The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-11-10
Society,".
MRS. MoRRissETTE DISCUSSES
 ARTICLE IN HWoRLD'S WORK"

writes Kate Hutcheson Morrissette in the Montgomery Journal. It is contrib uted to one to the manner born, south erner, C. H. Roe. editor of the Pro gresive Farmer" of Raleigh N. c.
 The suggestion is thrown out that future Frank Norris may write the epic of cotton for as many charmed readers as the Californian wrote that of wheat.
 Some features of the article are fa- miliar, though none are commonplace; much of 1t is new and all Is presented in lights which make the picture most in- teresting and attractive to every dweller in Dixie.
 Take few significant facts. The worlds annual output of cotton goods is worth 5000 900, 900, and three-fourths of it's cotton supply Is grown in the south. Twice the worlds total gold product last year would have been required to pay southern farmers for lint and seed, while three-fourths of the capital stock of all the national banks in the country would have been inadequate.
 The advance in cotton growing in the south IS shown by the fact that the | nearly $s0O, ,OOO more than did the pre- ceding five crops nearly twice the money invested in all our cotton mills), and by | the related fact that southern railways report heavier increases in earnings than lines in other sections.
 Assessed valuation of property is in- creasing three times as rapidly here as 1t did between 1890 and 1900; and bank deposits between 1896 and 1903 increased 1S3 per cent. while the increase in the rest of the country was only 90 per cent. The writer finds that the comptroller of the currency says that the increase dur ing the last twelve months has been two
 and a half times as rapid as the rest of
 the country.
 This is an inspiring tale-the outlines of an epic of the new south Every de- partment of community life feels the en- ergzed activity through the enrichment of the lifeblood of our commerce. Prog ress and prosperity are pulslng in the bank, the factory, the church. the school, the newspaper. and in all trades and pro- fessions.
 l A detailed description Is given of cot ton growing, with mistakes to be avoid ed, and certain imperative conditions to be met if the cotton plant is to fulfill its natural destiny and accomplish our pre- eminence through it's presence and power.
 The writer notes the return to the soil in recent years of intelligent men who are endeavoring to restore the old plan | ..t,t and points to the immense almost un- dreamed of possibilities which await pluck, industry, intelligence and perse- verence. This Is so well worth careful attention, so worthy the patriotic con- sideration and adoption of every south erner and is so luminously, broadly and accurately written out, that to say Read it all' is better than to quote a part.
 One suggestion thrusts itself persist ent1y between these lines that tell of the riches of the kingdom of cotton. | Where has the south spent the money she has so laboriously earned, where Is she spending 1t now? The answer, too. forces itself forward, that answer in l itself an obstacle to the retention and | permanence of agricultural wealth. Ia not the answer this that every house. l hould convenience and comfort, nearly l all our plantation implements and util- ities and our apparel, are bought away from home and the books our children study In school and those we read at home are published far away from our l own cities?
 |
 When what we daily use of table fare and delicacies; when the articles in our homes, from our kitchens to our parlors; when our hats, shoes and clothes are of domestic local manufaeture-we circu- late our money among ourselves and in- 1 crease the wealth of the whole section. This cannot all come at once. A gen. eration or two must be trained not only to the idea of self-dependence but to the trades which create and maintain that | glorious privilege. We cannot begin too soon. Our example and model we may obtain in that section where we have for | years been spending the proceeds of our ] labor--in the north and east. There chill dren are taught at home and in the school to use their hands and brains con- | jointly Manuel training has long been a l part of every state system of public in- structlon, and the dignity and patriotism of work Is breathed in the very air. The spirit and the trained skill which com panons 1t make home consumption and home production keep that balance on which prosperity is safely poised.
 When we, too. put manual training in our schools, when we, too. train our girls to be economical, thrifty housekeep- CTS, we prepare the way for that good time when our agricultural labor will enrich ourselves more and aliens less, for the day when the sceptre of the kingdom of cotton will be in our own hands and foes within will have disappeared from a prosperous country where loyalty is supreme.
 In his splendid appeal for the indus trial training of southern youth made at Birmingham last May before the educa- tional conference, Walter Page came next in eloquence and effectiveness to the great bishop whose speech was the event 1 of the conference.
 To his closing words a vast audience | listened respectfully conviction on ev- cry countenance-then broke out into cheer after cheer He said;
 "Let us rouse up, then, and proclaim I this declarations
 "When in the course of human events | 1t becomes necessary for a generation of | men to dissolve the intellectual hands