The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-10

It Is hard to uElearn- People adopt
a view upon insufficient evidence and
then stick to TT 1t is an I saw as to
the swift movement of error and the
slow progress Of truth when In pur-
suit. There are a thousand fictions in
history hat viii contiue to live down
ito the last syllable of recorded time"
successful as when she bats her hook
with truth" There has come down to
us a saying by some Roman that
there is no doctrine so false as not to
contain in it some truth" The state
ment Of n day is corrected by the
report Of the day after. DR.. Parkhurst
Of New York, a heard OF the go-easy
way Of the south n it's intense shift
lessness," and so he refers to il when
otherwise speaking kindly of this sec
ton. He Zoe not know the south or
its people. If he will come into the
south and dwell for a decade he will
be amazed to know hat he was as
ignorant of the whites as Of the ne
groes. So when he talks il is not as a
philosopher OF a wise man, but as a
general sympathizer of a speculative
turn of mind. The south has not been
very hungry for money, and has fall
ed, no doubt, to realize its tremendous
opportunities and advantages. but il
has not been asleep. Take the condi-
ton of the south when the north had
nvaded and d~ragonaded and despoii-
ed it with 10000 troops, leaving it
almost "a waste bowling Wilderness
n look at it now after thirty-ive
of struggle with hard fortune,
wicked reconstruction, that was al
most as bad as the war was. and i'm
providence and vice and bad govern
ment, and you will see how much and
how little of justice there is in DIR.
P~arkhurst's stigmatizing epithet-"the
shiftlessness" of the white race. We
do not see the New York Times,
that is not given to being just and
fair and a~ppreciative Of the southern
whites. but we see from the Baltimore
Sun that it administered a rebuke to
the New York preacher by referring
to facts. Take this to illustrate:
"The cotton crop of the south in 1859
was the greatest eve made in the
United States up to that time. In
1869 the production was little more
than half of what it was in 1859, in
1879 it was 10 per cent. larger. In
1889 the production was almost twice
as great as in 1859. This says the
Times, is a perfectly simple and conclu-
sive test Of industrial and business
| ability, and the result of the test is
n Of which any people may be proud
In 1866 there was no cotton milling in
the south. The industry has since
| then grown by leaps and bounds. In
the last five years the north has stood
still; the south has increased Sc per
cent. Nothing more striking illustrates
the progress of the south than it's rec
| ord of railroad construction. In 1860
there were 1856 miles of railroad in
the south, in 1899 there were 49, 759.
| The iron and coal industries and the
miscellaneous manufactures which
have sprung up on every side are also
a complete refutation of DIR. Park
bursts Informed criticism of the
southern people. The SOUTH says the
New York Times, in view of all the
conditions, has afforded ample evil
| dence of remarkable energy, persist
ence n resourcefulness which may
we'll may be a matter of patriotic pride
! with all Americans"
The Messenger will forgive the Times
for some of it's slurs and ignorances as
to the south in the past. Time is a
safe instructor provided a fellow has
| ewes a mind and is not deaf.