The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-01-20
1.-THE MORE YOU SAY THE LESS PEOPLE REMEMBER" ONE WORD WITH YOU
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ton. we have fairly come out into the sunshine of this political day. I have heard of no charge of fraud in the late contest Not one of the returned repre- sentatives or senators holds commits sion on which there is the least shadow growing out of false ballot or false return. We have come to honest cleo tions. And nevermore, let us hope, will we be forced to countenanee fraud, l prophecy for the people new election low. one free of the cumbersome features of the present one, which was the pro- duct of expediency. It should provide plainly and unequivocally for representa- ton at the polls of two parties or more. In the last election throughout the state this representation was allowed by demo- cratic officeholders; the opposition had no such right under the law The right of opposition parties to such representation and of their own selection should be plainly set down in the law
 Negro Must Be Protected.
 While we have more respectable there is doubly duty now resting on the white people who make and execute the laws to see that that portion of our fellow citizens deprived of the privilege of voting are allowed liberty of person, safety of limb and the rights of property, enjoying these blessings as fully and free ly as the whitest man in the state. We have no defense for the crime which the negro so frequently commits revolting and horrible. but he is entitled to full protection of the law. He who would join a lynch party to avenge the com munity against the more serious offenses merely furnishes an excuse for lover of lawlessness to indulge his thirst. The better class of our citizens may have joined in a mob to punish an offense which cries to heaven for vengeance and only succeeded in setting an example to smaller people to defy the law and this with little regard to the character of the crime charged. In this state, in one and half years, there have been five lynch ings; only two of the victims were ac- cused of assault One of these never saw or heard of the young woman, and two other unfortunate hanged were guilty of no crime at all It Is false, absolutely false, to assert that this evil spirit is merely anticipating the action of the courts As uniustlfable as action under that assumption would be, it is an un- fair statement. Four out of five Of the men so dealt with were not guilty of of senses for which the law takes life Wherever any official action of mine can De elIeCllNt, tilt ldWleoo iiuA oSiS wal be pursued to the uttermost
 Public Roads.
 One of the most important subjects to which we may address ourselves as in- dividuals, communities or as a state, is the one of the public roads, the great highways on which our cldzens may meet each other as joint and equal proprietors In only few localities in Alabama has there been any improvement in their working and mending since our fathers felled the trees and Lid the first trails across the forests. We may not expect our farms to be pleasant places in which to dwell until we ha learned new lesson in road building. An additional and fruitful source of the assertion Of farm life grows out of the poverty of our school privileges. While for the last two years we have paid out of the treasury largely more than for any other two years of our life as a state, the sum IS far from a satisfactory one. With good roads and good schools we should have fewer neglected farms and more pros- porous and pleased people.
 Era of Prosperity.
 We are enjoying an era of great pros- perity in this country. A few years ago the United States was a third-rate pow CT. Now no country dares offend us with impunity. Such Is our wealth and our resources that we can hold the world at bay indefinit ely. We are daring even to dispute the seas with the late lords or the waters. In agriculture no other coun- try equals ours. We feed more people and we clothe more people than any other nation. Our mechanics are the truest ana most effective. Our shop-keepers are marvels of the world. Our great captaihs of industry and finance aspire to domlna- tion. From the black cliffs or New Ens- land. where the waters of the Pacific lave the rocks of the Golden Gate, the wave of prosperity has covered the land. Here in Alabama we have heard the waters and felt their influence. They have no' brought to this state, however, ricnes ike that the Nile poured annually into the Ian of Eeypt. We have gathered some- thing from the tidal wave, but not our share. How much of this lack Is due to uneoual legislation, I leave the political economists to figure.
 Much to Be Thankful For.
 We are thankful here in Alabama for the vast forests which nature set to grow ing so far back that the Punic wars were not vet begun. Strangers are picketing the harvest which these uncultivated fields have furnished and some favored few of our own people nave gathered fortunes out of the crop which they neither wa tered nor planted. We are thankful for the other crops which have been grow ing in our hills since the morning stars united in their first song. This last has not been adequately described. There Is vast wealth here for some people and their children's children. We hope to be digging at it when the earths course is run. While these riches are yet largely ignorant of the voice of pick or shovel we boast that we make the price sf pig iron for the world and expect make the price of steel as well. y honderful as are our resources in timber aad minersIs they are not our richest pos ssiou. We nave more than thirty millie acres of able soil within the borders of lhs state ard ly thousand acres oi Wb1h ie any one body that will no Hd the atelli- gent and industrious grower rent ilera- tive returns. Our clims e. fs equal to our physical resources.
 A Way for Prosp erity for All.
 As thankful as we are for he riches which nature has alloy I to grow In ouI hills from an early pie niing and the tim Der which is being ta an from our for.