The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1895-10-31
THE SOTTH'S EXPOSITION.

Governor Nor on is reported as ex-
pressing himself amazed that city
like Atlanta has been able to carry
through to success an enterprise Of the
magnitude and comprehens veness of
the Southern Exposition, now com
handing the admiration OF every
visitor.
The growth of Atlanta itself into
city capable of conceiving and per
tecting such an undertaking is amaz-
ing, but it is not so surprising as the
enterprise which in the short period Of
twenty years only has developed the
industries and pushed forward the
whole civilization of the south. The
southern STD 'es came out Of the civil
war with their SOC ii organization dis
lurbed and almost disrupted, with the
spirits of the people crushed, with
poverty prevailing, and the system OF
industry confused.
In the south everything had to be
builded anew after the war. Its cot
ton crop, w'''c'l had been toward five
million bales in 60, fell to a little
more than two millions in 1866 and
in 1867, and it was not until 1876
that it reached the quantity of the year
before the war. Du ng the ten years
succeeding the restoration of peace its
progress was rep E: ID by political
agencies and me hods hs rdly less
crushing to orderly enterprise than war
itself had been; but as soon as these
were removed, the south started up
and marched forward with the energy
and elasticity of a youthful people,
fresh and buoyant. In 1891 and
1892 it raised cotton crops twice as
great as the largest it had produced
previous TO the war. Its established
industries generally grew with equal
rapidity, and it introduced many new
departments and varieties of produc-
ton which were developed with aston
ishing results. For the first time in
its history it began to discover or to
get some conception Of the richness OF
its natural resources, and it went to
work to utilize men with the tireless
energy of pioneers.
OF ore cons-l ,ence is that today
the most prosp" Gus part of the union
is the south. 1t has done SO we'll that
it is dissatisfied because it has not yet
attained all the prosperity it sees is in
the future. 1t has the impotence Of
youth.
A chief source of good fortune for
the south is in its labor, from which
both of it and its critics expected SO
much evil. 1t has in the negroes a
laboring population which has been
removed from the operation of the
| causes which elsewhere have disturbed
| labor SO seriously. The negroes like
the south and the southern people.
With comparatively few exceptions
they have remained and increased in
the southern states. Attempts to colo
nize them elsewhere have ben unsuc-
cessful. Almost universally they pre-
fer to stay where they are. They are
by nature a contented people, docile
and affectionate. They are entitled
to large share in the glory of the
development of the south, and it
was just that in this southern exposition
at Atlanta and at its opening they
should have the prominent place al
lotted o them.
The outh is now only in the be-
ginning OF its progress. 1t is taking
the first steps merely in forward
march which in twenty years to come
will have carried it SO far beyond
where it now is that its present ad-
vancement will seem slight compare
lively.
The southern states have the area
and resources whose development re-
quires population SO much greater
than they now ha e that when the
knowledge of the opportunity extends
and is made inviting by southern en-
terprise immigration will pour in
rapidly. York Sun