Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-09-10
CIenring mouse Reporl.
The Real soIIdity OF lhe South.

If any one is curious to see the real
solidity of the south he should read
about this time the principal journals
Of the southern cities. The lst Of
September is the beginning OF
the business year in the south.
and the journals of the larger
cities have an excellent habit of set
ting forth on that day an elaborate
statistical account of the business Of
the past year, with comparisons Of
previous years, and some account of
future prospects.
We have examined with interest a
number Of these annual summaries
which have come to us from New Or
leans, Savannah, Mobile Galveston.
Charleston, Memphis, Norfolk and
other points, and we warn the south
ern men that they must cease the com
mon Outcry about their poverty. They
are not poor in the SOUTH they are
rich. Prosperity is an undeniable
fact with them. There is no city
whose reports we have read which has
not in the last year or two rapidly ad-
vanced in commerce, ia manufactures,
in variety of industries; and in some
tho advance is surprising as it is graf
flying in n all. .
No southern report we have seen is
more buoyant and encouraging than
that of Memphis. Far from being
ruined by two terrible yellow fever
years, Memphis seems to have gath
cred new energy and enterprise from
this disaster. The new sewerage
system has given courage to capital
and labor, and the city, once merely a
cotton port, is now not only q very
important distributing center for mer-
chandise, but is fast becoming man.
uiacturing place. The annual report
speaks Of several cottonseed oil fac
tories, iron works, gin mandatory
wagon, broom, soap, sugar, candy and
other factories, all prosperous. Mos
encouraging tf all, because it speak,
OF thrift among the laboring men
Memphis has seven building associa
tions, which have a joint capital of
million of dollars.
Wherever we turn, in Texas, Ar
kansas, Georgia, and even in Virginia
we read only OF rapidly increasing
prosperity and of general we'll doing
1t will not do for southern men, afte
such an official showing, to complain
of the poverty of their region. Tn,
southern states are prosperous. |
would not be extravaRant to say tina
their people are on the whole NOR
prosperous than those of most part
of the north. Undoubtedly the con
ditions of living are easier in tn
south than in the north. But th
change for the better in the last fou
years is very remarkable. Eyerywher
we read of new industries starting int
| lie; manufactures of various kind
are rapidly increasing and Civ
employment to increasing numbers o
the poor whites, to whom factory lif
is distinct advance in the scale o
prosperity. The business of marke
gardening for northern consumption
has been found so profitable that We
getable and small. fruit gardens an,
orchards are found in all the state
from Virginia to Louisiana.
1t is absurd to charge that regiol
thus healthfully prosperous is lawles
or idle. The south produced last yea
the greatest cotton crop in its history
and this years eropwill be even greater
But, over and above the cotton, it
producing a multitude of other thing
which we're totally unknown in tn
southern states before the war. Wit
more healthful political life, such a
would follow from a "diYided" south
this prosperity would be still NOR
rapidly increased.