Evening star., 1939-12-31

tory strengthened and confirmed
their characteristics and they came
to the eve of secession with the
elements Of their nationalism intact
and intensified"
In discussing the Southern spirit
of initiative" Prof. Cotterill pointed
to history as furnishing evidence
that every American explorer of
note was a Southerner. There was,
he said, mo northern counterpart
of Boone, Lewis and Clark, FIRE.
mont, Carson and Bridger."
The origin of Southern national
ism, the speaker said, was not to
be found in external forces What
is to be found is not the origin of
unity but the origin of war; not the
beginning of differentiation but the
beginning of hospitality
On the same program. Prof. Paul
H. Buck of Harvard University dis
cussed The Genesis of the Nations S
l AoSiShi III tAiC h1outil.
Now Problem.
Saying he wondered why many
people assume an air of patronage
toward men and women who lived
and worked in the South in the
80s and 90s,' Prof. Buck declared
that ''if ever there was a region
which should write its history in
terms of the strivings of it's common
folk, it seems to me it is the South.
The post-bellum generation brought
Southern development back into
harmony with this fundamental
theme-brought it back from the
errant path into which the CLAM
orous heroes of the Confederacy had
strayed. The prosaic struggles of
working farms and planting schools
are never celebrated with the -four
ish of trumpets, but they evoked
as much strength and as true no.
bility of character as the South has
ever shown"
Recent studies of the South made
by the Southern Regional Commit
tee, Social Science Research Coun-
Gil, and other groups, gave a fairly
uniform picture. Prof. Buck said.
"A land blessed with favorable
climate, fertility, mineral wealth,
transportation facilities and man
power has been reduced by its own
wasteful practices and outside eX-
ploitation to the status of the
poorest region of the United States.
This economic unbalance con-
stitutes a serious menace to the
country as whole. 1t permits an
economic imperialism within the
Nation which makes mockery of
the union of equal parts and jeo-
pardizes democracy in both North
and South.
A Dividing Influence.
ut is no far-fetched analogy to
point out that the unbalance of
today has the same divisive in
fluence as had the unbalance of the
1850s. To the country as whole
the problem is one of achieving
greater equity by adjusting its ma
tionalism to the legitimate local in
terests of its sections. To the South
it is problem of adjusting its
regionalism more harmoniously to
the dominant trends of national
life. Momentarily this places the
South in something of a dilemma
On the one hand it clings to its own
dimly understood and still living
past Wavering and not altogether
sure confidence in the values of in
herited folk ways. On the other it
partially accepts with the same
fluctuation between faith and doubt
the blue prints of expert planners
pointing the way toward salvation.
"A land whose life has been and is
dominantly agricultural. stands
weary and with weakened defenses
before an aggressive and exploitative
nationalism that is primarily urban
and industrial and whose seat of
power is primarily in the North
east-the section on which his
torically has been most hostile to
Southern aspirations.
A Contrast.
In conclusion, Prof. Buck said
survey of the Nations problem in
the South leaves one dominant i'm
preston. 1T is one of contrast
the contrast between the kind of
South that men of vision could
build for us all out of resources
that exist and the South which is
the consequence of waste and greed.
Need the historian, from his know
ledge of mans conduct in the past
shake his head and utter words of
Encouragement to those who sug-
gest that intelligent analysis and
planning might bring about better
era? Will divisions of race and
class and section, monopolies, and
tariffs, jealousies and animosities
prevail to ruin the aspirations of
the expert students and architects
of society? Perhaps it is better to
let the future answer the question:
But in my own heart there is hope
because I see in the Southern past
so much of courage and slow yet
persistent achievement in unrelent-
ing struggle against great odds"
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