The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1908-06-26

That Nashville is the most progress
sive city in the South is being evil
denced in more ways than one every
day in the year And it is fact that
cannot be too generally known that
there are more reasons than one why
this city leads all others in so many
respects. One main reason and the
one that stands out more prominently
than all others is the geographical To-
cation of Tennessee's Capital City.
For scores of years this has been the
acknowledged educational center, the
same can be said of the hardwood in
dustry, and the publishing industry.
More white paper is consumed in
Nashville than in any city south of the
Ohio river. One of the industries just
mentioned which goes hand in hand
with the educational institutions in
the development of progressive men
is printing and publishing. They
work in unison. They are of truth
inseparable.
The people of Nashville were made
to feel proud this week by the visit
of one of her sons who caught the
progressive spirit that is constantly
being instilled into them by the fac
ulties of the institutions of learning
fostered here, and by the untiring eff
forts of the press, in both their secular
and religious papers and magazines.
Mr.. e. P. Blakemore, young
lawyer of Boley, Oklahoma, was
in the city the latter part of
last week and the first of this, visit
ing friends. Mr. Blakemore had been
to Chicago attending the National Re-
publican Convention, and stopped by
Nashville on his return home. While
looking around at the improvements
made here in the last year or so he
stumbled upon a Globe reporter and
an old acquaintance. 1t was happy
meeting and the two had quite a
lengthy conversation about bygone
days. When asked about Boley, the
distinctly Negro town of Oklahoma,
the gentleman from the West was all
ready, without moments hesitation.
Said he: "No, we do not object to
white men coming to our town on
business, but we do not sell any land
or lease any property in our town to
them" Boley is a town of about
1000 inhabitants. Although it is only
five years old. 1t is situated 1875 miles
from Oklahoma City on the Fort
Smith & Western Railroad. Negroes
own everything in a radius of over
twelve miles. In the town they have
two banks, three hotels, one brick
yard, one bottling works, one cement
stone block plant, two griss mills, and
conduct over one hundred other busi
ness houses in all lines of trade.
They have their own Independent tele-
phone exchange with Negro girls oper-
ating the switch board, and the tele-
graph operator would not be taken for
q white man under any circumstances.
Mr.. Blakemore is city attorney, notary
public and attorney for the Boley
Bank and Trust Co. The city officials
are elected annually. In the last elec-
ton there were two distinct tickets in
the field-the citizens ticket and the
independent tiCket-and the six hun
dred voters had the satisfaction of
knowing that their votes would be
counted fairly, for no white man had
, anything to do with it one way or the
e. other.
Mr.. Blakemore graduated from the
law department of Walden University
, in 1908, and has been a resident OF
o Boley for four years. He predicts 6
great future for the new western town