Hattiesburg daily news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1907-1908, 1907-09-25
dlIissbufg Daily hs''s

OF a spirit that faltered not ever,
In the struggle Of days now Ger.
And lonely grave comes pictured
Forever and ever to me. III
From knoll near that old log cabin
On the banks of the Tennessee"
But the spirit that inspired those
who have gone before us is with us
yet and the ideals of the elder gen.
Grafton are guiding us through the
struggles of today to the achievements
of tomorrow. Those who today have
come back to the early scenes after
many years find many changes that II
have come about since the old days. II
The whir of machinery, the music of
the looms, the busy. hum of factories
and the hurrying din of commerce
seem new and strange. This is, in
deed, new Tennessee that we be-
hold in the tremendous industrial de-
velopment that is evinced on every
ndnu. we IcJOlcc Will you tildt tniS
is so, and that Tennessee is coming
into her own, and is going forward /
industrially with giant strides. Twen-
ty years ago Tennessee was convel-
escing from the effects of the great
est civil war of modern times, that |
left homes ruined and desolate, and |
industry paralyzed. 1t is said that
when the Greeks abandoned Athens
before advancing Persian hosts, the
city was sacked and burned and even
the sacred tree of the Acropolis was
burned. But from the root of the tree
there sprang forth new shoot and
the Athenians took it for a sign that
all was not lost and that new and
better city should rise from the ruins
of the old. You stand today in the
dawn of new day of q yet more brill
liant Tennessee. While enshrining in
most precious memory the deeds and
attachments of the old out of which
the new has grown, let us welcome the
wonderful development of the new
era.
I'm all this marvellous Industrial
activity Tennessee and the South are
but on the threshold of progress. With
the completion of the Panama Canal,
the world will be the business field
of the South and new markets will
be opened up to the products of farm,
and of mine. and of factory. AS in
other parts of the country, the in
crease in transportation facilities has
not kept pace with the tremendous
growth of commerce. Additional av-
enues of transportation must be
found, for all the railroads now in ex-
istence and in course of construction,
and that can reasonably be expected
to be built, would not be sufficient
to handle this Increasing traffic. Ma
: ture has provided natural channels
of commerce that were abandoned
when the railroads came. Now that
railroads are inadequate to meet the
demands Of trade and cheaper rates
are necessary, we must turn to the
great waterways for relief With the
Mississippi deepened, the Missouri
tributaries, opened up, the entire val
ley of the Mississippi will throb with
+ new activity. For, with increased fa-
cilities of transportation there will be
. gotten more products to be carried
2 and with the commercial marts OF
$ the world brought nearer and made
r easier of access, there will be won
q drous material advancement. With re
I strictions on trade removed, and re
$ ciprocal trade, treaties with the lead
i ing nations of the world it takes nc
prophetic eye to look into the future
e and see for Tennessee and the South
O and the Mississippi valley, a pre-emi
It hence in industrial energy and pros
g perity yet undreamed of.
L. "The new day brings it's problems
e that must be worked out with those o
s. yesterday unsolved. God and tn
l. people Of, the South alone can brin,
If about a solution OF the negro question
lie But the factories springing up Xix
Is magic on every hand have created
NJ new problem to you that can b
b. solved2child labor. Particularly
e. it incumbent on the people of Tel
s. nessee and the South to see that thi
i'd evil is eradicated, because the chill
O. labor in these factories is particula
n " all white, and that means the Low
Or ering Of the standard Of citizenship
the years to come, II it is allowed
L. go on. It is not question for 10
u alone, but for every manafacturin
y state IN this union is engaged in cor
b batting this emblem Of civilization
ID Too often minimizing people conden
l.