The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-08-21

Menl VI Inc people and the yrovth
riches beyond our widest Dreams
lew years ago. Then contrast Or
assacnase on its rock-rfbhed 81.
nas oeen aoie TO accomplish and thin,
VI tue countless possibilities Of ~
south so laFishly blessed bv na,n-
Win every advantage which ne hs,-
or ma could desire
these facts bring u fha ba,p
the south an opportunity frargh. =,
sra casualties. Every mine omen.
CD ever. factory built, every acre ~
iana enriched By better cultivate,
means added prosperity for l
Every setter who brings his brain h{s
pFc"h OF MS money is an investor j.
me u~poul!dlng of the greatest of ali
ehIeFprlses-the south-in which ,ha
oahkers mold the controlling stock This
power OF money for good or for evil
MAKES the banker. whether he be sain,
or sinner, a dominant factor in his
community. A
0 bankers hold over YOUR commn-
mites an influence of such potentiaIitv
TO bless or to curse. to bniJd o- aas,-~y
not material things only. but charac-
Ter, hohor and all that make for mans
higher life. that you should feel a pro
round sense of responsibility. Your
position brings YOU in contact with the
whole community, and what YOU do
others are sure to initiate. By reason
or the south's increasing
you are building up in financial
trensth but are YOU doing our share
toward building up the character. the
manllness, the self-reliance of the
south? Are you doing your full par
IN helping TO develop along right lines
the educational work of this section.
teaching TO its people why the south
Is amply able of its own means tn
EDUCATE its young and that il need not
and should not stand, hat in hand
begging aims from the great rich f
other sections?
Are you seeking to inculcate IN vClr
community a realization Of the curse
OF get rich quick" methods. E =.
destruction CT sOGDd business, if net
OF sound morals. Of wild gambling
speculations in Wall street? In your
WoT@ fc~ financial independence do
YOU stop long enough to help teach
your community that without s~elf-re-
llant development, development from
within rather than from without. the
can be no real upbuilding Of individual
life. and that unless the boys and girls
Of the rising generation be trained in
initiative, in self-reliance, in honor
and in manlines~, they will prove un-
equal to the competition which they
must meet?
Not many years ago a North Car liza
banker determined to induce his COM
munity to depend wholly upon itself for
capital and management in establishing
diversified enterprises. Out of that
decision has come the organization in
his own and in neighboring towns of
more than so prosperous factories, the
entire capital, the labor, skilled and
unskilled, being wholly local. What
he did hundreds of other bankers can
do. AS a people we need initiative,
we need energy, we need competition,
we need the "attrition of mind against
mind" We need the stimulus which i'm
migration would bring, the stimulus
that will force us to develop every
latent yower Of brain and muscle, and
in this, as we'll as in every other good
work, the bankers of the south should
be the leaders.
You need not worry about whether
vast wealth is to be created in this sec
ton or not. The worlds economic de-
velOpment guarantees that, but you
may we'll stop to consider whether the
boys and the young men of the south
are being SO trained in work and in
character building as to make sure of
their holding the dominant position in
this upbuilding or whether they shall
become the hewers of wood and the
drawers of water for others. Your f.
nancial power and your position, social
and business, in your community throw
upon you a greater burden of RESPONSE
bility- than rests upon any other class
of business men in the south.
Study we'll your community and your
country; take no narrow view Of af-
fairs, but know the past and the pres
ent and then you may better forecast
the future. You may justly boast OF
what the south is doing today, but stop
long enough to look back to the old
south and it's wonderful business ca
reer; stop long enough to study the
u lotiSi vi Ilo 81 eau ohN -ob
will realize that if the south of the
present and of the future is to be
worthy of the old south it must, indeed
breed men Of broad business ability
Of a world-horizon, looking beyond the
petty politics and petty ideas OF mar
row-minded men.
You hear much of the new south;
but I, for one, want to be recorded as
having no sympathy with such a title
as it is usually Interpreted. The south
Of today is but a revival Of the old
south. The new south is but a child
of the old, and owing 70 the peculiar
conditions attending its birth ii is not
yet strong, so virile nor so rich IN
proportion to the whole country as was
the old south. Some of our boasted
southern orators. either through ignor-
ance Of the past or in order to curry
favor with northern audiences, a V
talked OF the ante-bellum south as OF
a land lacking in men Of power and
world influence in business. They have