The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-09
ADVICE TO soUrHERN BOYS.

In an address read at the commence
ment exercises OF the University Of Mis-
sissippi last week Mr.. Stuyvesant Fish.
president OF the Illinois Central Railway,
gave the young men of that state some
good advice. In the first place he pointed
cut that the proper methods were lack
ing for developing the resources of the
state. He called attention to the fact that
following the methods that prevailed in
slavery times, when the plantation was
everything and each man acted independ-
emily Of every other in business matters.
there is isolation in affairs requiring cap
ital and an almost entire lack OF com
munity of interest. The North, he said.
had distanced the South in manufactur
ing and in developing her resources be-
cause her people had combined their cap
ital.
Iowa Mr.. Fish said came into the
Union thirty years later than Mississippi
and, although having no richer soil ana
not near the natural advantages. had fa~
outstripped Mississippi in wealth and pop
ulation. This in his opinion, was mainly
due to the fact that the undertakings in
iowa that required capital were the pro-
duct of joint effort. The people of large
means and small means got together and
put their money into enterprises In this
way they were able to do many things
that could not have been done II there
had been dependence on only Independent
effort
There is no doubt that what Mr. Fish
said in respect to Mississippi applies 10
some extent to all of the South, but a
change has been going on for years. Cap
ita is now being combined, and the result
is that manufacturing plants are being
established in every one OF the Southern
states, and the South's resources are be-
ing developed rapidly. The greater part
of the money that has been put in the
cotton mills in recent years belongs to
Southern men.
AS matter of fact, IL was long time
after the Civil War before the South had
any money to invest in industrial enter
prises, and when she began to accumu-
late capital 1t took her sometime to get
rid of the system that prevailed before
the war. The change that has been begun
is apparent to observers. and it will not
be long before Mr.. Fish will have no
reason to complain that there is a lack
OF community interest in the South.
Mr.. Fish. speaking particularly to the
students of the university, advised them
to pay less attention to the learned pro-
LESSONS, which are already overstocked.
and to look to productive pursuits for a
career. In developing the states resources
and establishing industrial enterprises by
their own efforts and by Combining cap
ital with the capital of Others" he de-
cared, there was a better chance for
advancement than in the profession of
the law or medicine.
The young men of the South are awak-
ening to the fact that their section Of the
country is at the threshold of great in
dustrial development, and they are pre-
pairing for the work that awaits them.
The demand for archaeological education
is growing, and many of the brightest
youths of the Southern states are stu
dents of chronological schools.
Advice like that given by Mr. Fish is
timely. but the fact should not be over
looked that in most parts of the South
the lines marked out by him are already
being followed