The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1882-08-22
A Point Well Made

The Raleigh Ne,cs and Obsercer puts it
thus: " y orthern editors, and by the way,
Northern editors are generally but in
Inherent men, o. fond of talking about
the new South. One would Suppose that
there had been a great revolution at the
South by which the old inhabitants of
Dixie had been transported, and new
population imported. Nothing of the
kind. There has been less infusion of new
blood into the South than can be found i'll
any other part of the Union. We gain
no new men from abroad. In character
we remain as we have been for genera
tons, native Americans, with. all the push
and vim of Americans; with our full
share of enterprise, but not much given
to sensational clap-trap. The people
have moved steadily on just as they
were doing generation ago; but to be
sure the improvement here, as it has been
elsewhere, is very marked. We do not
stand still now any more than we did in
the past. We have always been climbing
up the hill. 1t is great mistake to as
sumo that the present development among
us is something foreign to our habits,
something new in our character. We are
merely following the fashion of our faith
ers. With them, as with us, progress
was the word. 1t is true they made pro-
gress in less market degree than we are
doing But then, so did Massachusetts,
New York, Ohio, ETC., thirty years ago.
We kept pace with the general average
of development then; We are doing the
same now. The other day it came in our
way to cross-question very intelligent
North Carolinian who had been residing
a number of years in Indiana. He bore
testimony to the fact that the progress
among those people during the past de-
cade was incomparably greater than ever
before. The ratio of development is &C
celebrating, and this not merely with us,
but in the North and the great North
west as well. We only refer to this fact
to negative the idea that the South in the
past was sluggish beyond what might rea-
sonably have been expected. With the
abolition of slavery new conditions arose.
We have met these conditions as might
have been anticipated, like intelligent and
self-reliant Americans. And despite the
disadvantages under which we labored,
we have made remarkable progress. The
8 old South has done this thing, and we
have done our task with but little aid or
sympathy from abroad. Having fairly
gotten on our feet and under way our
momentum in the direction of progress
increases with each year. Last year we
built 1900 miles of railroad, which in
round numbers is three times what we
built the year before. Our railroad
freights are fair indication of develop
ment. In 1879 the gross earnings of
southern railway lines were but $4S, OOO,-
900, in 1880 they were 100000, and
in 1881 they were $es, 100000 This year
they will approximate, we think, O,OOO,-
900, despite the fact that our short crops
in 1881 were so disastrous to US finan-
cially. Again, take the matter of agricul-
ture. Every State in the South shows an
Improvement annually increasing, and in
like manner our manufactures are greatly
multiplied and varied. Turning from in
dustries to intellectual development, we
find the newspapers growing steadily in
numbers and in force. Every county in
the South nearly has newspaper, and
their character and tone become higher
each year. Our school system shows the