Year: 1877

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: Nashville American. @~


J The advice given TO the South b
the Department. of Agriculture !


sensible and squaFely applicable t
, the cotton and tobacco I9rtions o
Tennessee. It has been obvious


however. for many years, that th


South must become se3f-sustainin.


TO be prosperous. Even did thl
price of cotton make it profitable Il


apply all the force aud attention t


raising single crop, purchasing sup


plies elsewhere, it would not be goot


policy. The temptation 10 extray


agance and free living is too great


to be overcome by prudence. The


result will always be living beyond


the profits, over-reachipg, enslave


ment to the commission merchant,


ruinous rates of interest," 1t is this


which leaves countries that produce


cotton, coffee and sugar so often as


poor at the end OF a century as If


they had never made splendid pro-
fits. The attention is turned to the


vast income, and the MUD which


contemplates the stream of wealth


Towing it takes no account of the


thousand little channels By which it
flows out again. The aggregate Of


debt increases in such a country aud
1t wakes some day to find itself own


ed abroad. and solely on account Of
its own imprudence and want of pa
tient industry. and attention to de-
tails. We have been taught this
lesson by bitter experiences. Per-
haps we have needed the lessor. to
some extent. In the border States
we have In the South generally a
wonderful stride has been taken to-
wards learning that we can only
prosper by raising our own supplies
Of all such things as we can raise
more cheaply than we can buy, count


ing treights and profits of middle
men. Ii there is a commodity we
use. which can be raised aud deliver
ed to us more cheaply than we can
produce it, then all sound economy
bids us buy that one from abroad;
but it is generally agreed that such
is not the case with the South, as to
any of the necessities s-the bread
stuffs, meats, ordinary. clothes, do
mestics and prints and implements
and machinery. That we do not
produce them is generally admitted
to be owing partly to our -slowness
to change an old system, and to poll
teal causes. The last we have now
been happily relieved from. and as
to the first, we have made more rapid
atrides than any agricultural people
ever made in the same length of
time. The problem is still an open
one. We have still to complete the
work, but we have, made the begin
ming. The South uses less to-day
from abroad than she once did She
raises and manufactures more. sShe
sends more commodities to other
people than ever before, exclusive of
cotton, (which we send as much.


The Southern people paid tribute
to New England before the war, and
while they procured splendid living
the East was laying up the Surplus
and storing away the profits. 10 a
considerable extent,al this is ended
but while we may see the future in
the good beginning we have made,
and congratulate ourselves upon the
initiative, We should be careful to
remember that we have only just be-
gun the work. The industrial prob
lem, the problem of becoming self
sustaining, and, more than that. of
turning the tables and Of absorbing
the wealth we have thrown away and
allowed to accumulate in the East,
is one Of more value TO us than any
other that can present itself. 9 The
existence of a great way may i'm
press the lesson for the, present, but
it must not be forgotten when the
occasion goes by. 1t is the people
who pay most attention to details
who are most selfssustaining. who
have the greatest variety Of sur
pluses, vino are never liable to be
ruined by any single crop, that grows
richest and most powerful. Such
society becomes compact and well
knit. together. Misfortune To one
interest is shared by the rest, and
no great ruin falls upon any one
class. There is no single great in
terest to bear down all of society in
misfortune. 1t is this that has made
Germany and England the
greatest nations OIL. the earth, and of
these France is the soundest and
least liable to financial disturbance,
because she is a nation of small in
terests, Infinite detail. makinga a won
derfully compact aggregate, .assr