The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-27
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How the South has prospersd as i,
 has. The Dallas Morning News argues
 must utterly confound the political economist In fact. there is no way
 to account for it except by the un- paralleled resourcefulness of the sec tion in producing raw material For 4 1t has been for years engaged in send
 ing up North Tor every stitch of clothes it's people wore, every pair of pants and every hat and every dress. even to
 the calico. It sent Its money out for even bacon and flour. It insured its houses and its lives in Northern com panies. Every nall driven in every house and every wire fence around
 every farm in the South have been
 bought up to short time ago. in the North. Yet. with all this. the section
 has prcspered to a marvellous degree. Coming back to 1t has been no money except that paid out for It's raw pro-
 ducts. It has shared in paying for years an enormous pension roll. not five cents on the dollar of which has returned to this section. But the time
 is at hand when this will be changed. The factories must come to the raw I material and the South has 1t.
 All this, and more, may well be said
 of the South During the slavery days
 the South was essentially an agricul-
 turai country To raise slaves to make cotton, and to make more cotton to buy more slaves practically rounded out the south's desires and ambition. Factories of any kind were scarce and manufactured "a wretchedly inadequate supply of only the plainest and coars- est goods. It was more profitable to grow cotton and buy everything else from the North--or our people thought 1t was, and the result was the same.
 And for years after the war there was neither capital to build factories nor the inclination to do so. The old people. As soon as the blows could be set to work the old habit took con- troi. and that was largely stimulated by the high price of cotton following the close of hostilities. It seemed so easy. in theory to grow rich raising cotton at the prices then prevailing that the al1-cotton idea dominated our people. And we may remark. in pass ing, that comparatively few fortunes were made at 1t. The cost of all ne- cessities of life. the Generalization of labor and the practical bankruptcy of our people made theirs a difficult problem to solve.
 All lovers of our section should re- 1oice that in one respect. at least, old things have passed away and we are entering on an era of industrial pro- gress and prosperity that Is really as- tonishing All over the broad South the buzz and chatter of millions of ma chimes show that at least we are com ing into our own. We are utilizing our almost inexhaustible agricultural and mineral riches and are fast win ming an industrial independence that cannot be taken from us by armed enemies or by any other human agency Except our own. The South is coming Into her own and doing so largely through her own efforts and with her own money. We are no longer depen- dent on the East or the West for our clothes or our tools. our necessities or our luxuries. Tn vhis respect 1t is new South and 1t Is showing to the world that it can maintain itself and compete with all creation. The good time was | long time coming but it came at iast. and It is well with the South and the people thereof.