The semi-weekly messenger., 1908-01-03
SOUTH AND CURRENCY QUESTION
How the Cotton Crop aids i'm Moving
None. at Home and Abroad-Pros-
porous Conditions Reviewed show
ing Advances Made in 1907.
Is. A. Ashe, in the Financier.J

| enlargment of milling enterprises, and
| the construction OF new railway lines
| costing many millions Of dollars
| While much of the capital invested
! has come from the north, large part
| of il represents the earnings OF the
southern peoDle themselves. The inl-
! mense cotton crop OF 1906 sold al a
| high price and brought a Weld Of over
| eavep hundred millions of dollars.
| With rhi; substantial basis fro traue,
| business was steady and profitable;
the DeoDle prosperous and happy. La
| bor was better paid than ever before
and the demand. because Of increased
| activities being abnormal. all were
! emDloyed and at an advance III wages,
The negroes. whether tenants. crop
Ders. or Iaborers, shared in the gen1r-
| al prosperity and c0ntentmeut. Indeed
| if is TO be doubted whether n any
country at anv line. a similar pOpu-
| lation has been so happy as he ne
grOes of the south have been during
| the uast wear ComDarcd with the ne
| gro residents of the northern states
the record is remarkable: for. having
| regard to numbers. where one negro
at the south has been punished GRIM
inallv one hundred at the north have
suffered at the hands of Justice Busy
and contented men are not usually
/ criminals.
| Pari passu with this industrial prog
ress have been some educational and
social movements. Still greater efforts
have been made in educational lines
| while the extension of the anti-liuuor
sentiment arrests attention. The south
has been Dictured as of a rollicking
| temperament in loose way; people
sneak of the cavaliers as the original
of southern population. Virginia alone
had much of that element. But there
did spring I'D in colonial DAYS at the
south class of American gentry.
voo1tbv dominant and mastarfu1 who
have been wrongfully associated with
the frolicking cavaliers of historic fame
On the contrary, they were rather of
the Calhoun tyDa-determined ac-
+ion hut ALWAYS demanding a clean
life
But whatever was the influence. the
event sDeaks for itself A large part
of the south is already prohibition ter
ritorv. and apparentlv before another
decade has passed no ardent spirits
will be sold. exceDt in spots. between
the Rio Grande and the Potomac.
This busy and sober, the cheerful
south is making great crops and am
assing wealth that finds profitable ir-
yestment in new factories and other
industries.
THE cotton crop is now grown on
J thirty millions of acres It employs
the bulk of the negroes and a con-
stant1y increasing number Of whites,
probably one half of it being already
| made by white labor. AS population
thickens and the needs of the world
require it, other millions of acres will
be brought under cultivation, so that
in time a crOp of twenty millions of
| bales will excite no more remark than
that of last YEAR Nor are these crops
| of interest only to the south: they are
a precious Gift to the whole nation.
Nearly two-thirds of the production
goes abroad and Europe pays our
country an annual tribute that plays
an important part in our national
housekeeping. Las year our cotton ex-
ports brought us, perhaps, four hund-
red millions of dollars in gold
In a decade this item will give us
| balance of trade approximating four
billions of dollars. What an import
! ant asset to the credit of the nation
abroad
In times past the south has prided
! itself on the contribution to the nation
| in men: on the superb sons who
framed the Declaration of Indepen-
dence and who fought on the battle
| field: on WASHINGTON and jefferson:
on Monroe who formulated the doc
! trine of the Americas for Americans:
on the addition of nearly all of the