Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-12-06
PRIMARY Lessons IN COMMERCE..

For the Especial Instruction of South Car.
ollna metropolitan" Daily Newspapers.
Written for the Yorkvllle Enquirer.
Throughout the Southern portion o.
the United States live some thirty mil
lions of people in the enjoyment Of
life, liberty and happiness. These peo
pie entertain the kindest feelings TO-
ward each other, any are so far from
having malice against any other peo'
pie Of the world that their constant
prayer is that all other nations may
enjoy the same blessings that they
enjoy.
For years and years most of the
time and attention Of the thirty mil.
lions of people referred to, have been
devoted to the pursuit of raising cot.
ton. So industrious have they been
that they have made cotton clothes for
all the people that know enough to
wear cotton clothes. In fact they
have made too many cotton clothes
for the number of people there are
who know enough to wear them, and
as the result their cotton is growing
so cheap that they will either have to
quit raising cotton or fiud more people
to wear it.
Out in an island of the Pacific, there
are host of savages, who know not
God, who regard not man, and who
for want of better employment, spend
most of their time at war with each
other, killing and Staying men and
making slaves of the women and cbil.
dren which they do not see fit 10 kill
also. Except sometimes rude cover
ings for their loins, these men are
generally naked but Notwithstanding
the general brutality of there nature,
the rings of metal that they wear in
their noses and ears, and the fantastic
ornaments which they make of feath.
ers, shells, bones and other material,
proves that the quality of vanity is US
deeply seated in them as it is in other
men,, As it is on this island, 50 also is
it on ten thousand other islands, as
we'll as on many portions of the main
land.
Now the people of which we have
Ijust spoken may have never heard OF
that great surplus of cotton which the
people of the south have developed.
We have no idea that they have heard
of it, or that they want it very badly.
Savages seldom want things about
which they know nothing. But we
are sure that if trader would 60 TO
this island with yard of cotton sheet
ing, he would find some savage who
would be willing to give him for it a
whole barrel of cocoanu.s. If the
trader had thought to have the sheet
ing dyed red, or, better still, colored
like Joseph's coat, the chief of the saw.
age tribe would give in exchange for it
the skins of six goats, or maybe an
oxen, or perhaps herd, or maybe a
lump of native gold that he or some Of
his tribesmen may have found years
before.
Well, there is no telling how badly
these savages might want this Joseph's
coat cotton. 1t is possible that when
they realized that the only way to get
such things is not by killing other saw
ages but by having something to give
in exchange, they may even 90 to
work plowing and digging and tending
cattle. 1t is possible also that when
chief realizes that he has given for one
yard OF cloth piece of gold or price
that ought to have purchased thous.
and yards, he may have his son taught
to read and write so as to be better
able to keep up with the market. But
that, of course, is long time off.
Well, so long as the savages are
willing to give pearls, gold, oxen or
even sheepskins for yards of red cotton
cloth, there will be numerous traders
who will take big stocks of cotton
cloth to trade with the savages. That
there are plenty of savages, no one
need fear. Against about 0,0O0,0 900
people who wear clothes of any kind,
there are now in the world about
600, 900, 900, who habitually 60 naked,
not so much from choice, probably as
from the fact that they do not know
any better. And if our traders are
given full rein among these for while,
instead of producing surplus as they
now do, our southern cotton raisers
will be pretty hard pushed TO supply
the demand.
And cotton cloth, of course, is not
the only thing that these savages will
get. In the natural order of things,
they will also begin to learn to read,
and after while they will begin to
realize what they were brought into
the world for. They will learn some
thing of religion, and gradually some
thing of arts and sciences. Some day
they will, no doubt, begin to read the
newspapers, and in the final settle
ment it will be found that while they
have contributed immensely to the in
creased wealth of the south, all this
contribution has been nothing as COM
pared with the benefits they themselves
have derived. w. d. G.