New-York tribune., 1908-03-23
THE GROWING SOUTH"

The address of President r. A. Alderman of
the University of Virginia before the Civic Forum
last night upon THE Growing South was
thoughtful analysis of the progress of that sec
ton from the period when it was as the speaker
said walking in the economic and social valley
of the shadow of death until now, when its
golden age is dawning. All told it is remarka-
BILE record A sem-feudal society broke down at
the end of the war. and in its place has been
built up an organized political and Industrial
society of the modern type. In place of the large
plantation has come the small farm, and in place
of the patriarchal group has grown up the demo
cratic community. The public school system,
which had no place under the patriarchal So
cety of slave days, has been patiently estab-
IIshed by people IMPOVERISHED by war and
slowly recuperatng from its effects. Local gov
ernment and internal improvements have re-
ceived careful attention. and the South during
this long period has been setting its house in
order. until now its social and economic organi-
zation differs little from that of the rest of the
country With that modernizing of conditions
has come about decay of the old sectional feel
ing AS the difference in social conditions be-
tween the sections lessened, too all other diff
ferences have tended TO disappear, until now the
South seems prepared for that growth OF national
feeling which in other parts Of the country has
stripped ancient local lines of more than half
their traditional meaning.
This period of social renascence in the South
has been characterized by an equal economic
Development From the pitiful poverty succeed
ing the war that section has slowly recovered,
until in 1900 its per capita wealth was as great
as before secession. AS it is better organized
politically and socially so it Is better organized
economically. The smaller farms. with more
intensive cultivation, yield larger returns to the
acre than the old slave worked plantation ever
could have done and the South is already start
tlc upon a career of manufacture unthinka bic
under the old pariarchal semi-feudal society
existing before the war. 1t is brilliant record,
for. Dr. Alderman says:
No other Americans have ever known in its
direst form the discipline of war and defeat. No
other region among the great cultured nations,
not even France. lost in less than decade
over e-tenth of its population. three and half
billions of its wealth. the form of its society and
the very genius of its life. save q certain
conQuerable courage and self-reliance- No other
region except Poland ever knew such losses, ana
Poland ceased TO exist
There are already multitude of signs that
both sections of the country getting to I'M
derstand and appreciate each other better. The
ancient suspicion and criticism are dying out,
and if the North has doubts about any steps the
South is taking to solve its peculiar problems,
il is slower than was its wont to criticse and
condemn, quicker to admit the difficulty that
besets the South, less ready to present otfhand
solutions and more disposed to give full faith
and credit to the honesty of Southern convic-
tons regarding the necessity of what the South
is doing AS the years go by and the country
better understands what the South has accom-
plished, its patient victory over defeat, its
leading captivity captive its recuperation
from such blow mo other region among
the great cultured nations has suffered. the
people will look upon its achievements with
much the same pride with which they look upon
those of the pioneers who by their courage and
self-reliance their foothold the conti-
nent, and upon those of their no less sturdy
sons who swept on their way gradually west
ward TO the Pacific. The same indomitable
spirit has made the South what it is to-day.