Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-04-27

NHg
issue, has the following WORD to the
administrations:
Take notice that at this present
writing the South is considerably out of
politics of the national partisan kind.
Her main business just nov is to raise
the biggest possible crops of sugar, cot
ton, corn and the like, and get the big
gest possible price therefor. Also, to pay
her debts. Also, to manufacture her
raw material in good measure, and make
at home the things she needs. In short,
the politics of the South is to get rich as
o as possible honestly, to have plenty
of the best to eat and drink, to wear
good clothes, and get a big bank account
with the least needless delay.
"All this may not be the highest pos
sible aim for men. But then Southern
people have not reached the culture of
Boston nor the high idealism of Concord.
They are quiet people who want to get
out of debt and get right-down rich by
honest use of their opportunities, trust
ing that 'culcher' and characterization
may come hereafter"
The above sentiments of our New Or
leans contemporary are worthy of the
highest commentator. Now that South
ern outrages are becoming stale, fiat and
improbable, the Northern stalwart has
to turn his attention to something else to
be used against this section, and South
ern poverty" is found to be the most
available theme. 1t was the favorite cam
paign cry of Conkling during the last
Presidential campaign, while Frye of
Maine found in it, a few days ago, the
only relief from the venomous bile with
which his system is surcharged.
In making these contemplate filings
at the poverty of the South, however,
the Northern stalwart very shrewdly ig-
nores two very prominent facts: First.
That Southern poverty is due largely to
the cormorants of the stalwart stripe,
yclept carpet baggers, who came South
in the wake of the Northern army to
prey and feast upon the remnant left
this section from the ravages of war, and
that these miserable vultures were enabled
successfully to accomplish their outrage
ous robberies by the aid of
Northern bayonets, sent to their
assistance by a Republican President.
Second. That though the South emerged
from the civil war with an actual loss of
property greater than the entire volume
of the national debt at the close of the
contest, and was besides the victim of
the carpet-bag robberies We have men
toned, she has recuperated amazingly,
and today is not only doing her full
share towards paying off the public debt,
but is advancing onward rapidly in the
pathway of prosperity. Under circum-
stances such as the South found herself
at the close of the war, we would like to
know where the North would nave been
to-day, only sixteen years after the strug.
gle? In fact, We might go further and
ask where would have been much of
the boosted wealth of the North today
had it not been for that struggled
1t is the wonderful recuperative power
of the South, manifested since the war,
which should now chiefly claim the at
tention of, and afford substantial encour
agement to the Southern people. They
have seen themselves, as a people, over
come obstacles such as no other people in
the world ever overcame as rapidly. They
have seen this section emerge from what
to other sections of the country would
have been well nigh hopeless poverty,
and, in the short space of sixteen years,
rise to a position of comparative wealth,
while their prospects for the future
are most iattering. They see to-day
huge Northern and Western railway
combinations not only willing but eager
t expend millions of dollars in building
lines into Southern territory so as to
share in the wealth Southern productions
can command, while capitalists all over
the world are beginning to recognize the
inviting field offered IN the South for re-
munerative investments.
The Southern people, therefore, con-
sidering these truths, should feel highly
encouraged, and determine to make the
best of their wonderful advantages. In
politics the South has little to hope for
at present, and indeed nothing to hope
for while she remains less rich than the
North. Let her, however, but be in1u-
enced by the suggestion which we quote
at the beginning of this article from our
New Orleans contemporary-and which
suggestion we have, over and over again,
| ourselves made-and her future impor-
lance is secured. She must, of
course, takes an interest in the political
situation; but as we advise Southern
farmers to devote their attention first to
the production of home supplies, and
then make of Gotten a surplus crop, so
we advise the Southern people to first
develop their immense resources, and
get rich, and make of politics a second
airy consideration. We repeat that.
with the wealth which is hers by nature,
the South will have no difficulty in Sc
curing political influence in a country
such as ours, where the love of money
is all absorbent.