Year: 1878

uition. we are mlserably poor, aud ire
coverably in debt, unless something can be
doue in the near future to develop our ma
teral resources. Our legislative fathers
have hibernated ut the Capitol, aud mean
time swung another milestone around the
necks of tue farmers by the passage of a
second lien law. The probability is, much
of the spring may be consumed in attempt
Ing to prove to the people that it is more
fepugnant to morality to repudiate dis.
honest debt than it is to pay an honest one
that had been, but never should have been
sated. Time rolls on. the deLt in.
crcases, our net income is a, myth, and to-
day more than ten per cent. of the cash
market value of all the realty of the State is
obligated by reason of our past misfortunes.


There are times in the history of every
country when debt is really blessing
but it is only when that couptry is in aeon
dition of growing and increasing prosperity,
If South Carolina owes $lO,O00,000 and is
not producing more than that amount an-
nual'y, i'll net capital, her debt increases an-
nually, and she becomes poorer and less able
to meet her obligations. Is not this our
condition to-day? But, if With that debt
uh her shoulders, she should produce an
nualy double that amount and thereby en-
hance the market value Of her productive
resources she would be annually richer and
the better able to pay the interest upon her
debt If this were her condition now, her
lands would be increasing in value, her
multifarious resources would be developed.
and as she would be gradually growing rich
er there would be no haste in paying off, or
concern rs to how she would ultimately
liquidate her debt


From this standpoint the questions natu-
rally arise, "can South Carolina return to
prosperity, oppressed as she is, without as.
sstance from abroad! Are her present pop
ulation capable of developing her resources
to such an extent as to enable her to survive
her debt, and become again the community
of happy homes she once was p


We do not believe she can. Nor do we
consider the vital point at issue, the presence
or absence Of cash capital. Were there
millions of paper or metallic currency
brought to-day into the State, it would be
curse rather than blessing. We are an
agricultural people, and must continue so to
be for many years. The presence of. accu-
mulated bank capital would not benefit us
whit We have never seen farmer in
all our experience benefited as such by the
use of borrowed funds from banks. Nei-
ther do we believe that the panacea for our
ills is to come from the influx Of moncycd
men with their "pockcts full of rocks"-
These men would simply give employment
to surplus labor in localities, and it would
be years before the good effects would be-
come general.


The building of factories in Greenvillc
does not enhance the price of real estate in
Abbeville. Nor will factory in Sumter
make Williamsburg more prosperous, any
more than Granitevile has thrown sunshine
upon the African darkness Of Beauforts
jungles.


All these investments are to be cncour-
aged, for they improve localities and in the
aggregate increase The value our taxable
property. But they do not now, and never
will, until VIC are converted into manufac-
turing people, indicate general State pros
perty. And We are tired of waiting for
prosperity to come through these channels.
We believe it can be brought about in a
much more speedy way, and feel assured
that had the two last Legislatures directed
their work to this end, we would now be so
rapidly increasing in State wealth that we
would be better able in five years to liqui-
date the entire debt of Radical rascality
than we will ever be by spending weeks
and months discussing whether one or the
other of two policies is the honest one.


One sort of recuperation is by 1n,migra-
tion; not that sort of spasmodic, individual
effort that has been so frequently made since
the war, where one or two men with limited
means would attempt to procure few labor
crs for whom so little was paid, or indeed
would be paid, that nothing but the scum
of the purlieus of our and foreign cities
could be obtained


But we mean such Immigration as is or
should be fostcred by State legislation.


For instance, the exemption by State en-
actment for term Of years from taxation
of all the improvements erected by immi
grants, would be one Of the steps in the
right direction, or encouragement to colo
nes by extending State aid, as has been fre-
quontIy done to railroads and other corpora
tiOas. Such assistance has never been
proffercd by the State. Indeed VIC have
never so much as published an official circu-