New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-24
INVOLUNTARY PROGRESS.

The election in November was worth mill
ions to the Southern States. Every one of them
will cast it's electoral vote against General
Harrison. But the persons who made the Solid
South possible, and the voters who supported
them were beaten in the election. and that
defeat of Southern politicians has been Of in
calculable value to Southern business interests.
Not many Of the Southern people understand
how much they owe to the intelligence of
Northern voters, but neither could the South
eln people comprehend that emancipation Of
slaves was a blessing to the section cursed by
slave labor 1t seems to be the fortune Of the
Bourbon States never to achieve progress or
prosperity, but to have progress and prosperity
thrust upon them by the votes Of woringmen
at the North.
For several years" said a wel-known cap
talist Of this city, 3" | have been largely inter
ested in properties in Southern State" which
he named. Z" For years there has been no
progress, no possibility Of Improvement or sale,
not even any inquiry or proposal; the property
has been dead. But since the election in No
vember there have been more activity and in
quiIy in six weeks than in the four preceding
years" Perhaps this is an exceptional case.
In most sections Of the South there has been
some progress, even while a Democratic ma
jority in Congress was striving TO break down
the tariff But it is not at all strange that the
Presidents free-trade crusade one year ago
caused apprehension and arrested development.
Southern prOperty-O~nerS will never acknOwl-
edge how much their property has deprecated
in value or STABILITY during the last year. Most
of them are ready to admit however, that there
has been marked change for the better since
the election of General Harrison made it certain
that the American policy would not be broken
down. at least for four years.
1t is not surprising that practical men hest
tated to invest money in mills and mines, fur
naces and factories, when the President and
the majority in the House, supported by the
politicians of Solid South, were fighting TO
render such investments worthless. Rare and
wonderful as are the natural advantages in
some Southern States, the whole country knows
that they were never utilized or developed
under a Democratic revenue tariff. Practical
men understand that their development must
be a work of time; that it is not enough to open
a mine, and TO sell stocks at a profit; not
enough to erect a furnace and turn out some
good iron at a low cost There must be slowly
established a market for products, before an
industry can be said to be fairly rooted and
the works in which iron and other raw ma
terials may be fashioned into forms for use
have never come and will not come except
under the shelter Of protection.
strong delegation of Southern men waited
upon General Harrison few days ago and
assured him that the New South" though it
had suffered every Southern State to be car
ried against him, and some of them by fraud
and crime, was now ready to uphold his pol
icy" 1t was worthy of notice that most of
these gentlemen were conspicuous for their
participation in great industries which the Re-
publican policy has built up and steadily de-
Tended. Some Of these very men did what they
could by their votes and influence to defeat
that policy, and it is Rratfvina to see that they