The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-11

come and advised his veterans 10 go nome and make better citizens than they haa been soldiers. All was lost except honor The old soldiers turned their faces south ward and homeward, some of them GOV cred with scars and all of them covered with glory. In many instances the nome Had been destroyed and the family had scattered in order to prevent starvation. Under these conditions we began life anew. We expected to be left in peace to rebuild our homes and fortunes. Soon the evil genius of wicked prosecutors con- ceved and put into operation the horrors of reconstruction and for seven long years we suffered more than during the war itself. The carpet -bagger aided by the scalawag and the negro, ruled and die- tated until we could no longer endure the attempted disgrace. The spirit of '61 revived and under one grand charge from the Tennessee to the gulf, under the lead ership of the immortal Houston, we swept the cohorts of Satan from power and again came into possession of our own. We soon discovered that a deadly cancer was gnawing at the very vitals of our social and political fabric. We again de- cided on heroic action and with keen, sharp knife, we cut 1t out root and branch. Thank God, the wound is healed and Ike now have a healthy, clean polit- ical government and the supremacy of
 
 blessing that ever befell Alabama came with the adoption of our new constitution The men who framed it. are immoPtal and the man who conceived the franchise clause of that instrument should have monument erected to his memory as high as the skies, built of the finest Alabama marble and cemented with the love and affection of a grateful people
 Treat Capital Fairly.
 With the ratification of the new consti- tuition there came confidence in the sta billty of our state government and then 1t was that foreign capital began to flow in. More capital has been invested in Alabama since the adoption of our new constitution than for thirty years before. If today all the foreign capital were to be withdrawn the fire In every furnace would go out, the wheels of industry would cease to turn and every train on our railroads would stand still. We need and must have more capital. We must send it gilt edge invitation and write at the bottom "R. S. V. P, and when it comes into our borders we must treat it justly and fairly. Every skyscraper and cottage built by foreign capital makes Us richer and pays it's just share of tax ation. A yelled threat IS sometimes as bad as direct blow-eapital Is as tlmid as a fawn, even the shaking of a bush sends 1t to cover. We want and must have many millions of foreign capital. We must manufacture our raw materials here in Alabama. We must not send our prod ucts away to be finished and returned to us with thep rice enhanced many times by skilled labor, whose wages ought to be paid here in Alabama, for 1t is such as these who consume the products of our farm and make a home market for all we have to sell.
 We must manufacture our raw material into the finished products and thereby a1 vance their value many fold. We produce the raw material and send it from Ala bama to be manufactured into finished fabrics by skilled labor. Take for in- stance one pound of Alabama iron worth , cents drawn into wire one-thousandth of an inche in diameter-so fine that 1t will pass through the eye of the small est needle-a pound of which would eX- tend for seventy-five and one-third mile. This wire, says MT Whitman. the best authority on finished product, holds out a practical demonstration of how raw ma teral can be enhanced in value by skilled labor pound avordupois of iron in this finished form is valued at Slsli 40 A pound avoirdupois of our gold coin has value of S27l .32. The finished iron in therefore worth nearly eight times 9 3 much as gold COin