The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-10
FARMERS COME ID HEAR r. 5. WHITE Throws Open Agricultural Car
  at Beaverton
HOW SOUTH HAS GROWN
Advancement Along Agricultural, in- dustriaI and Educational Lines Has Been Little Short of Phenome-
 nal Since the Civil War.

Beaverton, July e.--(special)-Th l Fourth was celebrated in the good old style by a picnic. speeches. music and general amusement and rest under the great trees. Beaverton was selected for
 this occasion because of its fine mineral
 springs and beautiful shady groves. The quiet little village lies snugly hidden ] away among the hills of North Alabama
 The Frisco has built new station but
 as yet there is no agent here so Beaver
 ton Is shut out from the world only as
 she communicates with outsiders by mail.
 There is yet no telegraph or telephone
 facilities.
 | The orator of the day was F, $. White, agricultural and horticural commissioner of the Frisco. MT. White had been in vited to return here with his educational grain car and to deliver an address He
 arrived with his car early in the morn- ing. The matter had been thoroughly ad- vertised throughout the country so that
 early In the morning the people com menced to pour into the village. They came on foot, on horseback, in wagons and buggies and on all local trains that could
 be induced to stop long enough for the
 people to jump off. Even the coal cars
 were covered with people and although the country is sparsely settled, more than thousand people from the rural dis tricts had gathered for the oration which
 was commenced at Il o'clock and con- tinued till l.
 MT. White selected for the foundation for his talk, first, washington as the Father of Our Country and Washington as a Farmer" second, ''The Industrial De- velopment of the New South.' He spoke at some length of Washington as a sol dier and the privations he and his soldiers endured in planting the greatest republic of the word on this then wild continent, reviewing is usual on such occasions the early history of our country. He spoke of our early financial struggle af-
 ter we had gained our independence. Af- ter the usual Fourth of July oration he came to the main part of the subject that of .Industrial Development of the
 New South"
 Opportunities Are Unbounded.
 He said q see so many young people
 before me here in the full enjoyment of the greatest privileges of any people on earth today You are free, happy and If not the most prosperous people of the
 world it is your own fault. Your oppor- tunities in this great glorious southland are almost unbounded Before entering Into discussion of the subject before me, desire to take these young people back few years in the history of our country. I do this that I may be the more able to prove to you that what say Is fact No nation in the history of the world ever made such progress along sucn industrial lines as this new south had made since the close of our civil war more than forty years ago Let us look at the conditions
 as they existed In this southland at the close of that struggle.
 "The poor, Confederate soldier when he laid down his arms at Appomatox
 turned his face toward his home way down here in Alabama or some other southern state. He had been away from his home for years. He had undergone all maner of privatons and sufferings and he had fought as no other soldier had fought. He had marched and starved until he was worn and broken in health. But when he finally realized that the war was over then he began to see and think of the happy home which he had left years before and as he journeyed to- ward that home every days march nearer home qulclxened his step. He though of the wife and the children whom he had left years before. Amid such thoughts Is
 1t any wonder that he forgot his wounds. his hunger and his thirst? But we must follow him on to the old home and you old soldiers here know what all this means. You remember as you came marching home how many mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts you saw stand ing where the front yard gate had once been, scrutinizing closely everyone of you
 watching for the loved one Of whom they had not heard for years. You re- member the disappointment of those de- voted women of the south when John or Will was not to be seen in the crowd and how your hearts broke when you had to tell that mother that he was left on the battlefield It was an easy matter to march out and face the enemy but here was task that the brave shranlS from. But what of home after you arrived and
 what was left of it for you 70 return to? The fortunes of war had gone against you your country was laid waste, you had no banks. no need of them for you
 had no money and our cities and towns
 were destroyed.
 States Were Bankrupt.
 "The few railroads that we had at that
 time were all torn up and communica- ton destroyed Our states were bank rupt, we had no credit. we had no stock left to cultivate our lands and we had
 no farm implements. Fences around the farms and in many cases, both the houses and the outbuildings burned, Is it any
 wonder that the spirit of the soldier rank within him when he was brought face to face with these trying scenes? No doubt but that many a poor boy would have preferred falling at the battle.
 'But in addition to all this. another un- looked for condition confronted you. Four millions of slaves had been freed and turned loose homeless and penniless and you were forced to share what little you had with them. But in the midst of all this sorrow and gloom you had to act and act quick. My young friends. am glad that if this had to be that it hap pened in our day and not yours. have spoken of the things which we did not have I will now speak of few thingn
 which were left us and which had never been developed. We had soil and climate. | We had the greatest timber forests of the | world. We had some of the richest mines. | We had left country whose soil and cli- l mate made 1t an agricultural country whose possibilities were the greatest of | any country on the globe. So the next | thing to do was to set to work to or ganize our state governments, to restore 1 civil law and order. to rebuild our homes, 1 to till our lands. to put on the markets J, of the world lumber from our forests and | minerals from our mines. to build up our | old railroads, to rebuild our wasted cities