
ends.
The South is hungry. of course. 1t suffered
severely, and lost heavily, during the war, but
its actual loss IN destruction OF property and
change of industry was much less than the
imagined loss of men of its ruling class, who
no longer own its labor, and much less than
the indirect loss through separation from the
CAPITAL and enterprise of the world at time
when the most extraordinary changes were
being made in routes of transportlon, channels
of commerce, and methods of manufac-
ture. The South sees what the North
has become within the past seventeen
wears, and feels poor. 1t Graves aid, for the
North had aid. 1t hungers for railroads, canals,
other improvements, and liberal expendi-
lures of public money. and it pleads, not
unnaturally, "These things the North has
4" had while we were absent from public cOun-
cells, and the least that can be done toward
reconciliation, or by those who pro-
fess 10 be our real friends, is the expendi-
"ture of liberal amounts for the revival of
"our prosperity" 1t is grave mistake TO
suppose that these words, uttered by few, do
not express the feelings and thoughts OF
many. Everything now depends upon clear
understanding of Southern wants and feelings,
and the ruling passion of that section to-day
is to get back, through the Government, some
mart of what the South has lost since 1860
bv war. by years of isolation, and by stub
born resistance in respect to reconstruction.
It is not strange that the South is hungry ;
but how much does 1t want The Nation can
do something. Kind feeling might prompt it
to do much. But how much will answer I The
bills actually pending are estimated to involve
an expenditure of $150,O0OOO0. The sum Is
very large, but it no more represents the ex-
tent and force of Southern demands than the
wisp of straw which is whirled through the
air represents the extent and force OF the hur-
ricane. Every one knows that the public an
nouncement of these demands tends most pow
erfully to defeat the Democratic party, and
therefore to defeat the demands themselves
Yet these are thrust forward. not because
they are all, not because men who offer
them usually think it wise to do so until the
Democratic party has completely gained the
control of the Government, but because some
part of their constituents are too impatient
and hungry to listen to common sense, or to
care for party success, or to endure even enc
day longer the silent and patient delay which
would make Democratic victory less difficult.
Thus the bills now pending represent only
that fraction of Southern demands which
could not be restrained day longer by self
interest or party interest. How much the
shrewder and more patient schemers and
claimants may demand, if the time ever comes
When the hungry will have the power. and