The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-03-12

ment. But a negro was the fireman
escaping steam, he sat ON the safet,
valve. The wreck and ruin which
followed typified that mighty explo
sion OF 1876, when the negro AGAR
sat on the safety valve. Out Of the
wreck and ruin of that explosion
which shook the foundation Of Ameri.
can government, the south has gradu.
ally emerged. 1t has been a long and
weary struggle 1t is difficult 20 ex-
agge1ate the magnitude of that des-
tructiOn, difficult to give to any who
did not pass through it even a faint
conception Of the overwhelming poy-
erty OF the south of 1865. Tie fnan-
cial loss as expressed in the destruc-
ton or farms and factories, the black
ened chimneys which marked the sites
or former homes, the ruins of cities,
the utter disOrganization Of more than
a century old labor system, were in
reality but a comparatively small
paTt OF the total Far greater in
magnitude than this money loss was
the loss OF men-men who had been
leaders in thought and action.
h war cost the south by death
and permanent invalidism several
hundred thousand of the very pick and
flower Of its people. That was enough
TO stagger a country. But the cOndi-
ton which prevailed as d result of the
war and Of reconstruction, the lack
of nD,,1.4,-;.- I'D .Lo oTx,o-4 L,..z,o-
despair for the future, forced out Of
the south a movement Of people which
in proportion TO population has pro-
badly eve been eQualled in any
other land except ireland. Since 1865
the south has been drained of about
$500, 900 of its people by emigration.
Today there are living in other sec
lions over 1,500, 900 southern born
whites. Among them are leaders in
every line Of human endeavOr. They
are dominant forces in New York and
other northern cities, in the west, and
out on the Pacific coast to the far
northwest. Though other sections
were growing in population and In
wealth, though they were receiving
vast immigration movements from
abroad, the south was giving it's very
lifeblood to add 10 their strength and
power.
Strange to say of recent years there
has grown UP among our people q
class who, instead of holding up to
the admiration of the world the won
derful story of the men who made the
old south and the men who after 1865
remadc what for a better name we
may call the New" south. are giving
their time to hesmirching the country
which gave them birth. However
much these men may be heard on the
platform, in the press and in some of
the literature Of the day. I am sure
they do not represent the thought and
life of the great masses Of southern
people. They think they do, but the
time Will come when the voice of the
real south shall once more be heard.
| believe that the best of the old south
viii yet reaSSert itself in the develop |
ment Of the strongest manhood of
America. I believe hat mat broad
horizon with which the leaders of |
times looked out upon world |
affairs, which gave them the imagi-
nation to see and to seize the Oppor
tunities to add to this country 50 large |
q portion of our national domain, will !
yet AVE q dominating influence upon |
he maintenance Of American govern
l believe that the genius for
born in the daring men
who opened the mountain regions of
the south to civilization will be re-
kindled. and hat in this section, |
by the genius of southern men,
there will be developed the greatest
ron and steel interests On earth. [ be-
that the genius which was har-
Messing for the old overs1lot wheels
he water powers of this Appalachian
country will be born again to devel--
Do through the highest engineering
electrical skill every available wa
ter power between the Potomac and
The Rio Grande. I believe that the
;eaching Of scientific agriculture, in
Ruffin of Virginia was Y fore
most exponent prior to 1851, will once
and wasted land on all our barren
lillsides.
No one can appreciate more fully
han 1 do the work Of people from
'ther sections and other countries who
come south No one can bid !
hem a heartier welcome and a warm
II God-speed in their work for their
'wn and for the south's prosperity.
But. surely. the south with it's i'm
>eria1 wealth of With its
'wn riches increasing more rapidly
day than the wealth of Great
is increasing every week,
leeds not to ask of philanthropy,
whatever may be it's motives, any
harity, either of money or of brains.
the revival of the best of the
Id south, with the incoming of thous-
nds who are beginning to realize that
is the promised Ian for the de-
of the highest type of civ
.%iZatiOn. the land of milk and honey,
Ian of abundance, for every will
lg worker there will come a material
such as has never been
on earth. Here nature has
rOwded her stories of wealth as no.
here else. Here she has placed vast !
in coal and iron. in oil. in
hOsphate rock, in timber and IN cot
on. Il has given US a great sea-
past. Rising in our fountain ranges
he has given US many rivers which
S they go laughing to the sea- fur
ish millions OF available water power.