The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-06-02

TThe People. the Present Condition.
tie Possibilities and the Needs of
This Section Reviewed by Re ".
81 Key. Assistant Pastor OF Pew.
Edward Everett Hale, Of tho South
After Spending Seven Months "a n
Missionary Travelling Over THIS Part
of the South.
i AT the annual meeting OF the Won
Ian's National Alliance, which was
Iheld in the Rev. Edward Everett Hale's
Boston-tha South Congrega-
Itional church-last week, the Rev. w.
Is. Key. who for the past seven months
has been travelling throughout eastern
North Carolina as a missionary preach
Ter, was the principal speaker. and de-
livered an address on his work
throughout this section of country,
which has evoked great interest
throughout the country. On Thursday
MIR. Key again spoke in the city of
Northampton before the New England
Alliance, and by his u~tterances n
:reased the interest of all who heard
his vivid descriptions Of the conditions
prevailing Throughout his southern Ill
locese, II OF the means necessary Tor
helping tie people OF North Carolina
10 attain a more prominent positiJ ia
intellectually, morally, spiritually and
commercially han they have ever be-
lore attained.
Mr.. Key is not only a well known
land successful preacher, but as assls-
Itant TO Dr.. Hale, the most distinguish
led living American and chaplain OF
the United States Senate, he has done
much 10 ameliorate the condition o.
the foreign population in the slums ii
Boston, and had charge of the move
lnlent for furnishing God and cloth.
ing TO the Boer prisoners during ms
late South African war, being premit-
tied by the British government TO visit
the prison camps and there distribute
ithe gifts Of the American people among
THE suffering Beers. He is also a lraT-
leler and Journalist, having formely
been a special travelling correspondent
and commissions for London newspa-
IperS. Thus he was specially fitted for
the work to which he was assigned in
North Carolina last fall and to whicn
he will return in the coming autumn.
Particularly is Mr.. Key interested IL
Education, and during his s~ojourn in
the south he was the means of secLr
ing an extension OF the school year in
some Of the district schools Of the
state, by experimenting the state and
county appropriations from a Iund
placed at his disposal from the north.
Among other things he laid special
emphasis on in his address was the ur-
gent need of more capital wherew;th
to develop the wonderful of
North Carolina, the judicious invest
;ment of such capital in various com
,mercial enterprises, being sure to earn
substantial dividends for the investors,
while at the same time benefitting the
people generally.
1t was a fact that large blocks ct
capital had been invested in the valua-
BILE timber lands throughout the state
in years gone by, but the capitalist
thus investing, beng much more IA
Imiliar with the ways of business, esre-
lcially in the north, than the owners Of
these valuable lands, have not hesitar-
led to enrich themselves through he
Ignorance of the natives by making big
purchases at prices entirely out OF all
proportion to the real value of the luz
Der purchased and the profits they ave
made en- the transactions; hence il is
that SO many are poor, while the few
are, year by year, becoming we'll C!f,
while still others are piling up wealth.
The same may be said of cotton,
(which, as everyone knows, is the "non
ley crop Of the south. Today th5re
lare hundreds of thousands of bales OF
cotton remaining unsold in the hands
lOf planters, because the spectators
land manipulators of that commodity
have ''beared" The market until now,
when the price is actually below the
cost of actual production and the plain
tiers de silently suffering and bravely
struggling to keep the wolf from the
door and their mortgages from berg
lforeclosed, which means absolute ruin
to all but the veriest few.
Then there is the scarcity of labor
lof which complaints may be heard ev-
lerywhere. Without labor and capital
Ito pay for such as can be had, the
Itch and cannot be either cleared or
barely able to make a living and mill
lions of acres of the finest land in the
state lies idle; those who live on II
barely able to MAKE a living and mini
lions Of Our surplus population herd
ling together in the great cities OF tbs
country, starving from years end TO
iyear S end and rapidly becoming a me-
mace to the entire nation, when. under
conditions fhGy and millions
more might be earning good living3,
developing the resources of the south.
building homes n training children
ito become decent beings and patrioic
lAmerican citizens, instead of filling u
ljails, poor houses, asylums and pc1i-
lt~entiaries everywhere.
Because Of the appropriateness 81
the cotton crop many farmers maze,
!during the last few years, Throughout
eastern North Carolina, turned Cfietr