The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-25
WHAT TIME HAS WROUGHT.

Daniel Webster, in a speech delivered some seventy years ago. very positive ly declared that under no circum- stances would he ever vote one penny of the peoples money to bring that vast bowling waste west of the Mis- sjssippi River one hour nearer to Washington.
 Two points are brought out by this expression. One shows how short sighted great man may be, and the other gives us cause to reflect on the wonderful advance that even half a century has brought about. Daniel Webster was one of the wisest and greatest statesmen this country has ever known. He was man who might reasonably have been depended on to take the broadest and most far-reach- ing view of any important question, ob- ject or subject that came before him, and who could, if any one could, look into the future of our country.
 And yet, as glance at a map of the United States will show, this great man placed ban on what is now a great and fiourishing empire, compris- ing much the larger portion of the United States. He would have con- demned this great and fiourishing re- zion to remain a waste bowling wild erness, and would have cut all this vast and rich region off from what he ap- parently looked on as the only portion of the continent worthy of notice or attention-that east of the Mississippi. His great Intellect failed to grasp the vast possibilities of the future.
 There is another and more recent in- stance of statesman's failure to see the future. About thirty years ago. or perhaps & little more. Proctor Knott, Congressman froms Kentucky delivered his famous Duluth speech in Congress. in which he made for himself a rep utation as wit by ridiculing the idea that Duluth would ever become a place of any importance, or that it would be part of an immensely rich region. Speaking of these speeches The Mus kogee Phenix says:
 If both were alive today with what | amazement they would behold a city in the Southwest, where the oldest years, preparing to entertain a con- | gress which will be representative of l the wishes. the interests and the hopes of nearly thirty million people. That bowling wilderness of the West. which l the mighty Webster, in his provincial ism despised, has proved the richest and most fruitful spot on our coun- | try's map, and. with characteristic re- ward for youth and vigor, she has come to the newest large town in the newest and most prosperous part of the 1 southwestern empire.
 If it could be permitted to "the mighty webster to come in his own proper person back to earth, and if 1t the dome of the Capitol at Washington and view the mighty West, as Moses viewed the Promised Land from the Mountain of Nebo and the top of Pisgah,
 what a wonderful vision it would be
 to him. It would present to his view new empire such as he had not dreamed of. for the country West of the Mississippi, in area, resources and population is a mightier empire than the statesmen of a century ago dream ed would ever exist on the continent. Nor was Proctor Knott much less wide of the mark when he made Con Gress merry by his sarcastic reference to "the city by the unsalted seas," as he called Duluth. What was then put small town has grown into a great city. Its position at the head of Lake Superior makes it the natural outlet and shipping port for much of the Inn mense grain and other crops of Min nesota, and it now lacks very much of being an object of sympathy or rid icule. If Webster could travel over the great West and Proctor Knott luth they would both be filled with wonder at what they saw and chagrin at their own lack of foresight
 Perhaps it Is not exactly proper to speak of these mighty changes and ad- vancements under the title of What Time has wrought" Time works wonders and brings about mighty im- provements, but to the energy, the per severance and the adaptiveness of the American people must be credited the growth and virility of that great re- zion of which we are accustomed to speak as The West" When genuine Americanism starts on it's march nelth- CT danger nor difficulty can stop it's advance. Obstacles, natural and artifi- cial, must give way or be brushed aside. for neither hostile man nor ad- verse nature can stay the march of progress when that march is directed by the true American spirit. Daniel Webster, with all his wisdom. should have foreseen that the Mississippi could not bound the United States.
 WITH PLEASURE.
 The esteemed Pine Belt News comes to the bat with this query: