The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-31
A FINE BOOK.
Problems Of the prsss.t seuth.


 Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, N. O
 The name of Edgar Gardner Murphy has become familiar throughout the nation as that of the representative Of q new order of things within the South. of the old order than many who appeal with more sentiment than Knowledge to the cherished spirit of the past. He brings to his task of moving the South onward in education. in politics and in ciation of the Old South. . proper rsver- epce for the fathers, but also the con victions of man who has discussed his data wit ha clear mind and in the Is because of his progressiveness that he Is thought of as radical. because of his unprovinciai outlook that he is thought of as representative of an alleged Southern school that goes to New York for its thinking. But one who will read his book-Problems of the Present South-wili perceive that no southerner of the generation since the war more generously values the achievements and the spirit of the Old North for his ideas. he is conveying to the North the very best thought of the South, So far from taking New Yorks point of view. he is transfer ring New York to his point of view.
 It is this sort of leadership that the rising generation needs-that of a man fully appreciative of the glorious old order but bringing to the new time and arSoo,sd its intenssr n, 1ss problems a mind worldwide point of view.
 MT. Murphy points out as only a few men have the evidence that the pre- sent industrial development of the chiefly revival In 1860 the South had 3s7 miles more of railroads than the New England and Middle States. Tn 1880 the wealth of the South had exceeded SS a the combined wealith of the $750.000,000; but in 1870 we find condi- tions reversed and the wealth of these States exceeding the wealth of the south by $io,soo,o0o. .ooo." It was the war-not climatic lethagy--that cost the South her industrial aseendency.
 The rate of our recovery is indica- ted by the following data: Tn 1880 the value of manufactured products of the South was $200.00o,0OO less than the value of her industrial products But in 1900 all this is changed. The value of Southern manufactures then exceeded the value of Southern agri- cultural products by $190,o00,o00 and if mining interests be included, by nearly $500. 900, ,oOO." Thus the South has be- come a manufacturing-rathe than an agricultural-country and the rapidi- ty of her progress Is indicated by the fact that the number of cotton factories
 
 doubled-in the last four years.
 But the Present South is distinguish ed from the Past South by even larger and more significant facts than these: The disappearance of slavery; the ap- pearance of negro citizenship; the rise of the poor whites; the movement of the croppers from the farm to the fac tory millage; the new democracy--the new elments transforming the old aristocracy; the consequent demand for more effectual means of popular edu- cation; the more vital contact with the life of the rest of the nation and the true nationalism. These are the ele- ments that make the Present South an object of unique and intense interest in many quarters, but in none so much as in the South itself.
 Mir. Murphy reduces the problems of the Present South to the problems of education for whites and blacks; of child labor: the problem of democra- cy. To these subjects he brings an unrivalej amount of direct informa- tion; and he treats them with rare thoughtfulness and wisdom.
 We will say for the book, that it has given us better, a clearer, a more optimistic, view of South that was, of the South that fs. and the South that is to be. than all the other books that we know anything about. And so we wish we might put 1t in the hands of every young man in the South.