The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-02-01
STAY IN THE SOUTH.
A Notable. Address cn a Gcod Sub feet.

ject.
 At recent meeting in Atlanta an ad- dress was made by Andrew M. McCon- nell. editor of The Alxahest. a success fnl magazine, and from 1t the following
 A few years ago I had decided the first opportunity to go to New York or BQs- ton, where one could get nay for his writing or lecturing. It was that prevalent Idea that the South teaches. the only thing keeping our section in vassaiage: If you have any special sense or gift, go North. where it will be appreciated and paid for. By cultivating this spirit of suicide to our opportunities. we every drive away our most talented men. Go to New York, or other Eastern cities and nearly half of the brain and push is from Southern men who have gone there for wider field. We send our best teach err, like Woodrow Wilson, our greatest scientists like Joseph LaCcnte; we send our leading journalists, like Ochs of Chat tanooga. ana our aoiest editors, nke Walter H. Page of North Carolina; our best financiers flock to Wall Street. and our. best writers go to their market
 The.a is Mrs. Sheridan, perfect queen of Southern womanhood, nightingale of song, a woman of such sweet power that her very presence is an inspiration, and Atlanta, without protest or an enort, has let her go to Philadelphia. where in concerts she is paid $l00 a night against 0uE 4JD. hnu HdF6 VIII CouuS donna from New York, with little soul, with fiippant character and an artificial influence. with an operatic voice and not half So sweet song, and we will pay her $50. Right here let us digress for those who have stayed and become, in discharging their duties to home, greater than those who left. There was Grady, who never left us. only when invited away. to interpret the soul of the South and her longing to clasp her alienated brother in national spirit. There IS Joel Chandler Harris who has never been away from Atlanta, and Uncle Remus' is loved in every civilized land where children live. There is Mary Johnston. of Birmingham. who has written the most popular novels of late years. and there is the growing band of faithful workers and builders like Senator Nor gan. Hoke Smith. Governor Aycock, John Temple Graves. and others too numerous to mention. in every State. in every city and town, whose thought and energy are concentrated to awaken our people to their opportunities, who are making open ings here far greater than overcrowded New York can afford, who are proving that the South is the one place in the Union for money, for enterprise, for brains and for a life of purpose.
 We have walked up in the industrial lines. we no longer sell our cotton for s cents to England, and buy 1t back at 50 cents; we bale 1t and spin it in the cotton field. and keep all the money here, where by nature 1t belongs,
 But will We never learn that the glory of our manhood and the flower of our womanhood are too vital and precious to be given away; while We pay men and less adaptability to our needs. big sal- aries to do what our own people can do better. if We would only train them and keep them at home. ftf
 While we are sending our best men away for better opportunities, the wisest Northern men of money and brains are coming here. They see what we do not: that the South some day will be the cen ter of the Western World.
 England, France, Spain and all of Western Europe are decaying; Russia and Japan and Eastern Asia are awakening. The Pacific is to be covered with a great CT commerce than the Atlantis has ever known. The present supremacy Of the Atlantic commerce is what has made New York what it is. The new canal will connect and open this vast new com merce of the Pacific with the Atlantic and 1he Gulf will be the Mediterranean of the western hemisphere. with Mexico growing into progressive nation. With Cuba and the West Indies coming to the front with all of South America in the pain throes of a modern growth, with the Mississippi system bringing the trade of the great Middle West through our doors; with the cotton supply of the world. with our varied products that fail no season, with Pennsylvania sup ply of coal in Alabama and oil in Texas, with the winter home of the nation wealthy in Florida, and their summer home In North Carolina, with all these the South will some day be the center of the Western World. The alert from New England, New York and Ohio will then come here for their wider opportunities, just as we are now sending our abler men away.
 Let us encourage these builders who see this. and let us put our sholders to the wheel and help them hurry on the day