The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-04
Warm Words of Welcome
TO the Visiting Delegates

the Atlantic and the Pacific We even
dream of time when on the bosom of
this water way shall float great levla-
thans, built for peace or war, by Ala
bama hands and in Alabama yards,
whose spars and hulls and engines are
all from the product of our soil. What
a great prospect stretches out before us.
/ would not have you go away unmind-
full of our resources. Nor would / have
you get an idea that any part of our
population is blind to the blessings which
have been showered upon the state; the
minerals planted there for u.s. and which
our childrens childrens s children may not
possibly gather; of the forests largely
decimated but with sufficient remaining
for any time to which we may possibly
look; of the productive fields where there
is life in motion, and plenty with little
effort. l say this mach for the state
even hope that some of you may be so
attracted by the picture that you will
come again and abide with u.s. W
Concerning Our Deficiencies.
So much for some Of our resources. To
turn to the other picture. Allow me to
speak of one OF our deficiencies. We do
not keep the laws. Not Alabama alone,
but Georgia. Mississippi, Tennessee. Texas
and all the other states from which you
come. more than that, neither the east,
nor the north, nor the west keep the
laws. To the average man they are neither
sacred nor supreme.
1t is the first duty of the great church
to which you belong to teach youth and
old age to respect the divine ordinances.
/ know how those of you who have taken
holy orders wear your lives away with
that work ever before you, and a prayer
ever your lips There are other
statutes. other ordinances. Barely less
sacred than the laws which the Omnipo-
tent has written in the revolving heavens
in the waters of the Vastly deep In the
bosom of the hills and In the thunders
from Sinai are the statutes OF the state.
And yet we are wofully Indifferent to
the statutes of the state.
This brings me to where you ought to
allow me to preach a bit. In all the
states you represent no less than this
one, men are killed In the streets, in
crowded hotels and stores, shot from
horse back and buggy, assassinated from
the roadside and from open windows. Tn
expected and violent death stalks abroad ;
this in spite of the statutes of the state
which are taken from the statutes of
God. Some of the murderers of the we'll
to-do or prominent class may see the in
side of a prison; few go to any further
punishment, and only now and then does
one get the full penalty of the law. whose
hardships, in theory only fall on all alike
And they lynch people--innocent people
We have fewer lynchings In Alabama, at
least thank God, than In almost any 9TH
er southern state. Last year we had one
and this year we have begun with one
Let me give you a sample
Gives an Instance.
Some time ago, in county in this state,
poor old crippled negro in a justice
court swore to a statement differing
from the sworn statement of young
white woman in the same court This
was his whole offense. 1t Is not an un-
usual occurrence to have witnesses in
the courts differ in their testimony. A
trifing little case in a justice court A
complacent constable on his way to the
jail turned over the cripple to a small
mob of regulators, or allowed him to be
taken without serious opposition and
the cripple that night supped In another
country. ! have often wondered II that
figure, hastily summoned to another court
ever comes back to sit at the humble
feast of his murderers as did the ghost
at the great Macbeth's table These mur-
derers could get their full desert II the
crippled negro would walk by their side
in every furrow that they made in the
springtime and in the summer. In the
heat and in the cold; an ever present
and avenging Nemesis. If were stony Of
heart | could even wish that the muir
derers, when they finally come to face
the inevitable. to look in the face of that
judgement to which they ushered with
out notice the poor unshrived devil: that
at the very moment when their eyes
were being closed to earth II I were
stony of heart. | could wish that they
would look at the last on the face of the
poor and humble cripple 1t is not all
of life to- live. There is good deal of
1t after death.
The constitution OF this state makes
1t my duty to see that the laws are exc
cuted. Hence my disposition to preach to
seize the opportunity to beg your assist
ance. Standing on the secular ramparts
I cry out for your assistance: Come over
and help u.s. help US more and more.
If | were a judge on the bench. there
would be a vacant seat near me for a
minister and in the bar places for every
holy man of God who was willing to oc-
cupy them. secular official needs the
help Of the spiritual.
Led to Talk Shop.
/ am only here to give the representa-
tives of your great church q welcome to
the state, and am led of to talk about
the things that most concern my Of
fice-to talk shop to you. j know your
great power for good and hence my earn
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(cpntInued on Eighth Panel
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