Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-05-28
The Needs Of the South.

1t will not be denied by any person
familiar with the natural resources of
the different sections of the United
States that nature has done at least as
much for the South as for any other sec
ton. Her rich and productive soil, her
navigable streams, her large extent of
seacoast, her abundant water-powers,
her great variety and immense depos-
its OF minerals, in short, her vast re-
sources of every kind mark the
South as a region specially favored by
nature. To all these resources must be
added climate so mild and genial as
in itself to constitute Il perpetual at
traction to immigration. There are
extensive portions of the South which
''if tickled with hoe will laugh with
harvest There are other extensive
portions the mineral deposits of which
are unsurpassed on the Continent.
Nearly everything of value that is pro-
duced in the North can be produced
in the South, with many valuable prod
ucts besides, and all the conditions of
life are lighter and easier there than
here Under these circumstances. it
is evident that the South is capable
OF sustaining u large and prosperous
population, a population many times
larger than its present one, if its re-
sources are properly developed and util-
lied.
Under the old regime slavery was alb
solutely fatal to such development.
That institution rested like a curse and
blight on the South. The civilization
that grew up under it was bastard
civilization, hollow, superficial and bar
ren. Labor was deprived of its dignity
and the labOrer of his earnings. There
was no business worthy of the name,
and society was simply an organized
system of plumber by which the slave
owners enriched themselves by the
labor of the slaves That the South
made any progress at all under this
ruinous system was due to her connec-
ton with the North whose enterprise
and spirit dragged her forward and up
ward somewhat in spite of slavery. 1t
is easy to see why there should have
been no development of Southern re-
sources under the old system. The
old system, however, has passed away,
and yet the South is receiving little or
no immigration, and doing little or
nothing in the way of developing her
natural resources. Obviously, what it
needs is capital and labor. The union !
of these in the South would build up
her waste places, enlarge her cities,
cover her rivers and coasts with trading |
vessels, utilize her water-powers, and |
fill all her borders with the busy hum
OF industry, But how is the South |
to get capital and laborP Formerly, |
they were repelled by slavery, the dead |
ly enemy of free labor and free enter |
prise. But slavery is gone, and yet |
there is no indication whatever of the |
flow of capital and labor in that dIrec- |
tion. Why is this? We believe it is on |
account of the temper and conduct of |
the Southern people, and that they are |
themselves tue great bar to Southern |
Labor will only go where
it is respected, capital will only go |
where it is protected, and neither will |
go where personal rights are Disregard |
ed. If the South was cursed in former .
Times by the deadly influence of slavery, |
IL is equally cursed now by the intoer-
ant spirit which prevails there, by the |
which cripples labor, by |
the Bourbonism which pervades So .
1iety, and by the ostracism which is /
practiced towards Northern men with |
Northern ideas These are the active |
principles of Southern society to-
lay, and they are curse and blight 1
upon that section Just as slavery
was when it existed. They repel /
and with it the very
.hings the South needs to develop its
resources. These ideas which are the
curse OF the South, and which are re-
.arding its progress and developments
are part and parcel Of Southern Democ-
racy. 1t could not exist without them,
and they would soon die out but for
hat organization. II follows that the
South can never have real prosperity
under Democratic rule, for the simple
reason that that party represents ideas
and principles which are utterly fatal !