Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-03-23
CIVIC PROBLEMS OF THE SOUTH.

Ihe recent meeting Of the Southern
commercial Congress in Atlanta, Ca,
has not been given the prominence in
the country papers it deserves. Some
extremely able addresses on the needs
and means of Southern development,
and if the results of the meeting are to
reach and be of use to the people of the
South it must be through the county
papers. We publish in another column
an address by DR.. T. C. White, of West
Virginia, on the Conservation of Our
Mineral Resources" and of equal i'm
portance with the development of our
material resources is the development
of our people. The most remarkable
address along this line delivered at the
meeting was made by DR.. S. C. Mitch
ell, president of the University of South
Carolina, who said:
Three tasks confront the South to-
day. First, the economic development;
secondly, national Indignation, and.
thirdly, racial adjustment Economic
development has to do with the farm as
well as the factory. The recovery of
the fertility of the soil, the increase of
the yields of crops per acre, by reason
of improved methods Of farming, the
variety of products, stock raising and
the enrichment of rural life are patent
factors in the life of the South that are
full of promise for the future. Along
with these advances made by farmers
has gone the growth of industries, es-
pecially in the manufacture OF cotton,
iron and wood. The climate, water
powers, vast coal deposits, cheap labor
and abundance of raw materials give
the South unrivaled advantages in an
industrial way. The very fibre of the
cotton Is challenge to the skill and in
genuity of the people. When the West
ern farmer has grown his wheat, that
Is an end of the process. But not so
with cotton. There is no limit as re-
CARDS the fineness of the fabrics and
the consequent profits in its manufact-
ure, save such as are put by our intelli-
gence, skill and enterprise. At the
close of the war certain Virginian we'll
said: eff cotton is ever King, its scep-
tire will be spindle"
THE distinctive task of the South is
racial adjustment, the most difficult
single job in Christendom. AS regards
this problem, shall content myself
with quoting two propositions, stated to
me by D. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte.
himself pioneer in the work for which |
this Southern commercial congress
stands. First, we must maintain |
white Standards He said he used the |
words white standards not white su-
premacy.' To maintain white stan
dards is nothing less than to maintain
white civilization itself. 1t is equally
in the interest of both races that white
standards be maintained. Secondly.
we must give the negro a chance, said
Mr.. Tompkins, and added: In 1861 we
fought for slavery against the world, and
lost So far as the negro shows capac-
ity he must share in the common inheri-
lance of the human race. II free labor
is superior to slave labor intelligent la
Dor is more efficient than ignorant Ia
Dor. Ignorance is a cure for nothing.
Who is bettered by blindness? More
over, while in this task of racial adjust
ment the South has to tread the wine
press alone, it must be sensible that at
all times it is responsible to world opin-
ion. None of us liveth to himself and
no section liveth to itself alone. We are
everyone members one of another, and
If one member suffer all the members
suffer with it. God has thus tempered
the body polite together. Hence in the
spirit Of mutual helpfulness the two
races must seek to live together on the
'ame soil, despite differences in charsc-
er, tradition and color. AS prejudice I
8 the virus of the negro problem, so {
eascn is it's antidote. Whatever, there 4