The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1893-07-19
ANDERSON c.. MORNING. JULY l9, 1898

speoot, the civilized world can have no
respect, the coming generations can
have no respect for the man Or woman
who, born and bred beneath these
| skies is not proud to garland the graves
of our heroic dead,
Let us not blame the old men Of the
South, who Sitting in the dismantled
porches of their homes into which dis
honor has never entered, to which dis.
courtesy is stranger, sometimes
look wistfully back to the days that
are gone. Living, as they believe, in
a grosser and more material civiliza.
tion than that which their hands were
building, let them look back, with re-
gretful longing to that which Noftherh
thrift and cunning never bring-that
old-fashioned Southern hospitality,
generosity and courtesy, that chivalry
which. chose honor rather than riches,
which preferred poverty to meanness.'
But we Of younger generation must
face the issues of the present. A
great work lies before the Southern
people. What We have already ac.
compiished is insignificant in cor,par-
ison with that which yet remains to
be done. Our vast forests; 6ur gx=
haustless mines; our fertile soil 6ffef
! untold riches to those who have the
pluck and the push and skill and brain,
| to develop them. 1t is with us a
question Of life and death-we must
conquer or be conquered. Since the
war millions of dollars have gone from
the impoverished South to keep up
pensioned soldiers at the North, mill.
| ions Of dollars have been writing from
down -trodden people Of the South for
high protective tariffs, thus swelling
the already overdowing Golfers Of the
nabobs Of the North.
70 save ourselves froin Intellectual
and material bondage will require the
United effort of the most chivalrous
and the most magnanimous people on
the American continent. There is not
great magazine in the South there
is not great publishing house in the
South there is not great university
in the South that could for one mo-
ment be compared with Yale or Har.
ward or Michigan there are no great
libraries in the South, no great eollees
tion Of paintings; no great galleries Of
sculpture. I say this not in a spirit
Of Depreciation; but if possible to do
something to arouse the people of
South Carolina to sense of their in
telleStual and material bondage.
It is high time for the Southern
people to assert themselves, To shake
of the dust and humiliation of defeat.
Never while the South suffers her his
tory to be read through the distorted
spectacles of the historians at the
North, never while she is dependent
upon Northern periodicals for hear
ing, never while she is compelled to
send her sons and daughters North
ward for university education, never
while she puts into the hands Of her
children histories written by men
without sympathy for her institutions,
never while she is compelled to go to
the North for skilled labor and to the
West for commodities that can better
be produced under her own skies and
in her own felds-rever again while
she submits to this "can she wear the
lofty look, of conscious indepen-
dence p In the language of Prem
tiss Burning shame shall set it's
seal upon her brow, and when her
proud sons go forth to other lands they
will cover beneath the withering look
of the stranger"
Look abroad over this country and
see how lamentable is the condition Of
the agricultural classes. It is fact,
though the cause may be hard to find,
that agricultural life is at a discount,
Never before in the history Of the
world has there been such an influx
from the country to the city as the
last twenty-five years have witnessed.
The great city is becoming crowded,
the country depopulated. In our
early history, rural life had a fascina
tion for the American people. In
1840 one-twelfth of our population
lived in cities of more than 5000 in
habitants in 1850 one-eighth, in
1860 one-sixth, in 1870 one-ffth, in
1880 one-fourth, in 1890, perhaps, one
third live in cities Of 5000. It was
not SO in the olden time. Washing
ton, Jefferson, Calhoun and Clay, and
the vast majority of the great men in
our early history lived from choice
upon the farm. To-day it is not sim
ply Senators and Congressman, the
rich and great, but all classes, high
and low; rich and poor are driven as
by some irresistible impulse to forsake
the farm. Energetic, brainy young
men, as soon as they reach their ma
jority, bidding adieu to their aged
fathers and mothers, forsake the
peaceful pursuits of the farm and
plunge into the maddening strife of
city strife some to sail serenely upon
the adventurous sea Of speculation, but
the vast majority to sink forever be-
meath it's pillows. Well-to-do people,
those who can live without labor,
renting their plantation or turning
them over to negroes, flock into the
cities, and bringing up their children
in idleness an Incidence swell the
constantly increasing danger of our
city population. The poorer classes,
especially those who are content with
merely animal existence, forsake
their cabins and mortgaged home
steads and flock into factories-any-
where, anywhere to get away from the
farm.
What now are the causes of the sad
state into which agricultural pursuits
have fallen {? There is no Disgusting
the fact-I speak as student of poll
tics and not as partisan or politician
that the tide has been against agri-
cultural life. Speculation, gambling,
dealing in futures, controlling the
market by unlawful methods, theft on
grand scale, robbery and rascality
have usurped the place of honest gain.
In other days men looked with won
der upon the conqueror as he returned
laden with the spoils Of foreign con-
quests, but to-day the idols of the
people are the men who, in few