COTTON AND REGIONALISM 7 



water and electric lighting systems in farm homes were 

 found mostly in the Hay and Dairying regions of New 

 England and the South Pacific Area. When urban cen- 

 ters are included it is shown that the North Atlantic 

 Coast states, with less than a third of the population, 

 paid over one-half of the income and profit taxes ap- 

 propriated for the nation as a whole. 15 A study of read- 

 ing habits of the population shows that New England, 

 New York, and New Jersey have distinct preeminence. 

 The draft records reveal the fact that the best physical 

 fitness was found in North Central and Mountain states, 

 and the lowest in the industrial Northeast. A mapping 

 of the men and women of eminence as listed by Who's 

 Who shows that over half of those included live in the 

 northeast Atlantic states, although a little less than half 

 were from that section. 



THE SOUTH AND COTTON 



The inevitable illustration of the trends discussed 

 above is the South. It furnishes the region most defi- 

 nitely committed to the production of one economic plant, 

 the staple of cotton. In the Cotton Kingdom it has fur- 

 nished the most sharply defined section and has led the 

 most aggressive sectional movement in the history of our 

 country. In its Negroes it possesses the largest and most 

 clearly defined racial group in the United States. This 

 group is historically associated with cotton culture, and 

 the association continues. The South is relatively among 

 the least urban and industrial of the regions of the 

 United States. This, of course, is another way of saying 



15 See also Turner, "Sections and Nations," The Tale Review 

 (Oct., 1922), pp. 11-12. 



