The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-07-21
Lorenzo F. Woodruff.

The pen that has known these COZ
 umns for forty years has made more
 Alabama history than any other agency
 since the great war In the two-score
 wears 1t has wrought, altered and in
 fiuenced as no other single thing has
 done in our State. Its achievements
 in the years of peace would have In
 time of war been won at the great cost
 of life, of blood and of treasure.
 This thought. when 1t is new to one
 seems an exaggeration. but Is 1t? There
 has not been a movement. political. in-
 dustrial or social. in Alabama in forty
 wears which has not felt in one way or
 another the weight of the influence of
 the pen of William Wallace Screws.
 There has not been a campaign fought
 out in Alabama in all those years
 whose questions have not been illumi-
 mated and made clear by the pen that
 made The Montgomery Advertiser. l
 may say, as do believe, that there has
 not been in Alabama any continuous
 force or power in its politics so strong
 as that same pen. l do not believe
 that any one thing has guided, inf1u- enced or decided so many issues as has the pen that writes the editorials or The Montgomery Advertiser. It has, in the forty years just ended. affected the destiny of Alabama as no other one thing has affected.
  columns for forty years continue to
 honor them. and may its strength abide within 1t In the years to come as 1t has in the years that are past.
 All Alabamians know Major Screws through the columns of The Advertiser Thousands and thousands and thous- ands of Alabamians know him person ally as he knows thousands and thous- ands of them. The lofty character. the great brain. the big heart are known to these The ability. the purity of character, the fearlessness. the devo- ton to the right are known to all who know The Advertiser. Because he be- longs to that disappearing class of great editors who bore personal re- lation and who had personal connec- ton with the readers of their paper, a class which included men like Horace Greedy, Joseph Medill, Charles A. Dana, and which now include men like Henry Watterson and William Wallace Screws In my journeys about the State I have encountered some men, whom, humbly believe. thought Major Screws wrote every line in The Adver- ttser. And in every town again and again have heard 1t said of some well known man, The Advertiser is his po- litical Bible"
 But we in the office have a greater privileEe We know the wealth of love, of gentleness and of purity that moves in the acts of this great editor. We forget that he is that. There is so much of his kindliness. of his love, so little of pride that he moves one in his daily labor among us in The Adver- tiser building to forget the public char acter and be strong in the affectionate association of our friend and our chief. How strong. how hard. how untir- ingly he may have fought for what he believed to be right. he is the kindliest man I ever knew. Whatever. of veal or woe. may come in the future to those who make The Advertiser, the memory
 of the gentle voice as he stops a mo-
 ment at midnight on his way home at the head of the stairs. Good night ev- erybody." will be as a benediction. May we hear 1t at midnight for the next forty years
 Will T. sheehan.