The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1882-06-03
The GREENTILLE CONVENTION.
WORD TO OUR VALLEY FRIENDS
lAberdeen Examiner !

held at Greenville next month a
full report should be made cover.
ing every item of expenditure be.
fore and since the war by the va.
rious counties of Mississippi, in
leyeeing and otherwise protecting
their coasts against overhows. and
copies of this report should be
sent through the agency of the
Associated press, or otherwise, to
every prominent journal in the
Western, Eastern and Middle
States.
The advantages that will accrue
to the riparian counties from this
mode of procedure are incalcu-
liable, for the densest ignorance
prevails in regard to the matter
throughout the region North of
the Ohio river. 1t is commonly
believed in the North and East
that our river friends have done
nothing and are doing nothing to
protect their own coast; that on
the contrary they are idly waiting
for the general government to
step in and build water fences
around the plantations, while the
owners of the lands CLEAN all the
benefits and profits incident to the
transaction, without sharing to any
degree in the hazards and expen-
ditures.
You hear the remark daily made
in the North: awe are willing to
help levee the Mississippi coast
whenever the people of the valley
show a disposition to help them
Selves" and these people have
no conception of the magnitude of
the work already done-and re-
peatedly renewed when destroyed,
or the immense expenditure that
has been incurred in the work by
the heroic little band of riparian
proprietors. Show them what you
have done; convince them that
you have made the best possible
use OF your resources to bar the
floods of the great river, and you
will create such reaction in your
favor throughout the country as
will exceed your brightest and
fondest expectations.
1t is useless to seek publicity
through the Southern, and partic-
ularly through the valley press,
for the story cannot reach the ears
and eyes through that medium
that must satisfy and convince if
you would succeed in enlisting
general cooperation and govern
ment aid. You must reach every
commercial center in the country
with your report, and you can only
do that through the metropolitan
journals, and in order to make
that report eff'ectual it must tell
the whole story of your labors and
expenditures.
In this connection we warn our
valley brethren against putting up
what is vulgarly called "a poor
mouth" in their resolutions and
reports. This is not winning
card to play in the nineteenth cen
tury. 1t may answer as an appeal
for old clothes and cold victuals
but it will not arouse business men
and progressive statesmen to ac-
ton. When the fire fend swept
the young city of Chicago from the
face of the earth it was not the
plea of poverty or ruin that caused
the great stream of capital to flow
towards the valley of cinders-it
was attached thither by the sub
lime exhibition of energy and de-
termination manifested by a people
who had seen the earnings of
generation pass away in a night,
and this manifest spirit afforded a
guarantee for safe investment, and
lured millions into marble, and
brick, and iron, that would have
avoided contact with a people who
talked of ruin and poverty, as they
would have avoided the vicinage
of pestilence.
Show these people that you are
stout of heart and stout of resour-
ces but that you are engaged in
an undertaking that is taxing your
strength too severely, and that you
ask cooperation and not charity,
and they will hurry to your aid, for
they will then realize the immensi-
ty of the profits that must attend
venture that can induce you to
dare so much, endure so much, in
vest so much, and though baffled
oft still forever maintain the fight.
Status Of the Buchanan-Manning
Contest.