The Columbus commercial. (Columbus, Miss.) 1893-1922, 1909-12-12

Southerner. and if | seem TO decline
i upon lower plane IN asking your at
tenion TO some thoughts suggested
/ by the invasion of the North by the
South, do not take alarm and sup
pose that am going to fight over the
campaigns of Lee | have in mind an
invasion entirely peaceable and con
] quests that are civic. When the canny
Scott was incorporated into the King
dom or Great Britain, against his will,
/ he got his inning by moving into the
enemys country and accommodating
/ himself TO the new and inevitable
order of things His energy. courage.
| resourcefuiness and thrift, stimulated
by the keen spur of poverty. achieved
| a success that solaced him largely for
the reverses experienced ar Culloden.
There was never deeper hate than
that which the Scots cherished for
England, but III time they became a
| bulwark of strength TO Great Britain.
and achieved and maintained leader
ship that has been one of the main
sources of her greatness What a long
line of Scots have wrought their life
work in England and helped to make
her illustriousl The great names of
Mansfield, Erskine, Brougham and
Carlyle come at once 10 our minds.
In our own day, the lamented Camp
bell-Bannerman, the brilliant Rose
berry, and the learned scholar, pro
found publicist and accomplished man
OF letters who represents Great Brit
ain in Aemrica, show that the Scottish
leaven is yet working with undimin-
ished strength
Superb Courage Shown.
For long period after the Civil
war the avenues opening to enterprise
were far less numerous and command
ed narrower vistas than now. Superb
courage and tireless energy, worthy
of great undertakings, were largely
going to waste without a fruitful field
for eXploitation The profession of
arms for time was closed After the
FIRST harvest from the melancholy field
ot settling estates of victims of the
war, and before revived business ac-
tivity fructihed in litigation, the law
furnished meager rewards Every
thing was on scale commensurate
with the grinding poverty of the peo-
pie. | often heard it asked during that
period, why do not the Southern
people get move on them and de
yelop their great natural resources ?"
Their failure to show such enterprise
and prompt results was imputed to
slOth. II would seem as If the people
who furnished the foot cavalry of
Stonewall Jackson might at least have
been spared that injustice. You might
as well ask a man to lift himself over
a fence by his own bootstraps as to
have expected the people of the South
at once to inaugurate undertakings re-
quiring capital If a man has nothing
but his land and no credit, and must
dig his living out of the land, it is folly
to reproach him with being non-pro-
gressive. The South had nothing but
its land, and the few horses that Gen.
Grant magnanimously permitted the
soldiers who owned them 10 keep Be
sides, they were burdened with politi-
cal conditions that were paralyzing.
For long time it was struggle for
bare existence.
The res augusta domi and the bar
renness of opportunity led many to go
where there were contests actively
waged in fields broad enough for their
ambition They wanted to be where
things were being done. The North