The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-31
AUGUSTUS CONVENTION.
The Place the City Occupies in the
History Of the South.

]
Metropolis Gov. Tlllman Makes a
Characteristic Speech on the Only
Way to Build Up the South Senator
Walsh Also Heard From-No Plan
Formally Set Forth Yet.
Augusta, Ga, May 3O.-The Southern
Interstate Immigration Congress- opened
auspiciously in Augusta to-day. It was
called to order at noon in the Grand
opera house by President Bryan of
| Nashville, who introduced Mayor J. H.
Alexander, of Augusta, who welcomed
the congress on the part of the city
Mayor Alexanders speech was full of in
teresting historical facts about
Augusta. 1t is the oldest inland
city in the south Atlantic states,
and was the second established by Ogle-
thorpe. This city before the day of rail
roads, being the farthest inland city with
river navigation to the sea south of Vir-
ginia, was the point of communication
with the outer world of all that territory
embraced in Northern Alabama, East
Tennessee, Western North Carolina,
North Georgia and South Carolina. Here
all this vast section came in wagons to
/ trade II have been told by old
/ citizens who saw with their own
/ eyes said Mayor Alexander, "that in
! fall and winter it was not uncommon
| to see our capaclOus Broad street so
| closely packed with wagons that one
might step from one to another for mile
| or more. This city is mentioned in con
! tempOraneous history in l740, five years af-
| ter the settlement was planted, as already
lin state of great prosperity, well
! equipped for trade, and conducting an
| extensive traffic throughout the vast and
fruitful tributary country"
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COTTON GIN.
1t was here that ELI Whitney conducted
his experimental works, and in 1893 de-
yeloped the cotton gin, one Of the most
| famous industrial inventions Of tho world,
which Immediately revOlutionized the
| agriculture Of this section from tobacco
and indigo to cotton, as its staple crop
In 1871, the whole cotton cropof the south
was thirty-eight bales. In 1900, seven
years after Whitney's gin appeared,
| Georgia alone exported over 1000 bales.
1--WE have here the oldest public Journal
in the south, the Augusta Chronicle es-
tablished in l1S5, and published continu-
Ously since that date.
1--WE have the oldest incorporated edu-
cational institution in the south in the
w
of the legislature Of Georgia in l7T3.
"We have the second oldest completed
railroad in the country, the South Caro-
lima road, running from Charleston 10
Augusta and preceded only by the Cam
den and Amboy railroad in New Jersey"
THE AUGUSTA OF TO-DAY.
Following Mayor Alexander, Hon. JOS
eph r. Lamar, president of the Young
Mems Business League Of Augusta,
which secured the convention for this
city, welcomed the congress, and followed
with more valuable facts concerning the
/ Augusta of today Taking simply tn
Official census figures for 1890 he showed
that Augusta had increased in the num-
ber of manufacturing establishments in
the past decade G33 per cent; in capital
/ employed 215 per cent. in labor employed
/ 275 per cent, and in wages paid $50 per
cent. That it had spent more money for
public improvements than any city in the
south. and had the lowest death rate in
the south.
WELCOMED BY THE GOVERNOR.
Gov. Northen welcomed the congress on
the part Of Georgia, and gave a
| glowing picture of her progress and
thrift He declared the readiness Of
! Georgia to welcome industrious immi-
grants who come to cast their lot here.
Gov. Northen was greeted with most
enthusiastic applause. The southern
| people, he said, are grossly mi5undcr-
stood and abused, aud from some cause.
he trusted it was from ignorance mis-
represented in their social and political
| conditions. This convention should come
to the defence Of our civilization and let
the world know that no people among
the nations has prOuder record for law
and order, or higher or better ciViliza-
/ tion than the people we have the honor 20
.N..,A
! liberal appropriations for schools and
| better highways. "kinally there is a spirit
| abroad in some sections with which per
| sonallyI hayenO sympathy. Undue antagO-
! nism to corpora tiOns is not only unWise
| but it is destructive of the common good
/ Individuals, as such, cannot maintain a
! state nor build section. Corporations
! in their corporate capacity are just as es-
/ sential TO the thrift Of a community as the
! individual farmers physicians or any
/ other class Of its people. We cannot af-
/ ford ruthlessly to destroy them. We can
not afford to do less than give
them all needed protection and en-
! couragement. In my honest judg-
ment this convention cannot do
/ a better thing than say that so far as
! they have the power to control, the laws
! of the states at the south shall be such as
/ to protect legitimately invested capital
! wherever at the south it shall be placed.
! Prolonged applause He who would
! put his wicked hand upon such invest
ment is an enemy 10 his state and a traitor
TO the best interests of his people. rAp-
! plause
SENATOR wALsH's WELCOME.
| Senator Patrick Walsh, whose home is
| here, welcomed the congress and ex-
| tended them the privileges Of the CONNER
| cial Club, of which he is president. He
said the assembling of thirteen southern
! states reminded him OF that
| first convention of the thir-
/ teen original states TO declare their indie
! pcndeDce. The present movement is to
! formulate plans by which this most IA
vored section could enlarge its citizenship
and work out its material independence.
! He thought the occasion most auspicious,
and the outlook very bright for the sue
cess of the congress.
TILLMAN's IDEAS OF WHAT MUST BE DONE.
Responses TO the addresses Of welcome
were made by Gov MacCorgle Of West
Virginia, Gov Carr of North Carolina,
and Gov Tillman of South Carolina.
The latter declared it was well enough
10 invite people and capital from the out
side, and all that cape would be vel
come but for every dollar of outside cap
ital the southern people must eXpend ten
Of their own, if they were in earnest
about desiring 10 build mp the south.