The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1882-06-28

Misunderstanding Prospects In the south.
The New Orleans Picayine calls upon
I the capitalists Of that city TO turn their at.
5tention to manufactures instead Of depend.
ling on commerce 10 build up a great city.
y IT estimates that the commerce Of tho city
will hardly provide employment for half the
present population. Says tho picdy,me:
Railways and steamship lines, and
\ barge companies, ind improved naviga.
Y tlonE Of the river, can only benefit per.
4 lnanently y comparatively few, leaving ut
least onU.third Of tho population still with.
out means OF support, The impetus which
\ has been given to manufacturing enter.
II prises within tho last few years In our city
{ Us therefore OF deeper. Significance 10 the
masses than enlarged commercial relations
4 will the interior, or expanding foreign
trade l}3s
There arc probably plenty Of persons
yet In middle life who will live to see the
South a great manufacturing section,
II especially in tho way Of iron and cotton
! goods. Indeed 1t would not surprise Us TO
y see tho old order Of things come back
again, when New England will DO the free
< trade section and the South and West
h strongly for tariff. Already Virginia, Ala.
Il blma and Georgia are moving in that d.
4 rection. The South has great natural re.
il sources in these two spccialtes, and they
are specialties Of the first magnitude. On
: the other hand New England, like old
Il England, Is rich in accumulated capital
Z and surplus labor. The men who work in
a her iron establishments to-day get no such
wages rs they receive in Wheeling or Pitts.
g bursh. Her cotton and wooden mills are
owned by men who arc apparently lean.
& ing somewhat nowadays to free trade.
Especially Is this true OF her wooden man.
gutactures. 1t was noticeable that the
gSwoolen manufacturers Of New England
declined to be represented in the Tariff
v Convention at New York last fall.
1T Is mixed question whether
they do not look with favor on the
+ f.si IMPORTATION Of foreign woods. They
!. have. money and comparatively cheap ID.
a Dor, especially tho labor Of females, and
i seem to be about ready to contest their
ability US producers Of wooden goods with
England and France On the other hand,
Il both capital and labor are yet compare
&tively. dear in the South. The difficulty is
" to get skilled labor in the South. The col
ored people afford n vast amount OF un-
trained laborers to draw upon, but they
will never equal the white man as skilled
isand trained slaborers. Their. sphere will
\ be field work for m indefinite period to
come. Hence the South will gradually
draw to itselfor raise up within itself a pop
sulationof white skilled laborers This will
come about gradually. The State Of Geor.
4 gia. is to-dayit the seat OF a great, growing
Sand prosperous cotton manufacturing in
y dustry.% Her cotton mills are making
i good dividends-better perhaps than those
of55 New England. Alabama is lie.
o5coning the seat Of q great iron industry,
) and so also is Virginia. The recent utter.
4 ances Of the Richmond Dipatch, a promi.
X nent Democratic paper, show that the
I people are becoming inoculated to large
extent with tariff ideas. The speech of
Mr.. Hewitt, OF Alabama, on the Tariff
8 Commission bill, shows how tariff ideas
u are spreading in that Suite. He remarked,
4 in tho opening, that he had listened long
q and patiently to the learned free trade
s speeches, collected from English books and
!. the essays OF English professors, but, said
sshe, oppose to all these books and all
Athese theories the evidence OF my own
senses in Alabama. II am like the man in
the Scriptures who was born blind. !
4 have seen the marvellous change that has
been wrought in North Alabama by the
$introduction Of manufactures, and can
Jonly say that whereas l was once blind
IGnow. see. :" y ;tjasgy,. is Z!
The speech OF Senator Voorhees,, Of In.
diana, at the Atlanta Industrial Exposition,
taking gound in favor Of the tariff as the
agency by which the South is yet to be
made populous and wealthy, attracted
SSgreat attention Mt the time, and no doub.
mot only echoed the predominant senti.
ment Of his own State, US shown in the
Selection Of 1880, but also the rising public
B sentiment Of the South.
5s| And now, us We see above, comes the
demand from New Orleans for the en-.
4 Gouragement and establishment Of manu-
faclures in that region. All this shows the
adrilt Of public sentiment. 1t is therefore
$useles to talk about the Democratic party
becoming q unit against protection. The
Sparty is hopelessly split on that question.
Despite. the crack Of the party lash over