The Washington herald., 1907-12-17
The Splendid South

Symptoms of returning sanity in the
South. so far as recent unreasoning as
saults upon railroads and other legitimate
corporate interests are concerned. is one
OF the gratifying signs Of the times.
The calm, dispassionate press OF that
section Is growing more optimistic daily.
and it is only the political or semi
political organs that are now engaged in
an effort to further a work of destruc-
ton that has already cost the South very
dear.
II is gratifying 10 all who are inter
ested in the Southland who In this nation
is not interested in that great and mighty
section nowadays?-to note the dawn OF
a more promising day. If from the past
riot Of cheap politics comes a better and
a saner understanding Of the South's
needs, perhaps the loss it has sustained
by reason Of the demagogues may not
have been sacrificed in vain. That the
signal. Brakes on" has been sounded by
the people is indicative OF knowledge
upon their part that the time has come
to stop the clamOr and look 10 the honest
necessities of the hour.
Says the Baltimore Manufacturers Rec
ord:
1t is very safe to say that the demagogies who
have led in agitation against railroads and other
corporations have in the last six or seven months
cost the South more than the entire value of this
years cotton crop. The South could well have
afforded 10 lose It's whole cotton crop. worth 500
cOo,Oo. to have been saved from the destruction
which has been wrought by the agitator Vast as
has been the loss. tremendous as has been the
srnkage in securities, the Souths resources are 50
great, limitless for future development that what
has been lost be. in part at least quickly re-
gained if the people Of the South viii act promptly
ard in the night direction"
The Southern people are intensely emo
tional; this keen-witted demagogues have
discovered time and again to their great
advantage-but not TO the South's. It is
easy to convince them that they have
been wronged. Being hot-blooded and
excitable, they are. as is invariably the
rule among such people, as quick to right
wrong as they are to resent an insult
as ready 10 do justice to others as they
are to demand ii for themselves. Ii was
not thinkable, therefore, that unreasoning
warfare against the great interests To-
Gated in the South should have been per-
mitted TO go to the extreme length of
absolute destruction. Primarily. doubt
less. the South had some just and proper
cause Of complaint against these inter
ests referred to- The mighty railroad
systems. for instance, were not estab-
lished throughout that section without
great expenditure of money. and In the
face Of much political opposition Just
out from under the frightful rule OF the
carpet-baggers. the South was suspicious
and. we doubt not, inclined to view with
alarm the invasion of Northern and East
ern capital. The South knows to-day.
however, as well as it knows anything.
that but for these great railroad systems
progress and prosperity in that section
would come to an absolute standstiu:
and it knows this without necessarily
denying to itself any of the wrongs incl
dent 10 the establishment of these big
systems that may have been inflicted
upon il. Conditions trying to the rail-
roads. as well as trying to the states of
the South, have arisen from time TO time.
Each has had to submit to much, it may
in all fairness be said. II neither has
bee2 blameless. however, it does not fol-
low that the co-partnership between the
railroads and the people in the past has
been altogether bad, or IS impossible in
the future. II is only necessary that the