The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-02-26

forms OF trOuDlS TO some people. we
have been talking about ii hero to-
night. If "solid" were not so glib q
word, and possibly there is no hope
for it, / would suggest instead of the
solid South, the 'steadfast" South.
even in my boyhood, and am not.
so very old, the talk went around the
flreside in simple comments on the
questions asked. 1t might have been,
the dignity of a Homeric age. The
burden of the sons was something like,
this: Has he borne himself bravely I'M
battle; has he suffered somewhere.
with courage; fortitude and dignity;
has he Kept faith with his ideals; has
he kept himself free from stain?
Ladies and gentlemen, in our age
OF achievement this over-nourished
and nervous democracy will do itself
good for hardening back to that OLD
time again. What grand manner,
what archaic purity of truth, of breed
ing, OF honesty and of faith, of dignity
and Of character, all comingled in the
blood and that investment so simple,
that investment of Womanhood, with
such a charm about il that it was q
glorious privilege even TO have known
those rare women who brought forth
the mon, the heroes of their time.
NOW let me tell you IL lew lHIlSS
about this. We are changing the note
of its personality 10 that Of community
progress; it is now an lnsistence upon
social growth rather than raw indiyid-
ualism. 1t has been found that civil
iZation is economic as we'll as individu-
alistic and local. Little villages at
once dazzled in the sun in utter dis
regard OF progress, and of the things
that make for progress and material
H. lit
black and busy and dirty and crowded,
sending TO the markets of the world
salable things, steel and iron and cot
ton and anything they can find, and
are learning TO take steel and make
things out of 1t, and they are beginning
20 establish great textile factories and
saving banks.
THE South is progressing in other
things as well. It is seeing the value
of childhood as an ethical and eco.
homie asset. and the value of the PLAIN
man of whom God Almighty has made;
so many, and the righteousness and
power OF q commonwealth; and hence.
il is, shifting the scene of growth to
economic power. to the schoolhouse
and to the University. But the South
is still as conservative as ever. 1t is
still the only part of America where
the inhabitants believe in God, read
j
Democratic ticket
New my point Is this: The Amer
lean people are born active, and this
great activity has got to he tempered
with scholarly insight; yes. if ills tens
pered, If II can be iIlumined, with use
full liberalism, or even useful ralical-
ism. Just so i is useful, progress is
assured.
yet the old time had its leaders,
Il Vfs a. frniY a1
as Col bingham has said. for their
tasks, that the country has ever seen.
+" . / do not wish to Seem to be
uuerulous or pessilnistic, but il is the
most difficult thing TO be q leader
nowadays. You cannot be glorifed
figure in this age, because Ii is not an
age of personal leadership. 1t de-
inands social imagination and politi-
cal Initiative. In these qualities our,
leadership is weak. Now / don't sup
pose that spirits fume and fret; but
have often wondered what the re-
suit would be Of 4 heart to heart talk
between the Spirits of Calhoun, Ben
Hill and Lamar Our leaders are not
infrequently creatures Of an antique
tyre, mot because they are good man,
or weak men. but because they are
neither. They are good. capable men;
but they are not and have not been
trained 10 the needs of their age.
lit is not their fault. They have
many of the virtues Of those gone beA4
fore them, the daring TO apply the
equipment of an age which demands
,steadfastncss to dill age which de-
mands scholarly Insight and construct
i've ability
Jefferson Davis is not often quoted
in great gatherings in this country.
He cannot be said TO be 4 popular
memory. His name and his figure
somehow loom UP unpleasanty in the
mists of old passions, stern and I'M
bending; but To me, at least, very clean
and erect, and stainless; and this
makes this little speech, the last he
ever made in his life, TO some young
men at a convention in q Mississippi
town, very touching. Said this brokA
EN- man of destiny and fate: The.
faces l see before me are those of
young men, Had you not been this I
would not have appeared alone in a
defence. OF, our Southland, but for love
of her j break my silence and speak TO
you. TIE past is dead; let ii bury its
dead; its hopes and aspirations. Be-
fore you lies the future, q future fun
of golden promise, full of recompensG-
for noble endeavor;, full OF national
glory, before which the world will,
stand amazed. Let me beseech you 10
lay aside ali rancoI and all bitter sec
tional feeling and take your places ir
the ranks of those who Will bring
about Cancellation, out Of which will be
shed a reunited country.
DO rot some of the mists about
that stern and erect figure blow away
before the patience and sweetness Of
these words?
Il want to say in conclusion that
the supreme need of the South is for
trained men to help it to realize its
high purposes, and through personal
courage or raw individualism or stead-
fastnesS alone, but through its intent"
~, strong, pliable and scholarly atti-
tude towards social phenomena. We
shall certainly get these men just as
soon as we train them. Our supreme
weakness is unframed men for the
needs of this age. and therefore it is
that 1 say the extreme need of the
Southern life today is the great ques-
ticn Of learning, built upon the train
ing of the whole people. When l say
lea rning, I mean that great study out
of which will be born a wisdom big
and splendid, to be left as an inheri-
lance from father to son. We have