The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-19

AIRY 49, 1907
action. and his blessings and privileges
are commensurate with others, there are
no murmurngs of discomfort. no evidences
of rebelious discord Injustice has ever
been the parent of disorder and strife 1t
IS a species of anarchy sure destroyer
Of a love for liberty and menace to good
government When the tiller of the soil
and the tireless hand that feeds the spin
die, the brawny arm of labor in all forms,
the rich and the poor, the peasant and
the prince. know and feel that their pro-
lection under the laws are commensurate
with the moneyed king and the plutoerat.
when he can appreciate that he is not
the object of unjust discrimination for the
benefit of a class or classes, but that he.
in common with all others, is equally
burdened in working out a just and hu-
name system of government no muir
murings of discomfort are heard; one OF
the greatest secrets of nations success
has been solved. and peace will result
not that peace which succeeds annlhila-
ton, not the enforced silence of the con-
Wet. not the timorous murmurings of the
| igLorant and helpless whose power of re-
sistance have been crushed out by the
tax eater the tyrant and the money
ga therer, but that peace which takes cap
tive the citadel of the human heart.
melts the soul in sympathy and gives To
humanity the highest attainable degree of
happiness.
LAS relates to the south. this, the
Southern Cotton association is striving to
do in the agricultural world. and If half
way supported by those vitally interested
will accomplish the desired results and
when it has done so and consummated its
| policies into rounded, beautiful and
| symmetrical whole it will have builded
/ n vi, will stand
the accumulated ravages of time. pour
! into the lap of the south billions o.
wealth and cause to burst from the hap
ply firesides of thousands of southern
/ homes a wealth of honest sunshine, and
generations yet to come upon the scene
of action, and play well their port only
to tumble into the grave, will nave
abundant cause to feel that it was the
Southern Cotton association that caused
| the bow of promise to appear in the
heavens and broke the shaclKles that
freed them from an agricultural bondage.
Development of 35 Years.
"Forty-five years ago, when the gall
liant Lee surrendered at Appomatox to
the generous Grant, the SOUTH crushed
by the defeat, awoke to the sickenins
realization that her very traditions were
gone that she was without money,
credit, employment, material or train
ing yet she did not become sullen or
rebellious, but with a heart of oak went
about the task that enamored her Of
retrieving her lost fortune and status,
and to act well her part in being as loyal
to the government as any portion Of
our country from Maine to Texas.
when we begin to study the history OF
the south for the past thirty-nve years,
Won xfl1 md flna tory of
in season and out of season, amid dis
couragement hardly realized now, worked
for the souths upbuildng. When lead
ers in political economy and finance said
the south would never become an im-
portant center of cotton manufacture.
and even made some southern people be-
leye their doctrine, these men, some
times blindly, perhaps, but always full
of hope, went ahead building mills or
preaching the gospel that the mill must
come to the cotton. When every furnace
| fire lighted in Alabama was proclaimed
| in an envious press, as but another waste
of misguided capital these men said that
Alabama some day would enter the
worlds market with her iron This claim
was not a fable nor an idle song, but
! the very essence of divine truth. They
were words prophetic. 1t was prophesy
that has been fulfilled and to verify the
statement was have but to turn to the
price sheets on steel and you will ma
that the steel manufactured from IRON
produced in the great state of Alabama
commands a dollar more on the ton than
that price set by the trust.
Every mill which turns your cotton
into finished goods and gives employment
to idle hands, every shipment OF Ala
bama iron to Europe Is beautiful trlD-
ute to the men who thirty years ago In
field and in factory, in the press and on
4 - 10 10Th s.
battle for Industrial freedom. They are
like the Southern Cotton association,
they have, like the children of Israel,
come up through great tribulatlon. start
ing under the most adverse circum-
stances what has the south accomnsneu
Comparing these facts to the general
Industrial advance of the United States,
1t will be seen that in nearly every line
the south has made proportionately
greater progress than the rest or the
country In the last thirty-five years IL
has so developed its coal business that
it Is producing more coal than the entire
bitumious output of the United States
as late as 1900.
"Twenty-five years ago the south had
$4,000 cotton spindles, and the rest of
the country had 100000 spindles, today
the south has 100000 spndles, showing
an increase of nearly 100000, while the
rest of the country has 13OOO,OO0, or u
gain of over 2,000000 spindles. Considering
the disadvantages under which the south
has Iabored she has wrought wondrousiy
well during the last 80 years.
south's Record for 1905.
"What is the record the south has made
for 1906? AS a boy I never tired of lis
tening to the tales of the nursery; the
account of Jack and the Bean Stalk In
nv boyish judgment was the most won
derful story ever penned by mortal man.
and the story of the growth of Jonahs
Gourd Vine appealed to me with equal
force and was ever and anon source
of wonder. but marvellous as were these
two growths that ticxled the fancy of
bovhood dreams, they are not to be men
toned in the same day with the growth
of the south during the good year OF ly06.
When we go into the field OF cold sta
tistics that tell the wonderful and beau
tifl1 story of the south's development
for the year that has past and gone they
arc collosal and pyramidal in their pro-
norton. and when presented to the mind
if is staggered and I dare say that his
tory records no parallel 1t is chronicled
IN the following fifures: In the year 1906
the south buided 3055 miles of railroad.
nroduced 81 900 600 900 Of wealth on It's
farms dug 1874 100000 tons of coal from
It's mines. cut 1900. 100000 feet of lun-
her from her primeval forests, gave $780,
100000 worth of merchandise to export
trade and from her numerous factories
/ that were a blessing by giving employ
ment to thousands Of idle hands. it man
rfactured 81 1000 $1,000 worth of various
/ kinds of goods. and in addition to this
| az n fitting climax to her other accom-
,,ii.I,,,ants she added 80 $50 900 900 to the