Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-05-07
"Payins the Penalty Of Our Own
Sjns!"

bad break in the cotton market.
When cotton sells low, every indus
try-every man, woman and chlld-in
the South pays the penalty
Shall we take no steps to put a stop
to this downward trend of cotton that
is putting a knife into the vitalS of
Southern industry?
eve are helpless!" the unthinking
farmer and business man may retort.
We are NOT helpless. unless we fail
to apply the immutable laws of cause
ard effect to THIS problem as to
every other problem they rule in the
universe; and, having located the
cause, remove it, along with the eff
feet that otherwise must threaten
every line of Southern business.
Cotton last fall was selling for UP
WARD of 10 cents; today it is selling
for DOWNWARD of 9 cents. That
is the effect and it is undeniable.
There must be a cause for so disas-
trOus a fluctuation.
1.-The present financial and business
conditions AND THE RECENT DE-
CLINE IN COTTON have not been at
all surprising to me-" declared Richard
H. Edmonds, most eminent student OF
economic affairs in the South, in a
New Orleans interview published else
where in The Constitution. Last
summer / published a statement to the
effect that the anti-corpOratiOn and
the anti-railroad legislation and the
effort to change all trade conditions
based on years of experience which
was sweeping over the South would
intar,
est, BUT WOULD COST THE COT
TON PLANTERS OF THE SOUTH
AT LEAST 800, 900 900 ON THE CROP
OF 19G1-0s THAT PREDICTION
HAS ALREADY BEEN FULFILLED.
1t did not require any great mental
ability, or any gift of prophecy to
know that it's fulfilment was inevita-
ble.'
Mr. Edmonds, editor of The Manu-
facturers' Record of Baltimore, is not
a "croaker," "calamity howler' or a
prophet of evil" He is simply the
best Informed authority on Southern
Industrial affairs in the United States,
with the brains to see and the courage
and patriotism to point out the causes
underlying effects that need no des-
criptiOn. He is not willing that the
business men, the most substantial
in his section, shall stay blind to the
task they must undertake to restore
normal onditions.--Atlanta Constitu-
ton.
The foregoing is the opening portion
of an editorial leader from the fore
most Democratic newspaper of the
South. 1t is a clear-headed recogni-
ton of the fact that the railroad
batting and distinctly unfriendly at
pursued in the South during the past
few years by various long-haired legis-
lators, has wrought inestimable harm
to that section of the country. At the
time we predicted this result, express
sing our belief that no section of the
country was in greater need of CAPT.
tai, both in railroad construction and
in other directions than the Sunny
South. whose splendid material re-
sources are as yet only partially de-
veloped Continuing it's comments
upon the diagnosis of industrial
causes and effects, as made by Mr..
Edmonds, the Constitution says:
Read the following even more strk-
ing diagnosis he gives of the condi-
ton that cOnfronts the South:
I'VE ARE PAYING THE PENALTY
OF OUR OWN SINS.
THE TEACHINGS OF FALSE
PROPHETS. AND LIKE THOSE OF
OLD WHO ACCEPTED THE
TEACHINGS OF FALSE PROPH-
ETS, WHO CLAIMED TO BE
DIVINE ELY SPIRED. BUT
PROVED NOT TO BE, WE HAVE
HAD TO PAY THE PENALTY.
THE PENALTY HAS BEEN ONE
AGGREGATING HUNDREDS OF
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF LOSS
TO THE SOUTH: 1T HAS MEANT
THE ADVERTISEMENT OF
THOUSANDS WHO ARE WITHOUT
EMPLOYMENT. WHILE TWELVE
MONTHS AGO THERE WAS MORE
WORK TO BE DONE THAN THERE
WE'RE WORKERS TO DO IT,
With analysis clear as crystal Mr.
Edmonds, as will be seen elsewhere
tracks his subject faithfully to each
one of it's ramifying details.
He points out that English and
American capital is flowing in tremen-
dous volume, into faraway, inaccessi-
BILE South America, into the remotest
portions of the Dominion of Canada. 1t
is ignoring the South. with resources
vastly larger dividends.
quicker dividends. than either of these
two former locations.
Fifteen years ago. he shows. this
capitol was besieging the South for
investment. Today the South is be-
sieging and beseeching it to come
within our borders. where it is so bad
ly needed; and in vain.
Why?
The answer is to our shame.
"THE REASON FOR THIS
CHANGE" DECLARES MIR. ED
MONDS." rs THAT THE SOUTH
HAS NOT TREATED CAPITAL
WITH ENTIRE FAIRNESS. THE
WAVE OF POLITICAL MYSTERIES
WHICH HAS SWEPT OVER THE
SOUTH HAS MADE THE MON
EYED PEOPLE OF THE WORLD
AFRAID TO INVEST HERE. AND