The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-06-17

and prolong it's lease of power
Thus the object earnestly desired. dill
gently sought for and acquired and held
through a great expenditure of effort, and
oft times chicanery proves to be BOOM
erang in the hands of its promoters. An
other example is the reign of the Re-
publican party since the Civil War. And
incidentally, l will say, there has been
thus far, but one man that has been able
to break it, and that man is Grover Cleve-
land Government was a passion with the
old time Southerner. Domination became
an instinct, through the care and mas
terry of slaves, and the charge of affairs.
Hence. the energy and ambition of wealth
and culture were directed toward plant
ing and developing large estates, and
stocking them with slaves, dispensing hos
pitality with lavish hand, and manip-
ulating politics so as to remain in charge
of the general government, instead of ex-
pending money and effort in the education
of the common people, and in the general
development of the country.
Conservatism was the controlling spirit
during most of our ante bellum history,
and there was in it much to commend.
It was a kind of social feudalism, but
klQQ, reHneQ anu hHlSHUly, anu iIo y Pr
cal representative was an honest gentle
man.
Slavery impoverished the South it en-
riched the North. In the South it was I'M
skilled labor and the production of the
raw material, against skilled labor and
the manufactured product in the North.
The South lost, and the North and West
gained in influence and control, in the
general government. With this control
came an arrogant, a naughty and an in
tolerant spirit on the part of the North
and West. There was clash of interests.
The result was a recourse to arms-the
crash came, with the fearful cost-the
life blood of more than 200, 900 Southern
heroes, the manhood of the country-with
widows and orphans, lamentation and de-
vastation throughout the land.
AS in most revolutions, many good and
honest men thought, the South had lost
all worth living for. Not so, she had re-
tanned her honor. But as the pendulum
swung to the other extreme, chaos ruled
supreme. This was the reign of the car
pet Dagger and the lesson was fear
full one, but in some respects helpful
one, because it furnished practical dem
onstration of how suddenly and how sore
ly death strikes to the heart of a people
where ignorance predOminates, and where
under the lead of rascality it rules the
land. This period has gone into history
as our dark period but as in the time
of the Dark Ages of the world, it was
not period of all decay, but of prepara-
tion-the seeds of a new and higher
life were germinating-new ideals and
new conceptions of life were forming, and
from defeat and sorrow sprang up new
hopes and new aspirations which are
leading us today to higher thinking
sweeter feeling and nobler actions. This
is what the New South means, and is
apparent to every one except him who
will not see and will not hear. 1t is a
direct outgrowth of the Old South, though
it has come through pain and travail.
AS our own Frank Stanton says:
This world that we'er alvin in
Is mighty hard to beat.
You get thorn with every rose,
But amt the roses sweet?"
Aristotle once said, IF the shuttle
would only weave of itself, there would
be no need of slaves" The miracle which
seemed impossible to the founder of
science has been performed. The shut
fast disappearing Just to the extent
that public schools have multiplied and
become efficient, have inventive genius
and enterprise exerted themselves, and
has slavery disappeared. The good re-
suits may be seen even in those Oriental
lands and in the islands of the sea
wherever the Anglo Saxon American has
gone with his public school idea, there
have genius and enterprise asserted them
selves, and the sum total of ignorance
and superstitions constantly lessened.
This growth of intellectual and mate
rial progress has torn the shackles of
slavery and drudgery from woman, and
has opened up to her new life and
new world. Through higher education she
has come to occupy prominent place in
the modern community, and she claims
her share of freedom and independence.
Her sphere is broadening as the years go
by, and she is fast becoming her own
guardian No longer is she to be treated
as an idiot or a perpetual minor on the
one side, or as mere doll on the other
She is taking her place as woman. Al
ready she occupies a leading position IN
the educational world, and regardless OF
what you and / may think, it is plain to
ALL that her influence as a determining
force, grows more powerful year by year.
And with this growth of influence, grows
the demand that her brother shall OBJ
serve the same moral code as that which
she holds as her law.
The real influence of faith in the father
hood of God and the brotherhood of man
is just beginning to be felt in its ten
derer and more helpful aspects. Sympa-
thy and help for the needy and suffering
are more general than they have ever
been. If mans inhumanity to man
makes countless thousands mourn we
may put besides it, mans humanity to
man makes countless millions rejoice.
So far we have been dealing, to some
extent, with generalities. To come home
to North Carolina, we find that our theory
of growth of development, of change,
though slow but sure, is borne out by the
facts We have not the time to recount
the many changes during the last twenty
years We take them so much as a mat
ter of course that we forget. What we
need to make the growth more rapid and
more substantial, is to put ourselves in
harmony with Gods purposes and plans,
and to let the sunshine of his goodness
come into our hearts and drive out the