The Watchman And Southron

AS OTHERS SEE THE SOUTH

Though we of the South have been aware for some time of its industrial development, its agricultural diversification, and its cultural renascence, it is never amiss to hear the testimony of distant observers, and to reflect upon them.

It is one thing for some folks to see these facts: it is quite another for a paper like the Christian Science Monitor, which is published in Boston and read in almost every country on the globe, to devote a goodly portion of its meritorious editorial page to the South's notable position in the country's present progress. Highly gratifying it is that the Monitor's message will reach offices and hearthstones in lands so remote that a less amplified voice would find them beyond its range.

Nor is this comment noteworthy for that reason alone: it is as judicious and comprehensive a review of Southern conditions as editorial space would permit, so much so that portions of it are here reproduced:

"Remarkable as has been the development of agriculture, manufacturing, commerce and education in what are referred to as the newer sections of the United States, it may be said that nowhere has greater progress along these lines been made in comparatively recent years than in the South.

With the industries of the Northern and Eastern sections of the country restored, while those of the South languished, prosperity came back to the North (after the War Between the States) long before the industrial tide turned southward. The advantage gained was so great that until population increased to a considerable degree it was not believed that competitive industries could profitably exist in the South. A generation of Americans contented themselves in this belief.

"But there has recently been worked a tremendously important industrial transition, Southern capital, slow to assert itself under a burdensome economic handicap has at last been turned into channels for the development of that section's potential resources. Success in this undertaking has attracted investments by people in the North, and the former levels of production and shipping are being restored."

So much for the treatment of Southern industry, in which the Monitor editorial is quite conservative, for it is evident that former levels of production have long since been passed. As to agriculture,

"While cotton remains the staple crop, it is encouraging to note that diversification is becoming general. Grain, fruit, live stock, dairy products, hay and garden vegetables which twenty years ago were shipped in from Northern markets in large quantities, are now raised in such profusion that they in turn, are being sold in competition with Northern products. Good roads have been built in place of the rutted and hilly highways. These are unmistakable evidences that the South has issued for herself a new declaration of independence."

The Monitor writer moves on to a third consideration, which he rightly considers no less important than the first two, industry and agriculture.

"More encouraging than all these indications of material prosperity are the evidences of cultural progress. It is in this respect that the greatest true progress is being made. There exists among them (the Southern people) that basic quality of true Americanism which has remained indomitable and unconquerable. They have proved to their own satisfaction that economic, industrial, and cultural limitations can be removed. They now, happily, are seeing the dawn of a new era of genuine progress."

The eyes that see us in this light, let it be repeated, are distant, discerning, and New England. It would be false modesty indeed that refused to accept the judgment as graciously as it is given. -- Atlanta Journal.