The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-23
Letters to the Editor.
Alabama Must Wake Up.
opelika, Ala, June A.

opelika, Ala, June 1. Editor The. Advertiser:
 have just returned from an extended tour of the West, and note with pleasure the earnest effort being made by the press and the commissioners to the St. Louis Exposition to have Alabama credit ably represented at th~ st; Louis sr Ex ihe West on this question and find the con dition there diametricaiy, opposite to what 1t Is here The people and the m terests there. both agricultural ana mar ufacturing, are the ones who are dolng the work, and 1t is their deep interest and their movement that Is gettlng theIr press and their commission stirred up. Here 1t seems impossible to awaken the people to their interests.
 read the papers carefully. In Nevada; California, Utah. Colorado. Kansas ana other States including those far North like Oregon and Washington. there IS an active canvass being made gathering ma terial for this great worlds fair wnlch the exposition line. The agricultural bodies or these States are daily receiVlny handsome specimens of products of some kind. Preserved fruits. minerals, timber. of human effort, of human endeavor, of material wealth is being exhausted in getting up handsome specimens for the > Louis Exposition The papers and the commercial bodies are merely auxil- iaries. The people are doing the work They are sending the specimens and the products to the proper authorities that their great States may be represented
 It is really sad to think that they. nav ing the disadvantages they have, are So much ahead of us. But they are. They have to bring water from one to three hundred miles to make their crops, but they bring 1t. Alabama beside some Of
 g; 'les named Is paradise. but they Tbs staes or %s awsy ment. Their millions of people and the billions of wealth are the result or con tinulty of effort in the way of adyer- Using. They are at every Exposition California had 5000 for it's fruit exhibit, Oregon had s100,O0O for its different ex- hibits and the other States had large sums for their exhibit at Bunalo.
 'Tis true their lands are fertile, but 'tis equally true they are a desert compared to Alabama. Alabama. great empire that 1t is, with its products of the temperate and torrid zones, with its wealth of fields and forests its vast mines and manufac- lures, shall it go unhonored and unsung to St. Louis? We cannot believe 1t. the world. The Eldorado. Everything within the reach of thought Is to be had here. The horizon of human effort can not get beyond its fruitful and fertile borders. The maximum of results with the minimum of effort is here.
 We have the story to tell. The won derful story. The waiting world will lis tell it. Opportunity is also here, golden opportunity. Shall we grasp 1t or let 1t go.
 The Legislature, the administration. the press, the commercial bodies. the County Commissioners, the city officials and the citizens should band together in the com mon cause and put their shoulder to the wheel to help Alabama along the path of prosperity It is the one great opportunity of a lifetime. Shall we answer Here" when the roll is called at St. Louis. or shall oppressive silence mark the calling of the great iron and cotton. State of the South? The world will be there. It will be the witness. We stand on record and on trial before the people of the earth today. Everything except the cannibal nations will be there. Shall the Gulf washed, sun-kissed, f1ower-crowned, min eral-blessed, progress-loving State of Alabama alone be missing?
 its name and worth.