Newspapers / The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, … / May 27, 1903, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
RELIGIOUSIPHASES OF THE NEGRO PROBLEM BY EX-GOV. W. J. NORTHEN. RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, MAY 27. 1903. VOLUME 68, NUMBER 47I 7 JOSIAH WILUAM BAILEY, Editor. THE FUTURE OF THE SOUTH. (From " Facts About the South," by l II. Edmondi.) Because of the advantages given by nature to this section for profitable farm operations, and of the enormous, area of tillable land, no limit can be set to the possibilities of Southern agricul tural advancement. But while agriculture is ad vancing, coincident with it will be a continuation of the tremendous expansion , in industrial and commercial interests that has been going on for several years. With the southward trend of population and capital, and the increase in the number of in habitants of this country, now about 15,000,000 to 18,000,000 every ten years, there must come such a rate of progress in the South and such oppor tunities for legitimate development enterprises as no other section of this country has ever seen. In I860, the entire country made 884,474 tons of pig-iron; to-day the South alone is making nearly 3,000,000 tons, or more than three times as much. In 1860 the total output of bituminous coal in the United States was 5,775,077; last year the South mined over 53,000,000 tons, Alabama alone having an output nearly double the total bi tuminous coal production of the whole country 40 years ago. Today the South has over 55,000 miles of railroads; the country had only 30,592 miles in I860, and of this 9,800 miles were in the Southern States. The value of the manufactured cotton goods of the South is now over $110,000, 000 a year, while the output in 1860 for the United States was only $115,000,000. The value of the lumber products of the country in 1860 was $96, 000,000, while" to-day the South is annually mar-ketinffr?oi,-f200,O00,000-;: worth. - The"- eolith's ; mineral and manufactured products in 1900 ag gregated $1,620,000,000, against $1,900,000,000 for the whole country in 1860. Then the country had 420 miles of street railways; now the South has nearly 3,000 miles. Then the petroleum output was only 500,000 barrels ; now the South is market ing over 200,000,000 barrels a year, the output be ing limited only by transportation facilities, and it is, as lately expressed by a London expert, "the Gibraltar of the lights and fuels of the world." Even in banking capital we have nearly one-half as much as the United States had in 1860, viz., $205,000,000 against $420,000,000. The trend of the world's economic development is toward the South, for, as Andrew Carnegie has recently well said, in the past capital could draw raw material to it, and thus industry centered where capital was most abundant, but now raw material draws the capital and dominates the de velopment of industrial centers. Nature has done morethan'her share for the South. She has cov 1 ered its mountains and its valleys with timber; she has burdened its hillsides with mineral wealth beyond the power of imagination; she has given it coal and iron and cotton and oil, marbles and granites and clays ; she has furnished it a variety of soils, which, according to their kind, need but to be "tickled with the hoe to laugh with the har vest" of cotton or grain or sugar or rice or fruits. Earth has no duplicate of the wealth of nature's bounty to the South. But the statistics which tell in cold figures the story of what the South has accomplished, which tell how our pig-iron production has grown from less than 400,000 tons to nearly 3,000,000 tons, our cotton-mill capital from $21,000,000 to $175,000,- . 000, our total manufacturing capital from $250, 000,000 to $1,100,000,000, our exports ! through ' Southern ports from $261,000,000 to; $510,000, tell ..us really, but a small, part .of -the, work .which has '. j been done. . These figures only indicate something of I the real story. The true advancement, and ' that which is destined to have the greatest effect upon this section and upon the world, is the ex perience which has been gained, the industrial training secured, by the factory hand as well as by the superintendent and the president, in the knowledge of how to do things, and in a better understanding of our natural resources. Against the poverty, the inexperience, the discredit and doubt at home and abroad of ourselves and our section of 1880, the South, thrilled with energy and hope, stands to-day recognized by the world as that section which of all others in this coun try or elsewhere has the greatest potentialities for the creation of wealth and the profitable em ployment of its people. If the South has done this much with the dis couraging conditions which it faced twenty years ago, what may we not expect now that the busi ness world has come to realize that no other sec tion of this country or any other offers equal op portunities for the investment of capital for the broadest development of manufacturing, mining, railroad and agricultural interests. And instead of having no immigration, as in the past, it is certain that we are to witness a great southward movement of population. Picture the conditions of 1880 and the results accomplished since that time, then study the present situation; recall the fact that the manifestations of to-day in railroad .extension, cotton manufacturing and other direc tions are merely the fulfillment of plans inter rupted by the war, but based upon natural advan tages that war could not destroy, and attempt to forecast what will be done in Southern advance ment within the next ten years 1 A THOUQHT FROM EflERSON. There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is igno rance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. It is not without pre established harmony, this sculpture in the mem ory. The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. Bravely let him speak the utmost syllable of his confession. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as propor tional and of good issues, so it be faithfully im parted, but God will not have His work made manifest by cowards. It needs a divine man to exhibit anything divine. A man is relieved and gay when he has his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace. Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string. Emerson, Self -Reliance. . Our business is not to build quickly, but to build upon a ' right foundation and in a right spirit. Life is more than a mere competition as between man and man; it is not who can be done first, but who can work best; it is not who can rise highest in the shortest time, but who is working most pa tiently and ovingly in accordance with designs of God.--Joseph Parker. THE COST OF CRIHE. , " Prominent statisticians and officers of th &vr. such as district judges and States attorneys have affirmed many times during the past five years that, from their experience, the liquor traffic ia re sponsible for much of the crime in this country; Their estimates are that from 50 to 75 per cent is traceable to the liquor evil. Bower, the eraient authority on criminal law, said last year in the American Lawyer that 75 per cent of all crimes was due to the use of intoxicating liquor. Eu gene Smith, an attorney of New York City, says that the criminal classes cost the United States more than $600,000,000 every year. Mr. Smith read a paper at the meeting of the National Pris on Association in Cleveland in October, 1900, Among other things Mr. Smith said: :. "This vast sum, exceeding the value of the cot ton and wheat crops of the United States, is all of it sheer spoliation without any compensating consideration or benefit, a terrifying" incubtts lip on the industry and prosperity of the peopled There is hardly any item1 of public, expenditure that is not directly or indirectly enlarged by rea son of the existence of crime or that would not have been diminished if crime could be extermi nated. Crime more than all" other causes com bined has operated to crowd public institutions. There are a quarter of a million inmates of alms houses, asylums and benevolent institutions." In the city and county of New York, Mr. Smith found that over $20,000,000 was spent during 1899 in the repression and correction of crime. .Out of a total expenditure of about $90,000,000 this is a crime taxation of $6 per capita. At San Fran cisco it was $5 per capita, in Chicago $7 and in Dlinois $3. In smaller cities the average is about $3.50 per capita. Mr. Smith calculates that each man, woman and child living on farms pays $1 each per year for crime. He figures that the in habitants of American cities, pay $105,000,000, town and county taxation chargeable to crime $45,000,000,and federal and State taxation charge able to crime $30,000,000, total $200,000,000. ' The cost of public education in the United States in 1890 was $139,000,000. The costof crime greatly exeeds in amount every other object of public ex penditure. The outlay of $200,000,000 represents an ex penditure only in prevention and correction of crime. It is impossible to itemize all losses sus tained through acts of forgery, arson or theft, but it is found that statistics based on a broad in duction show that the average habitual criminal realizes from his spoliation at least $1,600 a year. This is the figure named by a committee of crimi nal experts before the Prison Association of New York. That is confirmed by independent investi gations of Recorder Hill, of Birmingham, Eng land. The number of prisoners in confinement in the United States at the present time is not from $100,000. The numerical ratio of criminals out of prison to those in prison has been variously estimated. Some authorities have asserted that there are ten times, others five times as many criminals at large as there are in prison. Taking the more conservative estimate it will give the total number of criminals at large in the United States as 500,000 and. of these it is claimed by eminent authorities one-half, or 250,000, must be classed as habitual criminals who make a living by crime. These 250,000 at $1,000 each, represents, an aggregate annual income of $400,000,000. , Mr. Smith adds this to the yearly taxation caused by crime of $200,000,000, and it gives the enormous total of $600,000,000. If we. are to believe judges now sitting on the bench and prosecuting attorneys now in office, at least 125,000 habitual criminals in this country are the product of the saloon. To the saloon we must also charge up one-half of the above amount rep resenting the cost of crime, or $300,000,000. To offset this, the State and city governments re ' ceived in license fees last year about $100,000,00 and the Federal Government $183,400,000 in taxes from the manufacture of intoxicating liquors. From a financial standpoint it looks as though the' " people of the United States sustained a financial loss each year in their partnership with the liquor traffic. Prohibition Year Book. l-p.: vi , . To be fit for circulation , the gold must be al loyed. ' ' ; , A cheerful, intelligent face is the end of culture and success. Emerson. , V .
The Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 27, 1903, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75