The Changing Background of Southern Politics

Abstract

T HE South is manifesting and social changes that must vitally affect the spirit and content of politics. These changes are, in part, an expansion of the southern portraiture in the national picture and, in part, a distinct shifting of the southern scene. The changing South-more changing than advancing-may be briefly viewed by noting the coming of industry, the shifts in agriculture, and the movements of the population. The substantial progress in southern agriculture in the twentieth century has been matched by much greater gains in manufacturing. In fact, manufactures exceed twice the of farm crops in the South, with the eleven ex-Confederate states showing seven billion dollars in manufactured products in i919. The industrial development has been most important in the Appalachian regions of coal, iron, and water power, though mention should be made of other sections, particularly those of lumber and petroleum. Industrialization since the Civil War has tended to shift predominance from the lands of the old plantations to sections that were only slightly touched by the plantation economy of the Old South. These newer and rawer sections, with a shortage of traditions, have tended to stimulate the spirit of the economic man and to foster an industrial consciousness that threatens the agrarian philosophy in every sense except in the teachings of laissez faire. The captain of industry or finance rather than the country gentleman has become the prevailing pattern in the minds of the aspiring youth of the South. Southern manufacturing is chiefly in the coarse-goods stage, with low added to the product by the manufacturing process. The last census figures furnish strong testimony on this point. Texas, for instance, with a total of $I,449,80I,9I6 in manufactures for i919, contributed only $45I,869,640 as value added by manufacture. Only three southern states showed values added by manufacture that equal or surpass fifty per cent of final of their manufactures. At the same time, the value added by manufacture in proportion to the units (not the cost) of labor used was much lower for the South than for the rest of the country, very much lower than the figures for the Northeast. One laborer in manufacturing in South Carolina measures a value added by manufacture of $I457 for the year i919, in comparison with $3050 per laborer in Massachusetts. The comparatively low wages in southern industries are as closely connected with the nature or class of the industries as with any other factor. It is in no small degree true that those industries which thrive on cheap labor have