Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-04-02
The Past and Present.

Notwithstanding very large class VI LILO
political leaders of the North and West are
indulging in studied and persistent nis-
representations and abuse of the people of
the Southern States in hostile man
ner which would have been very
strong in arresting business relations be
tween the sections in the past, seem to be
really less influential at the present time
than ever before. Whilst many of the
representatives in Congress of the people
and States beyond the Potomac and Ohio
are driving ahead with the purpose OF
placing the white people of the South under
the domination and rule of the negro race,
there are business men with brains and
capital irrespective Of party all over the
East, North and West, who. utterly regard
less of such misrepresentation OF the South,
are coming in large numbers ano
with much capital to cast their fortunes
and to invest their means with the people
thus traduced.
The teachers of false political economy
and the bigoted propagators of sectional
animosities will have their day sooner or
later. Holding the majority in Congress
and having a President to aid them,
pledged to override every principle of Re
publican government and the constitution
itself, they are rushing on to consummate
the purpose of the factions. Their out
rageous designs may thus have the support
of the same class of laws which will only
exist for the time and afterwards be swept
away as the rubbish of disgrace and con-
temued rulers of the country.
The time in which the South was con-
tent to be the producer of raw materials
that the North might enjoy the great boon
of manufacturing the same, and thereby
concentrate at its ports most OF the COM
MERGE of the country, is of the past. The
policy of the South in accepting the
changed situation of affairs seems not to
be understood by the adherents of party
dogmae Nevertheless it is a reality, and
the weaker of the sections has entered upon
career which will ultimately make it the
stronger. In that career Southern men are
Joined in close association with their fel
lows who come indiscriminately from COM
munities which will be required sooner or
later to meet issues involving questions
the sectionalsts little dream of. The
thousands of men with millions of money
from the North now daily increasing in the
South, are not disconnected men, who,
after trial, pull up stakes and return
with their means from mistaken opportuni'
ties or misrepresented sources of wealth.
The faster these aids to the South appear
upon our fields of opportunity, the more
they come and will continue to come. The
Northern men now in the South and others
with their investments here are enough
now to stand between the threatened at
tempt of the subversion of the rights of the
white race and the destruction Of our civili-
cation and the factions that would force
such issues to dangerous result.
The men from the North engaged in
mining and manufacturing, in building
railroads and towns and cities, and who
have proven by the test of applied theory
and experience and profit that our natural
resources are indeed more than even the
natives of the localities estimated them to
be, are forming sentiment where light and
truth are most needed in establishing the
friendly relations which should exist be-
tween all our people. In the main there is
no reserve on the part of our people to Gull
tivate and cooperate with enterprise and
capital come whence they may; and we
should remember that the exercise of these
mutual advantages works rapidly Gu the
limo of benehceat prosperity. All enter
prises set on foot may not succeed. 1t
would be contrary to the experience of
human effort if all did; but many will, and
for the chief reason that We possess, in the
largest degree, the resources upon which
they can rely for success. The dread Of
over. production is often q specter to
brighten the unstable and unconfidiDg, but
that result, should it ever occur, will be
regulated by the natural laws of supply
and demand. When proposing no action,
because danger might follow, We adopt a
worse policy which checks all advance and
stiles the effort to difuse liberal progress
over the land.
We have been satisfied with the situation
of the present time, and we are going on
in the development of our resources. Why
should it be in vain that for generations
our people have been told and taught to
believe that they possessed dormant re-
sources that only need the touch of enter
prise to make them the wealthiest COM
munities on the globe? a distinguished
citizen of Pennsylvania was addressing a
Virginia audience in an iron producing
section OF the State some years ago, when
he contrasted our sources of wealth with
those of Pennsylvania in that develop
a ent as the various methods of utilizing an
opportunity of expansion existed. He said
Pittsburg, deriving its wealth from iron
industries, had more wealth per capita than
any other community of the world except
one-Amsterdam in Europe-and that the
opportunities of localities he named in Vir-
GINA to become greater than Pittsburg
even, in the accumulation of per capita
wealth, we're as one hundred to one in favor
of Virginia localities, though Pittsbnrg's
tonnage inward and outward was greater
than all going and leaving New York in
GLIDING that of its coastwise and foreign
commerce. The statement made by this
gentleman must be accepted as correct,
because it was his business to know accu-
rately, and he is now engaged in ircn-
development in Virginia.
We may repeat-"Why should We not,
when sustained by resources that are daily
becoming the wonder of the people who are
searching for just what they have found in
the South, go on in the high road Of de-
velopmen,?" We cannot accomplish the
work without people, nor can we take care
IF the neonle without hOuses and nominated