The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-18
SOUTH RETARDING HER OWN GROWTH Hannis Taylor Makes Reply to
 Henry NatterSon AN INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT MT. Taylor Points Out Trade Restric- tions as Due to Political Self
 Isolation of the Great
 Gulf Section.
AN INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT

1 Washington Herald will tomorrow print the following article by Hon. Hanns Tay- l Tor, former minister to Spain: In the current number of the North l American Review, under the title, "The Solid South National Calamity" l have undertaken to state within narrow limits the vital questions arising out of the con- fiict now existing between the political south and the industrial and commercial south As the Boston Herald has re- stated my position;
 "The political south today stands in opposition to the industrial and commer- cial south. Manufacturing and mining developments unite Georgia and Alabama with Massachusetts and Pennsylvania in a common interest in the tariff problem. Commercial expansion following terri torial extension has brought the develop ment of southern commerce.
 "The Panama canal, says MT. Taylor, will drop $50 into the tills of New Orleans and Mobile where it drops s1 into the till of Boston With the policy of the national government in the far Pacific the south is as intimately concerned as is any part 1 of the country
 Period of Development.
 'The next eight years will be an im- portant period in natural development. l Will the south continue to maintain it's attitude of isolation? What response will 1t make to MT. Taylors appeal?"
 In the issues thus presented by these practical and concrete questions, with l which the future of the south is vtally involved, my friend, the brilliant editor of | the Courier-Journal, can see nothing more substantial than the .'yagary' of dream CT of the cloister. He is good enough to say:
 MT Hannis Taylor is the ablest, if not l the latest recruit. to the yagary of trans 1 ferring the allegiance of the south from the democratic party to the republican party. He delivers in the North Americ- an Review for January an argument which, if 1t were less visionary, might he described as ingenious As it is, it re- minds one of those closet-dramas which are said to read well, but which will not act when put upon the stage" 1 nFee fcTIInCnI SQcSLlOnSs The essence of the "vagary,' or dream in question when precisely formulated is this:
 l | Shall 'the south, which has always prided herself upon her political genius and independence, be content to remain the pocket borough of one political party; with her eyes and ears closed to all argu- ments which may be addressed to her by the other, no matter how deeply they may affect her political and economic future?
 9 Shall the south continue to adhere to and uphold a set of economic princi- l ples advocated in the past by her states men when, as a section, she was almost entirely agricultural, now that her inter | ests have become seriously diversified not only by manufacturing and mining, but by the growth of foreign commerce? l g. Shall the south continue her political solidity, and consequent political isola- ton from the rest of the union, now that the reason for that solidity has, by reason 1 of the practical settlement of the negro question, passed away? The rhetoricians l who propose to make the political isola- | ton of the south from the rest of the | union, in defiance of her vital material l interests, eternal, cannot hope to maintain their cause by evading the real issues in | volved.
 Those issues are too clean cut and de- cisive to be put aside. They must be either answered or confessed. They can not be submerged beneath Bourbonism that learns nothing and forgets nothing.
 Growth of Industrial Life. What were the economic conditions at l the south when that section, as an agri- l cultural community, stood forth as the l typical opponent of the free trade or anti l tariff policy?
 l In 1860 the total values of the
 farm products of the states of
 Alabama, Arkansas. Florida, Georgia, Louisiana. Mississip- l pi, North Carolina, South Car | olna, Tennessee, Texas and l Virginia dnoluding West Vir- l ginia) were ....................$ 633, ,0Oo 900 Manufactures 153,o0o. 900 l Mines and mining .. .. .. .. .. 100000
 : 7s0, coo 900 In 1900 the total values of farm
 products in the same states
 were :. :. .. .. .. .. :. :. ..$1, ,104, GOO GOO | Manufactures "a. ...... 1,019,0O0 ,0o0 Mines ard mining .... .... .... 79,00O0 900
 $2,2O2, 900, GOO Tn 1905 estimated Agricultural products :. . :. .. .. .. s1, 800, 900 OoO Manufactures :. :. = :. .. .. :. ], 400, ,000, 900 ] Mines and mining ..... ......... 131, ,000, ,000
 s3,031, ,Oo0 0aO It thus appears that while within the l 45 years dividing 1860 from 1905 the farm products of the south have increased only little over twofold, her manufaotur- ing and mining products have increased about tenfold. Time and growth have thus | wrought a complete transformation. The manufacturing and mining products of the south are now a little in excess of her l agricultural products.
 South Needs Tariff.
 The practical result is that the indus tries of the south, far more infant than those of New England, are more in need of tariff protection. If any one cares to controvert that fact let him attend the tariff hearings" now going on before the House committee on ways and means.
 Down to date more than 80 southern persons, individual or corporate, have i been heard, either verbally or in writing, by that committee as to their views and interests concerning subjects of southern produce or manufacture, and, as I am in formed by an important member of the committee, every one of them has re- l quested either that the tariff remain as 1t is or that it be increased
 | The following Illustrations may be