Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1901-02-21
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 81, 1901.
COMMERCIALlSM AGAINST SENTi'
MENTALlSM.

There is now great deal being said by
the Democratic press at the South against
what it claims to be the evils of CONNER
cialism, principle which is beginning to
show itself strongly at the South, as it has
heretofore done in other sections of the
Union.
Fol many years the South has been led
and controlled by a lot of sentimentalists
who may or may not have been sincere in
the doctrines they he'd and taught. They
have constantly appealed to the vanity
and prejudices of the masses of the people,
and in that way upheld policy in this
section which has been greatly to our dis
advantage in material and in every
other sense.
Commerce is the back bone and life OF
every nation that becomes great. 1t has
been the commercial spirit of the Ameri
can people that has made them in less
than century the greatest among The
great nations of the world. 1t is well for
the South that it is getting away from the
coatrol of ser,imentalism and taking Its
stand along with the East and West. Only
a few years ago there was practically
united sentiment among our people that
was repellant to the introduction of North
ern cauiral and Yankee ideas for the de-
velopment of our wonderful agricultural,
mineral and industrial resources. This
false and foolish sentiment has been grad
ualiy removed, and the South has been
steadily marching forward-ils material
progress during the past two decades be-
ing the most marvellous known in the in.
dustrial world. Northern and Western
capital have come into our midst and be-
come associated with Southern capital and
energy, developing our vast mineral re-
sources and expanding our agricultural
and manufacturing interests proportion
ately. A writer in a recent issue of Ieslle's
Weekly said
can estimate Just made is that the in
come of the fifteen Southern States in 1900
was 81, $780, 100000. Of this stupendous
amount $500 100000 was from wheat,
corn, sugar, tobacco, and the rest of the
products Of the soil Exclusive Of cotton;
$1,000, 600 from coal, iron ore, and
the other mining products and the manu-
features thereof and S750,000,000 from
cotton and cotton manufactures. In the
production Of raw cotton tie South had an
income in the past twelve months of $780,
100000 in excess of that OF the previous
year"
This slupendous industrial growth of the
South has been caused by the new spirit
of commercalism that has been intro
duced among our people. Not only has it
been of great material advantage to our
people, but our moral and intellectual de-
velopment have kept pace With the ma
terial prosperity.
When the sentimentallsts begin to COM
plain and scott al cOmmercialism. tell them
that tie principle they denounce is the
foundation Of national greatness, the pro-
moter of civilization and the creator Of
the spirit of benevolence which is doing
more to establish the brotherhood of man
kind than all other things combined. The
commercial spirit Of the people of the
United States has enabled them TO relieve
the suiferlngs of destitute and stricken
localities, such as Johnstown, Charleston
and Galveston, in d prompt and ready
manner that sentiment never dreamed Of
That same spirit has caused Our citizens to
found and sustain thousands Of charitable
and educational institutions, some of
which are maintained at the public ex-
pense, but many of item endowed by the
generous requests of men who have been
successful in commerce. Sentimentalism
can only suggest-commercialsm acts.