Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-12-17
NON-INTERCOURSE.


FRIDAY MORNING. DEC. Il, 1880.
NON-INTERCOURSE.
just after the November election the
usual shower Of "non-intercourse with the
North'' editorials were seen in the South
ern papers, but the shower was more fitted
by it's brevity to April than December. Of
course the popular idea of non-intercourse
with any other section Of our country is
idle and dangerous. Whatever the North
has that we haven't, and whatever it can
make good margin cheaper than we can,
we are going to buy. Your loudest non
intercourse man is more than likely to
have on a hat made in the section he is
warning others to avoid. But. clearing
away the chaff from all this talk there is
still to be found some grains of wheat
which if properly planted and tended
will bring forth an hundred fold. It is the
plain truth that the people of this section
of the union have insensibly adopted the
system Of non-intercours with themselves.
Any enterprising man who has spent much
time, great deal of energy and what lit
tie capital he had and perhaps failed after
all can endorse this statement, and can
tell more fully than we can the great diff
Guilty Of getting his own neighbors to take
hold of his manufactures, even though
equally meritorious and quite as cheap as
those made in the older manufacturing
towns of the Northern States. some in
side the limits of the city in which we write
can testify to having suffered from this.
The first step to being independent of
your neighbours plow is to make one of
your own. In Virginia there is no need
for sectional political views in order to
quicken our people to manufactures. It
ought to be just as Illuminating to our self
esteem to work all the year round for a
little money and hand it over to North
Carolina as it is to hand it over to Penn
sylvania. A poor customer who is always
at the store door and never rising to the
dignity OF keeping store of his own, while
often asking for little accommodation.
naturally falls into second rate position.
It makes little difference whether the
storekeeper we give all our earnings to is
a Vermonter or Louisianian, they both
get the same opinion of us in the end and
assign us to rank ia their constituency
little above vassaIs. What we need most
among ourselves is practical business
view of the matter. The sentiment is all
very fine but time wears it out; we need
something more. We need to understand
that in every dollar kept at home and al
lowed to float in our community we all
have share. If our neighbors start fac
tories in however small way-and after
all that is the true way ito lay the founda-
tion-we must take enough interest in
their success to buy there. And again, if
we have not the capital to start large fac
tories it is not to our interest to establish
non-intercourse With the people who do
have it. Georgia is now the foremost
Southern State in manufactures and gen.
eral prosperity and she has availed herself
of every dollar she could persuade to come
down from the centres Of capital at the
North. Virginia which will in short
time be the second Southern State in ac-
tivity is now taking all the Northern and
Western capital she can get. This in large
industries, but we must also look out for
the small. These, by whomsoeyer started
whether he be from Maine or South Caro-
lima or Virginia, we must foster. We
must discard the obsolete idea of locality
and all our prejudices. A Virginian who
opens and works a manganese mine in the
corner of his farm or cuts and ships tim
Der from his forest is worth dozen loung
ers from Connecticut. just as Connecti
cut man who comes here and opens and
works mine is worth to the community
dozen lounging Vmginians.
We must get rid of the dry rot idea that
enterprising men who come from abroad
are mere Adventures to skin the land
and to be regarded with proper amount
of distrust. Let us give individual en-
eouragement to all who are in the general
effort to put new life into the State and
then after the South has gotten well ahead
in manufactures and gotten enough of our
skilled Yankee brethren down here to see
that it does not flag in it's prosperous ca
reer it will be time enough to talk about
non-intercourse with the North. We will
keep the store ourselves then, and prompt
" establish non-intercourse with our deal
ers whether North, South or West who
don't pay up regularly.