The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1907-02-20

dinicuifies which the world has
thought would conquer it In those
days which tried mems souls 1t ask
led no fayors; II was a giver 10 the
strength and manhood of the nation.
Now. With 1imitiess wealth ut It's
doors. IL Is in danger or losing its old.
Itime st%trdiness OF character. It Is
I'm danger of no longer being self.re.
liant. It seems to have forgotten It's
own strength; for. in apparent weak
ness. It cries to others to come and
igfye a few beggarly dollars. which its
own people could give. a hundred
times over and never miss. It has
been said that = beggar race can
never be a great race" and no one
disputes the abatement.
Would you sap the virflty. the
STURDY character, the manliness ofca
hoy? Then pauperize him in thought.
Teach him to look to others for help
and decision instead Of developing
i~seff-reiiance. Teach him to accept
charity. teach him THAI, as the world
loves him a living. all he has to do
lis to SIT down and wait for others to
care for him, and you have made real
manhood impossible. outwardly
such a man may look prosperous. II
successful as a beggar or as a depend
emit upon others, his fine colthes and
wetf.groomed bearing may give MIN
the outward ysmblance Of a real
man, but inwardly there is decay,
rottenness, death.
AS with an individual, SO with a
people or a nation. The nation is
but the sum of Its units. Outward.
iy there may be signs Of real life, of
manhood, of progress upward. but at
the heart there may be a fatal dis.
ease gnawing at the very vitals Of all
true national character and life.
The South needs to study this sit
uaItion as no other people ever did.
The years Of poverty and ~privation,
Of hard struggle in which every dol
lar had to DO the duty of two, are
passing. For thousands those years
have already suddenly passed.
Millions Won Quickly.
A few days ago the writer sat at a
banquet in a Southern iron center
whose growth only typifies what soon
will be seen to a greater or less ex.
tent in hundreds Of other Southern
cities. On his right sat a man who
within a few years has made a for.
tune, and who. mentioned the pur.
chase three years ago Of $500 acres
of iron-ore land at about 500, 900, or
BIS an acre, for which he and his
two or three associates would now
refuse ss,5oo,oo0 for the tract, or ST..
600 an acre; next to him was a gen.
tleman who but a few years ago was
q mine superintendent at a small
salary, and who has lately received
sf,688,868 for hts interst In a coal
property; next again to him was a
business man who, through inyen.
lions and their business development
has an Income of $4,000 a year, OF
which his friends say he deyotes one.
third, or s25, 00o. to religious work:
next came a man who would be fool.
lish to accept s5,o0o.0O0 for, property
for which | am sure he would have
gladly accepted one-tenth of that less
than 10 years ago. And SO on down,
the whole banquet tabie-men 81
millions who but lately were toilers
for a living.
These men are merely representa-.
tives OF thousands who are to be
made enormously rich by the mate.
rial growth of the South. while hun.
dreds of thousands heretofore eking
out a fair living only are o to be
numbered among the well-to-do with
whom the dollar OF yesterday has
grown to the hundred Of today.
Crucial Point for the South.
In this mighty change the South is
facing the most crucial point in its
history. It could so down in battle
and see Its beloved leaders dead by
tens ot thousands. It's wealth swept
away and its homes devastated, and
yet lose none of its moral fiber, Its
real manhood and womannood. Tn.
der such ordeals 1t could, with head
erect, still face a frowning world anil
turn defeat on the battlefield into
victory in the worlds commercial
struggle. More than that, in the time
of Its direst poverty 1t could be equal
to re'establishing law and order, 10
solving its great labor problem, and
to the gradual but sure development
of Its educational facilities, State
and denominationa1.
Now, when commercial victory has
been won, when wealth is growing
at a rate imagtned a few years
ago. an element that forgot the South
in the day of Its poverty or crippled