The morning call., 1894-05-17
THE NEW SOUTH.

Senator Patrick Walsh of Georgia has
jus. written paper predicting that the de-
velopment OF the Southern States is only
just beginning, and that in few decades
the most prosperous portion Of the United
States will be The section lately in rebel
lion. He bases this opinion on the fact
that besides a cotton crop worth $500, co.,
600 the South has more iron ore than the
North, and can convert it into merchant
able iron at twO-thirds the cost; that its
forest area, which is more than half the
total forest area of the country. is practi-
caly virgin, while the forest area of the
North is approaching exhaustion; that the
coal beds of the South are larger than the
total coal beds of Great Britain. He draws
attention to the development of manufac-
turing industries at the South, and notes
as an illustration of the dependence of
the South that throughout the recent de-
preston in the North the large Southern
mills running on cotton goods were run
ming on full time during the dullest year
in the history of the country. With these
bright prospects be announces that land In
Georgia convenient to railways and water
ways and capable of producing cotton,
CUlus huCdl, Vegetables anu lEuiJ can NOW
be bought at from SIS to $40 an acre.
If these things are so, it Is, of course, a
mere question of time when a share of the
drift of European immigration will set to
the South instead of to the West. and a do
mestic migration Will begin from the over
crowded places OF the Northern and Ea. t.
ern States to Georgia and the cotton belt.
But it must always be borne in mind that
the material advantages of the South are
not new. They have always existed. ALL
through the period when the Northern,
Eastern and North Central States were
filling up with citizens, il was perfectly
well known that the South offered supe-
riOr advantages in punt of soil, climate
ana diversity OF resources. 1t used 10 be
said in those days that people would not
migrate to the South because free labor
declined to enter into competition with
slave labor. That objection was disposed
Of by the decree of emancipation. But the
negro still remains, and his presence at
the South no doubt tends to deter the emf
grafton of white laborers who will have to
compete with him IN the open labor mar
ket
To demonstrate his proposition, Senator
1ux of whites, pouring into the South
from New England and the Middle States,
as we'll as from Germany, Ireland, Italy
and Hungary, would find the South as at
tractive as the West in other respects than
in the matter of soil and climate.
1t is not soil or climate or physical ge-
Ography which builds up great States. Ii
is men. A. the time of BraddOck's expe-
dition to Fort Duquesne Virginia was a
far more promising colony t. settle in than
Pennsylvania, Maryland appeared to have
a brighter future than Massachusetts, and
as between South Carolina and Connect
cut there was no comparison, the Southern
State was so much the finer of the two.
Later. when immigrants began 10 pour into
the country after the Revolution, they
mostly chose the North because they found
more favorable social conditions there, and
because already under policy of pr0tec-
tion the North had begun TO develop varied
industries. while the South under slavery
chung to the production of few agricul-
tural staples. The practical question of
the hour is. Are the causes which gov
erned their choice still in oDeration?
Persons who remember A bion Tourgee's
"a FOOLS Errand" by "Ole of the Fools"
may have an Opinien on that question At
first sight 1t seems 100 plain for argument
that a man will prefer excellent land that
will grow everything at $40 an acre to
poorer land that will only grow wheat or
corn at $50 an acre. But in choosing a
home in which man expects to spend his
life and TO bring up his family, be looks
for something besides fertility of SOIL
And if he finds that in the richer country
there are no divisions of political parties.
he suspects that opinion is no! free there
and that life is only endurab BILE on condi-
ton that man sides with the majority.
Such regions may be very tempting, but
men of our race will prefer others with
less glowing prospects but in which there
Ia mental elm W-room