Evening star., 1909-05-04
WAR SOUTH'S EXCUSE
Ensuing Poverty Blamed for
Lack of Progress.
PROSPERITY IN TEXAS
Kansas Also Suffered Heavily in
Conflict, But Has Revived.
LACK OF PUBLIC SPIRIT SHOWN
People Who Prefer to Stay as They
Are, Especially in Alabama
and Louisiana.
BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald
l have received a large number of let
ters and newspaper comments, both
friendly and unfriendly, both favorable
| and unfavorable, upon what has been
published in these columns recently con-
cerning the lack of enterprise among
southern people, particularly in Alabama
and Louisiana.
Nearly every one of the writer's admits
that the citizens of those states have
failed to utilize their great natural ad-
vantages and to develop their great ma
| teral resources. and in almost every case
this neglect is attributed to the demoral-
izing effects of the late civil war.
Although more than forty years have
passed and a new generation. born since
Lees surrender, is in control of the busi-
ness in the south, the people of that sec
tion have become so accustomed to ex-
planning their lack of public spirit on that
ground that they do not consider any
other excuse necessary.
A curious instance of this occurred dur
ing a visit to fine old plantation. where
the stately colonial mansion was In a sad
condition of decay, where the stables and
other outhouses had partially fallen from
their foundations, and some of them were
roofless: the fences were down: the
Shrubbery untrimmed and the roads in
horrible condition.
The gentleman who accompanied me eX-
planned that the southern people were i'm
poverished by the civil war and had not
been able to recover from the depreda-
| tions committed by the Yankee invaders,
and that the effects of the decentralization
of labor, industry and commerce could
still be seen in every part of the south.
And he still adhered to that explanation
after we were told that the plantation In
question had passed through the owner
ship of four different families since the
war and was now the property OF Penn
sylvania absentee landlord, who had
owned it for six years and had never Wis
tied it but once.
Nashvillan's Comment.
Commenting upon one of my letters
joseph B. Babb, the genial and ener-
getic secretary of the Nashville Chamber
of Commerce. says:
II have always insisted that our great
est need was not the capital to develop
these resources, but spirit of self-reli-
ance. an education of hand and brain, a
quickening of industry and determine
ton to do for ourselves. OF course. we
should welcome emigration. We should
invite capital and protect 1t after 1t
comes.
But it is of greater Importance that
we lay solidly the foundations of char
acter and citizenship, that we shine by
our deeds and not infict the circumam-
bient air so much with our sounding
boasts, and that our chronicle be one of
performance and not Of prophecy.
1T must not be forgotten, however,
that the south has done much under cir
cumstances that few who are not singu-
larly intimate with her history can real
ize. 1t has not only been within the past
two or three years that the assessed val
ues in the south aggregated, the total OF
the values of 1860, even excluding the
slaveholdings.
1T is not an exaggeration to say that
the south was pauperized by the war.
For sociologic and economic reasons the
south could not feel or take advantage
of the impulse of tremendous industrial
movement that set in Immediately fol-
loving the war.
THE generosity of the north did not
exact any indemnity. but, as result OF
the war. the south has paid a tribute an
nually far exceeding any indemnity ever
imposed, and In comparison with which
the billion francs that Bismarck wrung
from France is bagatelle. We had to
pay interest on money borrowed for de-
velopment purposes, interest on private
and public debts, such as municipal,
county and state bonds; premiums on
fire and life insurance: profits the
clothes we wore, the furniture we used,
wagons, pumps, agricultural implements,
and, in fact. on almost every manufac-
tured article used
I'm addition. the national laws were
framed regardless of our interests, and
an inequitable tariff was added to our
burdens. If it had not been for the an
nual cotton crop Of the south we would
be in want and penury today.
The industrial awakening took place
in 1850, and has progressed with an
energy. persistence and a broadening
scope almost equal to our opportunities.
Was it not natural in the days when
our factories were few and our means
of development slender that we should
look to our natural resources as the
means by which we should ultimately
come to prosperity, and that we should
boast of them because we had not bet
ter method of publicity open?
Nor is it strange that this method.
which came in vogue in necessity. has
still its retainers. now that the days of
necessity are past. do not believe that
the charge can be successfully made
against our people as a whole that they
have been indolent or neglectful Of their
opportunities They may not have risen
to the highest requirements but against
stupendous odds they have made brave
and intelligent fight"
Texas Has Progressed.
Almost everybody who discusses the
subject writes in the same tone that the
| south was pauperized by the war. But
you never heard any complaint of this
kind from Texas which has doomed
ahead with tremendous impetus and has
become one of the richest states in the
ITuiOn