Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-03-14

velopment of section is actuated by
selfishness, the fact remains that in
this action Of the railroads is fire.
quently found wonderful value to
the individual and to collections of
individuals along its lines; therefore,
If railroads be considered as neces-
sary evil, this evil must not be alto
gether an unmixed one. but one which
tends to the benefit of the people gen.
orally.
am sure the rail lines in Mis-
sissippi and of Louisiana stand ready
at any time to assist in the material
advancement of not only their own
lands, or along their own line, but in
the interests of the state at large.
What may fail to profit them
directly must of necessity prove of
indirect value, and the railroad Off
cials, far-sighted and intelligent, are
very quick to realize this condition.
"Hattiesburg, excepting in general
sense is an unknown quantity. Weknow
that 1t produces pine trees and has an
Intelligent population of considerable
enterprise, but whether the pine lands
about Hattiesburg produce potatoes,
peaches, bananas, pears or tOamtOes is
matter of which we are absolutely
ignorant, and it should be the pro-
vince of the Hattiesburg board of
trade to cooperate with the Queen
and Crescent and such other railroad
lines as may from time to time CEN
tralize here to sound the natural at
| fractions, advantages and possibilities
of your entire section, to the end that
you secure fair quota of the immi-
grafton now so rapidly coming into
the SOUTH.
In conclusion | beg to suggest, or
rather to advise, that In the operation
of the Hattiesburg board of trade, and
this would apply to othr organizations
having purpose, that you heartily
cooperate with your railroads in all
matters pertaining to the upbuilding
of your section. AS has been stated
before you will find, am sure, the
officials of these lines only too anx-
ious to do everything in their power
and within reason to further col.
lective aims and purposes. The money
you spend in advertising your re-
sources they will double, and, by
combined efforts, accomplish what you
would be absolutely impossible to
segregated energy
Tom Richardson, as is we'll known
all over the country, was the next
speaker and was also introduced in
his happy style. Mr.. Richardson
held the audience for nearly an hour.
He did not go to do it, but could not
help it, for as fast as he told one good
thing another would come to his
mind and he kept right along telling
good things until he had consumed
more time than he had intended.
In the first place he was very much
pleased with Hattiessburg and spoke
very highly of its citizenship. He
thought we had the best set of people
he had seen in all his travels and felt
like he would like to be citizen here
himself. He was aware of the fact
that we did not have everything in
perfect order and up-to-date like an
older city. Our streets are in very
bad condition, he admitted, but did
not think it necessary to inform the
world of this fact and therefore it
should be kept out of the papers.
He argued that Hattiesburg had the
brightest prospects of any city he
knew of and that its prospects and
prosperity would continue to increase
as the city grew in years. He
thought the organization of the
board of trade was the best step the
city had ever taken and advised it to
cooperate with the railroads and in
duce first-class colonies, especially
fruit and vegetable growers, to locate
here. They could raise every kind of
vegetables to which our soil and cli-
mate are adapted and would find q
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