The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1885-09-02
! Remedy for Southern Pro
vincialism.

Is there no pratical remedy for the
the provincialism of the Southern
States !? The educational advancement
making the helps to broaden them, but
even educational work falls into pro-
vincial methods. Industrial develop
ment makes the peoples thought more
practical and their ideas broader, but
provincialism is constant hindrance
to industrial development. The in
crcasing facilities and occasions for trav-
ell are important agencies, but the ma
jority of people never go away from
home. Every progressive influence has
some effect against provincial content
ment, but is there no way to strike di-
rectly at the central and comprehensive
evil itself? And what an evil it isl!
If you have wondered why land so
fertile and SO variously productive has
not been more rapidly developed, you
will find the reason in the provincialism
of the people. If you have wondered
why 80 much of the best blood and
brains Of the old Southern States con-
t'nues to 60 to the more density popula-
ted and less fertile lands of the West
and Southwest you will find the same
explanation. For years the most en-
ofthe old, formerly slavo states,
have been making efforts to attract immi-
grants, but the emigrations from one of
them continues to exceed the immi-
grafton to them. There are in all these
states opportunities for the investment
of capital. opportunities similar to which
in other states would yield dividends of
20 per cent, yet money remains in New
York, Philadelphia and Boston eager to
find safe investments at 8 per cent.
And many Southern men and journals
express surprise. have recently read
the editorial columns Of twenty of these
surprised journals which constantly
publish invitations to immigrants and
money, and the explanation why men
and money do not go there more will
lingly is betrayed in every one of them.
In single issue Of these twenty journ.
ais ! have counted thirty-nine recur-
rences of such phrases as "we of tho
South" "thc South, etc. "our South
ern people," and so on. In Mr.. Henry
W. Grady's recent paper about the ne
gro, in the Century Magazine, he
writes repeatedly Of the south as "she."
A stranger who should read it would be
pardonable for the inference that the
south was separate principality. OF
course it is as easy rs it is silly to be
hypercritical, but it is not hypercritical
to say that these tricks Of phraseology
show how deep and thorough, even un-
consciously thorough, the provincial.
feeling is. Another illustration is the
humorous shrewdness of tramp who
last year Jared sumptuously on his
journey through Virginia and North
Carolina. and perhaps through the 9TH
or states, by assuring every Virginian
housewife that he was Virginian and
every Carolinian housewife that he was
a Carolihian. He simply used in his
trade the old trick of the politicians.
When a church happens to call preach
er, or college elect professor, in one
OF these states, there is always feeling
that native must have the preference
because he is native. But there is no
need to pile up illustrations of fact
that is SO we'll known. 1t is the great
popularity and hindrance, and
the southern problem is to lift this bur-
den of provincialism. from the people.
In politics it is we'll known and has
shown itself as sectionalism. In socie-
ty it is. that morbid idea strengthened
by tradition that there was no society
but the old southern social life. In all
the avenues of industry 1t shows itself
as that stolid self-contentmenta and igno-
rant conservatism which resists change
and discourages advancement A man
by whose door locomotives have passed
for twenty years and has never ridden
on the cars q know two such men),
naturally considers new fashion in
plowpoints heresy, to say nothing Of
improved agricultural implements and
the advantages Of manufactures he
could never comprehend. It is this
pent-up life-a life whose horizon is
the fence of each mans own fields, or
his county-line or his state-liDe or at
furthest his ,"section''-that locks upon
innovation as revolution, and is the
prime hindrance Of a capable people
who possess fertile and resourceful
land.
The cause of this provincialism is of
course largely political. The confeder-
acy survives'init. The comradeship OF
the camp is a lasting bond Of union, and
fellowship In losinu ranua moLoo