The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-01-21


 I would just as little like to discuss 1 the economic side or rather the absence of an economic side of the bucket shop be- fore an audience of honest people. l do not believe that we are ready to sub scribe to that damnable code of com mercial ethics which make things right because they are profitable. God grant that we may never do so. It will be a sad day for this nation when this barrier is removed from between her and com mercial theory. It shall never be done! have too much faith in the honesty of the south. I gew almost to manhood within fifteen miles of the northern bor- der of this great state. On a farm, among the vne-clad hills of old Lin- coin county, Tennessee; I am the son or Confederate soldier. Those were my people. gentlemen, who wrote the name of Tennessee in letters of fadeless glory on King mountains lofty peak. It was my people who, on New Orleans battle field placed the crown of eternal honor upon her brow. It was my people who, in Texas, my adopted state, consecrated Goliad and Alamo with their life's blood, and plucked the palm of victory from the plains of San Jacinto. It was my people, my own people, the Southern yeo- marry from whom I came and to which am proud to belong, who, in the dark and gloomy days Of the sixties, when our fair southland had severed the bond of union, and her stars had gathered into the constellation of the Confederacy, it was they. gentlemen, who made up the ranks of the Confederate army and on a thousand battle fields displayed bravery and heroism which would have done honor to the bravest hero who ever fought in a Roman legion or among the Spartan hosts.
 Built Again Its GIories.
 And when all was lost and the stars and bars were hanging like a guardian angel over the broken fragments of the Lost Cause. it was my people, who, with broken bodies. but with spirits which no conqueror could crush, came back to ash heaps of desolation, 10 build again the glories of their southland. Behold how well they have built! It is my people who have covered the wounds of that great conflict with the sweet ointment of charity and forgiveness; it Is my peo- pie who, when war was declared between Spain and this country pointed their sons to the flag of reunited country, and around which gathered. shoulder to shoulder with those whose fathers had been uniformed in blue, boys whose la thers had worn the gray, ready to offer their lives in defense of the honor of a common country. You are my people, to whom I am bound by all the ties which bind men together. yet. if I be- lieved that you would be willing, Tor the sake of a little increase in the price of your cotton, to perpetuate these bucket shops and wire houses which are working the moral and financial ruin of more men, especially young men, sending more men to the pententiary, than all other species of gambling combned-if I be- lieved that you would be willing to expose your sons and your neighbors' sons to the dangers of these institutions for the sake of a little more money as God Is my witness, I would never again raise my voice in the defense of your interests. Gentlemen the man who would be willing to do that has got the heart of thief in his bosom and deserves the yoke of a slave on his neck.
 No Patience with Commercial Standard
 q have no patience with this commer- cal standard of right and wrong, and when a people find themselves listening to it's advocates, they had better send down the sounding line, before it is too late, for I tell you in the light of all hu- man history, the breakers cannot be far ahead. Never in the world was substan- tial prosperity founded on such basis. In the name of honest southern man hood I resent the insinuations conveyed by such an argument addressed to my people. As false as hell is that oft re- peated statement that every man has his price, The man who makes that state ment is liar. He has perfect right to admit that he is himself thief, but he has no right to besmear other men with his infanmy. We can meet this bucket shop issue upon every economic ground. We can meet it upon the proposition to which there has never been, and never will be- an exception, that nothing is good for the economy of the state which injures the morals of its people.
 But let's pitch this fight on higher grounds; let's destroy these institutions, because they are great moral blights upon the country, bringing misery, want and crime to our people, Let this be the req son why this convention asks the law making bodies of the several southern states, and that of the nation to take in the grip of strong legislative enactment peaks are buried to their very eyes in our body social, and which have grown fat and arrogant upon the millions on top of millions of treasure drawn therefrom. It will take a strong, well written law, backed by a determined public sentiment; it will be fight to the death: they will not turn loose finally until the last yes tige of life has been strangled from their worthless carcases. As certain as right shall prevail, as certain as your hearts are attuned to the sentiments of south err manhood, the days of the plunderers are numbered.'