The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-29

ber it has been made with comparative peace between the races. We are up against troublous times. Such further progress for the next few years is not possible in Alabama unless there comes to be a better understanding between our peoples There is feeling in the heart and there is excitement in the very air We had best be plain with each other The races are at daggers point in Ala bama No person at all could regret to make such a statement more than does your speaker There must be better understanding. It is imperative, and 1t must come without any great delay.
 We boast that we are cutting down our illiterates in this state It would be bet ter if we could boast that we are cutting down the number of those who violate the laws. Less reading and more honesty would be a good slogan. IT we are to progress against one of the great com mandments as we come to sin against ilIiteracy, We are going forward in the wrong direction It is the staggering ar ray of petty offenses that is wearing on the better citizen. Any country Is better off with a maximum of illiterates and honest men than maximum of literates and dishonest people. If we are to get our readers at the expense of one or the commandments they come precious high. Let us lIen lIiaht llb hBHh to e'fNSh o p'a or girl so read until we have prepared him to understand that is of infinite more service lo be honest
 lders Menace.
 'It is the army of piferers that is breaking the back of peace. They are the army of idlers who must steal If they would live. l may say that almost every person who does not dc week s work IS a thief. Tile ancient rulers quartered .helr troublesome regiments or rebellious sub iects. and as a punishment made them feed the roracious soldiers and suffered inc soldier to prey upon the helpless peo- Dle of the afflicted country. More than ii single prolince was finally lost to despols because the patient citizenship could no longer submit 10 the galling presence or ribald. leeherous insolent and Noraclous soldiers. They ate up the substance or the land. And yet we have in Alabama ouartered Dn the hard working and thrit- ty of both races, an army of idlers larger than the army that followed Caesar fortunes in the great wars: that planted his victorious eagles as far north as the sands of the English channel; larger than was the army that marched to Moscow and inglofiously back again under that other great captain. This vast army Keeps us impoverished. Only the most patient
  IT patience should give out. we know not what would happen. I pray that ehe excited hand will be stayed while the bet ter class of men in both ranks shail learn a new wavl
 iders Makes Thief.
 .It is the idler that makes the thief If we could get rid of the one we are prac- tically rid of the other Cannot we man age to so mark the idler that every hon est man shall avoid him as though ne were a plague. Conditions are fntolerable and impossible Assaults, the most horri- ble of crimes. as often as they happen, have never of themselves occasioned race riot. I think I am sure of my ground They provoke lynchings. but would not necessarily provoke the whites to a general assault on the blacks. IL is the army of loaflng thieves which keep up the eternal nagglng and makes the ground fallow for scenes as the one In Atlanta provoking some honest men ana some dishonest men to stamp upon the statutes. upon the courts and defy all the officers of the law.
 .I am preaching a sermon against thieyes-and afterwards loafers-a and they are the same How does 1t happen that this army exists in this state? There is evidence that the preachers of this coun- try do not preach against the eighth com mandment Some of the people who give evidence of every piety are not made miserable by the phophesy from the pull pit that he who takes another's will have his place In the lake that is to burn with ont ending. Under the ministrations which they hear they are lulled to sleep with a theology that does not teach some of the strong points laid down In that celebrated sermon handed down in stone.
 Teachers Are Bad.
 Not only so, but 1t does appear there must be secular teachers whose lips are dumb on some of the great doctrines. It is impossible to assume that the duty of