The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1907-05-09
Present Tendencies in the South.
IS. c. Mitchell in Kind Words.)
LITERATURE.

LITERATURE.
. If great literature springs natu
ally out of intense and vivid exper
ences, it may confidently be expec
ed that the South will increasing
produce works of world-value. TT
history of the South during the la.
. half-century has been unspeakabl
tragic. Our people have passe
: through the fires of afHlictiou. l
the decade prior to the Civil Wa
there was the fiercest controvers
q gong on as to the fundaments
rights Of man. Then came the wa
with It's common sacrifices end Uni
versal heroism. Succeeding tha
crisis was the bitterness of defea
and the sore trials of reconstruction
ending about 1876. Since that dat,
the problems arising inevitably from
the presence of two diverse, faces o1
Southern soil have taxed the wis
dom, patience and craftsmanship OF
our men. Thus the South has beer
forced by crucial experiences to dea
with reality. Having had hard
work to do, its ability has been cor
raspondingly developed:
There are compensations in sor-
row; there are moral uses of defeat:
there is an active element in suffer
ing. Hence it is that out of the or
deals through which the South has
passed we may look for a literature
that is responsive to reality and in
terpretative Of the deeper impulses
stirring in our people, battling with
difficulties greater by far than any
other portion of Christendom is at
present forced to encounter. So
deep has been the sorrow since the
Civil War that the South has largely
remained silent, but out of it's intense
suffering there are bound to spring
lessons of universal import which
will find voice somehow.
1.-THE Present South" by Mr..
Edgar Gardner Murphy, of Mont
gomery, Ala, is a first-hand study
of formative influences in this region
that well deserves the widespread
attention which it has received. Mr..
Murphy is publicist of rare power,
discerning the real tendencies in
Southern life and tiying to give
them direction in a truly construc-
tive way. His is book Astounding
IN sane views upon vital issues.
'"Fhe Rise of the New South is a
still more recent work by an emil
nent historian, Mr.. Philip Alexander
Bruce, of Richmond, Va, which at
tempts to register the progress
made since the reconstruction period
closed. All the qualities of the
scientific interpreter were shown by
Mr.. Bruce in his two earlier volumes
on The Economic History of Vir-
ylnia in the Seventeenth Century"
The bane of Southern historical
writing has been the too-present de-
ire to set off to advantage South -rn
events in contrast with things in
New England. We must learn that
southern dates have significance,
Iltogether aside from the question of
'riority as to the origin of settle=
nents or colleges or constitutions in
ther portions of the Union. The ,
rderly development of the facts in
ne life OF a nascent people are of
upreme value in themselves, and !
re not to be enhanced by any dis
aragement of another series of
parallel achievements. 6
he volume of Mr.. Bruce on the 3
rogress of the South thrills the Y
cart with the courage, tenacity of s
and resiliency of spirit ex- s
ibited by the people of Dixie since
576. He clearly shows that the
fe of the South today is being wise =
: interpreted in terms of Industrial p
m and education; that the process S
demonstration is making rapid n
rides in every quarter; that our !.
eople are ardently national in SEN Fl
ment and keenly responsive to S
orld-movements. |;
Mr.. William Carrot Brown, of
labama, has made an enlightening ;,
udy of the Lower South" to r =,
hich he has brought delicate SYM 9
athy and kindliest appreciation, as
as to be expected of an author
ringing right out of the bosom of
If section. The Rebuilding of \,
Id Commonwealths," by DIR. Wal w
r H. Page, born and reared in tt
orth Carolina, bristles with the &C
lgged qualities Of independence, {.
,gressiveness and sinewy thought w
characteristic of the people of d
at hardy and progressive State.
is surprising, when you come to !
ink Of it, what vast amount of ~