The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-07-15
South eating There.

and this she has done for the last
fifty years, nearly. AS Grit says mot
quite fifty years ago she emerg-
ed from devastating war which left
it PROSTATE and helpless. Billions
of dollars IN wealth had been swept
out of existence and grim poverty
stalked from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Mason and Dixon line. The flow>
er of its manhood slept in soldiers
graves on many a stricken field, and
with its social and industrial struc-
ture shattered to the Foundation,
the survivors of that terrific strug-
iyle faced a future rayless of hope.
From the anarchy 0 wars aftermath
new political and economic life, &
new social organization mad to be
created from corner stone to turret.
1t was task begun under the spur
Of biting poverty in desperate de-
tense of rice, integrity. And the
triumphant accomplishment of this
long painful task, unique in the his
tory or the world, can be read to-
day in the serried ranks of statis-
tics that are naw dribbling from the
Census Bureau"
This is "a splendid tribute to the
recuperative power Of the South, but
listen TO this tribute from the same
paper to the Confederate soldier, who
came home overpowered and dis
couraged, after four years of deVast-
ating war, to ruined homes and
changed conditions, to make an effort
to rebuild the waste places of his
beloved South. We will let Grit tell
how well he did it. Brilliant las has
been the South's record in war anu
long as it's list OF great statesmen"
says Grit, "neither compares in pro-
found significance, in the romance
and drama of history, with the story
of those patient, tire!ess state-build-
ers, working most Of them in hum
BILE obscurity, who have within the
past forty years created ANEW and
greater South. Some day the story
of those lean and hungry years,
years Of heart-breaking struggle
crowned with ultimate success, may
find a sympathetic and adequate
chronicler."
The Confederate soldier, who, as
some one has said, stepped from the
trenches into furrow, laid the funda-
tion stones for the present and fu-
ture prosperity of the South Had
these men failed when the war end
ed to meet the changed conditions
and make the best of them, the South
would have been ruined forever. But
the brave fellows who had achieved
immortal glory as soldiers, achieved
a greater glory, if that were possible
as state builders. But let us see
what the South is doing. AS Grit
says, agriculture is the basis of all
prosperity, and it is upon the control,
direct or indirect, of the products of
field end farm that national power
hinges. In the last analysis. national
power and agricultural resources and
development are synonymous terms.
And IL is upon agriculture as found
alton that the South is making its
remarkable progress.
Within the past years the value
of the farm crops of the South have
more than doubled, showing a great
er gain than any other section of the
country. Six million acres have been
added to the cotton crop area, gain
of twenty per cent, and the increase
in the production OF other staple
crops is equally startling. In the
value Of farm crops Texas now leads
all other states of the Union, it's gain
since the census of 1900 being 140
per cent, or more than two hundred
million dollars. Georgia also has
made great gains in agricultural pro-
duction and now ranks fourth, in
stead of fourteenth, as in the Twelfth
census. AND every state of the New
South tells similar story of pros
perity founded upon agricultural de-
velo2ment. AS Grit says ut Is the
beginning OF a new era in the ma
tion's life in which the balance of
power both political and Industrial,
will drift from the rich and populous
Nor&h towards the new South" That
is true, and is the great fact upon
which we base the assertion made in
the opening paragraph of this arti-
Gle.
But, as Grit goes on to say, "it
is not alone in agriculture that the
South has made wonderful progress.
The statistics of manufacturing in
dustry, mining and railroad construc-
ton and operation shows gains in
excess Of those registered in any 9TH
er part Of the country. The invest
ment of new capital, the building of
manufacturing plants, the opening of
mines, the increase in capital, saw
ings, and population all show that at
last the South is coming into its her.
itage. With natural and diversified
resources unequlalled in richness in
any other part Of the world, re-
sources mere fraction of which has
as yet been utilized, the future Is
bright and glowing with promise for
Dixie. 1t is a future in which the en-
tire nation will share. Tomorrow
belongs to the South" Don't forget
this, young man. and when you are
1empted to 60 West. remember that