The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-10-15

son in securing for us the Louisiana ter
ritory.
The Mexican war was waged by south
ern statesmen and was fought by south
/ ern soldiers. The achievements of the
southern people in the domain of state
| craft during the formative stages of this
| incompatible government their bearing
| in public morals, Christian demeanor and
| civic decency entities them to a digni-
| fed classification among the people OF the
world The south is an empire having
| fully thirty millions of population. In
| point of acreage. sea-front resources and
| climatic conditions the south has ample
material for the erection of one of the
worlds greatest governments. It's north
half is an upland rim blessed with al =
| Incompatible climate, and Is unexcelled
| in its adaptation to small farming and
/ home building for the individual. A land
| admirable in history and prophetic OF flu
| ture grandeur The lowland half of the
| south, bounded by a thousand miles of
meandering sea-front and reaching yet
| beyond another thousand miles to the
borders of Mexico constitutes the worlds
cotton empire. In this vast stretch of al
| luvial soil and genial sun so per cent of
| the worlds cotton is grown. A fast eX
press requires four days in which, on an
air line. to traverse this land of cotton
from the Rio Grande on the west to the
:, The fleece of this land of summer SHOWS
| brings a touch of blessing to all the
civilized world. 1t gives employment to
| millions of toilers in the south; 1t keeps
the wolf from the doors of the other mil
| lions of operatives in the mills, facto-
ries and shops of England. and finally
! 1t furnishes covering for the naked of
all nations The south cannot be denied
place of great dignity among the peo-
/ pies of the earth. The civil war while
not an insurmountable disaster, proved
| to be great misfortune to the south.
! The disjointing of the south's Industrial
system, the individual losses of property
and the waste and havoc of war were
much from a temporal consideration but
the political estrangement which, through
the wars effects. came to plague the
| south, Is the major disaster of all her
| history. For forty-five years the south
has been a political orphan, compelled
| under minority representation in admin
J istrative councils to cope as best she
| could with the most tense problems con-
! fronting any section of the United States
save such representation In the cabinet
as was accorded the south under the two
| Cleveland administrations land this must
| be conceded as mediocre) the cabinets
| formed since the civil war have, In party
| spirit been mainly alien to the SOUTH
judged by this test of the strength OF
| our system of government, the inquiry is
natural whether the cabinets of the pres
| idents should not be non partisan as are
| such bodies as the courts the Interstate
| commerce commission and similar trib-
unals. Here we have the spectacle of an
| important integral part of our country
| acting a dominant part In national af-
| fairs during half the lIfe-tim of the ma
| tion, and then suddenly falling to a mi
| nority station. not alone in congress- but
| In the council chamber of the chief ex-
| ecutive.
Considering the vastly Increased vol
| ume of business transacted in America
and the intensified internal problems
| arising for solution In the south, it seems
| that purely national and not political
| considerations should actuate In meas
| ure in the selection of cabinet members
| The amount of revenue collected in the
| port of New York in the month of AtI-
gust, 1905, was more than the annual ex-
| pense of the entire government during
any one year up to 1870 The money
| spent by American tourists In Europe in
the year 1905 will amount to more than
| our combined exports during the first ten
years of our national existence The
south is contributing her share to an
enormously increased volume of BUSH
| ness.
AS consuming territory the south con-
stitutes an important factor in the COM
| mercfa1 affairs of the republic 1t is to
be hoped that the president may see his
way clear to call a southern man into
his cobinet-one who knows a Ionp-Iea Z
F, pine from a Coney Island trolley pole
and one who would not mistake turpen-
| tine for French dressing.