The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-02-14
EUi;It..N Nj TOPICS.

In commenting on the proposal Of Sena-
tor Glass to submit the new Constitution
TO those voters only who, under its pro-
visions, should be entitled to vote. the
Petersburg IndeN-Appeal says:
THE power to frame and put into force
the new Constitution, without submission
to popular vote at all, resides in the con-
vention, and that would be a far better
plan of procedure. It would obviate the
possibility Of combination between the
corrupt clements of the Democratic party
and the Republicans, and it would solve
the difficulty in an orderely and lawful
manner 1t would meet and dispose of
every danger to the work of the conven-
ton apprehended by Senator Glass and
his friends, without exciting the protest
and resentment that Senator Grass pan
would be sure to arouse. 1t would dis
criIninatc against no voter, because 1t
would put every voter upon the same
basis.
But what will the Indcx-Appeal do with
the pledge which the Norfolk Democratic
Convention made? That convention,
which, in fact. called the convention,
adopted the following resolution:
Resolved That it is the sense of this
convention that in framing a new Con-
franchise any citizen of Virginia who had
a right to vote prior to 1861, nor the de-
scendant of any such person, and that
when such Constitution shall have been
framed it shall be submitted to a vote Of
the people for ratification or rejection
Former Speaker Thomas 3. Reed con-
tributes to the Saturday Evening Post
brilliant article on Orators and Oratory
of To-day. In the course of it he says:
Athens in its prime had but 10000 free
citizens; 5000 was q good attendance; and
the human voice could have reached them
all In New York, Cooper Union holds
less than three thousand people, and
Madison Square Garden thirteen. If the
orator could convert them all he would
hardly disturb the majority of either
party What a difference between an au-
dience in either place and the audience
Demosthenes addressed when, in the Ora
ton on the Crown, he reached the sum-
init of fame, whereon he has stood for
three and twenty centuries i'll solitary and
unapproached pre-eminencc. Even Cleo
70 himself, his only rival in historic re-
nown, comedies that Denosthenes is the
standard of perfection His audienceewas
fraction. His Grafton did not have to
share place in the Athenian minds with
absorbing business and with newspapers
laden with the doings of world.
The Souths marvellous expansion is the
wonder of the age. The following arti
Gle, in point, from Leslie's Weekly, is in
teresting. We quote:
when Jay in 1874 negotiated with Eng
land the first commercial treaty OF any
consequence which his country ever en-
tered into, he appears not to have been
aware that cotton was then, or ever would
be, an article of export of the United
States Its production, too, was insigni-
fcant For the past few years its an
nual average production has been about
&c, 100000 bales of 500 pounds each, and its
annual average expectation has been over
$1,000 bales. The worlds total cotton
product is about 100000 bales. In the
amount of its cotton manufactures the
South has advanced from zero in the
early days to seven per cent. OF its inn
mense crop of to-day, as compared with
thirteen per cent. manufactured by the
Northern States, and the South is gain
ing in a ratio double as fast as the North.
AN estimate just made is that the in
come of the fifteen Southern States in 1900
was - 100 GVlG00 OF this stupenuous amount
$500, Geo, 600 was from wheat, corn, sugar,
tobacco, and the rest of the products OF
the soil exclusive OF cotton; Sl,5o0,o0O,Oo0
from coal, iron ore, and the other mining
products and the manufactures thereof,
and 500 900 900 from cotton and cotton
manufactures. In the production of raw
cotton the South had an income in the
past twelve months of $l50,00o,o0O in eX-
cess OF that Of the previous year.
The moral advancement Of the South
keeDs pace with it's material expansion.
In that section more than $1,000 900 has
been expended for educational purposes
since 1861 and the outlay these days is
greater than ever before. There are
twenty-four lecture courses in Texas this
winter, Mississippi has twenty-five, and
the other Southern States are not far
behind in this particular. The Souths
prosress-material, social and intellect
ual-in recent years has been one OF the
marvels of the age. and its future holds
forth an even brighter promise.
THE NOlT0WAY CASL-AGAlN.