The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1918-08-29

struggle the South was complete
" cut off from the outside world
by sea, as we'll as from the north
and west by land. It was shut up
to itself; it had made no prepara-
ton for war; it had to create
over night a government and an
army and fiscal system; it had
to create the industries needed
for the making Of war supplies
practically from the foundation
up. Every port from the Chesa-
peake Bay to the border line Of
Mexico was blockaded.
For four years despite these
apparently insurmountable obsta-
cles, the South with an army Of
about 100000 as the total number
engaged during the war fought
against armies four times as great
in number, backed by the ire
mendous resources in money; in
foodstuffs, in munition making ia
cilities Of the Union, which had
the commerce of the world open
to it. Moreover, the sentiment Of
large part of the world was in
favor of the Union, because civil
ization had decreed the death of
slavery, and slavery, though not
the main issue, was one Of the po-
tent issues involved.
When the war ended, the South
had lost all of the capital which
it had invested in slavery just as
others had invested their wealth
in stocks and bonds. For four
years it had been drained to main
tain it's armies, until there was
nothing left but a hollow she'll,
which crumbled to pieces when
once the "far flung battle line" of
a thin gray streak from Virginia
to Texas gave way.
In this struggle the South lost
all that had been invested in sla-
very and in the creation of sys-
tenn of labor upon which it's pros
perity had in time past been bas-
ed. It lost every dollar issued by
the Confederate Government and
during four years for the carry
ing on of the war and for all the
trade which went on at home. Not
a vestige of capital invested in
Confederate money or bonds or
slaves was left as basis for cred
it or as starting point on which
to rebuild. This great section was
bankrupt beyond the power of
words to express; it's whole labor
system had been disorganized !;
most of it's manufacturing plants
had been destroyed; it's railroads
were but thin streaks of rust; it's
livestock had been so completely
used to feed the armies that it
was nearly fifty years after the
close of the war before the live
stock of the South equaled in
number what the South had in
1860, and even today the number
of sheep in the central South is
far less than it was at the begin
ming of the Civil War.
Notwithstanding this indescri-
baby desperate situation, the
South Immediately began to con-
tribute it's full proportion of the
hundreds Of millions which have
since run into billions and bill
ions of pensions to the soldiers of
the north, without of course, a
single dollar of pension to it's
own soldiers until after many
years, individual States took up in
part the pensioning of the few re-
naming Confederate veterans.
Heroically as all Anglo-Saxons
meet such situations, the South
asked no favors, it sought no pen
sions, it never asked that the mon
ey issued to it's people should be
redeemed.
This brief statement of what
the South suffered Of it's terrific
losses, of it's almost Incompetent
sible poverty, utterly incompre-
hensible to any one who did not
live in that section during the long
years of struggle in which its peo-
pie sought to provide for immedi-