The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-10-02

From the Nation.

After long experience of the dlsin-
geniousness with which statistics are
used in political controversies, we can
recall nothing which surpassed in har-
dihood the attempt to spread the be-
lief that the customs duties levied at
the Southern ports represent the eX-
tent of the contribution of Southern
consumers to this branch of the rev.
enue. Senator Conkling, of course,
knows perfectly well that the distri-
buting agencies of foreign goods being
mainly at The North, the bulk of the
duties paid by the South are paid in
New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
He knows also that Southern contri-
buttons to the internal revenue are
not to be measured by the amount of
internal revenue collected at the South,
inasmuch as Southern consumers re
pay in the price of Northern goods
the tax paid by the manufacturer at
the place of production. He knows, too,
that the exports and imports at North
ern ports are made up in cOnsidera-
bic degree of articles of Southern pro-
duction and consumption. We are
not 50 sure that he knows, but we
strongly suspect it, that the falling off
in exports Of cotton, in spite of the
rapid increase Of the crop, is largely
due to increased consumption by home
manufactures, and that in this in
creased consumption the South itself
has respectable share. His PROPOSE
ton that the South cannot be safely
intrusted with the Government be-
cause its mines only produced, in 1870,
three and one-quarter cent. as much
as the Northern mines, must surely
be one of his rare touches of humor.
We have taken it for granted that
the Southern property holder is the
same kind of human being as the rest
of us, and has to be conciliated by the
same methods. We have thought,
therefore, that the denunciatory tone
of Republican platforms and speeches
and articles ever since 1880 was, as a
matter of political politics, a great
mistake, and that, with more forbear-
ance of speech and more blindness to
faults which were, in a moving world,
plainly temporary, and a little livelier
perception of virtues on our part, the
owners of the commercial, financial,
and industrial interests at the South
might have been largely won over
into sympathy with, if not active sup
port of, the party at the North which
is, in our eyes, unquestionably the
guardian of those interests all over
the country. The policy which has
been pursued, however, and of which
Mr.. Conkling has been one of the fore
most supporters, has been that Of
through Federal agents,
the non-taXpayers of the South
against the taxpayers in a poll
teal party, and preaching to them at
every election hatred and distrust |
of the very persons to whose skill and
the South must mainly
look for the revival of her material
The mischief thus done we
believe to be incalculable, and speeches
like Mr.. Conkling's, which have not
even the excuse of fanatical ignorance,
cannot but greatly aggravate it, be-
cause they convince the Southerners
that the Republican party is deter
mined to hate and pursue them
they present themselves as
taxpayers or nOn-taXpayers.
If the Republican party should
father the Senator's doctrine that
those sections of the country which
have most capital and manufacturer,
and the best mines, ought to have
most political power, and that the dis
5ribution of this power, as made by
The Federal Constitution on the basis
partly of population and partly Of his
.orical unity, is in practice dangerous
md unfair, it will insure Itself as
leep and swift damnatiOn as over
ook the Federal party for sins much
ess grievous