The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-09-21

JOnQ DeLd howe. lie Qleu d HuI-
dred years ago, but his school still
exists. Neither orator nor politician
has sung his praise for the act which
has bleSt more boys and girls of poor
people than the act of any dozen
men who have ever lived in Able
Vile County. On the other hand we
are, on all public occasions-even
when we come to pay tribute to the
valorous dead of u own blood
asked to pay tribute to politicians who
never helped to set the feet of any
needy boy or girl on a higher level
nor sought to put any helpless orphan
on a better plane.
SEEKING TO PLEASE THE PEOPLE
BY INSULTING THEIR INTELLI'
GENCE.
The criticism which might be
made of all the orators is, that they
seemingly would seek to please the
people by trying to lead them to
believe that they are nobody, as
compared to men that never did
anything to bless any poor man,
woman or. child. Did not the idol.
lied greatness belong to that class OF
plutocrats who taught their slaves
to call poor people, "poor white
trash," or "poor buckra?" Does
Southern valor or Southern manhood
owe anything to men who may have
been vulgar enough, or who may have
been self-conceited enough, to teach
their slaves to speak thus of our
ancestors? Do the respectable and
the honorable poor people of today
owe anything to any man who may
have spoken disrespectfully of the
fathers and mothers of the men
whose v,lor, fifty-years ago, in the
hour of its greatest struggle, reflected
the highest honor upon the fame and
the military glory of the common
country?
Where is there a more striking in
stance of disinterested valor to be
found than in the ''poor white trash"
if q will, who stood at the elbow
of the landlord, in p hundred hard
fought battles, and at the last went to
his death and to an unknown grave,
defending the property rights of an
other? The rich man died in battle,
and his landed estate fell to his widow
and children. The estate of the "poor
white trash" consisted in the strength
of his good right arm, and when
that was stilled in death, pitiable
woe and misery were entailed upon
his family. But these things were
below the level of polite history, and
future generations will never know
how the lives of the humble poor
were sacrificed to hold the property
and to glorify the names of those
who scorned them in civil life.
THE BUILDING OF COTTON MILLS.
In 1877 there was much poverty
among our people and for two or
three years great numbers of white
men were constantly going to other
States. To stop this emigration,
VIM. H. Parker of this county, and
others in the Legislature from differ
emit counties, conceived the idea OF re-
turning to cotton mills the taxes
which they might pay for ten years.
This gave an impetus to the building
Of cotton mills, and so it was that
emigration from this State was
stopped. Men, women and children
from that time were offered comfort.
able homes IN which to live while
earning the best wages that were ever
paid for labor in South Carolina.
It is a fact that Mr.. Parker's son,
L. w. Parker, now of Greenville, is
at the head of the cotton mill bust
ness in South Carolina, receiving as
a salary a larger sum than is paid to
any other man in the State. In
comforting inestimable blessing upon
the people w. H. Parker also
conferred a benefit on his own
son, i. w. Parker, by opening the
way for his distinction as a captain
of industry.
MR.. CALHOUN WOULD HAVE
HELPED.
If MI. Calhoun had been alive in
1880 he would have modified his anti
tariff principles and would no doubt
have foined Mr.. Parker in his effort
to place South Carolina in the fore
front as a manufacturing State. Mr..
Calhoun opposed the tariff because
the South was an agricultural, not a
manufacturing, country. AS soon as
slavery was abolished, there was then
no reason why South Carolina should
longer remain out of the manufac-
turing industry. Mr.. Calhoun wash
lover of his country and he unfiinch-
ingly stood for all those measures
which would tend to its best inter
ests as they then existed. But the
times changed, and MI. Calhoun, like
the rest of us, would have changed
with them.
SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS THE
SOUTHERN STATES.
Favorable laws and good labor, en-
abled the manufacturer to realize
a profit on his investment. This
good investment stimulated the
building of great cotton mills in