The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1915-11-05
Chicago Traduces the South.

IGreatest Newspaper apropos of
Ilynching in Georgia, launches thi
ldiatribe at the entire South:
The South is backward. 1t
shames the United States by IL
literacy and incompetence Its
hill men and poor whites, its
masses of feared and bullied
blacks, its rotten industrial con-
ditions and its rotten social ideas
exist in circumstances which
disgrace the United States in
the thought of Americans and
in the opinion of foreigners.
The South is half educated.
1t is region of illiteracy, bla-
tant elf-righteousness, cruelty,
and violence. Until it is i'm
proved by the invasion of bet
ter blood and better ideas it
will remain reproach and
danger to the American Repub-
lie.
The Tribune Is backward. AS an
American newspaper it shames the
United States by it's ignorance and
incompetence. Its blatant self-right-
eousness passes belief. Until it is
improved by the invasion of better
spirit and better ideas it will remain
a reproach and danger to a true
nationalism. But it's sentiments with
regard to the South must be typical
of community opinion, since other
they would have met with the pub
lie and concerted rebuke from Chi
cago's citizenship.
When the Civil War broke out the
North was rich; the South, thanks
to an industrial system which was
mistaken economically as it was
wrong morally, was poor. The war
the North and prepared it
for the conquest of the New West;
it Frustrated and bankrupted the
South. After the war the North was
as it had been before; the South was
a land in ruins. Not only it's capital
was gone; it's institutions were to
rebuild, on new and better founda-
tions. And while the South stood
so bitterly in need the laws of the
United States were shaped to benefit
the protected manufacturers of the
North at the expense of the agri-
cultural South. We recall that the
Tribune, in the Medill days,
used to argue powerfully for low
tariff between campaigns; then,
when the time for action came, it
always became regular" and fought
with and for the tariff barons.
There is no more shameful story
han that of the reconstruction" at
he South, for which the North was
There is no more in
piring story than that of the recon
truction of the South by itself. |
Which is typical of the South: The
deed of a mob or the
teady, persistent advance of in |
ustrial reform, of popular educa-
ion, of city making, of literature
nd the arts, of charity and philan-
hropy?
Is Chicago in position to throw
Has the Windy City moth
lg to learn from the despised South?
ook at the way in which Chicago
as muddled her terminal situation
nd compare it with the splendid
municipal terminals of New Orleans.
or Chicago to prate of Ignorant
nd violent politicians" is, as a GER
lin Venetian gentleman once re-
Iarked hypocrisy against the
evil" Can the South match Bath
ouse John and Hinky Dink? Has
lie South ever equaled the Lorimer
'andal? Yet Lorimer came from
lie great and good City of Chicago.
Chicago has, through Lorimer,
ought disgrace upon the politics
a nation; its municipal govern
ent has been sordid and corrupt;
hat did Chicago ever do in a con
ructive way to advance the polit-
al thinking of America or help for
ardlooking men to better things?
othing at all; in the realm of po-
ical construction Chicago has been
barren as stretch of aIkali desert
der a blazen sun. But look at
tie Galveston. few years since :
'iken by one of the worst disasters Z
history; yet setting out, with a
lrage that tempest and ocean com
ned could not daunt, not only to
lid city impregnable in face of
2 wrath of Nature but also to
'hion a city government of new
nciples, where honesty and eff
ncy might come into their own.
e one great contribution to the
lctical art of city government
de by the United States since the
tn of the nation came out OF the