Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-14
A Proposition to Re-Establish Slavery
Would be Overwhelmingly Defeated
by the Voters of Dixie.
THE RESOURCES BEING DEVELOPED.
Talk With the Son Of Pennsylvania Iron Master Who
Fought With the Gray.
,connEspospEscE OF THE p1sp Arcu. ]

bullets, of bushy iron gray hair and beard,
and keen eyes deeply set beneath heavily
fringed, overhanging brows. General
Black was West Pointer living on his
South Carolina plantation at the breaking
out of the war; He is a relative OF the cele-
brated Blacks, OF Pennsylvania. and his
father was born in Lancaster. He is now
largely interested in the development of the
mineral resources of his State. and divides
his business time between the iron field near
Blacksburg, S. c., and New York and Bos-
ton. Blacksburg is already styled "the
Iron City" and ore is now being shipped
from there to Boston, New York, Pittsburg,
Chicago and other large manufacturing
cities in such quantities aud oil such quality
as to challenge the attention Of producer
and consumer everywhere.
THE OLD SOUTH WAS DEAD.
"But for the war we should have been
still buried in our own Ignorance and self
conceit," he continued, land our splendid
resources would probably have remained
unknown, at least undeveIoped.
''Of course, as Southerner, an owner of
| slaves and Confederate soldier who had
| cast his fortunes with his native State and
rode into the battle of Gettysburg to lay
down his life, if necessary, for a principle,
/ didn't always think as I now do" he
laughingly added; 'but time brings many
changes, and the changes time has wrought
in the South have been for her betterment
and for the prosperity of her people.
81 am the son of Pennsylvania iron
master, who built the first blast furnace OF
any size in my section as far back as 1927 and
| the first mill that ever rolled iron south of
! ha Dot in nd thaSp Ol
can be seen there to-day. As we'll known
as the existence of this mineral belt was
years ago, it Is but recently that capital has
| sought investment there and began the
| creation OF facilities for the successful work.
Ing OF the mines and getting the ore to mar
! ket. We can now iced furnace with
Bessemer ore and limestone at cost of less
than So per ton (of output per ton 2,26S
pounds), and coke can be had al such rates
as would put the cost of Bessemer pig at
likely under $40, certainly under $l2 per
ton, while we can produce iron to compete
with any section of the Union, quality con-
sidered."
FROM A COMMERCIAL STANDPOINT.
"You think the results of the war stimu-
lated industries of this nature in the
| South?''
Yes, sir. The war was terrible thing
as war always is. 1t brought mourning and
desolation to many hearthstone North and
South, and to us 1t brought ruin and misery.
But while this Is true it is also true that the
final result of the strife was to make us one
| great people. 1t not only doubled the re-
sources of the North, but it created resources
| in the South which never existed, even in
| the imagination, and extended those we nat
urally had to q point of which we had never
dreamed. AS an ex-slsveholder who would
have died to retain that institution, say
now in a commercial sense alone that the
abolition OF slavery was the greatest benefit
the South ever received. This only as a
| result, not as respects the right or wrong OF
the motive or method by which the
result was produced. Aside from the
struggle itself and from the bitter Legislative
period of reconstruction days and the politi-
cal persecution which has spasmodically
visited us, we must now grasp the grand re-
suits which we are enjoying and
acknowledge the inestimable benefits that
have accrued to our people and section
When 1 travel through New England and
through other States of the North, realizs
the folly of an agricultural people attempt
ing to cope successfully with manufacture
ing people.
tend beyond the creation and increase of hel
manu- actures?
EFFECT ON AGRICULTURE.
"Most assuredly. For that matter yor
cannot create and develop manu- !acturins
and mining interests without stimulatin!
the agricultural interests, unjust and un
equal laws to the contrary notwithstanding
We are raising more cotton and of bette
quality, and get better price for it than
ever before III this history OF the South; anC
the same may be said of grain and garder
products. Now, the land was there before
so was the climate, and so were the veins o
coal and iron ore that underlie the whole
| 1t is the development of these resources tina
has brough prosperity development pract
. callv i'm possible under the conditions Of til,
South before the war.
'tYou would be surprised, If you were "a
miliar with those conditions, to note tn,
improved state of farm lands. The mate
rial prosperity of the South is still chief
in her agricultural resources But i'm
proved labor rec labor-the rehabilitation
of exhausted lands by systematic fertiliza
L tion, have not only greatly increased tn,
average yield per acre, but have doublet
the value of the land itself. The immens
phosphate beds, natures storehouse, hav,
contributed to this But they also wer,
there before The great underlying motiv,
l power is the strong self-feliance wrough
out OF sore adversely and stimulated b.,
necessity-the relief from the incubus o
slavery Our people have simply cast ira
ditional sentiment aside and gone to work
every fellow for himself.
"We are not politically or socially per
fected. and never will be. The growler
and kickers are not all dead yet, and neve
will be. The drawbacks of old poltica
hucksters and unconscionable demagogne
sfict us the same as they do you in tn
North. But we are on the right road, ar
making good time and will get there, as tn
saying goes, with all of our feet. w
would get there more quickly and salts
factorily if there were no politicians to ma.
and goad us at every step.
: STATUS OF THE NEGRO.
1.-THE negro? He is doing well, and, lik
the rest of us, will do better if he is let alone
The negro is as necessary to US as we are Il
him. That expresses the whole situation
He is doing his duty to himself and his fam
ily-is earning an honest living and creating
homes and laying up material wealth 70
himself and his children. In helping hin
: to do this we help ourselves. He is in tn
: full enjoyment of his liberty, and, as rule
1 he makes good use of it. This is quite a
3 much as anybody can truthiully say OF th
| white laboring class IN the North. ! hea
: very frequently up North that the negr
/. with US is down-trodden and oppressed, an
: all that sort of thing, but il such is the cas-
S be is ignorant OF it, and on the whole rathe
o likes it, for We never hear any such thin
= | from him Mt home Az a lahorer he has N