The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-07-12
Spirit of the Press.
THE ABILITY OF THE SOUTH.

The ABILITY OF The SOUTH.
New York Sun.
In an address on "The Old South and
the New delivered a few weeks ago at
the commencement of the Alabama Poly
technc Institute by Mr.. Richard H. Ed
monds, OF Baltimore he referred to the
heavy white mans burden" which must
be borne by the Southern people, because
of the heritage left by slavery, and Incl
dentally he called attention to fact the
Importance of which we have never before
seen recognized so fully.
ITO the South said Mr.. Edmonds,
slavery was a curse without one redeem
ing feature. 1t enslaved the white man
more than the black man. 1t was the d.
rect cause of a vast emigration which
drained the South of million or more of
strong, sturdy people. who sought to es-
cape from competition with negro labor
and 'in this loss by emigration and the
loss by war the negro has, indeed, been to
the South the white mans burden to an
extent which no other people has known
In support of this generalization Mr..
Edmonds cited the facts that in 1860 there
were $50, 900 Southern born white people
living elsewhere in the Union in the
Northern and Western States, and in 1900
the number had increased to 1,500, 900.
AS a partial offset to this loss by emigra-
tion, $50, 900 white people from other
parts of the Union were living in the
South in 1860, and according to the last
census their number in 1900 was $1,000.
This loss of white population to the
South has been relatively very large. ard
it has not been made up by foreign immi-
grafton. During the period from 1920 to
1900 there came to the United States
through immigration the great number of
about 20, 000,0 600 foreigners, but very lit
tie of this alien stream entered the South
ern States. Therefore those States are
now the one remaining seat OF a distinc-
lively American population.
In the whole eleven States of the old
Southern Confederacy. with total popu-
lation Of about 10000, 900, there were in
1900 only about $50, 900 people of foreign
nativity, ano more than one-half of these
were in the single State of Texas; yet
even there they were less than per cent.
of the total population. In the State of
Georgia, with a population of 2,216331,
the foreign were only r. 403; in Mississippi,
with 1851 .270, they were only 1881; in
North Carolina, with 1,S93,S10, only 1892
in South Carolina, with 1.340 316 only 5,528.
That is, the South has received from
foreign immigration only a small number
of whites in the way of an Offset to It's
loss of 100000 by white emigration-a
loss equal to about one-tenth of its total
white population in 1900. Meantime on
Manhattan Island only about one-sixth of
the inhabitants are of native birth and
parentage and very large part of these
are grandchildren of foreigners. OF the
foreign born alone there are now IN New
York at least four times as many as there
were in 1900 in all the States of the old
Confederacy.
OF the 737,477 native whites of native
parentage in New York in 1900, only 1877
458 were born elsewhere than in the State
of New York, and of these, the greatest
number from any group OF outside States,
with the exception of New England and
the neighboring New Jersey and Pennsyl-
vania, were rom the South-23, 549 The
New England States furnished S7,552; the
Western States only 1924.
1t may be said, too, that the profess
sional and commercial Importance of the
Southerners in New York exceeds that of
the emigrants from any other part of the
Union, unless it be New England In
law, medicine and the church our South
ern- born inhabitants have won distinction
and in business they hold a foremost place
Our Indebtedness to the intellectual vigor
of the South is great and obvious, and gen
orally the emigration thence to other
parts OF the Union has been remarkable
| for the high quality of ability it brought
| Mr.. Edmonds is justified in saying that
measured by whatever standard you may,
whether by mere numbers or by material
accomplishments, whether in the past OF
the present, the South has given to the
upbuilding of the nation far more in num-
bers, in energy, in brain and Drawn, than
! It has received from other sections" But
that this loss from the South's capital
| of ability has not prevented it from max
| ing astonishing progress during the last
generation is proved by a few statistics
we gather from the address of Mr.. Ed
monds. :. Very many more sta
tistics of this astonishing progress might
be cited but they would only overload this
brief discussion, for we are concerned