Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-31
TEXTILES IS ONLY
HOPE FOR SOUTH,
GOBER DECLARES


the migration of the negroes. 1t is
a strong presentation of a condition
that demands the best thought and
proper consideration.
For every result there is cause.
It does not help to shut our eyes
and become passive in the face or
impending trouble.
AS q result of the Civil war;, after
the south had been overwhelmed by
superior forces, she found that she
had suffered a property loss of more
than five billions of dollars. Her
economic life was broken up, many
OF her cities, railroads and manufac-
tories had been destroyed. Sherman
in his march to the sea left q trail
of destruction. Georgia was left with
her labor disorganized. many of her
farms grown up and to be reclaimed.
and every debt or obligation created
in helping the Confederacy out
lawed and impossible of collection.
In word, the south was left abso-
lutely without any capital. She had
to accept the fourteenth amendment
whereby she undertook and did pay
her part of the 0Var debt incurred
by the federal government in prose
| cutting the war and also pensions
for the federal soldiers. The effect
Of all this was to give the north the
money of the nation and to leave the
south without any. She had only
her lands and the only way to make
them remunerative was to plant and
grow cotton.
With the advantage of capital the
north followed manufacturing. The
Republican congress enacted into
law a high tariff. The south pro-
duced cotton and the north manu-
featured it and made the profit. The
south bought back the manufactured
products and paid profit and freight
both ways. With it's capital and
protective tariff it launched into
every field of manufacture; the
south bought the, products with
money gotten from the sale of cot
ton as a raw product.
The eleven seeding states had in
1860 a population of about nine mil
lions, of which about five millions
were whites.
The property loss caused by the
war fell upon these five millions of
southern whites: consider with this
the part paid by the south for the
the amount they have contributed
for pensions and an idea may be had
of the condition with which the
south had to contend with the sole
weapon of cotton.
The south has, in the main, con-
tinued to grow cotton and the north
to manufacture it. Go along White
hall street, see the merchandise for
sale and how little of it is manufac-
tured IN the south. The apparel of
women, hats, collars, shirts, handker-
chiefs, clothing, shoes. buttons, tools,
cutlery, farming implements and a
thousand other things, all manufac-
tured outside of Georgia. Locomo-
tives, cars, rails and, in fact, about
everything necessary to q railroad,
except the right-of-way and the
cross-ties, come from the north. The
stock of railroads, telephones, tele-
graph and insurance companies are
held mainly in the north and it gets
the dividends. This condition can
be figured out as applying to a great
many other things. 1t is estimated
that there are 175, 900 automobiles
in Georgia and placing their value
1 at $1,000 each we have SITS, 900, 900.
1t is a high estimate to say that an
automobile will last five years. If
so, we have a yearly depreciation of
thirty-five millions of dollars, besides
the upkeep and gasoline. A small
part Of the machines are assembled
in Georgia, but the parts are manu-
featured in the north. The money
for all goes beyond the state and is
paid for by cotton sold as a raw
product.
The north diSorganiZed our labor
in 1860; she is buying it now. Labor
agents have secured our state and
by giving out to the ignorant negro
beatific visions of that wonderland
and painting to him veritable
Hesperides with big wages and an
existence of sweet do-nothing, have
lured him away.
1t has been insisted that when the
Illusion is gone he will return. 1t
can be asserted that when a negro
leaves the cotton fields and goes to
city either south or north that he
will live in wretchedness and starve
before he will go back.
On account of the present immigra-
ton laws shutting out cheap foreign
labor upon which the north has
heretofore depended along with the
| further fact that on account Of the
prohibition laws many Of the older
immigrants are going back to their
| former homes, the labor condition
| at the north is now acute and, as
| long as we buy its manufactured
products, the north can hire away
the southern labor.
1t has been preached to the peo-
pie of our state to grow what they
consume; to raise their supplies and
quit depending on the west for meat,
| flour, hay, corn and many other
things that could be supplied at
home. This is right as far as it goes,
| but we must do more. The south
must manufacture at home things
| that it now buys abroad and for
which it pays with money from the
sale of raw cotton. 1t is true our
home textile people are doing much
but there is a field for numerous
other manufacturing industries and
when this is done we will keep the
profits at home, and take away the
club fprofits, which is now used
to take away our labor.
This emigration in my opinion has
been underestimated. There are
towns and counties where the ne.
groes are practically all gone With
out adequate labor the farmer is
now endeavoring to grow cotton and
fight the boil weevil. I hope he will
succeed but if he does not the ques-
ton is what next? One who will
look conditions in the face can find
but one answer.
The farmer takes his newspaper
to find out the price of cotton, a
price fixed by gang of spectators
in New York, who sell the total crop
over and over a thousand times.
These spectators never planted a
seed nor gathered a pound In a late
kindred case determined by the SUI
perior court of the United States, 1t
| was shown that Snec111a+orc in Chi