Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-05
As ONE WOMAN seEs IT
Some Pelnts of Differences ostwssn
North and South That Time has
Not Vet Quite lroBed Out ~
b. sARAH d. LoWRYE

| VI OOuIeuerute ,VeteruHs NOtVueA AAuNoA
johnson. Is Of a very vivacious. not to say
sy vs % wssn xs iaSsl s.s Il 'el: e:
| nash OF her very brikht eyes to last mar IL
| she lives to be Z hundred.
My impression when met her and heard
her talk and listened to ths Ohs- d ana
on her very biased eallies OF sharp criticism
| on things not Southern was that she had
had good deal to do with molding the bias
Of numerous young ladies' below the Mason
For she was, believe. the head Of well.
known seminary for young women.
observe In the recent report OF the HIS.
torical Committee of the United Confeder.
ate Veterans that she Is spoken ot nowadays.
hearted Southern historian" That same re.
port advocated the use Of the book on the
Civil War that she has mothered into pub.
licity in the public schools Of the South; It
spiracy of 1851" and those who have read
the book assert that Lincoln IL at once its
hero and It's villain In that 1t makes him the
arch plotter Of the war and the adamant
forces Of hostilties on the South.
As JAY HOUSE remarked, both the vet.
"A Grams who made that recommendation
elderly persons. and their resolutions are
not likely to harm themselves. nor are they
liable to harm the coming generation which
is not likely to read the book in school or
strain, no doubt. Much worse things than
that were said Of him. and by the Northern
Democrats and Copperheads--some Of whom
were our own kith and kin. and not to be
d snd at G5 even r.ssdsa as shs skeletons for
suesses at the truth about the war.
Until the South catches up with the North
financially and the Negro labor question In
the South and the education question In the
IN X: Back sss S GET Sdusted ierss
memory Of the Civil War grievances is
bound to be kept green in the part. Of the
country where guessing wrong about the out.
come OF the war caused such q tragedy Of
havoc and death and disaster.
went South more than once with Robert
Ogden and his carefully culled philanthro.
pists and educators and journalists when
the same type to discuss the problems Of
education and rehabilitation and co.opera.
ton. Always in the public sessions the
Northern orators would begin or end their
speeches, with: There is no North and
would point to the conspicuous portrait Of
General Lee somewhere on the platform and
cal! the heavens to witness that. as patriot
and gentleman and general and hero. his
like had never trod Gods earth. In short.
whether 1t was education or politics. re.
ligion or philanthropy. the need of the on
coming generation or the solace OF the
passing veterans. Just as Dixie was played
a glass case the flag of the Confederacy was
cherished in Its faded. torn symbolism.
A LWAYS, too, our polite and somewhat
"A reservedly cordial hosts in the old
Southern houses where We were entertained
always there was that inevitable talk on
could quite ee DOWN as
fellow Americans. So that in spite Of phil.
anthropic and educational Oratory on the
part of the Northern guests and dignified
struggle to appear to acquiesce on the part
of the Southern hosts. 1t was plain every.
where that there was and there is still--a
North and South
The children are unlikely to feel 1t in the
same way or with the same personal hos.
the generation who lived through it or the
generation that suffered most by 1t have. but
whether they have school-book version of
it or family version Of it. the Southern
feeling about the Civil War and the North
ern opinion Of it are bound to differ: and
where that difference is played upon for
political purposes, force will be created
one way or another. until the penalty in
yolved by defeat in the war is paid.
ASKED q Southern woman, who is q
l. journalist and a very keen and forth
putting one down In New Orleans. what to
her mind the chief penalty was. And she
said thing that has stuck In my mind ever
since and made me wonder II she was cor
rect in her diagnosis, and. If correct. what
was the remedy?
She said that educationally the South was
behindhand, OF course, as result Of
poverty in the last fifty years and the huge
preponderance of the Negro unlettered popu-
lation as a tax on the white taxpayers. But
she said the Southern leaders socially and
learning as in sentiment. She said. aston
ishingly: 1--WE are a whole generation back
OF, the North and the West in the things we
discuss at our public meetings and in our
drawing rooms and In conventions, We are
d-victorian in our culture. and our so.
cialism is your philanthropy. while our
philanthropy is something your grandmother
may have practiced and discarded In her
teens. We are still in the gift book style
Of p0ey .na % s ssasy owsys ys
ornaments, or love tokens. but we embalm
short, we are sentimental! And nowhere
so relgiously and fanatically as at the meet.
federacy, where we fan our feelings with
words and oratory and mementoes!'
NOW the woman who said this to me was
~ not yet thirty, She had never been
North, and she had only seen the world
through the medium Of an old and conserva-
tive society and, since the late war, through
her journalism. do not know how she had
separated herself enough from the crowd to
see 1t. I suspect she will 20 far in her
Journalism. since she is able so soon to
take 80 unbiased view of what is passing
before her eyes, II she is correct about the
sentimentality of the South, she and her
generation may eventually drain off that
poisoned source of weakness; certainly they
are the ones to do 1t, not We Of the North.
I do not think, however. that sentiment
tality is confined to the South in this
country, any more than 1t is confined to
Germany on the other side. ! have listened
TO enough political and philanthropic and
religious speeches to know that most Of the
reasons that are given for doing things or
for leaving them qndone are sentimental
reasons, not reasonable sentiment.
l learned that long ago when my hostess
asked me not to play the fiddle on the
ground that 1t was Sunday and my tunes
80. .acular Tho truth NJ tho ,,atto. -