The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1879-02-01
rnE soUTnn-rresent und ruturc.

which have had baneful and parelyz.
ing effect on the young men of the
South. The notion that white men
cannot successfully till the soil in the
Southern States, and its fellow. error
that free negroes will not work with
s'eadiness, he coufronts with the fact
that the cotton crop Of 1878, which
must have been cultivated and picked
by somebody, is larger than any other
ever gIowa, even when the labor of the
negroes was compulsory. lie has never
even accepted these theories, indeed, ,and
has been from the first so strongly con-
WINGED of the success of the South with
free labor that he began to build great
warehouses in Charleston for the stor.
age Of cotton Immediately after the
war ended. His friends demonstrated
with him, predicting "that cotton could
not be produced by white labor, and
that The negroes would not work." 81
did not believe any such doctrine" he
says, and in vindication OF the sound
ness of his Judgment he points to his
overlooking warehouses, which are in
capable Of holding the cotton which he
has need TO store. Mr.. Williams con
idence in the industry Of the negroes
and in their disposition to work har.
moniously with the whites for the good
of the country and for their own pros
pcrty Ivy legitimate means Is unbound
ed. II am happy to say" he writes,
THAT the relation between the whites
aud their former slaves has greatly i'm
proved. We owe the freed
men debt of gratitude for their hu-
name consideration of the wives ant
children of our soldiers during the lat
war, who we're left mainly to their
mercy. Their subsequent conduct has
been equally creditable, especially when
you consider their sudden elevation
from slaves to enfraDchlsed citizens"
The expression of a conviction of this
nature BY men of prominence and inhu.
ence in the South, where public opinion
counts for more than it does esewh re-,
besides its significance, mist tend to
make the relations between the two
races pleasan'er, and to promote that
mutual good feeling out of which the
healthy hOmogeneity Of southern pop
ulation will come.
He points out with great sagact,
certain fa:ts which promise well fur
the South it her people will make proper
use of their opportunities, and labor
patiently to rebuild their for unes under
the new conditions. Que product alone
Of the South, the cotton crop, viii yield
this year, notwithstanding low prices,
| the enormous sum of two hundred and
fifty millions of dollars, which. estimat
ing the population of the cotton state,
at a little more than eight Millions, give,
the startling average OF thirty one dol
lars income from this one crop for each
person, male and female, old and young
black and white, throughout the whole
cotton region. Other products of the
South, her tar and terpeatine, her Ium
her and her grain, her mineral products
and the products of her recently estdb
llshed manufactures sources of wealth
the develupement of which is scarcely
yet begun-must De added to this a,
the years go on-hOw rapidly depend.
upon The energy of southern men
Concerning a single one of these re
sources, and that minor one, Mr.. vii
liams says:
"AnO'her source of considerable
wealth To the South has arisen from
the discovery of immense beds of pho,
phate rock and fossil bone in Soul
Carolina. These remarkable deposits
both on lana and III the navigabl,
streams, attracted the attention Ut geo
logiSts more than a century ago, bu
strange tn say their value was not know
until alter the close of the war. Inas,
; immense deposits have added greatly t,
the commerce OF South Carolina. Hun
: dredS Of cargocs are annually shippe,
from Char stOn ard BeautOrLt0 foreigl
and domestic ports. The manufacture
Of CONNER cial fertilizers from these rock
and fossils has added to the wealth am
l trade of Charleston. The capital nov
j employed in mining phosphate rocl
= aud rock manufacturing fertilizers ex
ceeds the Whole banking capital of til
state"
il is narrow and unSOund phlosO
ply, whether in the North or in tn
! South, which sees in the bright pros
poets of the South menace to the pros
!, prrty of the North. This country
: one, and whatever enriches any part 4
IS it, whatever enables any part of it I
G sell more to the world tor the world
e money or the worlds products, increase
= the prosperity of the whore land an
70 People, increasing domestic as well a
- foreign trade and producing real an
u permanent thrift. 1t is only the say
+, age or the robber whose thrift is at I'll
- expense of his nrighbUr; aad even ell
>, lightened selfshness should prompt L
70 to long for the day when, as Mr.. Wi
r. llams says, "the production of cottu
!. in the Southern States will amount
is teu million bales" and when the sol
a OF men now living will "see mOrs col
l. ton manufactured into yarus and clo
Of in the Southern States than is now COZ
c. sumed in North America. "
as
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