The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1903-02-26
VAN WYCK GIVES ADVICE.
In Banquet Speech Former New York
Mayor Says Southerners Alone
Can Settle Race Problem.

Mayor Says Southerners Alone
Can Settle Race Problem.
The annual banquet of the Southern
Society of New York took place Satur.
day night at the Waldorf-Astoria no.
tel.
The annual address Of the president,
Hon. Augusta Van Wyck, was very
striking, for the reason that it dealt
with the race problem. Mr.. Van Wyck
took the position that the southern
whites are the best friends of the ne
groes and that the former should be al
lowed to settle the problem without
interference. In part, he said:
prior to 1895 the south led all Sec
tions in variety Of products-ag agricul-
tural, mineral and manufactures. When
Whitney's invention of the cotton gin
made the cultivation of that staple 50
profitable, the whole product selling
readily for so cents per pound, that
she abandoned to a large extent all
other enterprises for that during the
period of about fifty years, while the
north revelled in manufacturing that
staple. The result was a loss of her
leading position in variety of products
and enterprise. Cotton monopolized
until 1S45, when it's price fell to IL
cents per pound, causing the south to
recognize her mistake and extend her
lines once again into every field of
human endeavor and enterprise. In
1860, fifteen years thereafter, she
found herself again fully abreast of
the ever alert north in commercial, in
dustrial and agricultural enterprises.
Her wealth, prosperity and prestige
was so great as to arouse the envy of
the world. Her wealth was A per cent
Of that Of the country, her agricultural
products SO per cent, her banking cap
ital 80 per cent, her mileage Of rail-
roads over so per cent.
I'm the meantime, as result Of her
good climate, the cotton gin and rich
lands, she attracted to her cotton fields
all the northern slaves; slavery, an in
stitution for which the south was no
more responsible than the north, soon
aroused northern sentiment against
it, they no longer having any practical
or pecuniary interest tnerein-the ir.
repressible conflict broke out into act
ual revolution in 1861, at time when
the south was leading in wealth and
enterprise. Appalling was the devas-
tation and ruin. impoverishing the
south and proportionately enriching
the north. In the decade from 1860 to
1870 her wealth actually decreased 40
per cent, and in the decade ending in
1880, the dark days of her reconstruc-
tion, her values were still further re-
duced and her poverty and prostration
seemed complete. But finally peace
came and with it a change, which in
the next two decades advanced her
wealth u per cent, her planting profits
on amount invested were 25 per cent,
she was producing Is per cent Of the
tobacco of the country and 100 per
cent of the cotton of the country and
Is per cent of that of the world. Her
cotton spindles increased Ais per
cent, her manufactures 222 per cent,
her pig iron product increased In 1900
$50 per cent over that of 1880 and her
coal products 716 per cent over that of
1880. The percentages cited, for which
I am indebted to Richard H. Edmonds,
can be relied upon. Today these
benefcent gifts utilized by an energet-
ic intelligent end Industrious popula-
ton. have made our southland once
again triumphant in material progress
"a fair and just competitor OF the
north once again, to the glory of both
and to the common welfare OF our ma
ton.
What the south needs and must
have is peace at home and Jointly with
the rest Of the nation, international
peace. There is but one unsettled
problem peculiar to that section, COM
monty called the negro question. The
south understands it and if left alone
it will be settled rightly and justly in
Christian spirit The national friend
ship between whites and blacks OF
long standing with no idea of social
equality is well known to those at all
familiar with the subject. The best
friend of the black race Is the white
race of the south. The future welfare
and development of the former rests
upon the absence of conflict between
the two, and he who destroys or less
ems the amity so existing between the
two is not friend of the black man,
but an enemy, Intentionally or uninten-
tionally, to civilization"
IJDGE SAIRAS RETIRES.