El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-03-07

|
the Southern Commercial con-
gress which will meet in At
| lanta tomorrow is to be- above all
| tnlngs, conf 9.enCe Of men interested
| IN the physical recovery of the south.
rms meeting comes just so years after
the organization of the secession move
ment which precipitated the civil wa
| and wrecked the southern states.
! PRESIDENT Taft, former president
! Roosevelt, governor Woodrow Wilson,
| secretary of agriculture James Wilson.
| these are some IF the famous men
who will speak before the convention
| on nc broad aspects of the movement
Tor greater nation through a great
er south Scores Of practical men,
representing every phase of industry
ana commerce, will speak during the
/ three days of the session. not only to
the general convention, but to the Is
! separate and distinct sectional coun-
| ellis.
To Remove SOuth's Handicap.
| The Southern Commercial congress
! YVES organized three years ago to work
J Tor the south physical recovery. and
| TO advance the commercial interests
| OF the southern section of the United
States, in the hope Of neutralizing
those influences that still operate as a
handicap to southern commercial pro-
| gress.
1t is so years since the civil war
began, and we are fond of saying that
| II was ali over long ago, that nothing
| OF 1t remains but a memory In the
northern and western states that mem
| DRY and the quarterly distribution Of
pensions is indeed about all that re-
mains. But the south has more con-
crete reminders than these For,
| strange as 1t may seem to many peo-
/ pie Of other sections the south is only
| now beginning to see clearly ahead
of it the day Of complete physical re-
covery from the havoc wrought by the
! four years war.
Not only was the war itself deyas
tating in its destruction of life and
property. in its interruption of produc
tlon and commerce. in its inversion
OF political conditions. but it also left
the south too weak and too poor to
meet at the time certain prob lens
which arose quite independently Of the
war.
Once King; Now Tyrant.
For instance. the rapid Improvement
Of agricultural implements made 1T i'm
possible for the south to compete with
the level prairie states of the middle
west in the production of wheat, and |
this circumstance forced the southern
ers to go on with their ruinous devo !
ton to the One-crop principle. Before /
the war slavery had made cotton king, |
after the war the changed agricultural |
conditions made cotton tyrant. Only |
in the last two or three years has |
the south, by reason of education and {
by compulsion of the bo1l-weevil, turn !
ed cotton lands into other crops to any /
great extent
Another circumstance kept the south
back. The emancipation of the slaves 1
left the south with what appeared to
be a large supply of labor But it was
wastefuI labor, and it required many
years to arrange a readiustment of the
relations between the employer and
the employe While the southern
states were working out this problem
the north and west were receiving
from Europe millions and millions Of
able bodied white workmen, the ma
jority of whom now are recognized
as uIl-fledged American citizens The
south has received practically no emf
grafton whatever.
Industrial development was essayed,
but seemed doomed to certain failure
because Of the lack OF labor. The ne
groes proved to be unsuccessful as
factory Enthusiastically for them
and there was no opportunity TO get
any of the European immigration
Therefore the south turned inward
and resolved TO readjust its own af-
fairs without outside aid
Farm Hands In Mills.
The mills and factories levied on
the mountains and the hill farms for
their labor They found 1t there, and
as a consequence hundreds of thou
sands of people have been taken from
the farms and put in the mills. But
it must be remembered that there are
farms and farms The word may bring |
before your minds eye a beautiful
pastoral picture of contentment and |
But that is not the |
kind of farm the mills have drawn
upon in the south. They have taken
people from the one-roomed, window
less, dirt-floored cabins and, in many
cases, have materially improved their
condition by taking them into the mill
But still the south suffers from a
lack of men to do its work. The mills
have robbed the land. The land can
not yield full measure because there :
are not enough men to till it. North I.
Carolina has nearly half million few
er acres in cultivation than 1t had
n 1851, but its prosperous manufac- :
turing centers produce annually four
lines the wealth that the whole state
Yielded so years ago. South Carolina
las not nearly as many acres of farms =
low as when the civil war began, but :
he lettuce beds in the immediate vi ,
entity OF Charleston bring in more :
money each year than did the entire :
otton crop Of the state the year Lin
DIN was elected.
It is not that the south is not pros :
erous, for it is. 1t is that the south :,
; not as prosperous as it should be, 4
hat it is not able for one reason or y
mother to make the most ofAits OBJ Il
ortunities That is why the able and
arrest men of the south are In con-
erence at Atlanta-to devise ways and =.
leans for the complete physician re- v
overy of the section. IL
Wilson Helps South. er
In recent years no one man has done te
lore for the south than the secretary 81
agriculture, James Wilson. He has si
ade it especially his business to help1
lie south to realize the enormous pos til
bilities of its agricultural resources. &c
he Boys Corn clubs. the extension OF hi
sricultural education, the lectures of
le field agents-all these things are te
to show their effect 70
Mississippi, with the richest land OF in
~ state in the union, insisted upon
Using cotton cotton h.