The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-13
SUPPOSE THE SOUTH
 HAD BEEN LAzYs MauOfacfurers' Record


 And now a hue and cry Is being set up 10 prove that the hook worm, or lazy disease" Is so enfeebling many of the poorer classes of whites in the South as to halt the development of that section. To overcome this It ls shall inaugurate campaign for the elimination of the hook worm, or oth- erwise the South will have to depend upon foreign labor. If in the south ing the people. humanity demands that every effort shall be made to eliminate 1t; but if the South Is So hampered by many of its people. having the 'iazy ment if such a thing did not exist? For generation after generation the world has been constantly told that there Is something inherently soSISngs wrong .,sis with ina. over and over again the writers uf other sections and some of the poor iy informed would-be orators of the South, in order to curry favor with the people of other sections. have told us that the South lacked emerge and en- terprise and broad grasp of affairs. If this be true, the rest of the coun- try must be in very bad shape If and vIrility the people of tne South have accomplished such mar vels as they have wrought how slow has been the development of other sec terpriss and virIlity are supposed to
 Prioi to the war the South was fin many lines of industry outstrippinR more railroads than the New England and Middle States. It had developed 3 broad agricultural industry, giving It more than half of the total agricultur- al output of the country, although IL had only one-third of the countrys population. In nearly every line of in dustry its percentage of growth was more rapid between 1850 and 1880 than half of the last century 1t created cotton industry which represented more capital, more broad business ability and more brain power than were re- great industrial interests of New Eng land. In that time 1t created an in- dustry which dominated the finance and commerce and the politics of thts finance and commerce of Europe; Of no other Industry ever created ip America can as much be said.
 Prior to 1860 the South had contrib uted to the development of the West and the Pacific coast more than a mil lion of it's people. Even in 1860 over 900 900 Southern-born whites were liv- ing outside of the South, and much of was due to this infusion of Southern blood.
 In the great struggle from 1861 to 1885 one of the greatest wars in the worlds history, without a navy. with out any organized army. on which to begin, its ports blockaded, without any financial system developed in advance, the South met in the mtghuest bat ties of the ages, three or four times as wheiming odds held It's own for four long years. If It's men are suffering from the ''lazy disease" and lacked en- ergy and virllity. what sad reelection upon the vast armies of the North who took four years to conquer a people thus crippled by sickness and by lag mess! No man who was in the North ern army has ever charged these things against the soldiers of the
 From the close of the war to 1900 the South gave to the development Of other sections more than 2,5Oo,0oe or its most energetic people-a greater contribution to the upbullding of oth- CT regions than was ever given by any other section of this land or by any other country In the world. Fne vast do ness of this contribution of 2,500,000 people. its value to other sections and the improvement of the South by reason of it can never be fully told Despite these things. however, the sections in industrial activity. Start ing in 1880 almost without manufac- turing capital, hardly more for the en- tire fourteen southern StateB lHdn tne one city of Baltimore now has, the South has accumulated capital and energy and developed manufacturing industry that Is expanding more rap idly than the Industrial interests of the country at large It's agricultural output now about equals the total ag- ricultural output of the United States as late as 1890, and exceeds by several hundred million dollars the value of all agriculture In the United States in 1S80 With population of 10000 less than the population of the coun- try In 1880. the south has wealth ex- ceeding by $5.OOo. 900, 900 the wealth of the whole country In 1880.
 These are facts. And yet we are told that Southern progress is halted by such a general spread of the 'hook worm or 'lazy disease" as to seri- ously initiate against Its enrichment, If the South could accomplish all of these things hampered by any such prevailing disease, what under the sun would have been Its rate of develop ment If such condition had not ex- istedf
 1t was but few years ago when 1t was seriously questioned whetheV fully compete with New England mills and whether the Southern iron and coal industry could compete with Penn sylvania. The conditions have been re- Versed and now the question is, can petition In cotton goods sud can Penn- Tn iron and steel and coal? Verify,