The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1906-03-23
HON. CRAWFORD wHEATLEY
Opens Congressional Campaign at Cordele,
Crisp County.

The flowing is the speech in full de
livered by Hon. Crawford Wheatley, Sum
ter county's candidate for congress, at Ger
dele, Crisp county, on Monday, March 18th
Friends and Fellow Democrats of Co
dele and Crisp County:
| am truly grateful to you for t.
opportunity which you have afforde
me of addressing you here todas
There are others more gifted than
who could interest you more; but
can truthfully say that there is
living man in this beautiful SOUTHLAND
of ours more anxious or more desirou
OF doing all that he can for the up
building of this great section of oul
State than your humble servant. j.
rejoice with you in the general pros
perity which is extending throughout
this land, and am glorifed with the
thought that we belong to the greatest
nation which the world has ever
known.
present to you word picture of this
mighty nation before | speak to you
OF the immediate section in which we
are more particularly interested. Only
a few hundred years ago this beau
tiful land Of ours was bowling will
derness, inhabited by wild animals
and equally wild savages; while today
we have eighty-six millions of the
truest and noblest men and women
ever cast upon any world. Only a
little more than one hundred years
ago this boasted country of ours was
dependent, made colonies of another
country, paying taxes without repre-
sentation, dominated and controlled by
others; while today we are the most
independent nation on the face of the
earth, the home Of the brave and the
land of the free, dominated and con-
trolled by none, but dominating and
controlling the whole world on which
we live. Only as late as 1900 we were
poor, insolvent, bankrupt, while to-
day, as | speak to you, we are worth
one hundred billion dollars,-the rich
est nation in the whole world,-the
dominant power on all the earth.
Twenty years ago we were capable
OF raising about five and one-half mil
lion Of bales OF cotton, while today we
have successfully raised, cultivated
and gathered fourteen million bales
of cotton worth six hundred and
eighty millions Of dollars, two million
dollars for every day in the week and
fifty-fve millions thrown in for Sun
days.
A few years ago we had only ninety
two thousand miles of badly equipped
railroads, While today we have more
than three hundred and fifty thousand
miles of the best equipped railroads
on the face Of the globe, comprising
nearly one-half of the railroad mileage
of the entire world. This, my friends
Is the United States of America, in
which we live, and of which every one
OF us is justly proud But, while all
this is true; while we rejoice in the
greatness of the nation in which we
live, while we would fight and die
under the stars and stripes just as
many OF our brothers and fathers have
fought and died under the stars and
bars, il is but natural, 1t is bust just
that our hearts should swell with
more pride in our immediate section
than in all the rest Of the world com
bined. Nowhere else on earth does
the sun seem to shine so bright, or the
water so sweet, and nowhere else dc
the flowers seem so delicate, or the
women so beautiful and pure than il
the Sunny South, our Dixie Land.
Less than twenty years ago the
spot on which we now stand was but
a wilderness, the haunt Of wild game
invaded by the wandering hunter-the
home of a few turpentine negroes
who sought refuge from some officer
of the law by day, and chased the
fitful and elusive opossum by night;
while today we find a thriving city
with a population Of six thousand Of
the most energetic, lawabiding people
to be found in any state. Fifteen
years ago scarce three hundred people
could be found within your corporate
limits, while today more than tha'
number pass through your magic city
between the rising and setting OF the
sun. Twelve years ago, when panic
spread throughout the land, and banks
failed. and railroads went INTO the
hands OF receivers; when desolatioi
was in the market and ruin uDon tn,