The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-05-12
THE RICE BELT JOURNAL.
THE SOUTH NOT INDlCTABLE.

Referring TO the recent statements of Dr. Albert Bush
nell Hart the Harvard professor the following excellent
article appears IN the Buffalo Evening News republican
newspaper:
Dr Albert Bushnell Hart, historian, of letters
and professor Of history in Harvard cheeru
undertakes tax that staggered the mighty intellect Of
Edmund Burke He indicts whole people. In the lnde
pendent D." Hart condemns the South for sluggishness
scantiness Of resources grinding poverty unCer
tanty of labor antagoniSm ignorance lack OF edu
catOna facilities, excuslveness OF the 1000 ola families
and race mixture.
such an assault as that of DR.. Hart directed against
population, is much discussed and with no little
warmth in many instances. In truth is hardly worth
that attention When the United States reached the point
OF being able to laugh the SlurS OF foreign writers
the Union marked the beginning of real national in
dependence And in this though many replies come
up from the South with something of the odOr of the bot
tonless pit about them the general feeling is of
tempt for such careature Of that section as Dr. Hart
has drawn.
"For nothing appeals strongly to American pride
of country and passion of achievement than the progress
made by the South in forty years since the close of the
civil war 1t is without parallel in history, and in itself
is the annihiating to the indictment of such
writers Dr. Hart Whenever disparaging statements
OF kind he has printed given any notice all 1t is
the opinion of the News that the brefes recital of what
the South has accomplished in the last four decades in
material and intellectual directions is at the best
the most instructive assertions essential
ly false however we'll intentiOned
Henry W. Grady in the most eloquent speech that ever
Tell from American lips, described the condition of the
South in the first hour of defeat in terms as profoundly
truthful as they were passonately sympathetic In brief
Haon deeper than civilized ever knew before and all
eore Intense from contrast with the easy abundance of
generations preceding the furnace blast of war Make
comparison any way you please between the South of
300 and the South of 1905 and Dr. Hart is answered in
fashion to refue him utterly The test of PEOPLES DUAL
l IS never found merely in the position it holds at par
colar moment Its starting point its direction of
sn ana the distance it has even of more weight
thaH than IN forming sound judgment of the question of
general achievement. 40 "
axe few details as illustrative of the entire aron
menu or he genuine advancement of the South since the
close OF the war In thirty years. to take the latest fonraS
auaoe the population of that section has increased hv
l'ooVVo The increase in number of farms is Q51 O0G
te acreage OF improved lands is doubled the assessed
auaon stands at twice the figures of the earlier enoch
anu e accumulation of wealth is risen to $3.50 900 600 an
aT Inc cotton crop alone is worth the sum Of s595
Vooqoo year The assessed valuation exceeds hlonS
~ manufactures the South has outstrpped the would ~
@ years In the progress it has made especially in tho
i'lacture OF cotton The price of iron in world mor
- estaollShed by the cost of Southern nrodnotio
IL IS cheapest and most easily handled in tbt
ION oo4th Carolina already rivals Massachusetts, :;
6eorSla and Alabama hot on the industrial to
and in Texas there is limit natbo t vi
pao Nv WniEh she Is rushing forward ndnstr;a W ns
nnerclay nor to the resources of her enormos ano
: DuV even more remarkable than her matar;oi inaln
e auaI anGe OF the South in the department ~ %
o Since ner business men got on their feet and