Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-08-26
The Progress of Georgia.

natural advance in wealth and prosper
ity OF this State, and commendey the
laudable ambition of our people to make
OF Georgia, in reality as in name, "rhe
Empire State of the South" This pro-
gress of Georgia it mainly at
tributes to the abandonment of
the old idea of large farms, and
the adoption of careful and more eco
nomical methods of agriculture in place
of the wasteful and extravagant systems
in vogue before the war, and also to the
determination on the part of our citizens
generally to work with unfagging
energy and ceaseless industry to
build up their waste places and
recuperate from the poverty and
ravages of the civil war. But having
given our people credit for these praise
worthy efforts to place themselves and
their State once more on the high
way TO prosperity, our contemporary
proceeds also to give the North praise for
what we have accomplished, for it as
serts that the South in general. and Geor
gia in particular, would never have
arisen with such rapidity from the weeds
and ashes of the war unless she had dis
carded old Southern ideas and adopted
yankee ways"
We are not willing to permit our
Northern contemporary thus quietly, and
with evident self-cOmplacency, to claim
credit for its section for what Georgia
and the South have done. The changes
which have been made in Southern sys-
TENS of agriculture, are the result, not
so much of the teachings of our North
ern brethren as of the circumstances
which have driven the farmers of both
the North and the South into the small
farm system, and into the exercise of
carefulness in the management and con-
duct of their farms. These circum-
stances prevailed in New England and
throughout the North before the war,
and made small farms and careful man
agement an imperative necessity. But
in the South, at that time, the case was
different. Slave labor and comparative
sparseness of population made large farms
so profitable that there was not the need
for exercising such vigilance in watching
small details and saving expense as at
present exists. With the labor system Of
the South changed by the war; with her
old slaves freed and made citizens forced
to look out for themselves or starve just
as other citizens have to do, and con-
fronted as she was with poverty
and lack of capital, it became
necessary that large, unwieldy South
ern plantations should be abandoned,
and that everything which could
save labor and expense should be resort
ed to- 1t is doubtless true that we are
somewhat indebted to the long expert
ence of New England in this style of ag-
riculture for being able to accommodate
ourselves so readily to the new order of
things, but this new order would never
have been inaugurated had not the war
forced the South into condition similar
to that of New England and the North.
But whatever the cause of the new sys-
TENS adopted in the South, or whether we
are indebted to New England for them, or
have been driven thereto by force of cir
cumstances alone, it is a source Of con-
graduation that they have been resolved
on, since the result has been the rapid and
gratifying recuperation of our section. 1t
is also sincerely to be hoped that
whether our farmers have adopted
Yankee methods" of agriculture or
not, they will stick to them as long
as they pay. To accumulate riches
should be the great end and object Of
the Southern people. Before the war
they maintained leading position, and,
indeed controlled the country, not so
much because of their wealth as because
of the superior craftsmanship and
ability of the Southern leaders But
those were days in which brains
were considered superior to wealth,
and when money was not worshiped and
adored as the one and only thing need
full. True, we then occasionally heard
references to Goldfish aristocracy," but
that species of aristOcracy always had
to remain in the background, and never
dreamed of exercising the prominence
enjoyed by the shoddyist of modern
times. Those days formed what ex
Governor Wise, in his excellent work,
"The Seven Decades of the Union, DIES
ignates as the era of ''The Humanities. >
We have now, however, entered upon
an entirely different era. The ''humani
ties" are looked upon with contempt
as ''relics of Bourbonism," and only
the sway Of the almighty dollar is re-
coenjzed. Under these circumstances il
is evident that no matter what the states
manship. the ability or the talents of the
South or any other section, it can never
exert influence or command respect
while laboring under the discomfort'
and inconvenience of poverty. This is
why we earnestly advise the Southern
people to give to politics the second
place in their consideration, and make
the acquisition of wealth their first OBJ
iect. The wisdom Of this advice
is clearly proven by the
fact that the progress in material
wealth made by Georgia isalready attract
ing TO her the favorable attention of oul
Northern contemporaries end Northern
capitalists. Let her continue in
tho path she has marked out
for herself. and let the South
generally follow her example, and in
few wears we will hear no more scorniu
illusions to the "semi- barbarous anO
pauper South On the contrary, she
will then be alluded to as "that prosper
GUS and highly favored section, while
her ancient prestige will be re-established
and her sons will be again conspicuous
in guiding the helm of the ship of State
----
Editor Hastings, of the New York