The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-22
BE FAIR TO THE MOUNTAINEER.


Somebody on the Columbia State has recently
been taking vacation in the North CAROLINA
mountains and easing himself periodically since
his return Of what he saw and heard in that
grandlv beautiful section, which is typical of
the Appalachian range in general. 1t appears,
however, that whoever this editorial somebody
Is, his vacation trip was comprised by what one
may learn in summer resort hotel, with the adj
dition Of foravs into the mountains in search of
the aboriginal and the picturesque. Making po-
litical application of its discoveries, the State
recently averred that probably nowhere in Amer
lea ARE the results of ignorance so painfully IL
ustrated as among the Republicans of the West
ern North Carolina mountains, and it goes on
to partcularize:
The North Carolina ineHntaneer
when Republican is "a Republican
because his grandfather was a Wing.
In nine cases out of ten he is poor
much poorer than the Southern Demo
cratic farmer. Only III few, if any,
small areas in this State are such pow
erty and wretchedness to be found as
in western North Carolina. The
mountaineers receive no benefits what
ever from the protection system. They
are not manufacturing people, and
they sell nothing at a taritfmade price.
On the little that they are able to
buy, the sugar, the coffee, the farming
tools and household articles, they pay
the usual tariff tax
While the political diagnosis is probably cor
rect, the tenor of the States evidence is dis
hnctly misleading. Perhaps it is true that the
Republican element in the mountains, not only
OF North Carolina but in other States through
which the Appalachian range extends, holds its
political convictions from inheritance rather than
from reason. But the inference that the noun
taineer of to-day is the densely ignorant, fool
ishly suspicious, abiectly poor individual met
with IN the pages of mountain Literature" is
well-nigh libel. Even such ignorance as ex-
listed i'll the mountains in the days when they
had not been pierced in every direction by rail
roads was more lack Of information than
want at intellect. 4eHf- t4eHHta4neer- in
the pages which depend for their interest on show
ing him as viciously uncanny being is never
called fool. Since he has come into contact with
the world, his native qualities have lent him to
a progress in both material and mental way
which cannot be equalled elsewhere. From the
old pioneers and Wing forebcars. he absorbed
tenacity of purpose. and a vigorous, if homely.
HoThiitN Nulcu Sloou MIN III S0Ou STEAD ana
served to keep him strong and clean to meet the
advancing world halfway. While it is true that
an inherited stubbornness has preserved to some
extent Republican tradition in a people who
cannot hope remotely to benefit by the success of
their party, even this steadfastness of purpose
serves to show virtue superior to its fault.
An Investigator is all too apt to discover that
for which he searches. Here and there in the
survives the typical cabin of the
pioneer, equipped with antlers and long barreled
rife, with sattern wife and skulking children
1t is however, but the quaint memento of van
ished past; and it is not remotely the illustration
of type. In the busting mountain towns, on
the well-kept mountain farms, in the modern
development of mountain resources, the men of
the big hills are actors instead of onlookers
Republican or Democrat, the average man of
the mountains holds, along with an equal intel
lectual ability with the average man Of the low
lands, the tang of interest pertaining to more
or less mysterious history. And that is ALL
Whatever his politics, let be fair to the noun
taincer
THE SOUTH AND THE CENSUS.