Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1899-12-26
they signify profoundly to the united

they signify profoundly to the united
people OF the republic.
No bridge can be stronger than It's
weakest span. no nations prosperity
can touch 0 better level than the aver
age Of it, producing classes; and dur
ing the third Of a century following
the outbreak Of the Civil War, that
average dropped pcrilously low among
the millions of producers who have
their being In the southern States Of
our Union.
The inevitable law Of fitness was not
In full operation when all the cotton
mills OF this country We're located In
New England and the adjoining Sec
lions. While TO the Gulf and South At
lantlc states was left the one task
which New England could not perform;
that Is, producing the raw material for
those distant mills True, natural 1T
ness stamped half the situation. In
the East was an abundance OF water
power. building stone In lavish plenty.
and class OF inhabitants endued with
even more than the initiative, vigOr
and Industry of their British and Dutch
antecedents.
Matters took their own lame course
and hobbeld on until several generations
were done with, The Africans brought
across the ocean In the slave ships OF
the New Englanders drifted TO the
warm, wide fields Of the South, where
alone they could be utilized, but where
In time they were TO become the stern
est curse that great nation must
wrestle with. The Cavalier and Hugue-
not population OF Virginia, Carolina,
and Georgia, following the instincts Of
their blood, were glad enough 20 leave
all trading and manufacturing 70 their
Northern cousins. while they them
selves dropped into the leisurely and
lordly life that the great plantations
fOstered.
Thus. the East grew strong by striv-
ing, and next grew rich, and later be-
gan to populate and establish In thrift
and prosperity a great West In the
South the gentlemen lived at ease
while the slaves produced the cotton
that Northern mills must weave into
the cloths OF the nation; but there grew
up no stable, slnewy, making
middle class. II took a mighty and
tragic upheaval to overthrow these
established phases; and after the up
heaval came the protracted pause OF
ruin that threatened never TO give
place to reaction.
"Can the South ever retriever "Or
Is her part played In the development
Of the Western world? Will she hence
forth be given over to nothing better
than small agricultural endeavorsE
were questions ever heard through
those dark days,
The complete answer was long in
coming. But II Is here at last and 1t
Is no riddle to read. A mere newspaper
skinner must be struck by the con-
trast between the daily reports OF the
cotton industry In New England and
those from the Southern states. The
eye will pass in the same column from
item 20 item Indicating the astonishing
manufacturing development In the
Carolnas. Georgia, or Alabama, and
this next to paragraph after paragraph
descriptive Of troubles in the Eastern
factory towns such as cuts In wages,
shut downs, lock-outs, strikes. direful
complainlngs from both capital and
labor-all the disasters that drag In
the train OF once profitable Industry
dropping into a sure decline. II re-
quires no philosopher 20 read between
the lines when the press dispatches
state that Massachusetts, Is sending
a commission 10 South Carolina 10 re-
port on the cotton mills Of the latter
December Forum.