The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-25
BUSINESS MEN
 MUST TAKE HELM Secretary Rect Oecries Against Toe Much Government COL. LOWRY ON THE SOUTH Georgia Man Also Speaks at National Business League Meeting and
 Tells of Progress of Past
 Forty Years.
COL. LOWRY ON THE SOUTH

cial stringency by Leslie M. Shaw pres ident of the Carnegie Trust company of New York and former Secretary of the Treasury, in a speech last night at q banquet given by the National Business league in the Auditorium Annex. Sev- eral hundred guests, including the com mercial leaders of Chicago and vicinity, listened to his speech.
 A letter was also read from Secretary of State Elihu Root regarding his in ability to be present owing to the pres sure of state business. In this letter Secretary Root says:
 While the state department Is ac- lively engaged in many ways and many directions in striving to pry open and hold open the doors for the entrance of American commerce and to make it's progress and extension easy oo not be- lieve in too much government. The linn itations upon what government effort can do and ought to do are very clear. The real work must be done by the bus
 ness men. of the United States them selves. The really great things in this country have been accomplished in the true American fashion by the associa- ton Of individuals to promote enterprise.
 There is one thing that I propose and will do. That is to make a vigorous protest against the continuance of the practice by which our government makes a large profit by means of governing the ineffective foreign mail service. If Con gress will allow the Postmaster General to spend the money that he gets from ocean postage in carrying ocean mails, we can have a service that will enable our producers to increase and extend the business in South and Central Amer lea and on the Pacins'
 Colonel Lowry's Speech.
 Col. Robert J. Lowry of Atlanta, Ga, spoke Of "The South, it's Development and It's Staple Products" He gave a history of cotton raising, which, he said, tended to show the mode of life in the south before the war, and how oblvious the southern planter was to the marvel ous possibilities of the south as a man ufacturing section.
 If such ever occurred to him. said tl. speaker, they never disturbed him. The thought of developing the water power, which lay in abundance about him, the idea of planting a cotton mill in the cotton field, the possibilities of the mines of rich minerals and coal which might be the result of their proper operation; the utilizing of the vast for ests, rich with naval stores and avail able for the finest kind of lumber; these things never made sufficient impression upon him to take his mind off the im- mense plantations which produced In abundance every year with his slave la Dor and which he ruled as a miniature l. cola ,Ohf n nrn6I10A the cotton, which he did at minimum eX- pense; ship it north or thence abroad and produce an abundance of foodstuff for his family ard slaves; and live in ease with his latent progressive, com mercial side lulled into deadened sense of satisfied security
 Shock of War.
 'The civil war was a terrific shock to this mode of life in the south. It was revolutionary. It levelled proud aristo- cratic southern families to the plane Of daily bread winners; 1t threw the man hood of the south upon it's own resources to fight its way forward and developed affection with free labor; it split up into small farms the immense plantations op- erated before the war by the large planter with his slaves and put every body to work for himself Levelled by diversity, and humiliated by the (mis)for- tunes of war, still the undaunted strug- glng spirit of the young men was brought into play, and the determination to build up the waste places and retrieve the losses sustained by the southern section was thoroughly aroused and became very active. Of course, 1t was not forgotten then, nor can it even to this day be for gotten, that the planter of the ante-bel- lum period. with all his chivalry, with his hospitable home, hls generous purse his devotion aand allegiance to the nobleand graceful women of the south, was and is the ancestor of the present progressive serf of the now active and rapidly devel- oping south. The war seemed a dreadful necessity to awaken the latent spirit of l energy and invention, which had been 1 lulled into a slumber oblivious of its sur l roundings. and that it was awakened, 1 statistics show beyond the possibility of | a doubt.
 Not New South.
 We have been called the New South l which Is a misnomer. We are not the l New South. for we have parted with l none of our traditions, we have lost none l of our love for the ante bellum planter ] and his hospitable home we have the i same kindly feeling for the dependent | humble race. which is our charge today | as much 1t was before 1860; we have 1 forsaken none of the principles for which l our fathers SlOou-We arc Slmply the olu l south. awake, loyal alike to the memory | of ante-bellum ease and hospitality, and | to the progressiveness of today, as well | as to that glorious emblem ofliberty | and fraternity, the stars and stripes. The | night has passed. and with it our slum- l ber: with the morning, we have aroused | from lethargy; we have stepped forth in | the light of a bright day; we have taken
 our place with the progressive sister 1 states of our union; we have put our I shoulders to the wheel; we are pushing i toward the common destiny of us all- solid, compact. world-renowned and 1 world-respected. invlncible in war, incom- | parable in peace. the grandest and great | est nation on earth.
 Immense Cotton Crop. "The cotton crop of the south in 1860 l was 44S2.111 bales. Notwith standing ] the severe shock to agriculture and | commerce. the incubus of carpet bag l rule the loss and disabling of many of i our hardy yeomanry We produced in 1870. 2.747, S45 bales. Tire crop in 1906
 was $500 ,000 bales. The world clam | ors for more, and more must be pro- duced. 20 900, ,00O-bale crop in the 1 next decade would not in the least sur l prise me.
 | "The number of bales of cotton used l last year in the southern states in our own mills was 2.439.10S. The total number of mills in the south consum- ing cotton September l, 1907, was STA. and more are being built every year. The increase in the consumption of cot ton in the south since 1890 has been i1S822l4 bales and is annually in u in, ,bay